Peterborough's Music & Arts Scene Rocks (Exhibit A: Bear Trees)

Bear Trees are a new local pop band, spreading their collective wings across the local music scene. The band is lead by Mike Duguay, a multifaceted scenester who seems to display an unending energy to explore all facets of his creativity. On any given night, you might find him and his band opening for any number of touring musical acts passing through town. Then again, you might find him taking the stage for a play or performance piece as part of a local, improvised theatre troop.

It’s people like Mike Duguay, and projects like Bear Trees, which are forever springing out of the local arts scene. The lush arts community we are blessed to witness here in Peterborough on a daily basis would be nothing without people like Duguay and dozens just like him.

This town is ripe with folks wanting to collaborate, organize, promote and spread the gospel of the talented folks who create here. Peterborough's vibrant arts scene is a known calling card across this country. This town has long been a draw for artists of all disciplines, bringing great music, leading edge visuals and dynamic performance to venues across the city.

Renowned painter David Bierk and a team of like minds put Peterborough on the visual arts map when they initiated Artspace in the mid-seventies. Artspace was and remains a cutting edge nest of creativity where local and touring visual ideas brew. Recently, the much lauded debut album by roots-centric band Evening Hymns was born from a series of recording sessions within those same art covered walls.

You needn’t look very hard to discover music in this town. The Peterborough Symphony Orchestra, choral groups, and singer-songwriters alongside punk and metal bands carry on a thriving existence here. Welcoming venues are peppered throughout the city, hosting live music on a nightly basis.

It’s this tangible, communal, supportive nature which benefits both the artists and performers as well as the audiences who have witnessed the spoils of this for decades.

--Jeffrey Macklin, PtboCanada contributor

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The Clock is Still Right, Twice a Day

While renovation continues on Market Hall (reopening in March 2011), one of Peterborough's most iconic landmarks is stuck in time.

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Peterborough's The Spades Rock. Just Sayin'

And they're playing the Historic Red Dog this Saturday! Bring it.

[The Spades website; The Spades on twitter; The Historic Red Dog]

[Related: The Spades lucky to survive latest road tour]

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Peterborough's Art Supply Stores (We Are Pretty Lucky To Have Some Gems)

I must confess to being a bit of a sucker for an art supply store. When I was a kid, growing up in Peterborough, I wasn't aware of any art supply stores. In those days, you picked up "art supplies" at Towers on Lansdowne Street. They were hardly art supplies as you might think of them, but to me, being 10 years old, I guess they fit the bill. Construction paper, scissors, bottles of glue with the red rubber squishy top—they were all readily available.

When I left Peterborough to go to art school in Toronto, that is when I discovered what a real art supply store could be. While the college where I went to school had some art supplies, they had nothing on Curry's, downtown on Yonge Street in Toronto. Walls of tactile papers, markers, paints and pencils, all taunting money from my pocket. In the years that followed, I found stores like Gwartzman's on Spadina and Aboveground Art Supplies that seemed to have a impossibly comprehensive selection.

These days, here in Peterborough, we are pretty lucky. Things have changed. We have more than department stores now as a resource when it comes to art supplies. If I suddenly run out of Yellow Ochre oil paint, lino-block or those nice small bottles of black india ink, I’ve got choices. Sure, I could go to Michael's on Lansdowne—they've pretty much got anything you might be looking for. But the ambiance is not really in keeping with the artsy feel I’d become used to. I like to go where like minds meet.

The Blue Tomato Art Shop on Hunter Street has art supplies. They also have gallery space, where they show and sell local art. Finding art treasures alongside lino-block and a lovely selection of Japanese paper makes for a nice experience. There is a gallery upstairs, too, which pretty much demands a visit. Local art is a top priority at the Blue Tomato.

Victory Art Supply, located in the Cox Terrace on Rubidge Street, has most anything you will need, sans the gallery space of the Blue Tomato. Here you will find a compact space, filled with everything from ready stretched canvases to fine pencils, and a wide selection of watercolour papers and frames. While the space is not large, there is still a lot of poking around to be had, which is all part of the fun.

If I were a young artist growing up in Peterborough, the resources are aplenty for creating and experiencing visual art. Make it.

—Jeffrey Macklin, PtboCanada contributor

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