Members of the Badlands Artists Association will have their work seen by thousands throughout the province as it goes on tour next spring.
    Xanthe Isbister, Alberta Travelling Exhibitions (TREX) manager/curator was at the Badlands Artist Association gallery on Friday afternoon, February 10 to select works by the local artists to be used in the travelling exhibition. She explains it has been some time since the artists have been part of TREX.
    “Seven years ago the Badlands Artists Association had an exhibition with the Alberta Foundation for the Arts Travelling Exhibition Program, which is celebrating its 30th year,” she explains.
    She said the Badlands Artists Association reached out about a year and half ago about the possibility of doing another exhibition They met about a year ago and discussed rather than just coming in and selecting works off the wall, they should work towards a theme.
    “What I do as curator, with my curatorial process with a group exhibition, I pose a theme to that group,” she explains. “Seven years ago the name of the exhibition was “Out of the Badlands.”
    She said this time, rather than opting for the more common landscapes Badlands style work, they agreed to work more on the personal.
    “Let’s call the show “Into the Badlands.” What they did over the year was create works in response to that theme,” she said. “A challenging thing, because they all have their practices and what their interests and subject matter is, so it is challenging artists to go beyond that, and go out of their comfort zone to create work that is new to them, so they rose to the challenge.”
    In total, she selected 21 works from members including Jim Carlson, Bob Hamilton, Ellen Nobel, Carrie Mashon, Lindsey Stead, Janice Russell and Dianne Faulter.
    “When there is a theme there is a tying thread that gives unity to the works, but at the same time it is not a solo exhibition,” she said.
    Mashon is vice president of the Badlands Artists Association and is excited to have their work in the exhibition.
    “It is a big opportunity for us, up to 50,000 people could see this show,” said Mashon.
    The works will be on the road for two and half years and be displayed in non-traditional galleries in rural Alberta.
    The mandate is to get contemporary Alberta made art into rural communities that wouldn’t necessarily get the opportunity to see contemporary art shows,” Isbister said.
    The exhibition will begin to tour in September of 2017, and wrap up in February 2020. The exhibition will come home to Drumheller in March 2018 at the Western GM Gallery. There will be a reception.

    DVSS student, Jes Francis, has been selected by the Loran Scholars Foundation to receive their undergraduate award, which has a value of $100,000 over four years.
    Each Loran Award recipient receives an annual stipend of $10,000, access to funding for summer internships, one on one mentorship, annual retreats, scholar gatherings and undergraduate tuition paid at any of their 25 partner universities.
    Francis told The Mail, “It’s like being accepted into a program. There are 33 people that were selected. My undergrad is paid for and we all get together a couple times a year.”
    The Loran Award is Canada’s largest and more comprehensive four-year undergraduate award and recipients are selected based not only on academics but also extracurricular activities and leadership potential.
    Francis said, “It’s not so much about grade average, you need 85 per cent and above, but it’s based on leadership involvement.”
    In November of 2016, Francis found out she was one of the 398 students selected to be interviewed in one of the 21 cities across Canada. The Loran Scholars Foundation received a total of 4,438 applications for 2016. After being interviewed in Calgary, Francis later found out she was one of the 83 finalists to attend national selection in Toronto.
    “It was very, very amazing. Everyone was so amazing with different goals and experiences. The opening ceremony was an information session explaining that it was an intensive four-year program. Most of us didn’t know what we had gotten ourselves into.” Francis said.
    The weekend in Toronto was two full days of group and individual interviews. Most interviews were 15 minutes long and done after the students had filled out questionnaires asking about community involvement, hobbies, and interests.
    “I had just flown in Sunday and they called me to tell me I was selected. It was kind of unbelievable. The 84 people there were just so amazing. To be selected as one of the 33 was surprising. It was just a wow.” Francis said.
    Her father, Shawn Francis said to The Mail, “Obviously we were and still are excited about the whole thing. Jes worked very hard and it’s nice to see her get some recognition. The neat thing about this is not just the financial side that is amazing but it just seems like it’s a really great opportunity to get Jes to where she wants to be. With all the support she is going to get, it’s going to be a pretty amazing experience.”
    17 year old, Francis, was born in Whitehorse and moved to Drumheller eight years ago. She hopes to go into Political Science with a strong interest in Internal Affairs.
    “I’d really like to work with Global Affairs Canada in the foreign affairs ministry,” Francis said.