As you have now heard, we have some big changes happening at Catching Stars Gallery. We wish Marie Neys all the best in her new artistic endeavours of teaching and marketing art. We look forward to continuing to showcase Marie’s amazing oil paintings at the gallery. We are excited to announce that Kathleen Ainscough will be our third co-owner as of Oct. 1.
Kathleen’s background and experience, as well as her love of the arts make her the perfect candidate to join Emilie Kaplun and Thiago Ramirez at the helm to run the gallery. Kathleen was a founding member of a co-operative on Bowen Island, Foxglove Fibre Arts Studio, from 2000 to 2005. There, Kathleen helped organize and promote workshops and exhibitions with local and international artists.
For many years, Kathleen worked in advertising and marketing at the Undercurrent newspaper and as a customer service rep at First Credit Union as well as developing her professional artist practice. She exhibits widely and teaches workshops as well. Kathleen currently works as the program coordinator at the Hearth, taking care of programming, marketing and the communications of the organization. We feel that she will easily transition into the role of co-owner and we hope you will join us in welcoming her onboard.
“It was just a year ago that I joined Catching Stars Gallery as an associate member and what a year it has been. I am excited to be joining Emilie and Thiago as a partner in this cooperative gallery and I wish Marie every success in her creative ventures,” says Kathleen. “Solid groundwork has been laid by the founding members, and well into its third year, we are grateful for the support of our community and beyond.
“Today more than ever, I feel the arts are vital to lift our hope and spirits during this difficult time.”
“As artists, we’ve been blessed with the ability to turn to our work at such a time: for solace, or for catharsis, or simply to make sense of our experience…and although we do this for ourselves, it’s a double blessing when such work speaks to others as well.” – Alan Weisman
