Blog
Thank you so much Empire Advance and Discover Westman for your support, news coverage and promotion of our events, including our most recent 2025 Westman Region Juried Art Show held on April 27th 2025 and hosted by the Reston Art Club in Reston, MB.
Click here to view the April 29th news article published by the Discover Westman. And click here to view the May 2nd news article published by the Empire Advance.
On April 27th 2025 our Westman Region Juried Art Show - hosted by the Reston Art Club and held at the R.E.S. Centre in Reston, MB - drew quite the crowd! We had 240 attendees who signed the guest book. There were 142 artworks entered by 83 Artists - 53 Adults, 22 Youth, and 8 from the Touchwood Art Class. A majority of these artists were in attendance as well. The age categories for the 142 pieces entered were: 94 adults, 32 youth, and 16 from the Touchwood Art Class in Neepawa.
The People’s Choice Award went to Christina Guenther from Boissevain, MB with her original artwork titled: 1955 (newspaper collage and acrylic paint)
This year’s Theme Category was Surprise! and the Award went to Kerri Wilson from Hamiota, MB with her mixed-media artwork titled: Oh! What a Surprise
The Best In Show was awarded by the Jurors to Dianne van den Ham of Brandon for her delicately detailed fibre art work titled: Exploring The Sleeping Giant
Our 2025 Jurors – Ben Davis from Brandon and Leona Brown from Winnipeg - provided written feedback on every artwork entered into the show and also recognized the participating artists’ creative efforts with the following additional awards: 10 Honorable Mentions in the Adult Category and 4 Youth Awards (2 in the 11-13 age category and 2 in the 13-19 age category). 20 artworks (2 youth, 18 adult) meeting the size criteria for touring were also selected for the Travelling Gallery. Ben and Leona were also on hand at the public reception to chat with the artists individually about their work. A huge thank-you to our Jurors for their dedication and outstanding work with our artists. Go to our webpage 2025 Juried Show Awards to view these award-winning works.
Gerry Oliver, Arts West Council President with Jurors Ben Davis and Leona Brown.
Juror Leona Brown also shared with the audience a most inspiring insight on being creative: "Make sure that whatever creative work you do, you enjoy doing the work. If you enjoy doing the work you will do more of it and the more you do of it the better you will become at doing it".
The Travelling Gallery artworks will be on display over the next year in 16 different communities around the Westman Region. The 2025 Travelling Gallery Touring Schedule is available for download from the Arts West Council website and photos taken at the 2025 Juried Art Show are on our website for viewing as well.
The 2025 Westman Region Juried Art Show was sponsored in part by: 3 Brandon businesses - Lasting Image, The New System Store and Janzens Paint & Decorating, as well as The Ralph Oliver Family from Carberry, The Rural Municipality of Pipestone, and Rob and Kristine MacDonald from Killarney. We greatly appreciate the support our sponsors provided along with the Reston Art Club members who were superb hosts for this year's show. We would not have had such an amazing event without all their work.
2025 was the 46th year Arts West Council has organized the annual Westman Region Juried Art Show and co-ordinated it being hosted by various arts groups in communities across the Westman Region of Manitoba. The purpose of the show is to provide amateur and emerging artists the opportunity for professional feedback on their work and public showcase for their creative work.
We look forward to bringing you the 47th show in 2026 - stay tuned for details later this year.
Thank-you Discover Westman for the great news article on 8 February about our call for Westman Region artists to enter their recent two-dimensional artworks into our upcoming 2025 Westman Region Juried Art Show. You can read the full news-article plus listen to a couple audio interviews about the show by clicking here to go to the news article on Discover Westman's site. For further details about the Westman Region Juried Art Show, entry guidelines and entry forms please click here.
CALL FOR ARTIST SUBMISSIONS
BRANDON SUN - Saturday, November 16, 2024
Artists sought for grad memento
BY MATT GOERZEN
Brandon University has put out a call for local artists to help the post-secondary institution create a special memento for the coming year's graduates. The chosen artwork will be presented during the 2025 Convocation in the spring, continuing a relatively new but well-received observance for the university.
"It's become a real, new tradition," BU marketing and communications director Grant Hamilton said on Friday.
BU issued an official open call for artists who are interested in the challenge of creating an original work that is reflective of the current academic year. An eight-inch by 10-inch print of the year's art will be included in each graduate's parchment package, and is intended to be a frame-worthy remembrance of their time at the university.
In its press release on Friday afternoon, the university stated that interested artists have until the end of day on Dec. 15 to put their names forward. The university will make its selection early in the new year.
"Every student knows that your university years are filled with wonderful memories of the faces and places that make the BU campus a true community," said BU registrar Andrea McDaniel, whose office oversees Convocation. "Art can help us preserve those memories, and I am always impressed by different artists' unique ways of conveying genuine feeling through these pieces."
The practice of handing out these unique pieces of artwork to graduating BU students has its roots in the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020 when Brandon University had to shift its spring convocation ceremony to a virtual format.
"Of course, March is only a couple months before convocation," Hamilton said, "and we really had to pivot from all of our traditional plans for a big, grandiose ceremony to deal with the new realities of staying at home and, you know, physical distancing and no large groups."
