If you were around last weekend, you might have attended the aRiVA launch at Kerry O'Toole's gallery in Gradton. It was a ton of fun, and the turnout surpassed our expectations. The River Valley Arts Alliance (RiVA) was formed with the belief that local people have real artistic contributions to make, and that people will recognize talent when they see it, regardless of whether it comes from cities or small towns. A major part of the evening was dedicated to redressing the idea that New Brunwsickers are an 'artless' people.
Looking at the more-than-twenty local artists on display, and hearing a fabulous band of happy amateurs, aRiVA celebrated to the joy of being "local" - specific to one place (this place) with concerns that outsiders couldn't quite grasp. To wit, here's James Howard Kuntlser's take on "localism" and the role it will play after peak oil. For Carleton County, a place where people have traditionally been self-reliant crafstmen and women, I think it is an encouraging forecast:
What remains for now is a terrible grandiose inertia among people who really ought to know better: our culture leaders. The cutting edge has become a blunt instrument unsuited to fashioning the patterns of the future. Everything we do from now on will have to be finer in scale, quality, and character. Exercises in irony will no longer be appreciated because there will no longer be a premium paid for declaring ourselves to be ridiculous. The localism of the future will not be a matter of fashion. It will be in the food we eat and the air we breathe, and we’d better start paying attention.
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