With The Gallery fast approaching (less than a week away!), we had a mega working meeting today. Some of us were there starting at noon and went all the way to 11pm but definitely a very productive (and exhausting) day. We’ve been talking to artists and it’s been quite a logistical puzzle trying to get all of the art submissions sorted. We finally had a chance to see all of the art in person and we were blown away at the talent that’s going to be on display on Saturday. Pretty excited not only about the quality of art & photography but also the diversity in styles and mediums employed. Space is going to be at a premium and the next challenge is finding a way to display the art properly in the AGA for your enjoyment. Thank you to all of the artists who have been so passionate about this project. This is ultimately all about the artist, whether it’s a spoken word artist, a photographer, or a painter. The artist isn’t someone whose work you see and admire but may never meet but in this case it’s the people around you, who you may have never guessed had such artistic skill.

The meeting was long but as you can see we were well equipped with lots of delicious food from one of the Somali restaurants on 118 Ave.! Thanks to Guled and the Centre for Race & Culture for letting us take over their place.

No joke, we have so many door prizes that it’s starting to stress Ihsan out trying to figure out how to distribute everything. As the Director of Funding, she’s done an amazing job coordinating all of the sponsorships and bringing in a lot of door prizes. We appreciate you supporting the arts and encouraging the artists and want to show you our appreciation with a few gifts. In this photo, everyone’s debating how to deal with the newest batch of door prizes that just came in unexpectedly because there’s only so much time in the program to go through the draws etc. We may have found a way, more on that to come soon…