Four art experts pored over the works of nearly 100 local artists in June to choose art for the annual Headwaters Arts Festival Show and Sale at the SGI Centre in Alton. They selected the works of just 35, including 12 from the Orangeville area. The show will be mounted for the last weekend in September and the first in October.

The twelve are: Rudolf Kurz, Nancy Turner, Hal Henry, Brenda Koechlin, John Ashbourne, Iris Casey, Pete Herlihy, Luella Thomson, Catherine Barr, Denis Hopkins, Peter Marshall and Kathryn Thomson.

The four jurors who made the selections included a gallery manager, an assistant art professor, an assistant curator and an art historian/lecturer.

The jurors' decisions were based in significant part on technical proficiency and the artist's ability to handle the medium. They looked for new ideas, art that pushed the limits of the medium, and for something that is more difficult to define. As juror Judy Daley put it, "Pure technique alone is not always enough. The artist needs to go beyond proficiency to [create] something ... that is evocative, that speaks to you in a certain way." Ms. Daley is Assistant Curator of the Peel Heritage Complex in Brampton.

Martin Pierce, another juror, is a painter and assistant art professor at the University of Guelph. He adds, "We were conscious of trying to ... create a show from different mediums, different approaches, from an extraordinary range of practices." He also said he was "quite impressed with the range of work and seriousness of the artists."

The other two jurors were Robert Achtemichuk, Director of the Canadian Clay & Glass Gallery in Waterloo and Janet Dawson. Ms. Dawson is a freelance art historian who is currently Scholar in Residence at Cocinar Mexicano in Tepoztlán where she lectures on the role of food and tradition in Mexican art.

The four jurors had different perspectives and areas of expertise, but they were able to agree on which artists to choose for the show after a long day of reviewing and discussing the artists' work.

They will get together one more time just prior to the show's opening to decide on which artists will receive the various juror awards.

"We chose the works from digital images," said Mr. Pierce. "It will be interesting to see the works themselves and how they look together."

The Headwaters Arts Festival Show and Sale will take place on two weekends, September 26- 27 and October 4-5 at the SGI Canada Centre for Culture and Education on Porterfield Road just north of Alton.

It is one of the highlights of the annual Headwaters Arts Festival that encompasses venues throughout the Headwaters Region, hundreds of artists and events for the seventeen days from September 25 to October 12.