Author Talks FREE Family Events
300 Mason Jars
By Joanne Thomson
256 pages
Publisher: Heritage House
Saturday 9 November 2024
3pm, Free
The fragmented history of one family’s hope, challenge, failure, and persistence is beautifully depicted in this book of watercolour images by artist Joanne Thomson. Combining still-life painting with visual storytelling, Thomson presents everyday artifacts—from flowers to fruits, tools to toys, and photographs to farm equipment—and places them in, on, beside, or behind a glass jar.
Carefully gathered from the artist’s family members and the natural environments where they lived, the simple objects in this collection represent the depth and complexity of daily life. Arranged thematically, the pieces explore traditional gender roles, the issue of food security in times of scarcity, renewal and hope presented by the bounty of nature, treasures passed down through generations, and the looming presence of family secrets. Beautiful to look at and infinitely fascinating to ponder over, 300 Mason Jars is a stunning addition to any art lover’s library.
Joanne Thomson is a full-time visual artist who lives in Victoria, British Columbia. Working primarily in watercolour, Joanne pushes the limits of the medium to create large works on canvas. Her quiet and contemplative approach to art making is evident in her landscapes, illustrations and in the Bottled series. She describes her works as ‘strong images created gently’. Thomson holds a Masters degree in Adult Education (MAdEd) and loves to teach, encouraging her students to explore the creative process through research and experimentation with art making.
Fleece & Fibre 
By Francine McCabe
Saturday March 16, 2024 3pm Free
Join us as Francine McCabe shares her stories of the world of small-scale textile farms along the Salish Sea and their pivotal role in sustainable, artisanal textile production and the slow fashion movement. McCabe will also bring her own fibres and hides for show and tell.
Francine McCabe is a mixed-blood Anishinaabe writer, fibre artist, and organic master gardener from Batchewana First Nation, living on the unceded traditional territory of the Stz’uminus First Nation with her partner and two sons. She holds a degree in Creative Writing from Vancouver Island University. She is an active member of the Vancouver Island Fibreshed network and has recently joined the Guild of Canadian Weavers. She is the past recipient of the Mary Garland Coleman Prize in Lyrical Poetry and was awarded the 2014 Pat Bevan Scholarship for Creative Writing. Her writing has appeared in Portal Magazine, CV Collective, and FOLKLIFE.
You Have Been Referred – My Life in Applied Anthropology
By Michael Robinson
Saturday, April 6, 2024 3pm FREE
You Have Been Referred is a career memoir that covers nearly 40 years of work in three separate economic sectors: Oil and Gas Exploration, Academia, and the Glenbow Museum, Library, Archives and Art Gallery. The book is about the classic personal struggle of finding work that enables a full expression of ego, id and public service. The struggle involves extensive work with Indigenous communities on the Northwest Coast, in the Canadian Arctic, and the Murmansk Oblast of Siberian Russia.
Michael Robinson prepared for his career by earning an Honours B.A. in Anthropology at U.B.C., and a Graduate Diploma in Prehistoric Archaeology at Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar. He then took his Law Degree at U.B.C. As Chief Executive Officer he ran Canada’s Arctic Institute of North America at the University of Calgary, Calgary’s Glenbow, and the Bill Reid Gallery of Northwest Coast Art in Vancouver. He also served as Canada’s Polar Commissioner, and chaired the boards of Friends of the Earth, the David Suzuki Foundation, and the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Association. He also ran unsuccessfully as an Alberta Liberal in 2008. Today he is retired and lives in Skelhp on the Sunshine Coast with his wife, Lynn Webster.