Amas de
bric-à-brac
ou art-éco 

Chaque été l'art et l'environnement se rencontrent au Centre de la nature du cap Jourimain. 

Lors du second festival annuel de l'art-éco (été 2004), des artistes étaient sur place pour montrer et vendre les objets d'art qu'ils avaient créés à partir d'objets trouvés ou recyclés. 

Des sessions journalières ont aussi permis aux visiteurs de laisser libre cours à leur tendance percussionniste en se débattant avec une collection unique de sculptures en métal, bois ou plastique. 

Parmi les éléments spéciaux du festival, on a pu retrouver des présentations qui fouillaient la relation profonde entre l'art et la nature.

Junk Jams and Eco-Art

Sandy Burnett
Cape Jourimain Nature Centre
December 2004

rt and the environment came face to face at Cape Jourimain Nature Centre last September 11th and 12th 2004 in the second annual Eco-Art Festival. The event was planned as a two-day exploration of the natural world through creative eyes. In the opinion of the hundreds who attended, it was clearly the highlight of the Centre's active fall season.

Visitors to the Eco-Arts Festival at
Cape Jourimain Nature Centre last September
examine some of the many colourful works on display.


(photo: Cape Jouimain Nature Centre)

Cape Jourimain Nature Centre, for those who are not familiar with it, is a beautifully designed and constructed interface between the traveling public and the coastal ecosystems of the Northumberland Strait. Located in the Cape Jourimain National Wildlife Area at the New Brunswick end of the Confederation Bridge, the 4-year-old complex, with its handsome architecture, its superb interpretive displays, its nature store and restaurant, and more than 15km of walking trails, is an ideal location in which to present conservation messages to the hundreds of thousands of tourists who pass by each summer en route to and coming from Prince Edward Island.

Montreal sculptor Glen LeMesurier stands beside
a large, totem-like construction that he built entirely of
found objects. The linking of an aboriginal icon with the
flotsam and jetsam of post-industrial culture attracted the
curiosity and admiration of many who came to enjoy the festival.


(photo: Cape Jouimain Nature Centre)

A busy site at any time, the Centre really bustles during special themed weekends, such as the Osprey Festival in June and the Eco-Arts Festival later in the summer. At this year's eco-art event, nearly a dozen visual artists were on hand to display and sell works of art that they had created from found or recycled objects.

Two percussionists, Michel Deschênes and Luke Patterson animated twice-daily 'junk jams', inviting visitors to release their 'inner drummer' by beating out rhythms on a collection of unique metal, wood and plastic sculptures located at the entrance to the Centre and funded by the New Brunswick Arts Board.

Special highlights of the Festival included three dynamic presentations for visitors who wanted to look deeper into the relationship between art and nature.

Junk jams!

(photo: Cape Jouimain Nature Centre)

On both days, photographer Bob Belliveau-Ferrin Lemieux offered a session on "Ethics for Photographers in Nature". Participants enjoyed a sixty-minute introduction to nature photography and the courtesies that photographers need to observe in order to create imagery without disturbing resident wildlife and vulnerable habitat.

Keen perception is essential to both the artist and naturalist. At 2:00 p.m. each day, visitors joined Cape Jourimain staff naturalist and 'closet artist' Ramsey Hart on a guided walk to awaken the senses to the beauty and diversity of nature.

Art critic John Grande presented a daily keynote talk at 3:30 p.m. Mr. Grande is a widely published writer of books and articles on the ways that contemporary artists deal with issues such as natural resource use, town planning, and cultural identity. He has taught art history at Bishop's University in Lennoxville, Quebec, and his most recent book, Art Nature Dialogues, was released in June by SUNY Press in New York.

The New Brunswick Culture and Sport Secretariat provided financial support for this year's Festival. Cape Jourimain Nature Centre is now closed for the winter but information about the 2005 program will be posted on the web site at www.capejourimain.org, or call (506) 538-2220 when the season recommences in May.