About

The Arts and our forests have a long and rich relationship as source of material, nourishment, and inspiration. The nurturing and composition of our forests is an art in itself and provides an intersection between utility and interpretation. This Summer, Island Mountain Arts and the Wells-Barkerville Community Forest aim to explore this intersection and expand opportunities for both. To this end we are pleased to announce a joint research and public education program for the summer of 2021. This program presents the opportunity to create generative discussions within both circles and to examine the ways that the arts can enhance work within the forest and vice versa. 

Both organizations recognize the impacts that human activities are having on our forest and beyond. Through this program the aim is to bring people and community into the forest and highlight the many ways that people may engage in a forest based industry, while highlighting the value of forests for health, recreation, sustenance, and inspiration. By combining different backgrounds and perspectives we aim to navigate how to move forward sustainably and explore creative ways to address the challenges we face as a small rural community and more broadly with climate change and its myriad of effects. 

This program is an initial experiment and pilot which will hopefully be expanded upon and enhanced through future work and collaboration. While the focus is on this summer specifically this is only the beginning. This is a relationship and conversation that is important for this moment and into our future. We look forward to discovering what this summer will bring and invite you to participate and engage with us through our summer programming. 

Who we Are

Wells-Barkerville Community Forest (WBCF) endeavours to maintain biodiversity, mitigate climate change, and promote forest education and research. The WBCF is 4,527 hectares of Engelmann Spruce, Subalpine Fir and Lodgepole Pine just 400 metres north of the wells townsite. The District of Wells acquired the 25 year tenure from the provincial government in 2014 to maintain the forest landscape and biodiversity, expand and support recreational trails, research and educate about the forest, and to obtain revenue from a limited amount of timber harvesting. For more information please visit https://wbcf.ca/about/

Island Mountain Arts (IMA) serves artists and stimulates and enhances artistic, cultural and economic development by striving for excellence in the arts through workshops, residencies, conferences, seminars, exhibitions, concerts and the ArtsWells Festival. A culture of gathering, sharing and idea exchange permeates the programming that IMA has cultivated through the forty-four years of its existence. We plant seeds of ideas, concepts, and relationships that go on to flourish far beyond the district limits of Wells, and aim to increase the level of respect and appreciation for art and artists, and to integrate culture into all possible areas of society. 

Sponsors and Funders

We would like to acknowledge that this project is supported by the Government of Canada’s Canada Summer Jobs Employment Program and the BC Lotteries Community Gaming Grant.

In addition the development of the summer nature camp and forest workshops would not be possible without support from the Quesnel Community Foundation.

Finally we are supported by Community Futures - North Cariboo for the signage and marketing for this project

Become a Sponsor

If you would like to contribute to our program please contact Elyssia Sasaki (elyssia@imarts.com) for more information on sponsorship opportunities. We are open to many different ways of contributing to this program and would love to explore this further with you or your organization.