Channel Challenge Art Walk and Auction A spin on plein air painting, the Channel Challenge invited artists to spend a day painting or drawing in Little Current: but we had two challenges. First, they wouldn’t know their plein air spot until they arrived. Artists were assigned a location somewhere in the community – from a spot with a view of the Swing Bridge, along the boardwalk, at Low Island, and lovely spots in between. The second challenge: three hours to create a new work. After lunch: a new spot. The public was invited to spend the day in Little Current to walk the art walk from the Bridge to Low Island to watch the artists as they work, to make bids as part of the silent auction, and enjoy the lovely town of Little Current and its Boardwalk. Proceeds were divided 50% for the artists, and 50% toward community programming. The project was co-presented between 4e and the Township of NEMI.

Bike Parade Asked to come up with some fun and creative experiences for children as part of the annual Canada Day event sponsored by NEMI and the Downtown Business Association, we introduced the Bike Parade. Kids were invited to decorate their bikes at home, or visit our booth where we helped them build sculptural and decorative effects for their bicycles. Excited kids paraded their bikes throughout the downtown (sometimes a few times – it was that much fun). Along with the parade, 4e offered several years of arts activities during the day: painting with bikes (yep – who wouldn’t want to run their bike through paint onto a 30 foot piece of canvas?!), mural painting, bike shadow drawing, marble painting, watercolour, drawing, a postcard exchange and all kinds of other fun art activities.

Summer Saturdays To attract folks to Little Current from off-Island, we promoted ‘Summer Saturdays’, encouraging visitors to spend the day visiting Little Current’s galleries and shops, the farmer’s market, the beautiful boardwalk with the sailboats and yachts, the Low Island swimming area, and enjoying Island icecream shops and restaurants. 4e provided art workshops, and curated a series of solo shows and group exhibitions to keep the art fresh and interesting, including contemporary work by Christi Belcourt, Peter Jones, V. Jane Gordon and other local and visiting artists.