Skip to content

Unusual objects make for unusual perspective

Hands-on activities at Surrey Art Gallery's Family Sunday on Oct. 16.
412surreyw-familysunday
Family Sunday takes place Oct. 16 at the Surrey Art Gallery.

Drop in and get messy with hands-on art activities including sculpting, stamping and sketching at the Surrey Art Gallery's Family Sunday on Oct. 16 from 12-4 p.m.

Inspired by the gallery's current exhibitions, the day's events will include artmaking activities throughout the afternoon, and an interactive puppets and music performance at 2 p.m.

Let objects be your inspiration as you walk through our fall exhibitions and encounter brightly painted art studio scenes, hanging household utensils, a wall mural of sculptures that make surprising sounds, and photographs featuring objects from the ordinary to the bizarre.

Begin by making a personalized sketchbook where you can record your own creative discoveries and drawings.

Visitors can then create an original print, choosing from an unusual collection of artifacts including keys, screws, bottle caps, and jewelry.

Collaborate with exhibiting artist Jay Bundy Johnson to assemble a surprising still life of Styrofoam and dismantled toys and then record an impressions of it using brightly coloured pastels. Design and construct an art-monster paper lantern, adorning it with googly eyes, sharp teeth, antennae and more.

Visitors also have the opportunity to play with robots and gadgets created by Surrey’s Makercube.

At 2 p.m., join artists Maggie Winston and Laura Barron as they transport the audience to an imaginary world in the interactive fairy tale Captain Creative Saves the Day, combining puppetry, music, dance and printmaking.

Tickets to the show are free, but seating is limited.

The art gallery's fall exhibits on still life invite visitors to delve into artists’ homes and studios and highlight the intimate and often unusual relationship people have with objects:

• In Mimetic Workshop: Studio Still Lifes of Fiona Ackerman and Kelly Lycan, two artists investigate the intriguing space of the artist studio as well as the materials of artmaking within their own studios through paintings and installation.

• Small Stages: Still Life from the Permanent Collection features diverse artworks including paintings, sculpture, and photography depicting carefully arranged – and sometimes unusual –  scenes that reflect on and expand the still life genre.

• Visit Jay Bundy Johnson: Being still (life) shows us who we are to interact with deconstructed and reassembled electronic objects using a panel of buttons.

Admission to Family Sunday is free. Everyone is welcome, and children must be accompanied by an adult.

Surrey Art Gallery is located at 13750 88 Ave.