Dear editor,
In my opinion one of the dumbest policies of the Old Fire Hall Art Gallery (Comox Valley Art Gallery) is to bring in artists from all over the province to show there.
That is their official mandate.
Think about it! We have an abundance of local talent and yet we have to kiss their Royal Canadian to get a show there. The local artists have nowhere to show other than, thank goodness, the Muir Gallery is surviving despite having their grant cut.
This is a very sad state of affairs.
I know many artists such as Shirley Dickie, Wayne Clark, Jeff Hartbower and Nonne Milne, also many sculptors who would love to do a show there.
They should be doing a retrospective of the work of Nonny Milnes, who recently passed away. Her work was good enough for the Vancouver Art Gallery art rental program.
But, no, in their genius CVAG brings in artists from Prince George, Kelowna or Spuzzum.
If they changed their mandate and started showing local talent, it would bring people to the downtown.
Show artists from Hornby and Denman islands. If they showed local talent, they would invite all their friends and family. They would go shopping downtown, frequent the local pubs and restaurants.
We could turn downtown Courtenay into a huge tourist attraction using our local talent.
Brian Scott,
Black Creek
Editor's note: Brian Scott is a Comox Valley artist.