She is the very first recipient of the award in the association’s history.

As she stood in front of a crowd of friends, family, and media, she talked a bit about some of the things she has done, but spent most of the time having fun being the centre of attention and making a few jokes to lighten the mood.

The manager of the Pemmican Lodge, Roger Hacior, said she is fully of “ideas and vitality”, as he handed her the award.

As she held up the award, which looked like a glass star on a pedestal, she almost appeared to tear up a little and she looked at the crowd.

“I really appreciate the fact you think I’m worthy of it all,” said Ewing as she accepted the award from the ASCHA, and a certificate from the City of Lethbridge, which was presented by Mayor Bob Tarleck.

This is not the first award she’s won for her volunteering efforts. She was awarded by the City of Lethbridge in 2001, and the Government of Canada during the international Year of Volunteers.

Many would think that a woman of her age should be relaxing, drinking tea, and either napping or knitting. Ewing prefers to spend her time volunteering, helping in the kitchen, playing Bingo, and she loves playing horseshoes.

She volunteers once a month at a local elementary school, leads a seniors exercise class twice a week, and is an avid 10-pin bowler.

“I’m keeping busy, and those dolls for Africa keep me busy,” said Ewing. “I’ve done almost 300 now in the two years (since) I started doing the dolls.”
She has lived a full life, living in different places, having a family, taking care of a farm, and having jobs she enjoyed. She speaks very highly of everything she’s been able to experience.

“I was born in Vulcan,” said Ewing. “I did all my schooling in High River, right to Grade 12, after that I was a telephone operator.”

She has a very large family that she is incredibly proud of. She has 4 children, 19 grandchildren, and 21 great grand children.

“I got married a couple of times,” Ewing said, “ I had all these kids, all these grandkids.”

For work, she was a mom, but she was also a receptionist for a few years, then and her family ran a farm for 25 years.

“I worked in the Galt Museum, I was a receptionist there, when it was the hospital,” she said. “I was there a couple of years, and I worked in another place as a receptionist.”

“Then I got married and went to the farm at Carmangay,” she said. “I was there 25 years, I guess, it was a mixed farm, we had lots of pigs, lots of cattle, and grain.”

She then moved into a house in Lethbridge because her husband became ill. She then decided to move into the Pemican Lodge, which she loves.

“We lived in a condo and sold that,” she said. “They were just building this, and I thought this is kind of a nice place, so I think I’ll move here.”

“I really like living in a seniors place like this because it’s very nice. They treat you so well here, and the meals are excellent, I think it’s a wonderful place for seniors.”

Ewing can’t say enough good things about Alberta, and especially about Lethbridge.

“It’s the best place in the world to live, so is Alberta,” she said. “If you stay here long enough, (and) if you ever go away, you will come back.”

She says with enthusiasm that she will continue doing all these different things for years to come.

Originally posted 2009-05-06 23:05:52. Republished by Blog Post Promoter

“They make it disappear, they don’t use it anymore. Somehow, they haven’t gotten around to throwing it out,” says deGroot.

The same people are invited to join workshops in which participants will collaborate and discover new uses for those everyday items.

“We [will] engage in unrehearsed games that lead us to seeing them in a different way, like sorting them, dismantling them, and looking at their parts, seeing them in association with others, [and] inventing new stories about these objects,” says deGroot.

“Eventually, I will leave Lethbridge with these objects; the community’s burden will become mine. Maybe I’ll do that in other cities, too; this really has started here, [an] idea born in Lethbridge.”

deGroot has been in countries throughout Europe, and across Canada doing similar projects, all of which require community participation, and that’s by design, it’s how she works as an artist.

“I’ve travelled a lot, because all of these projects bring me to lots of different places. I did a project in a textile factory in Italy. I exhibited in Italy, England, [and France], I speak all three languages,” explains deGroot.

deGroot has been a professional artist for more than 10 years. She finished her Bachelor of Arts and her Masters at the University of Quebec in 1997 in Montreal, where she’s from.

Since then, she’s gone where people and places have inspired her to create her exhibits.  She never knows exactly how each project will end, but in her research, she always knows how it will start.

“I never know how they’re going to end. It’s step by step, like how people are going to respond to what I’m asking them [during a project],” deGroot explains.

When asked what brings her to each community, deGroot says it’s all about networking and connecting with people and with places. It’s not a particular inspiration.

“It’s not the fact that they invite me and I come. It’s a matter of how do I live while I’m here,” says deGroot.
Each project costs money, and so does each plane ticket, not to mention the cost of living in each city.

To solve this, deGroot finds a job within the community to pay for the cost of each project, and in the case of her current Lethbridge project, she was able to obtain a grant to cover her costs of living.

“We’re arranged with the University, [which] is kind of a partner in this project. While I’d be here at the gallery, [I will] also be teaching a course. So, I’m more linked to the community, more grounded,” says deGroot.

“As you might know, the gallery here in closing and they’re renovating. They’re opening, in March, a temporary space. They have this year coming up on exhibitions and projects that deal with this idea of renovation, renewal, and transformation,” says deGroot about why she was invited to show her exhibit at the gallery.

deGroot’s exhibit, The Burden of Objects, will open in the Southern Alberta Art Gallery’s temporary downtown Lethbridge location in early March. The temporary gallery is located at 324-5th Street south (the 3rd Street location is under renovation).

Interested participants can bring their objects in a bag or box, where they will be given a questionnaire to fill out about each object, along with a short description about the item.

People can participate with their objects on March 18 and April 1st from 5pm to 7pm. Everyone in the community can join in. There are no fees to participate.

Originally posted 2009-02-28 20:14:45. Republished by Blog Post Promoter