Wheatland Society of Arts hosts first Demo Day of the year

By John Watson Local Journalism initiative Reporter

As part of Alberta Culture Days this year, the Wheatland Society of Arts hosted their first Demo Day of the year at their Strathmore studio.

Society Treasurer and Chair of the Programming committee, Brandy Hebbes, said the demonstrations showcased different disciplines and art styles that the society hosts classes for, in hopes to help generate some interest in art and the society.

“We have a variety of different demos going on, some of them are interactive, people actually get to help as best they can, given the COVID-19 protocols,” said Hebbes.

“Mostly we have displays and artists at work [who] are showing what we’re going to offer in these classes.”

She explained the society tends to try and hold two demo days in a year, which also allows for the artists to show off a bit. 

The Sept. 18 demonstrations included styles such as paverpol, hydro dipping, watercolour, metal points, pointillism, caustic wood carving and acrylic pours.

Hebbes explained the society hosts an even broader selection of disciplines, but those were the practices that artists who were comfortable attending the demo day wanted to showcase.

According to Hebbes, the society has been both showcasing and steadily growing the demo days since they took over their studio space on 3 Ave. in 2017.

“We’ve been an art society since 1986 but we got this space in 2017 and things have really grown because we have an actual space that people could visualize and relate to and come to,” she said.

“Our thing is really about the wellness effect of art and part of that wellness is people being with people doing like-minded interests.”

Demo days typically host between 100 to 150 people according to Hebbes. Despite restrictions and public health protocols, Hebbes added there was still steady traffic through the studio over the course of the day.

Hebbes added the society would have run its demo day regardless of Alberta Culture Days or any extra external grants and funding, but in the case of the event on Sept. 18, it certainly didn’t hurt to get some help.

“We would do this regardless of the Culture Days grant, we try to have culture days even if we don’t have grant money from Alberta, however, the municipal library was good enough to give us a little bit of funding to work in conjunction with them.”

“I think everybody should have art in their life and I believe most of our board and volunteers think the same and so that is our goal.”

Hebbes did not specify when the society’s next demo day would take place, nor the styles that would be shown off.