April's Third Thursday Arts and Culture Jam
features a murder mystery reading, storytelling, and hands-on Kumihimo braiding

The Quinte Arts Council and the John M. Parrott Art Gallery are pleased to present a display and demo by the Quinte Needlearts Guild with the Belleville Weavers and Spinners, a reading of a new murder mystery by playwright Judie Preece, and storyteller Maureen Walton at the April 16 Third Thursday Arts and Culture Jam in the gallery, 3rd floor of the Belleville Public Library.  The event runs from 7 to 8:30 p.m. and admission is free.  For more information, call the QAC at 613-962-1232.

This new murder mystery is a work in progress

Judie Preece is writing a new murder mystery - its working title is Home – and she would like to share her work with an audience for some input.  The play is set in Belleville in the late 1880s. A young woman has been murdered and her killer has been identified as a now grown Home Child. Sentiments against importing Britain's ‘Street Arabs’ run high, threatening to split the community. Belleville's police chief is under pressure to preserve the peace and to solve the crime, and he gets aid from some unlikely allies.

This dramatic reading will be performed by Judie Preece, the playwright, and Lee Jourard.

Meet Maureen Walton of Wyldwood Sojourn

Maureen Walton's studio home in Lonsdale, is a modest hideaway on two wooded acres.  Designed by her when she was 28 years old, it is filled with paintings sculptures and murals. It is a perfect setting for the blending of shamanism and art, that she and Gerri Butler are offering to guests beginning this spring.

Gerri has been a shamanic practitioner for 10 years and has a long history of spiritual leadership.  Maureen is a professional mural artist and has a background in the fine arts - you can visit her site at www.maureenwalton.com.

Maureen has been hosting workshops at Wyldwood Sojourn for three years. Her guests include Grandmother Sara of Six Nations, and Kanahsohon, storyteller from Six Nations . She has also offered nutrition workshops, yoga classes, art and storytelling workshops.

Maureen's purpose in creating Wyldwood Sojourn is to open her home to seekers of the inner world... a place to learn through a blend of disciplines in the healing world and the visual art world.

Wyldwood Sojourn has two studios - an art workshop and a yoga/meditation studio. Sleeping is communal. A seasonal waterfall flows at the foot of the garden and leads into the Salmon River.  Meals are vegetarian. Details and a photo gallery are online at www.maureenwalton.com.

The Quinte Needlearts Guild and the Belleville Weavers and Spinners present Off The Wall

by Nancy Callahan

Come out and enjoy an evening called Off The Wall, hosted by the Quinte Needlearts Guild at the April 16 Third Thursday Arts and Culture Jam. The guild has planned an interactive program where you can participate in the creation of pieces of art for use anywhere but on your wall.

This is a teaching guild so it is only fitting that it offer a “hands-on” chance to learn something new using materials and tools that are readily available.

The program will feature Kumihimo, the art of Japanese braiding, and include needle felting, making a small pin cushion, crazy patch quilting and cross stitching on a piece of rug canvas. Some of the Quinte Needlearts Guild members belong to other guilds in the Quinte area.  The skills they will be sharing with you, while not actually embroidery, are used by embroiderers. For example, the Kumihimo braid can be used as a thread to couch down on a project or be used as an edging to finish a piece of embroidery. Needle felting and the weaving can be used to create a background for embroidery and anyone who is familiar with crazy patch quilting knows that embroidery is an integral part of that creative process.

Kumihimo is an ancient art form from Japan. It is beautiful and practical at the same time. The cords used have many different applications from the most simple as a sash used by the Samurai to its most complex as a decoration on Japanese armour and in religious ceremonies. The art of Kumihimo is in itself either very simple or complex using a wide range of techniques and equipment. A beautiful wooden Marudai (a round stand) and wooden bobbins wound with thread are often used to make these lovely braids. The number of threads used can range from four to as many as100.

Kumihimo will be demonstrated on a simple homemade stand that makes the art form accessible to everyone. There are several types of braids to choose from. Some of the more common ones are square, round, hollow or rounded and flat. There will also be kits of small round cardboard discs and thread available to get you started.  The guild will also have kits available to make the pincushions.

Throughout the evening, members of the Quinte Needlearts Guild will be demonstrating various forms of embroidery and members of the Weavers and Spinners Guild will demonstrate weaving and spinning.

It should be an interesting evening with the opportunity to meet and talk with several artists from our community, learn a new skill, find out more about these guilds and maybe even join one. Information about the guilds will be available for anyone who is interested.

For information, contact Carol Bauer at carol@quinteartscouncil.org or 613-962-1232 ext. 26, or Susan Holland at 613-968-6731 or gallery@bellevillelibrary.com.