Tour des arts recap

Mixed reviews by artists about "Tour des Arts"

Louise Andre Roberge hamming it up with one of her sculptures
By M. Helmuth Starhemberg
Some were happy, some not. We polled about twenty artists about their results and comments about this year's annual "Tour des Arts" in the greater Sutton area. What we learned was manifold: Magod held an arts festival on it's own which directly interferred with the expected visitors to Sutton and many artists calles their event "ill timed as there is only so much time and interest to visit about 100 studios in a very small area in the Townships. The Magog area event naturally drew visitors from the greater Sherbrooke area, many of which were regulars at past events in the Sutton region. The second "gripe" we heard was that many Montrealers did not wish to brace the incredibly ludicrous traffic situation to get in and out of the island. Since approxemately 40 percent of the buyers and visitors to the Tour are traditionally Montrealers, this did not help either.
Loise Andre Roberge was reasonably satisfied. Her local clientele came and she stated. "I made some very nice contacts which may prove valuable in the future". But this year's sales were down and since most local artists live for this event, plan it for months, this is at best not encouraging.

Glen Sutton's mosaic artist Michelle Lalonde was more optimistic; "my sales were down this year, but I made a lot of appointments for this fall for my mosaic classes which will offset the loss of sales. But I also blame Magog for doing this to us, planning an event to overlap with ours. It was unwarranted and a great loss to many of us".
Other artists such as Sutton's Anke von Gimhoven or Pina Macku were quite satisfied with the response from the Tour and as long time participants have seen things go up and down with the vagaries of the economy, the weather throughout the week of the Tour and the innumerable ponderances which may incline someone to buy an original work of art or not.
Crusty old hermit John Rollit from Sutton Junction (I can call him that - he is a cherished friend) sold a few of his wood creations, but the great works of his, lovingly built wooden boats, have not yet found a buyer. "I just want to see one on the water in my lifetime", he muses. It's a shame because he spends thousands of hours building boats which will probably be around in my grandchildrens old age, especially if they stay in his shed...
In any case, most of the artists will be back next year, hope for a better economy (not many American tourists showed up this year, another big drawback for the local arts community, but meanwhile the spirit of the arts community is strong, most artists are friends and get together socially, many have long standing clients who love their work and new talent emerging in the area, some taught by our own "old masters", bring new ideas and new life into the local galleries, Arts Sutton, outdoor exhibits and the co-operative art outlets which have long been a staple of Sutton's cultural experience.