Community Outreach

Mission

Rice Lake Arts was born out of a desire to welcome artists to share their practices in a place which draws inspiration from the natural beauty of this region. We are committed to careful stewardship of the land, and to sharing our resources with the surrounding community, especially youth and individuals without easy access to arts-based programming.

Our goal is to develop outreach partnerships with organizations that nurture young artists and support youth in our community. To start, we have made two of these connections in Peterborough.

Big and Little Sisters

Big Brothers and Big Sisters of Peterborough

This summer we will offer our first Big Brothers Big Sisters Art Camp held at Rice Lake Arts in July. Through this weeklong program 20 young people will take part in a variety of activities, with an emphasis on visual art inspired by the natural world. Their days at camp will be spent engaged in a variety of physical and artistic pursuits. Each camper will have the opportunity create a small stone carving, an artistic practice we are pleased to continue sharing at Rice Lake Arts. We look forward to hosting the BBBS youth and plan to celebrate their creativity and imagination through an exhibition of their art.

Thomas A. Stewart (TASS) Integrated Arts Program

For years the Grade 9 students enrolled in the Integrated Arts Program at TASS visited ZimArt to engage with the sculptures and the landscape through visual art, drama, dance and music and Rice Lake Arts will continue to welcome this group of young artists. We are enriching that collaboration by offering workshop scholarships to students in Grades 11 & 12 in the Visual Arts stream. TASS faculty will nominate students who demonstrate a keen interest in their art learning and dedication to their emerging practice. As well, we have invited Grade 12 students studying sculpture to spend two days creating works of art in stone at Rice Lake Arts this autumn. Stone, tools and instruction will be provided.