This is part of a year-long ‘Love for Local’ series called NB365: portraits of New Brunswick entrepreneurs, businesses and organizations. Huddle is a media partner with Love for Local. Today, we hear from Jennifer Stead, Executive Director & Curator of the Andrew & Laura McCain Art Gallery in Florenceville-Bristol.

THERE IS ALWAYS SOMETHING NEW TO SEE OR DO AT THE ANDREW AND LAURA MCCAIN ART GALLERY IN FLORENCEVILLE-BRISTOL.

In my role as Artistic Director and Curator of the Andrew and Laura McCain Art Gallery, I am committed not only to providing a professional venue for art and artists but also to delivering varied and exciting visual art programs to the community.

Coming up next is an exhibition of botanical works by Barbara Safran de Niverville opening July 10 and opening July 24 will be a collection of original artists’ masks from the Beaverbrook. Starting August 28, the exhibition Currents brings the art of Deanna Musgrave, Amy Ash and Nienke Izurieta to the gallery and that will be followed this fall by a celebration of the art of one of Carleton county’s finest flower painters, Irene Tompkins.

For those who like their art in the fresh air, the Gallery has collaborated with the Town of Florenceville-Bristol to establish a Public Art Programme for the town and have installed five public art pieces to date.

Reflections, a collaborative mural painted by Mike McEwan and area students can be found above the front door of the River Art Centre. Mirror, by Deanna Musgrave, is in the Carleton North High School Library and lit at night, it is visible from the front driveway.

The Marich Pole, by Stephen Hutchings, is at Riverside Park and a new sculpture Local Nature by Colin Smith will be unveiled in September of 2021.

Not to be missed is the carved tree in front of the gallery. One of the ways the Andrew & Laura McCain Art Gallery seeks to cultivate creativity in our community is by providing space for creation and art education at the River Art Centre on Main Street, an annex of the gallery.

Overlooking the Saint John River, the River Art Centre provides communal and private space for art creation, with an ever-changing lineup of exciting workshops for all ages and levels.

Artist residencies bring artists into our community to enrich us all and the spring 2021 artist in residence was Renata Britez. Her exhibition Naturalis will be up at the Gallery until July 17, 2021. Renata’s work starts from the ground up as she forages, gathers, creates her own dyes and pigments with which to create her art.

Visit the Gallery YouTube channel to meet Renata in a short introductory video and you will find some of the other artists who have shown at ALMAG there as well. The support from New Brunswickers keeps the gallery vital, in touch with our community and allows me to imagine and realize creative new adventures with art.