Let’s Tell Stories Together

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"Patrick Royle and Maya Rosenberg"

Photos courtesy of YAAW.

Yukon Artists at Work (YAAW) is planning a special series of Artist in the Window mini-residencies as part of the Yukon 125 celebrations. YAAW is also marking an anniversary this year: its 20th year as an organization. It is planning an exhibition at the Yukon Arts Centre to open November 30th and these Artist in the Window residencies will help collect stories about the organization that can then be told as part of the art show. 

Starting this week, YAAW will host present and past members who will each do a one-week mini-residency in the organization’s gallery window at 4th Avenue and Wood Street in Whitehorse. Artists will demonstrate their work in a hands-on way that pertains to Yukon history and art history, and will discuss their involvement in YAAW with visitors to the gallery. 

"We will have a table set up with a timeline of our organization’s history, some of the posters and press around YAAW’s activities as prompts for storytelling, and places to add notes,” said YAAW chair Nicole Bauberger.“This will benefit the upcoming exhibition at the Yukon Arts Centre, give locals a chance to add their stories to our exhibition, and give visitors a sense of the history of this artist-run gallery that has played an important role in the growth of our currently teeming arts ecosystem.”

You will find the artists in the window between 2 and 4 pm at least 4 of the 5 days of their assigned week. 

Patrick Royle will start off the series. He’ll be in the gallery the week of July 18th, working on his Yukon wildflowers series that includes impressions in tiles and panels as well as his iconic fireweed line.  

The week of July 25th Maya Rosenberg, a newer YAAW member, will be creating small watercolours that depict local icons and nature, and Yukon life. 

The first week of August, Leslie Leong, a longtime YAAW member who was one of the people instrumental in our move downtown, will reach back into her personal art history to undertake a series of detailed illustration-style drawings. 

Harreson Tanner, one of the founding members of YAAW, will be in the window the week of August 8th, working on a commemorative bust of Yukon icon Jim Robb.

Mid-August, Marie-Hélène Comeau will create a large study of a house that used to stand on Wood St. in Whitehorse and which only exists today in memory. This is part of her series of paintings of Whitehorse’s old houses that she has been working on since 2020. 

Finally, the week of August 22nd, Lillian Loponen will be in our window, going back to her artistic roots by working on some ice fog watercolours…something she did when she started out with YAAW in 2003. Lillian was a member of YAAW for many, many years and has wonderful memories of the events that the organization has been involved in over the past two decades.