Visitors get a chance to make stain glass art at Saskatoon show

The 34th edition of the Saskatoon Glassworkers’ Guild art show was held in person for the first time since 2020.

Guild president Betty Gibbon says the pandemic shutdown forced them to cancel their streak of yearly art shows, but they found a silver lining in the lockdown.

“When you’re an artist, being by yourself isn’t always a bad thing,” said Gibbon. “But in order to learn and have some camaraderie, we figured out Zoom, which the whole world had to.”

The Guild met regularly during the pandemic via Zoom, but in order to stay connected and break up the boredom of lockdowns and restrictions, they did group projects based around COVID-19 themes.

The first year, the theme was "together but apart" and the second year was "keeping it together," a reference to the mental health toll of the pandemic. 

“Each of us received the same package of glass and then we went off for three months and created different things from it,” Gibbon told CTV News. “And when we came back together to look at it, the diversity in what we came back with was just crazy.”

Hundreds of art pieces and interactive demonstrations were on display at Innovation Place over the weekend for visitors to view and bid on artwork in a silent auction.

A popular attraction for kids and visitors included an interactive stain glass template for people to arrange, cut and glue pieces to make art. Gibbon says the finished piece will be put on display at the next art show.

Stained glass panels on display at the 2022 Glassworkers' Guild art show.While the Guild has hosted art shows for 34 years, the club itself has been around for more than 40. One of the original members, Bill Popiel says membership has stayed fairly consistent between 35 and 55 people.

Popiel encourages and welcomes newcomers to the Guild, as a constant supply of fresh ideas and perspectives makes everyone better artists. Proof of fresh ideas evolving the club is evident to Popiel as the medium artists work with has changed.

“When we had our first shows here, basically all the windows in this place, almost the whole way around had stained glass panels in them,” Popiel told CTV News. 

The Saskatoon Glassworkers’ Guild usually holds its annual art shows in the spring, but the 2022 art show was moved to the end of September. Gibbon says they plan to return to their more normal schedule of holding the next art show in the spring.