The McMillan Arts Centre’s (MAC) summer installation will focus on Parksville’s Shelly Creek.
‘The Tale of One Urban Creek’ will run at the MAC (133 McMillan St.) from July 2 until Aug. 28.
“Focusing the artistic narrative on Parksville’s Shelly Creek, these amazing local artists bring their incredible talents to create an exhibit that will showcase the story of one of the last local waterways that bears salmon and trout populations and what we can do to sustain and even enhance them for future generations to enjoy,” read a release from the arts centre.
Three painted canvases will provide the background for a glass and steel cutthroat trout population and a large aerial map of Shelly Creek populated with photos of flora and fauna from the area. The installation’s centrepiece is glass simulated waterfall into a rain garden.
‘The Tale of One Urban Creek’ features work by artists Kelly Corbett, Deborah Freeman, Haa’Yuups, Robert Held, David Mackenzie, Jesse Recalma, Nelson Shaw and Christopher Smith.
It follows Shelly Creek from its source in Errington farmland, past Little Mountain to its confluence with the Englishman River just below Martindale Pond.
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The MAC’s Studio B will be devoted to the ETHOS 2022 program. Joining in on creative activities in the studio and down at the beach are Mid Vancouver Island Habitat Enhancement Society (MVIHES), VIU Deep Bay Marine Station, Mount Arrowsmith Biosphere Region Research Institute (MABRRI), the Regional District of Nanaimo (RDN) Drinking Water and Watershed Protection Program and Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO).
These ETHOS partners have planned a month of free activities for visitors, including beach seining and walks, the Coastal Stewards program, water conservation activities and interactive displays, including tanks of pond and stream critters and microscope activities.
The MAC will also host a guest speaker, Deborah Jones, at the end of August. For the past 15 years, Jones has been instrumental in the highly collaborative and successful City of Delta rain garden program, according to the MAC release.
Delta is midway through the second decade of its rain garden program, which could also be adopted locally to enhance and protect streams. In 2021, Jones was awarded a Lifetime Member in The Partnership for Water Sustainability in BC.
Her reflections are not about technical details of creating rain gardens and instead focus on the social dimension.
— NEWS Staff, submitted