Fort Smith (July 26/04) - Art workshops are back in the South Slave region for the fourth consecutive year.

The Summer Festival Workshop Series, sponsored by The Artists of the South Slave Society (TASSS), will be held July 30 to Aug. 22 in Fort Smith.

TASSS co-ordinator Chris DeWolf says 17 workshops are planned this summer.

"It's growing," she says. "Last year there were 13. The year before, eight."

It is the only such series of art workshops in the NWT, she notes. "I think it's a bright shining success story for TASSS."

Examples of the topics to be covered by the workshops, all to be held at Aurora College, are stained glass, glass bead making, Metis sash weaving, silver jewelry, porcupine quill, silk painting, stone carving and basketry.

An estimated 100 people are expected to attend, along with instructors.

For the first year of the festival, DeWolf says participants and instructors were primarily from Fort Smith. Since then, they have also come from elsewhere in the NWT, as well as Edmonton, Whitehorse and Vancouver.

"The main goal is for people to have access to traditional and contemporary arts that they normally wouldn't have," she says.

Unique setting

DeWolf says the variety of workshops and the unique natural setting of Fort Smith contribute to the success of the event.

"Regardless of what you try, everyone gets to take home a completed work of art," she adds.

The workshop series is supported by the NWT Arts Council, the Department of Canadian Heritage, Aurora College and a number of other organizations.