Paint the Town Red for charity

Calling all artists! There’s a fundraiser in the works to start at the end of next month but it needs your help right now.

Paint the Town Red is the fourth annual fundraiser for the Sturgeon Community Hospital Foundation. At first it was only open to artists in Sturgeon County but now the floodgates have been thrown open to anyone with a paintbrush and canvas to spare.

“A few of us artists on the committee bent everybody else’s arm to open it up because we want publicity,” began Tara Ricioppo, one of the event’s organizers.

“We want people to come. Morinville’s not a huge town. We want people to come and check out the beautiful cultural centre. It’s so nice out there.”

The event is a kick-off for Alberta Culture Days but ties in the fundraiser aspect of it because the hospital is there for the broader community.

“It’s a common ground for everybody. It’s our health.”

There are no guidelines on dimensions or what kind of art can be accepted, but there is a limit to the amount of space that the cultural centre has to show everything off.

You make it and it can make the show, Ricioppo says, whether it’s a drawing, holograph, painting, sculpture or what have you. The only restriction is that contributors are limited to 10 submissions.

“We’ve got easels. We’ve got display cases for sculpture. It is a juried show… because we can’t fit 2,000 pieces of artwork. We’ll see what fits the best. We want new stuff. We want to show work that’s for sale.”

Artists even get to set their own prices, and get to keep 80 per cent of the sales. The remaining 20 per cent gets donated to the cause.

She has already gotten interest from approximately 25 artists, half of whom are returning from last year’s instalment. One of this year’s confirmed contributors is Leo Arcand. The accomplished Woodland Cree sculptor from the Alexander First Nations reserve will be putting one of his soapstone pieces in the exhibit.

“I’m quite excited to have him show this year.”

Because Ricioppo also teaches at the Morinville Community High School (located conveniently right next door to the Cultural Community Centre) she hopes to bring in some younger artists to the event as well.

Unfortunately for the younger contributors, this year is only for the mature crowd. In previous years there were wine tastings to stimulate the creative juices and buyers’ appetites. This year, there will be a wine bar so you must be 18 to attend.

Deadline to collect artworks is Sunday, Sept. 15. The drop-off will take place on Sept. 25 at the Morinville Cultural Centre

The art exhibit will be up until the end of October.

She explained that the meaning of the theme is to coincide with the Red Friday promotion held in conjunction with Edmonton Garrison and across the country. People are encouraged to wear red shirts and other apparel to promote solidarity with the military service personnel.

“Morinville has a fairly high number of military families… so we do our thing.”

There will be a drumline courtesy of the 3rd Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry plus a recent high school grad from Morinville who will play the bagpipes as well.

Interested parties can contact Ricioppo through the event’s Facebook page at www.facebook.com/events/179949825515716/?fref=ts.