The Clinton Art Society is encouraging the community to join an online forum to share and enjoy each other’s art.
President Nancy McMinn says that, like many groups this year, the society has found it impossible to meet due to COVID-19, and the group has been largely dormant since March. However, she is hoping to get things going again online by using the society’s Facebook page (Clinton Art and Cultural Society) to bring back a sense of community and appreciation for art.
The Facebook group was started a few years ago by the society’s then-secretary, who has since left. “No one really joined it when it was first [started] because I didn’t know anything about it and most of the members are older or not on Facebook at all, so it just sat dormant,” McMinn says.
She’s since invited everyone she can think of to join the group so people can get together, share their art, and laugh as they’d usually do, only online instead of in-person. McMinn observes that sharing art and laughing is basically what their meetings are about anyway.
“Our art society welcomes everybody. Anything that you do that keeps you semi-sane in the winter qualifies, anything you make, produce, or put together [is welcome].” McMinn adds that the society also supports musicians, and theatre productions of all kinds.
As the group was unable to meet this spring for its AGM due to COVID-19, the group is technically non-functional at the moment, though at last count McMinn says they have around a dozen members. Interest online hasn’t been too bad so far, but they’re always looking for more members.
READ MORE: Clinton Art and Cultural Society is calling all area artists
“I’m hoping that if people get to know what a fun group we are, maybe they’ll actually show up at a meeting, pay their $10, and join the society,” McMinn says.
She and her husband have farmed in Clinton, riding and training horses mostly, since 2008. They came to the area to get away from the rains and people of the Coast, and have come to quite enjoy the South Cariboo’s weather and lifestyle.
McMinn, a sculptor, has worked with clay all her life and sculpts mostly horses, although she enjoys branching out when she gets the chance. When she initially came to the South Cariboo she didn’t have time for art at all, but after getting settled in she began fooling around with clay in the winter.
“Then I heard there was the Clinton Art Society, so I went to my first meeting and met the people who were involved. In a few years’ time they needed a president. I knew nothing about running any sort of a club, but together with a friend we decided I would run for president, she would run for secretary, and we’d operate the society to our best ability,” McMinn says with a laugh.
“Since no one else was running I got elected. Every time an AGM comes around I ask everybody else if they’d like to run, because I’d vote for them, and nobody else has volunteered.”
editorial@accjournal.ca
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