Since 2018, Skeleton Park Arts Festival has been installing poetry and literature on the boards in the park surrounding the ice rinks that are installed every winter. We see the boards as a blank canvas; an opportunity to exhibit and share the arts with every visitor who uses the park.
2021 – Richard Wagamese, Indian Horse (an excerpt)
Lettering: Floriana Ehninger-Cuervo (http://colourfulcrowstudio.com/)
Armand Garnet Ruffo reads the excerpt from Richard Wagamese’s Indian Horse featured on the hockey rink boards at McBurney Park, February 2021. Skating by Alex Macfarlane Ruffo, Carol Ann Budd, and Greg Tilson. Lettering by Floriana Ehninger-Cuervo. Video by Josh Lyon.
Richard Wagamese (October 14, 1955 – March 10, 2017) was an Ojibway author and journalist from the Wabaseemoong Independent Nations . He was best known for his 2012 novel Indian Horse, which won the Burt Award for First Nations, Métis and Inuit Literature in 2013, and was adapted into a 2017 feature length film, Indian Horse, released after his death.
2020 – Al Purdy, Hockey Players
Al Purdy was born December 30, 1918 and died on April 21, 2000. His collections included two winners of the Governor General’s Award, Cariboo Horses (1965) and Collected Poems (1986) and other classics such as Poems for All the Annettes, In Search of Owen Roblin and Piling Blood. In addition to his thirty-three books of poetry, he published a novel, an autobiography and nine collections of essays and correspondence. He was appointed to the Order of Canada in 1983 and the Order of Ontario in 1987.
2019 – Olivia Ows, Sunrise On The Ice
Olivia Ows was in Grade 11 at Regiopolis-Notre Dame at the time of installation. The previous year she won 1st prize at the school’s annual poetry contest. She also earned the Junior Visual Art Award at CAPPA (Creative and Practical Performing Arts) at RND.
2018 – Steven Heighton, Night Skaters
Steven Heighton is a local poet who has lived in the Skeleton Park neighbourhood for over 20 years. His most recent books are the Governor General’s Award-winning poetry collection The Waking Comes Late and a novel, The Nightingale Won’t Let You Sleep. Heighton is also a fiction reviewer for the New York Times Book Review.
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