A City of St. Albert sponsored art project was designed to connect this city’s shopping districts with those of Morinville, Sturgeon County and Edmonton during the Christmas season.
Morinville-area artist Cory Christopher designed nine Christmas tree-like decorations, which he also crafted to look like dresses.
The dresses, made from different Christmas greens, are located in St. Albert, Morinville, Sturgeon County and Edmonton. Visitors who see them are invited to get a passport that allows them to enter a draw to win a Christopher designed botanic dress next year, with an estimated value of $4,275.
Christopher worked with Joan Barber, the City of St. Albert’s interim economic development officer, to package the works together and to promote the tourism idea.
“The City of St. Albert sponsored the project. That sponsorship involved promoting the passport idea with the intent of getting people moving throughout the region, looking at the trees and shopping,” Barber said.
Barber compared the project to previous artistic endeavours such as the Quilt Walk, where hand-made quilts were displayed in various businesses.
“We looked at it as a way to get exposure for St. Albert and we sponsored the promotion,” Barber said.
The City’s sponsorship was for $3,500 for the graphic design of posters, passports and the website advertising. Christopher donated his work and the artistic creations. His parents’ company, First Choice Tree Nurseries of Morinville, donated the seasonal greens.
“Of course I wanted to show my art, but I’m also very involved in Edmonton regional tourism. I had this idea that the dresses would connect people and businesses throughout the region,” said Christopher.
Christopher also organized the Art in the Garden project last summer. Visitors could pick up passports to visit his floral arrangement sculptures. Proceeds at that time were donated to the Mazankowski Alberta Heart Institute.
Christopher dubbed this winter project Ladies of Christmas Couture Botanique and the nine dresses are designed to look like elegant cocktail gowns.
The dress in front of St. Albert Place features a long cedar-draped “skirt” and “train” made from draped cedar branches topped off with a bodice of braided gold and scarlet ribbon.
“I wove the branches together until, in an intimate fashion, it morphed and was moulded into shape. She has a train and I love when the snow dusts her skirt and adds a fluff of white,” Christopher said.
The nine locations for the Christopher dresses are: The St. Albert Business and Visitor Centre at 72 St. Albert Trail; St. Albert Place at 5 St. Anne Street; Seasons Gift Shop at 8665 McKenney Avenue; Wine Kitz at #140, 15 Perron Street; Edmonton’s High Street at 102 Ave.; in Morinville at First Choice Tree Nursery R.R. #1 (56032 R.R. 245) and Sturgeon County Centre at 9613-100 Street.
For more information visit www.corychristopher.ca or the City of St. Albert’s website at www.stalbert.ca. The contest closes Dec. 31, 2011.
