The London Free Press Article

London Free Press

Best of Summer - On The Map

COUNTY CULTURE: The recently formed Oxford Creative Connections Inc. is pulling together the talent, unique culture and creative forces in the area

KATHY RUMLESKI, London Free Press - May 13, 2009

Along with the rolling hills, streams, ginseng farms, historic architecture and delicious local treats, Oxford County is brimming with talent.

The county still embraces its agricultural roots, but like the shy, younger sister in the shadow of the older, more vocal sibling (and nearby larger city), Oxford is stepping forward.

It's spreading the word about its clutch of artists, and its prized heritage buildings too.

The recently formed Oxford Creative Connections Inc. is pulling together the talent, unique culture and creative forces in a bold bid to support individuals and arts groups.

It's about getting the message out.

Cathy Bingham, Oxford's tourism specialist and one of the driving forces behind Creative Connections, recognized the artsy potential.

"I could see all of this talent but everyone was doing their own thing and working in silos (appropriate word for Oxford)," she recalled.

Once off the ground and with the help of a grant from the Trillium Foundation, a cultural consultant was brought in to help pull everything and everyone together.

Then Londoner Greg Baeker, considered one of Canada's leading cultural planners, assisted the group for about a year.

Creative Connections is now in the process of writing a countywide cultural master plan to show "what our unique resources and talents are and what our needs and opportunities are," Bingham said.

At a juried art show and sale last fall in Woodstock, which also included authors and musicians, Bingham said 1,700 people attended, many expressing surprise at the depth of skill they were seeing.

What she heard was, "We didn't realize that we had this calibre of talent here."

Tourism Oxford has already produced a map called Explore, which suggests excursions throughout the county such as the Artists and Studio route, Music and Drama and Birding, Hiking and Photography trails.

Oxford boasts several international visual artists.

They've been well-known in the arts world for some time but now they're moving into the mainstream and the value of their art is skyrocketing.

Ingersoll native Shane Norrie, a ceramic artist and painter, has already enjoyed success. One gets the sense from touring his studio that his reputation is poised to take off. His studio is full of distinctive pottery and paintings that draw you in with a bold, teasing bit of colour and invite you to explore the texture, the meaning, the mysterious. Norrie's art has been featured in magazines - such as Canadian House & Home and his new series of ceramics will be unveiled in the July issue of Style at Home - is in collections around the world and will soon be seen on a television set for the new CBS drama U.S. Attorney.

The painting used on set is from his winter series.

Norrie even has an art scholarship named after him at the Ingersoll District Collegiate Institute, where he graduated.

In October, he will be participating in a ceramics exhibition in China.

"I've been lucky," Norrie says with modesty, but he truly has a gift.

Norrie learned his craft under mentor Shirley Clifford, another international artist from tiny Ingersoll.

He took his first class with Clifford, known especially for her Raku pottery done in a propane-fired kiln, at the Ingersoll Creative Arts Centre.

"She has been very important to me. She taught me all kinds of stuff."

Now Clifford asks advice of Norrie from time to time.

"It's kind of funny. I used to give workshops and she would take workshops from me. We have different perspectives on things."

As a teenager, Norrie got a job at the Ingersoll arts centre and the prodigy blossomed from there.

"The arts centre is very good; they're very supportive."

The centre holds monthly exhibitions, such as George Shadford's everyday life sculptures titled Working Class Heroes that are reminiscent of the Norman Rockwell style, and it also offers classes in everything from woodcarving to quilting.

Oxford County's other arts facility is in Tillsonburg, in the distinctive Station Arts Centre, which is comprised of two restored train stations. The Great Western Railway station, dating back to 1879, is located on its original site and the Tillsonburg Lake Erie & Pacific CP station was moved to join the GWR station in 1994.

The GWR station is a Gothic Revival design, which was the design frequently used for the company's stations at the time.

With a gallery, meeting room, artisan craft shop, classroom space and pottery studio, the Station Arts Centre is an important hub for the community, just as it was when the train stopped there on the hour in the late 1800s.

In-house members of the centre include the Bridge Street Artists, Stampers Ink. and the new Videography Club.

"There are a few different venues to express yourself as far as the arts go," said Deb Beard, general manager of the centre, which also houses visitor information, helps groups with fundraising and sells tickets for Theatre Tillsonburg, one of several theatre groups in the county.

Goossens is a renowned watercolour artist and an organizer of the Oxford Studio Tour, held earlier this month.

She also teaches workshops throughout Southwestern Ontario.

Goossens' husband Brian has a trout farm on their property near Otterville.

His rainbow trout, on the menu at the Woodstock restaurant Six Thirty Nine, which features local produce and local art on its walls, is flavoursome.

To walk off some of your lunch or dinner, a visit to the downtown heritage district in Woodstock is a good idea.

This district is part of the county's Doors Open tour, taking place this year on May 23.

Doors Open, held throughout the province, allows the public to tour heritage sites and unique landmarks

Woodstock is the only city in Ontario still using all of its original public buildings, such as the old fire hall, built in 1899, now used as office/medical space and the former gaol, dating back to 1854, and now housing the health board. The retrofit for that building in the 1980s won design awards.

Woodstock Museum, constructed in 1853, is designated as a national historic site. Old St. Paul's Anglican Church dates back to 1832 and is celebrating its 175th anniversary this year.

Also on the list for Doors Open is the landlocked $3-million Woodstock Peace Lighthouse and art gallery, one of the most unique structures in the city.

Under the inspiration of Rev. Evtimy Wolinsky of the Studite Fathers of Canada, based in Woodstock, the lighthouse is home to a stunning display of icons -- that spiral along the walls of the building -- commemorating the life of Christ.

It is believed to have the world's largest collections of Byzantine-style icons, created by international students who came to Woodstock to study iconography under the Studite Fathers.

Wolinsky's original idea was to build the tower in Israel. "Because of political instability in the Middle East, it was decided it wouldn't be built there," Bingham said.

As the Fathers made their home in Woodstock, it was decided to construct it there and it opened in 2002.

Since then, pilgrims and tourists come from around the globe to look at the art. Groups have travelled to the city from China, Taiwan, the British West Indies, and the students who created the icons, including ones titled Wounds of Christ and Descent of the Holy Spirit, are from South America, Greece, Russia and other countries.

Surprisingly this treasure is one that is mainly untapped by the locals and people in the surrounding communities.

Bingham sees that changing soon as word spreads about the arts bounty to be had in this county.

"The arts are alive and well in Oxford," she said.