In our era of images, this piece should consist mainly of pictures. Yet research suggests that print remains the best way to transfer information and ideas, so only some images are provided.
Photography
With high-quality lenses built into cellphone cameras, many photographers have added this technology to their arsenal of equipment. Sudbury photographers are no exception, as images are produced, edited and shared widely using various systems: cellphones, digital cameras and film.
Local photographers may be members of three regional photography clubs. The Sudbury Shutterbugs meet at the Parkside Centre (in the YMCA), on the first and third Wednesdays of each month to share knowledge and discuss images. Valley East Shutterbugs meet monthly at the Valley East Branch, Sudbury Public Library, second Monday of the month. Both clubs also have Facebook pages displaying members' work and other photography information.
Sudbury Photography Club operates only on Facebook where membership is by request. Film photography enthusiasts can check out Cafe Obscura, a film and camera store on Kathleen Street.
Many members of the above groups have entered local, national and international competitions in which some have placed well. They also share their work in local art exhibitions. Each year the Sudbury Arts Council holds a photography competition on a Sudbury-related theme. Winning participants receive an honorarium and publication in a calendar produced by Journal Printing as a souvenir for their customers.
Among the professional Sudbury photographers who made their living from the craft, the late Karl Sommerer, a Cambrian College instructor, was probably Sudbury’s most recognized. Other professionals include Ray Thoms, Tony Galic, Don Johnston, Nick Dubecki, Jon Butler and Kathy Browning.
They and other accomplished photographers show their work through social media and organizations such as Northern Artists Gallery, Place des Arts, Sudbury Paint and Custom Framing.
Sculpture and Memorials
Previously in this media, I wrote a piece on monuments in Sudbury including the problematic issues involved with some of them. Hence, I will not repeat the details but summarize those significant from an arts perspective.
Sculpting in stone or metal is done by few, mostly as a hobby using soapstone with some sold at the Art Gallery of Sudbury and smaller galleries.
By contrast, Tyler Fauvelle has dedicated his life to creating metal sculptures. He may be best known with his rendition of Stompin’ Tom Connors in front of the Sudbury arena. Fauvelle also created the otter on the hiking path that starts behind the Lasalle cemetery.
He has become known nationally and internationally through his commissioned works on historical themes.
A few other sculptures enhance Sudbury, including one often wrongly identified with the Theatre Centre next to which it stands. In fact, the metal cut outs of “the Spirit of ’83” were created by Colette Whiten to represent and to honour the city’s early founders. The Chamber of Commerce financed it for the city’s centennial in 1983.
Near Ramsay Lake, a very different but notable large sculpture has two hands reaching up from the ground symbolizing the source of local wealth. That sculpture by Timothy P. Schmalz tries to show the interrelated parts of our community while acknowledging mining as the basis of our economic livelihood.
Though an artistic masterpiece, it is oddly placed in Bell Park near Ramsay Lake where no mining took place. Public donations financed it. Completion was delayed because of the controversy whether the names of individuals who died working the mines and smelters should be included as was done on monuments at Elliott Lake and Kirkland Lake.
Approaching sculpture in a different way is Will Morin whose “inunnguaq” sculpture (often mistakenly called an “inukshuk”) divides the street near the iconic flatiron building at Elgin and Durham. He mostly uses and reuses cast off materials, recycling them into artistic statements about our wasteful society and sometimes Indigenous issues.
One is at the top of stairs at Marymount and one at the start of the trail near the Royal Bank on Lasalle.
Recently Shayla Shawongonabe, a student at Sudbury Secondary School, designed and helped create a wood and metal sculpture at the entrance to that school. Its form and content represent the strength in unity of black, Indigenous and people of colour.
Similar to every Canadian community, Sudbury has monuments to the participants and deceased of the country’s wars.
In front of the courthouse stands one originally dedicated to those who fought in the First World War. In Memorial Park are a variety of monuments recognizing contributions by the naval forces as well as the armed forces in general.
Public Art and Murals
Our city has joined many others in becoming much more colourful through wall murals, or painting everything from electrical transformers to a decrepit former hospital building.
The latter occurred with much hype about being the largest ever done though now is a decaying eyesore. Some hundred murals and paintings are viewable throughout the city. Though they lack unity or any dominant theme, they have improved our cityscape and made us see it differently.
The Up Here Festival has contributed the majority of Sudbury’s murals since 2013. The unveiling of new ones is often timed with the festival in mid-August. The festival has usually brought artists from elsewhere to create its images.
Up Here has an informative, chronologically organized website where all their murals can be viewed. In addition, the organization usually offers two explanatory walking tours of the images during summer. The paint supplier, Barrydowne Paint and Wallpaper, and the festival recently won an award for their civic contribution.
One prolific local creator of wall paintings and murals is Monique Legault. Among her many contributions, she has decorated the railway pedestrian underpass on Elgin with historic themes honouring Indigenous origins and the art of Oryst Sawchuck.
One of her murals has highlighted the books sold by Bay Used Books, one enhances a Food Basics store on Notre Dame, another added fall colours to a formerly drab building at the A.Y. Jackson falls lookout north of Chelmsford and yet another commemorates the rail town of Capreol.
Though artistic expression in the above forms is well represented in Sudbury, it is most prevalent in the downtown area, aside from the work of Monique Legault, though the outlying towns and villages amalgamated into the Greater City are no less deserving of colour and aesthetics. Perhaps that will be corrected as this new public art form develops over the next decade.
Dr. Dieter K. Buse is professor emeritus, History, Laurentian University, and a failed trumpet and banjo player. He is writing a series of columns on local culture and history on behalf of the Sudbury Arts Council.