Let Them Fly

Brandon, MB – The Art Gallery of Southwestern Manitoba is proud to announce its upcoming community art exhibition, Let Them Fly. The exhibition will be up in the Community Gallery from August 24th to October 14th, 2023.

The exhibition is a showcase of recent work by Devrin Fronda, Laurie Goodon, Greg Jones,Sheena Johnson, Dorothy Lyon, Justin Smith, Stan Szwagirczak, and Barb Thompson. The artists are affiliated with the Touchwood Park Association, which was established by members of the Neepawa community in 1963 as the first rural association for persons with developmental disabilities in Manitoba. Artist and educator Gerry Oliver has guided a twohour class once-weekly at Arts Forward in downtown Neepawa for 10 years, choosing the parameters of each session but encouraging self-expression and experimentation. Each lesson also emphasizes certain skills, so gallery visitors will notice some unity in material, colour, and technique in each series.

The group’s last exhibition at the Brews Brothers Bistro in February of 2023 was met with great acclaim. Regarding Let Them Fly, they consider it a celebration of “their work and their accomplishment of being selected to exhibit at such a prestigious gallery.” About the exhibition’s title, Oliver explains that during each class, she is in awe of the creativity that the artists bring to their project, especially when it comes to colours. “When you let them loose on a project,” she says, “they fly.”