Karen Church
Director
Hello Prince Rupert.
Since I was a child I have been drawing and using my hands to create things. As I grew up I studied drawing, and art making in general, at numerous institutions including the Winnipeg Art Gallery, University of Manitoba, Emily Carr College of Art and Design, and a briefly at the Art Institute of Chicago. Part of my education was also in art and architectural history. Inspired by my studies, in 1984 I went on a 6 month back packing trip to see the cathedrals and art galleries of England, France, southern Germany, southern Switzerland, and Italy.
While at Emily Carr, I witnessed the creation of Bill Reid's canoe sculpture 'Spirit of Haida Gwaii' and met him at his Granville Island studio, which I visited often, as the college was nearby. These experiences and others have fed my understanding of art and culture, and I bring these with me as a committee member.
These days, I am working with clay, making small sculptures that start with rolled slabs. Its been so great to go back to an art meditative practice, and the only problem is, we need a group studio where we could have regular group firings. So, I want to work towards this specific aspect of the arts hub in the short term. However, I see the arts hub as multi-cultural space, with room for all kinds of art creation and I feel its very important to the residents of this city at this time.
During this life, I have also become a professional archaeologist. I was trained on the islands and later obtained a Masters in the Department of Archaeology, University of Calgary, where I researched and wrote about the inland lifeways of Haida Gwaii. Today I work as an archaeologist and historical researcher based in Prince Rupert.