Art Tourism

An often-overlooked type of tourism which attracts large numbers of visitors to the City of Selkirk, the RM of St. Andrews, and RM of St. Clements is art tourism.

What is art tourism?

Doesn’t that refer to visiting cities with famous art markets, creative superstars, and museums that are as famous as the works they house, such as The Louvre Museum in Paris or The Met in New York? Or, at the very least, doesn’t it involve attending art festivals and visiting art institutions? The answer is “Yes” if you define art from the traditional viewpoint.

However, in today’s world, art tourism is a whole new field of tourist studies which defines art as “a form of expression that uses skills or imagination to create something that is beautiful or meaningful. It can be produced in various modes such as painting, sculpture, photography, music, theatre, literature, and so on.”

The Selkirk Community Arts Centre

The heart of the visual arts community in Selkirk is The Selkirk Community Arts Centre, located at the corner of Main Street and Manitoba Avenue in the “old post office building”. It is the Home of The Gwen Fox Gallery, an artist owned gallery where gallery members exhibit their works each month from February through November.  In April, August, and December, the gallery showcases works from multiple members at once in an All Members show.

There is also a gallery gift shop, which sells unique items produced by gallery members: pens, paintings, books, cards, carvings, jewelry, and more. The Selkirk Community Arts Centre is a “must see” feature for anyone interested in learning more about the arts community in Selkirk.

A further testament to the abilities of the artistic community in the area is The Selkirk Mural Tour. There are more than 30 beautiful, expressive murals on display in public spaces on the walls of various buildings, including businesses, the regional high school, the Canadian Legion, the indigenous garden at the Gaynor Family Library, and more.

The creation of many of these murals was coordinated by The Interlake Art Board, whose members have worked very hard since 2014 supporting and strengthening communities in the region through art. These murals are designed to bring people together through art, and they accomplish this. The mural tour is also available on the driftscape app here, and the Red River North Tourism website here.

Garden and Art Tour

Red River North Tourism has presented an annual Garden and Art Tour since July 2018 (interrupted in 2020 by Covid-19). This is a self-guided tour of select properties in the R.M. of St. Andrews, St. Clements, and the City of Selkirk. Each venue features beautiful gardens, as well as local artists and authors displaying and creating art, and musicians performing for the visitors’ enjoyment.

You may ask: “Is gardening art?” YES!

“Gardening as art is the concept of viewing gardening and landscaping design as a form of artistic expression. Each garden is a form of art through self-expression, with combinations and arrangements of various plants similar to a painting.”

Having toured the gardens each year, I can attest to the fact that the panoramas of colour and design created by the owners of these gardens rival some of the finest paintings ever created!  

Examples of talented visual art people featured at the G & A Tour in past years are award-winning Indigenous stone carver Greg Fritz, acclaimed Metis wood carver Gary Foidart, Heather Dawson with her stained glass, Issac Imasuen and his vibrant paintings, Jan Dorion with metal art, and portrait and wildlife artist Les Hummerston. Musical performances by some very talented people have been impressive: well-known prairie born singer-songwriter Shay Wolf, singer-songwriter Doug McArthur, Metis percussionist Cameron Denby, specializing in classical and cross-over music, multi-instrumentalist/singer-songwriter Cohen Sieg, to name just a few.

About 40 arts-related events are held each November during Holiday Alley, a festival of light, art, and sound, culture, and diversity, hosted in downtown Selkirk, MB.

Events over the years have included dancing, music concerts, arts displays and sales, auctioning of ice shacks built and painted at L.S.R.C.S.S. (Lord Selkirk School), sheep poetry (yes, sheep poetry), Indigenous crafting, and more!

A recent form of art emerged in the winter of 2023, with the appearance of straw sculpture. Manitoba students and artists joined forces with renowned Lithuanian sculptor Vytautas Musteikis, and Chris Pancoe, Winnipeg architect and founder of the Warming Hut Competition. Local artists, junior high students, and teachers pitched in for Selkirk’s first ever Straw Symposium, held during Holiday Alley.

Left: Vytautas Musteikis, Right: Chris Pancoe

A 20-ft. high straw lantern was created from flax straw, fallen tree branches, and wire. And set on fire near the end of March this year, to culminate this new venture into what has often been dubbed agriculture art, a movement established in 1983, which is fine art based on, stimulated by, and portraying agriculture. Students from Ecole Selkirk Junior High were taught the basics of tying straw during the symposium and were able to contribute to the creation of the lantern.

The concept of creating small ornaments made of straw is part of Lithuanian folk-art tradition, but around 1985 the idea of expanding into giant statues of animals, monsters, and castles emerged. This trend has spread across Europe in the last 35 years and has now made its way to Manitoba’s Red River North.

Who knows what creation is in store for those attending the next Holiday Alley!

Barnyard Quilts

Did you know that almost every province in Canada has a barnyard quilt trail, and Manitoba is no exception? What is a barnyard quilt trail, you ask? As I’m sure you all know, a quilt is made up of squares. A barn quilt is a replica of ONE of these squares, painted on plywood, and then hung on a building - usually a barn – for passersby to see. These quilt squares are painted in such a way that they are weather-resistant, bright, and easy to see.

The Interlake Barn Quilt Trail and Red River North Tourism invite you to take the self-guided tour, one portion of which starts in the south at Gonor in St. Clements, runs through St. Andrews, and ends in Winnipeg Beach. You are sure to enjoy the 16 quilts on display!

Photo Credit: Interlake Tourism Association

This is just a glimpse of five categories of art, or art events, which have in past years appealed to thousands of tourists, and will no doubt continue to do so in the future. An abundance of art, artists, and art events.