“My Favourite Things” by Rita Arsenault

 

Culture Summerside’s Sixty Days of Fame Series Features New Exhibit

“My Favourite Things” is the title that artist Rita Arsenault has given her first solo exhibit, now showing at the Lefurgey Cultural Centre in Summerside.

 

Fifteen of Arsenault’s paintings make up the show.  The St. Timothy artist, who is a founding member of La Palette Cooperative, first started painting in oils with artist Emily Durant approximately 25 years ago. After retiring from a 35-year career as teacher-librarian at Evangeline School, she returned to painting and explored new techniques and styles using acrylics with Lise Genova as her teacher. Throughout the years she has taken workshops with artists such as Annie Morin, Sandi Komst, Henry Purdy and Arno Freitag.

 

Arsenault’s favourite pastimes, including gardening and nature walks, often serve as inspiration for her paintings. She loves to capture the beauty of nature in her work, be it through flowers, birds or landscapes. Another fun subject for her is capturing special moments of her three young grandsons.

“My Favourite Things” Exhibit can be viewed Monday through Friday, 9 am to 4:30 pm at the Lefurgey Cultural Centre, 205 Prince Street. The closing date for the show is November 30th. 

"Lighting the Way: The Story of Summerside Electric

1920 -2020" is available for purchase!

 

For the past year and a half, the staff of Culture Summerside have been engaged in putting into print the 100-year history of Summerside Electric, the municipal utility that serves 11 percent of Prince Edward Island’s electric customers.

 

The book tells the amazing story of how the 1920 Summerside Town Council purchased a rundown private electric company and turned it into a municipal asset that has proven of great benefit to the community for over 100 years. Being in the electric business has not been a smooth ride for the only municipally owned electric utility on the Island. The journey has been one of drama, intrigue, ingenuity, and sheer determination. The book is in part a social history of how electricity has influenced the lives of humanity, becoming the behind-the-scenes workhorse of civilization.

 

Lighting the Way: The Story of Summerside Electric 1920 – 2020, is available for purchase at the price of $25.00 plus tax at the MacNaught History Centre and Archives (75 Spring Street) from Tuesday to Saturday, and at the Lefurgey Cultural Centre (205 Prince Street) Monday to Friday.