(Gananoque, ON – November 24, 2025) “Truth” has come to Gananoque in a very big way at the O’Connor gallery. The black and white painting by Jan Traversy measures 6 feet by 8 feet in size and depicts a scene from her imagination that brings home all the horrors of the war in Gaza and especially the deprivation experienced by the children there.
Continue reading
Martha Stroud of the Before the Summer Art Show and Sale has gone out of her way to invite another group of artists to Gananoque to participate in this annual event held at the Firehall Theatre, 185 South Street, Gananoque, Ontario. Starting as in 2016 as Art at the Inn at the Gananoque Inn and Spa, the event has grown and changed and moved to its present location. In their official tenth year (although not the tenth show thanks to COVID shutting them down for two years) Stroud feels that they have surpassed their standard of quality, and they continue to bring the best artists to Gananoque.
Continue reading
(Gananoque, ON July 7, 2024) There’s something timeless about playing in the mud and clay may be one of the most popular muds around. Squishing it in the fingers, moulding it into different shapes, seeing exactly what it can and can’t do. Staining clothes and skin and hair all in the search for creative expression. Whether making a free form art piece or a functional utensil, its versatility calls people of all ages to come out and explore.
“Gananoque Arts Network (GAN) was looking for funding to provide free hand-build and wheel pottery classes for kids and youth through the summer months,” said Dennis O’Connor, chair of GAN. “Because of their previous generosity to this not-for-profit community art center, I approached them with the Kin Mud Club project.”
Continue reading
(Gananoque, ON June 23, 2024) Humankind came to Joel Stone Park in Gananoque on June 22, reaching out to society to embrace all and make them one in the planetary community.
“Through music and dance this experience shows the struggles humankind is having to find its place in thee world,” said Town Crier Brian Mabee. “‘Humankind’ had its birth when the Trinity Movement Choir performed at the 2018 Parliament of the World’s Religions in Toronto. In 2020, the pandemic intervened, and the movement choir expanded internationally, performing full seasons of new works online with Sacred Dance Guild members from Australia, New Zealand and Canada to Hawaii and across the contiguous United States joining the New York region dancers.”
Continue reading
(Rockport, ON June 22, 2024) Things were jumping at the School House Recreation Hall in Rockport on June 22 at the annual School House Jam fundraising concert. For $5 admission audience members were treated to 9 solid hours of high-quality live music by performers from throughout the area. Featured were Chris Hum; Whiskey Smoke; Stephen Haig; Amanda Keeley; Crossing Borders 613; Mark Hunt, Brian Frommer and Alan Code; CR 5 Bluegrass; and a full two hours be headliner Jordy Jackson.
Numerous vendors were onsite along with a raffle table, cash bar, chicken barbecue, bouncy castle, and lots of games and prizes.
Continue reading
(Gananoque, July 5, 2024) Before DNA testing became the ultimate way to get an answer, it was a matter of faith as to who your parents were. You could usually be pretty sure about your mother, but your father was who she told you it was. And if she didn’t tell you, or wasn’t sure herself, you might have to go to some pretty fantastic lengths to make sure he could give you away at your wedding.
When “Mamma Mia!” debuted 25 years ago, Sophie (Annika Tupper) wouldn’t be able to go to 23andMe to get a definitive answer. Instead, she had to rely on her mother Donna’s (Jessica Sherman) diary to figure out who he was, where he was, and how to get him to come to Greece so he can give her away at her upcoming wedding to Sky (Brandon Antonio). She shares with her best friends Lisa (Jen Fong) and Ali (Eva Petris) that she knows it’s one of three – Sam Carmichael (David Leyshon), Bill Austin (Jeremy Legat) or Harry Bright (Rob Torr), but which one?
Continue reading
(Rockport, Ontario – August 26, 2023)
It was the purr-fect night to get out and get your party animal on as the Gananoque and District Humane Society (GDHS) held its 10th Furball fundraiser on a boat provided by Rockport Cruise Lines.
“We had a terrific response,” said Kelly Croft of GDHS. “We sold 149 tickets and raised $4,880.”
Continue reading
(Gananoque, ON – written June 11, 2023) Under bright sunny skies freshly washed clear of smoke by gentle rains, a team of 10 local dancers gathered in Confederation/Sculpture Park in Gananoque to perform Global Water Dances. This year’s local focus was on algae in the local waters.
“We proclaim on June 10, 2023, Gananoque’s Global Water Dance here in Gananoque Sculpture Park,” said Town Crier Brian Mabee. “Many countries around the world are participating at this very time. This biennial multinational, community-oriented event is to bring awareness to water issues around the world by celebrating water through movement.”
Continue reading
(Gananoque, ON – written June 18, 2023)
VITA has opened at the O’Connor Gallery in Gananoque, bringing with it a room full of canvases covered with exotic shapes and the vibrant colours aficionados have come to associate with artist Corey Ceccarelli.
“In the arts, it is essential to network with other creatives to share ideas and techniques,” said Dennis O’Connor, proprietor of the gallery. “This is important to the growth of an artist and unquestionably the growth of the arts itself. VITA is Italian for LIFE. Corey’s latest exhibition represents exactly that through all the stages of life, from conception to death. His medium is pastel and acrylic paint. He does an excessive amount of research before creating his work and is greatly influenced by both ancient and contemporary art. I’m sure we will see much more of Corey Ceccarelli in the future.”
Continue reading
(Gananoque, ON – May 1, 2023) One student believes censorship is alive and well in Gananoque Intermediate and Secondary School (GISS). She produced a special painting – “In Celebration of the Mother” – to be hung in the school front foyer for Earth Day, but it was hardly up before she was told to remove it.
“When I heard about Skye’s painting not allowed in the show at GISS I was shocked,” said Dennis O’Connor, proprietor of the O’Connor Gallery. “It’s 2023 and it’s an image of Mother Nature painted for Earth Day. The painting is quite a statement not only on our beleaguered planet but the continued suppression of women. Censoring it is taking yet another giant step back in women’s rights.”
The work shows a topless woman rising from the living soil. She is proud and strong, a mother looking out over her realm. Her stretch marks crack her stone outer surface to reveal the pure gold beneath, and she has all the marks normal adult women can identify with – hip dips, cellulite, comfortable fleshy rolls, breasts. Her hair is made up of dark clouds swirling around her head, and water flows from them nourishing the ground below. Moss creeps up her hips as it does many boulders rooted to the earth, clothing her in life itself. She is powerful, an image representing not only the planet we depend on for our very survival, but all women and all mothers everywhere.
“I usually work in acrylic paints, and for this piece I really wanted to normalize our ‘flaws’, as the media calls them – things like stretch marks, hip dips, cellulite, rolls – and breasts in general,” said artist Skye Hunt. “I think it was really important and when I hear ‘Earth’ I think ‘mother’ and women. Earth is ‘woman’. I think this piece really helps display that.”
Continue reading
A Fresh News Start 