PEI Association for Newcomers innovative arts program

by Ann Thurlow

They enter the room at the Murphy Rec Centre in pairs, shy, deferential. An interpreter finds them and soon the room is abuzz with Burmese, Farsi, Chinese.

At each spot on the long desks sits a small rug hooking frame. Rug hooker Wendy Druet stands at the front to the room, and begins slowly to explain the traditional Island
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One Great Thing
by Ann Thurlow

His humble stature belies his Antaean knowledge. Reg Porter grasps the lectern, stares into middle space. It is as if everything he has ever read or seen is written there. But it isn’t, of course. It is, instead, warehoused in his thirsty mind, in a soul that yearns for beauty and to understand. He speaks without notes, tossing off classical and modern references
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Steve Barber expands the live music scene in Charlottetown

In Her Own Write
by Ann Thurlow

Steve Barber is expressing a little regret. During a rare quiet moment at Hunter’s Ale House, he sits in a booth and muses about how he would like to have gone to the ECMAs. The bar has won music industry nominations and awards for being a great venue. But he wouldn’t have gone for the glory. Here is a
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City of Charlottetown forms arts and culture task force

In Her Own Write
by Ann Thurlow

It was Art in the Open that really did it. All year long Mayor Clifford Lee watched as the people of Charlottetown embraced the events that flowed from the City’s cultural capital designation. He was, he admits, pleasantly surprised. But it was the crowds that descended on the city to see the art
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In Her Own Write
by Ann Thurlow

A few years ago, Todd MacLean started seeing this man busking at Peakes Quay. Todd was there playing as part of the summer concert series. The man sometimes watched appreciatively, sometimes played along. But mostly he played when no one else was playing, a mix of classical guitar and old French folk songs.

Todd got to talking to the man. He found out his name was
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One Great Thing
by Ann Thurlow

When I was a girl, my mother played Rhapsody in Blue over and over again on our record player. There she was in a house with three small children. The music is a jazzy interplay of piano and clarinet. Once, she played them both. The label for the record was covered in stars.

I am remembering this as I hear the Rhapsody for the first time in—well—a long time at a
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Buddhist monks present concert in appreciation of the Island

by Ann Thurlow

Three years ago, Islanders were a  little amazed to discover that PEI had been chosen as the new home for a Buddhist monastery. Amazed and a little delighted, too. The monks breathed new life into the long-closed Lobster Shanty North. They bought the Formosa Tea House and turned it into the Splendid Essence. They
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One Great Thing
by Ann Thurlow

I always try to buy local—but I draw the line at olive oil. Until there are olive trees in the Bonshaw hills, I’ll make the biweekly trek to Norman Sahely’s store. On this day he says “Oh, you’re buying olive oil? Look!” And out from under the counter comes his phone. He pages through google earth to show me the olive groves that surround his birthplace,
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One Great Thing
by Ann Thurlow

Okay, I admit it. Sometimes I’d avoid him. Sometimes when I saw Milton Acorn coming toward my table at Pat’s Rose and Gray, I’d throw my coat over the empty chair, shun his imperious gaze. But the next day, the next day if, by God, if he didn’t stand next to me and declaim the most amazing poem about crows. I am thinking about this as I stare at Brian
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Meet the Rag Tag Players from the Murphy’s Community Centre

In Her Own Write
by Ann Thurlow

Patrick MacDonald gives an order and his young troupers instantly obey. It’s rehearsal day for the Rag Tag Players, a group of apprentice actors from the after school program at the Murphy Community Centre. MacDonald has been leading this program for almost 20 years. He saw the need for—and the
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In Her Own Write
by Ann Thurlow

When we hear the word “sustainability” these days, we tend to think of things like water conservation or economic development. Certainly, these are important. But many things feed into the need for a city, for example, to be able to flourish and support its citizens—without using everything up.

So can the arts sustain a city? Probably not—not completely anyway.
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One Great Thing
by Ann Thurlow

The tiny white dresses pose as if they had floated into the Confederation Centre Gallery through a window, landing with perfect, wind borne grace. They are made of porcelain, each as fragile as old cotton. My hand longs to ignore the museum’s prohibition, to touch the little dresses with the same loving caress that every mother knows. How many times did I touch
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