  Culture and Community
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 Arts Council of the Central Okanagan 100-1690 Water Street Kelowna BC Canada V1Y 8T8 Email: Click Here. Elke Lange, Executive Director Telephone: 250.861-4123 Produced in association with the Okanagan Institute
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EDITORIAL:
The Light of Imagination
Cultural and economics writer Richard Florida says it's vital to the future of communities that they not only embrace but embolden their cultural creatives. These artists, inventors, architects, graphic designers, media professionals, educators, entrepreneurs and innovative thinkers are the ink to the pen that will document our future.
Today our cultural products are rich information mines, a
precious natural resource. But instead of being buried under the ground
like
the minerals of the last industrial revolution, these resources are
in people's minds, in their social practise, in their everyday
language, in their dress codes. There is a fantastic amount of
information folded into a novel, or a film, in music, folklore, spoken
languages, contemporary art, fashion clothing. All of these are dense
repositories of meanings, and are among our most valuable
economic resources. As we progress in our quest for excellence, we
contribute to the well of culture.
In this issue we continue to shine our editorial light on the many facets of the creative community of the Okanagan. In addition to spotlighting some of the artists who practice here, we investigate some of the innovative ways that the arts are shared and taught, and profile the influence of the arts in other creative pursuits, specifically this time the healing arts.
Our work of discovery does not end on these pages. We provide a number of other ways for you to interact with the arts community:
Directory: We encourage you to use the complete, searchable and up-to-date version on our website, and to contribute to making it as complete as possible.
Agenda: We provide a brief listing indicating the plethora of arts events that are taking place through the autumn months. Again, we encourage you to keep up-to-date by refering to the www.okanaganarts.com website.
Events: We have partnered with the Okanagan Institute and Mosaic Books to present a continuing series of public presentations by the writers and artists we feature in these pages. They take place on Thursday afternoons and are free, informal and informative. We encourage you to come out and help us celebrate the growing influence creativity has on our community. More information is at www.okanaganinstitute.com
We continue to be amazed at the generosity that the arts and business communities have shown to our efforts, and appreciate the support of our writers, readers and advertisers.
We especially appreciate the encouragement we've received from readers. You've helped us reach further, with each issue, into the community in search of stories, artworks and inspiration.
Robert MacDonald
Publisher, Editor, Designer
"One ought, every day at least,
to hear a little song,
read a good poem, see a fine picture,
and if it were possible,
to speak a few reasonable words."
- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
The cover image by Norbert Spyth: The Four Seasons in the Okanagan Valley
The art glass shows the influence of nature through
the seasons, as represented in the four central panels of the
work. The top left shows the blossoms of spring, the top right
the cherry harvest of summer, bottom right the harvest of
grapes in the fall, and the bottom left the frozen icewine grapes
of winter. The dominent blue border represents the water of
the lakes and rivers, and there are two small fish etched into
the bottom two corners of the piece.
Norbert Spyth is a retired engineer and has lived in Kelowna since 1997. His background is metal working , engineering and photography . Most of his life he read books on the history and works of art including medieval architecture, early mosaics, metal arts and ancient geometry, stained glass art and design . His art education is self-taught, his experience comes from trial and error. When retired in 1997 he finally had time to do some of things he was reading and thinking about.. He started out with stained glass pieces of his own design and later started making mosaics using leftover stained glass scrap. He showed his stained glass items with good success at Christmas art and craft shows. These shows resulted in a number of commissions for residential Installations. Since 2006 he has also participated in the Lake Country ArtWalk and expects to present his latest projects again for the 2008 show.
