White River’s Northern Communities Arts Association Reaching Out to Northshore Neighbours

Written by Press Release on 25 April 2012

White River District Historical Society/Northern Communities Art Association

How it all Began

A kijiji ad that read “Free Ceramics Studio – willing to donate to community or group.”

Deb Duplassie who was finishing up her last year of University in Thunder Bay read this and thought of all the people who had talked about how much they missed having the opportunity to do Ceramics in her home community of White River and decided to check into this a little more closely.

With assistance from the Township of White River, the Community Development Corporation, the White River District Historical Society, the local businesses, a large group of interested residents and a lot of hard work fundraising and unloading the four truck loads of equipment that arrived in White River from Nolalu (a small community on the outskirts of Thunder Bay) we accomplished the first step.

The White River District Historical Society realizing the opportunity that this equipment presented decided to take this on as a Social History Project. Under the umbrella of the White River District Historical Society, the Northern Communities Art Association was formed.

We would like to thank the Township of White River for providing space to store the ceramics equipment. A space has become available that requires electrical upgrades for the kilns. We are continuing to fundraise for the money needed to do these upgrades and to set up and open our Studio.

The potential site for the Arts Centre is the centre portion of the building.with the museum on the right and River City Cafe on the left. Photo Deb Duplassie, CDO

To kick off this exciting new venture, Deb has gathered a group of her artist friends together who are going to share their passions in a variety of workshops during the first ever Northern Visions Artist Retreat. The White River District Historical Society/Northern Communities Art Association is pleased to host this art “buffet” in the natural setting of Crocker Lake which was originally built by the MNR for its Junior Ranger program and has been used by groups such as Outward Bound, Girl Guides, Winnie’s Hometown Festival Family Fish Derbies and local families for Reunions to name a few. More information about the Northern Visions Artist Retreat can be found on their website at NVAS.ca (CLICK to visit).

The White River District Historical Society/Northern Communities Art Association has been started by residents in White River but our vision is that we would like to invite residents from the surrounding communities to become members and participants of the various workshops/classes that we plan to offer. If you are interested in joining this group please email northernvisions@hotmail.com