Calling it a "nonvocation," the university held a virtual ceremony with an online video. But in an attempt to make sure that grads had an opportunity to experience something special in lieu of the physical ceremony, the university came up with the idea to commission a unique piece of art and to deliver a print of that artwork in their convocation packages.
Brandon University alumnusWei Ming Zhao, a prolific local artist, was the first to be chosen to create the print. Although these prints couldn't be delivered in person that year, they were mailed out to recipients.
"Even though we were celebrating virtually, that year was meaningful, and so we really liked it," Hamilton said, "and it turned out to be not really that difficult to do and a lot of fun to do, and not that expensive. So it's something that we decided to do the following year."
Hamilton says that while it's really the degree that students are looking for when they open up their parchment package, that little extra memento is a really nice extra.
"The memories that stick from your university days are the friends or the camaraderie or the social occasions, and that's where the portrait has a lasting value that grows every year. And we've heard lots of students who really appreciate getting that little extra personal touch in the package that comes along with the degree that they earn."
Each year has been defined by a different artist who brings a new brand of creativity to the experience. The work provided by artist Jessie Januska this past spring "broke the mould" for BU by including three-dimensional elements like beadwork, which required careful photography and multiple printing experiments to best reproduce.
"We've had incredibly imaginative submissions, and we're eager to hear what people have in mind for this year," McDaniel said in Friday's press release. "We're committed to working with the selected artist to fulfil a shared vision that showcases the best of BU, kindles fond memories for our graduates and excites the artist creatively."
The call is open to all artists, who are asked to submit some brief information about themselves and their experience, as well as their initial vision for the art. Special consideration will be given to artists who have a connection to Brandon University or the regions where BU operates, as well as to artists who identify with underrepresented or marginalized groups.
The commission awards a total of $1,000 to develop the final piece.
Prints of the art will include "Class of 2025" or similar wording on them. They are intended to deliver for graduates a lasting and treasured keepsake that is suitable for proudly framing and displaying at home, at work, or in public.
For more information and to submit a proposal, see the open call for 2025 Convocation Art at brandonu.ca/convocation/open-call-for-artists/ . » mgoerzen@brandonsun.com » Bluesky: @mattgoerzen.bsky.social
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Artist Jessie Januska created 2024's artwork. Previous years' art pieces are shown online at BrandonU.ca/Convocation/Artwork. (Submitted)
Copyright (c)2024 Brandon Sun, All Rights Reserved. Edition 11/16/2024
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What a great week for our June 16th-21st Artists' Retreat at Camp Wannakumbac in Riding Mountain National Park - the weather could not have been better! Five days of arting bliss filled with creative learning, exercises and exploration, lively discussions, campfire songs, artist trading card exchange, critter cuddles, great food and more!
It was really great getting to know and learning from our 2024 Artists' Retreat Instructors - Ben Davis (Drawing), Jan Layh (Acrylics/Oils) and David Cooper (Watermedia). So much creative insight shared with us during our time there! A huge thank-you to these wonderful folks for making our 5 days there so memorable!
Below are some photos of our time there, more can be viewed here. Stay tuned for details about our 2025 Artists' Retreat!
The 2024 Westman Region Juried Art Show hosted by the Hamiota Mid-West Art Club in the Kenton Community Hall on April 28th was a smash hit! Over 100 pieces of amazing art, a beautiful venue and a large crowd of viewers made the show a wonderful success. Thank you to all the organizers, our 2024 Jurors Leona Herzog and Ben Davis, the artists for submitting such a delightful variety of work and to the public and local news media for their ongoing promotion and support!
River Banner May 3rd News Article
Discover Westman April 29th news article
Discover Westman April 28th News Article
Last chance to see the top 20 picks on display from last years Westman Region Juried Art Show. The works are hanging in the Western Manitoba Centennial Auditorium here in Brandon from April 3 through 30th. Big thanks to our volunteers for hanging all the works and especially for climbing up and down scarily tall ladders to move into place all the chains the works hang on! Stop by to view all this amazing art created by our Westman Region artists!
Thank-you Brandon Sun for the great news article showcasing our annual Juried Art Show. Please click here to view Brandon Sun's Westman artshow hightlights local artists write-up. Categories for the entries include Drawing (any medium), Painting (any medium), Printmaking, Silkscreen, Scratch Art, Mixed Media and 2D Fibre Art. Open to all Westman Region creatives who do not make a full-time living from their artworks - there are two youth categories (ages 11-13 and 14-19) and one adult category (age 20+). Deadline to Enter is April 17th - and we are looking forward to seeing all your entries!
Pick up that paintbrush and get creating - just a couple more months until the Westman Region 2024 Juried Art Show! Check out DiscoverWestman's informative news article about our Juried Art Show. Don't miss your chance to participate in this years show - click here for further details and entry form.
Challenge yourself for the April 2024 Westman Region Juried Art Show! Give yourself a chance to shine and connect with other artists by participating in the upcoming 2024 Westman Region Juried Art Show! Check out DiscoverWestman's news coverage about this annual event. Don't miss your chance to participate in this years show - further details and entry forms are here on our website .
