The Amy’s House Night of Artists Gala

Boonie Doon Centre taken over for a cornucopia of Edmonton artists

Report and photos by Mark Morris

On the evening of March 15, the Bonnie Doon Centre, usually rather overlooked in the hierarchy of Edmonton’s shopping centers, was transformed into a veritable bazaar of Edmonton arts. Stalls ran riot down the main aisle, musicians found strategic points for a kind of non-stop busking in addition to a concert area at the aisle’s end (acts included Kim Gates and the Dark Frames, and The YEG Byrds) and young lads went around offering trays of delicacies, from meat balls to strawberries coated in chocolate.

And what a cornucopia of arts there was, from oil paintings to ceramics, from leather arts to figurines, from portraits to vivid landscapes, from photographs to abstract paintings, from wood blocks to jewellery – even a Vintage in the BOHO Fashion Show and the permanent model railway layout of the Edmonton Train Collectors Association.

The event was 28th The Amy’s House Night of Artists Gala. Amy’s House remembers Amy Alain, who died of cancer aged 38. During her treatment she had met patients who had had to travel exhausting distances back and forth to get treatment, and she wished to create a home where cancer patients could stay while getting treatment. Amy’s House – now two homes side by side in Edmonton – was the result, offering free accommodation for patients and their families who have to travel more than 100 kms to get cancer treatment in Edmonton, typically staying from two to six weeks.

The annual Gala is one of Amy House’s major fund raisers. It is also one of the major opportunities for Edmonton’s artists to show and sell their art, alongside the Whyte Avenue Art Walk (July 12-14) and the Strathearn Art Walk (September 5 -7). Entrance fees ($30 per person, $100 for VIP perks) go to Amy’s House, together with the proceeds of a silent auction, and the artists get the full price of what they sell.

An Amy’s House Night of Artists Gala gallery

The following was very a much a personal selection – there was so much to see that it would have been impossible to do justice to all. Where appropriate, clicking on a picture will take you to the artist’s website.

Inevitably, landscapes predominated in the Gala, and Kelsey Stevenson’s work was a new discovery for me – she teaches at the University of Alberta, and won the 2024 Eldon + Anne Foote Edmonton Visual Arts Prize. Her prints on the theme of the loss of glaciers in Alberta were haunting (and the picture below does not do them justice, as the print was of necessity wrapped). She has done some very large-scale installations, which look equally fascinating.

Laurena Beirnes bucked the Alberta landscapes trends with her painting of seascapes, Elaine Muldar’s Alberta scenes were striking in their combination of sharp details and exaggerated colours, and Robin Light, one of my favourite Edmonton painters, showed her imaginative and colourfully evocative paintings, many of local scenes.

Joanne Madeley’s Hare, one of series of animal prints, seemed entirely right for March, while Jadene Grimmon (Bluejae Photography) showed her marvellous photographs of birds and animals – her owls are particularly effective, and the photograph below was featured in the Canadian Geographic Best of Wildlife Photography 2024 Special Issue.