Salt Spring Arts Council

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Salt Spring Arts Council — A vibrant creative community on Salt Spring Island. We operate out of and manage historic Mahon Hall as a community cultural centre.

Salt Spring Arts (SSA) is a charitable society serving Salt Spring Island and the Southern Gulf Islands in British Columbia, Canada since 1968. Our activities enhance connection, inclusion, participation, celebration and economic vibrancy in our community. We deliver a broad range of programs and initiatives with the aim of promoting participation in, and access, to the arts. Our work includes advocacy and collaborations to support community cultural development. For more than 50 years our initiatives have served emerging and professional artists, our broad community, young people and visitors. Our Vision:
A vibrant creative community on Salt Spring Island. Our Mission:
To build and nurture the creative capacity of our community. Our Values:

Curiosity — We spark creativity and human expression

Imagination — We believe arts and culture can expand experience and perspectives to transform individuals and communities

Connection — We create opportunities to inspire a healthy community and sense of belonging

Respect — We honour the spirit, stories, peoples, past and future of this place

History:
Established as the Gulf Islands Community Arts Council (GICAC) in 1968 and registered as a Society under the BC Society’s Act in 1970, the name Salt Spring Arts Council was adopted in 2006 when the other southern gulf islands were regrouped under the Tricomali Community Arts Council. While Salt Spring Island (SSI) has long been the home to many artists (visual, literary and performing) and artisans, the artistic community and its resources have evolved over time. So too has the understanding of the community about the importance of the arts to the social, cultural and economic health of the island.

10/07/2026

Looking for a creative way to spend meaningful time with your kids this fall? Drop into Mahon Hall on October 17th between 10am-12pm for a morning of crafts and quality time with your little ones!

Crafting Connections is an opportunity for caregivers and children of all ages to slow down and create together. This month we’re embracing the change of the season with the theme: LEAVES 🍁

📅 October 17th
🕙 10am–12pm
📍 Mahon Hall

Come for 20 minutes, or stay for two hours! All materials provided.
Learn more: saltspringarts.com/event/crafting-connections-leaves

09/29/2026

Join us for this major fundraising event, a partnership between Salt Spring Arts Council and the Salt Spring Island Conservancy. “My Favourite Tree” combines beautiful, original artworks with education about a special island ecosystem, while raising financial support for two highly regarded local nonprofit organizations during an exclusive afternoon and evening event.

Tickets are $250 - seating is limited.

At Mahon Hall on October 24, tickets holders will be able to:
- Enjoy nibbles and w**e while viewing “My Favourite Tree” artworks created by local artists
- Enjoy the soulful, evocative songs of Yael Wand
- Learn fascinating facts about Garry Oak Meadows and other secrets of trees
- Dine on fabulous food crafted by Mensch catering
- Bid on “My Favourite Tree” pieces in a silent auction

SILENT ART AUCTION
Early access for ticket holders! On Friday night, the evening before the fundraiser, ticket holders will be able to preview, but not bid on, the tantalizing “forest of artwork” on the stage of Mahon from 5 pm to 8 pm. These works of art were created for this theme by a variety of the island’s revered artists.

We are so grateful to the artists offering their work, and to our sponsors: Voyage Liquor Merchants, Country Grocer, Mensch Kitchen & Catering, Foxglove, Garry Oaks Winery, and Gulf Islands Driftwood.
The proceeds of the silent art auction support Salt Spring Arts Council.

09/13/2026

Crafts for kids!! Be sure to bring the family by the Salt Spring Arts Council booth at the Fall Fair. We have "something to crow about."

09/08/2026

Join us for our first major fundraiser event and our first partnership with the Salt Spring Island Conservancy. “My Favourite Tree” combines beautiful, original artworks with education about a special island ecosystem, while raising financial support for two highly regarded local nonprofit organizations during an exclusive afternoon and evening event.

Tickets are $250; seating is limited.

At Mahon Hall on October 24, tickets holders will be able to:
- Enjoy nibbles and w**e while viewing "My Favourite Tree" artworks created by local artists
- Enjoy the soulful, evocative songs of Yael Wand
- Learn fascinating facts about Garry Oak Meadows and other secrets of trees
- Dine on fabulous food crafted by Mensch catering
- Bid on "My Favourite Tree" pieces in a silent auction

SILENT ART AUCTION
Early access for ticket holders! On Friday night, the evening before the fundraiser, ticket holders will be able to preview, but not bid on, the tantalizing "forest of artwork" on the stage of Mahon from 5 pm to 8 pm. These works of art were created for this theme by a variety of the island's revered artists, and a couple of youth!

The proceeds of the silent art auction support Salt Spring Arts Council.

GarryOak GarryOakMeadows SupportLocalArts CommunityFundraising SaltSpringEvents

09/04/2026

✨ Grants and Awards – Call for Submissions ✨

Salt Spring Arts Council is accepting applications for two funding opportunities, both due October 31:

🎨 Susan Benson Fund for Visual Artists:
Supporting Salt Spring Island visual artists who are dedicated to their creative careers. Preference is given to women artists, but all island-based artists are eligible.

🌱 Community Project Grants:
Funding new artistic and cultural projects that benefit the Salt Spring community.

Both programs offer up to $1000 in support!

📅 Deadline: October 31
👉 Apply now through the links in bio
ProjectGrants ArtsAndCulture SusanBensonFund

08/25/2026

Artcraft is excited to present our final Showcase Exhibition of the 2026 season: Seascape from Reality featuring Margo and Dan Zak.
Margo and Dan have spent the past 50 years together experiencing the world through art, architecture and most importantly the natural world. Seascape from Reality reveals how the countless hours immersed in close observation of the coastal landscape have deepened the evolution of their respective ceramics and painting practices through increasingly experimental approaches to traditional themes and mediums.

The exhibition brings together Dan's expansive seascapes and Margo's biomorphic vessels within a single installation to amplify a deeply personal and shared experience of the ocean landscape through divergent yet fundamentally connected sensibilities. This body of work is the result of time spent on the coasts of Salt Spring and Vancouver Islands, and Tofino in particular. The water's edge has become a vital part of both artists' lives, as a place to recalibrate in the face of life's challenges, and as a source of calm, healing and regeneration.

Seascape from Reality is a departure for both Margo and Dan from their regular practices. For Dan it presents his first attempt at a scaled-up approach to landscape, resulting in a more visceral and expansive pictorial space that the viewer can occupy with their entire body, much in the same spirit as how the paintings took form.

For Margo, it marks a break from her meticulous tendencies and highly finished work. Adopting a new and varied sculptural language, here she throws caution to the wind, leaving her fingers and imagination free to reinvent both herself and her art.

Join us for the opening reception on Friday, Aug. 28, from 6–8 pm, and experience an immersive installation that has creatively stretched both artists, separately and together.
The exhibition runs Aug. 28 through Sept. 20, 2026, with an Artist Talk on Sunday, Aug. 30, from 2–3 pm.

08/01/2026

Join us for an Artist Talk with Cheryl Long, one of the two artists featured in our 3rd Artcraft Showcase Exhibition.

Cheryl’s recent body of work explores the mystery, spirit, and living presence of the natural world. Moving between landscape and dreamscape, her oil paintings reach beyond physical appearances to consider the energetic, emotional, and spiritual dimensions she senses in nature.

In this talk, Cheryl will share more about her process, influences, and the ideas behind this new body of work.

📅 Sunday, August 2
🕑 2–3 PM
📍 Mahon Hall Stage

Part of Artcraft Showcase 3: Ordinary Exaltation, featuring Cheryl Long and Laura Keil, on view July 31–August 24, 2026.

This exhibition is generously sponsored by

And thank you to our season sponsors: , , , and

07/28/2026

Our 3rd Artcraft Showcase Exhibition opens July 31 on the Mahon Hall Stage, bringing together the work of Salt Spring artists Cheryl Long and Laura Keil.

Working in oil painting and ceramics, these two artists approach the natural world through presence, transformation, and deep material attention. Cheryl Long’s paintings move between landscape and dreamscape, reaching beyond the visible world to explore the energetic, emotional, and spiritual dimensions of nature. Laura Keil’s hand-built ceramic forms emerge slowly through coils, slabs, touch, wood firing, and glaze, carrying the marks of process, time, and elemental change.

Together, their work invites us to consider the living presence of the world around us — the mystery held in landscape, clay, fire, form, and spirit.

Join us for the Opening Reception:

📅 July 31
🕕 6–8 PM
📍 Mahon Hall Stage

Exhibition runs July 31–August 24, 2026.
Artist Talk: August 2, 2–3 PM.

Learn more at https://saltspringarts.com/artcraft/ordinary-exaltation/

This exhibition is generously sponsored by

And thank you to our season sponsors: , , , and

07/21/2026

Last week to experience Jeannette Sirois's At the Table: The Architecture of Control at Mahon Hall.

On until July 27 as part of the Artcraft Showcase Exhibition series, At the Table: The Architecture of Control is a large-scale portrait installation that brings together monumental drawing, text, and installation to examine the legal, medical, bureaucratic, and religious systems through which q***r and trans lives have been administered, classified, and governed.

Through slow, labour-intensive processes using graphite, pigments, text, and installation, Sirois creates immersive works that explore how institutional systems press upon the body, while asking what forms of presence remain possible within structures designed to classify and define us.

Visit this week before the exhibition closes at the Mahon Hall Stage.

07/04/2026

Join us this Sunday for an Artist Talk with Jeannette Sirois, whose exhibition At the Table: The Architecture of Control is now on view at Mahon Hall.

This large-scale portrait installation brings together monumental drawing, text, and installation to examine the legal, medical, bureaucratic, and religious systems through which q***r and trans lives have been administered, classified, and governed. The talk offers an opportunity to spend time with the work and hear directly from the artist.

🎤 Artist Talk
Sunday, July 5 | 2–3 PM
Mahon Hall Stage

At the Table: The Architecture of Control runs July 3–27 as part of the Artcraft Showcase Exhibition series.

This exhibition is generously sponsored by Gail Jaeger Architect

And thank you to our season sponsors: Saltspring Country Grocer, Driftwood News, Voyage Liquor Merchants, and Windsor Plywood Salt Spring
CanadianArt ContemporaryArt Portraiture 2SLGBTQIA ArtExhibition

Address

114 Rainbow Road
Salt Spring Island, BC
V8K2V5

Website

http://www.saltspringarts.com/

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