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Mini art exhibit will be an ode to downtown

Local artist Sue Peters loves Sudbury's downtown, so much so that this past May, she sold her Copper Cliff home, and moved into a studio apartment on Durham Street, where she's closer to the city's burgeoning arts scene.
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Myths and Mirrors artistic director Sarah King Gold at the spot on Durham Street where a mini art exhibit honouring the city's downtown will soon be. Photo by Heidi Ulrichsen.
Local artist Sue Peters loves Sudbury's downtown, so much so that this past May, she sold her Copper Cliff home, and moved into a studio apartment on Durham Street, where she's closer to the city's burgeoning arts scene.

Because her new apartment is across the road from Myths and Mirrors Community Arts, Peters couldn't help but notice the organization's mini art exchange, installed last November in an outside cabinet, across from the YMCA.

People are invited to take a piece of art from one of eight cubbyholes in the cabinet, and replace it with something they've made.

Peters got in contact with Myths and Mirrors, and asked if she might borrow the cabinet and transform it in honour of Up Fest, which takes place in the city's downtown Aug. 13-15.

The cabinet has now been temporarily removed as Peters works on it.

Given her fondness for downtown Sudbury — and to honour Up Fest organizers Andrew Knapp and Christian Pelletier, also the creators of the “We Live Up Here” Sudbury pride project — she's chosen the theme “why I love downtown.”

Each of the cabinet's cubbyholes will be painted and house objects symbolizing different aspects of the city's downtown.

One of the spaces will be an ode to the Elgin Street Mission, which cares for the city's most disadvantaged citizens.

A long-time volunteer at the organization, Peters said she loves the clients there. One of the people she's met is a deaf man named Paul.

“I have a small piece of writing I got from him,” she said. “I'll probably mount that in the centre of one particular block and do a painting in the background around the sides of the walls that symbolize Paul.”

Another space will feature the downtown's trains.

“I love the sounds of them — the screeching, the noise, the clanking,” Peters said. “It's just a very downtown feel. I love the graffiti on them. I'll have graffiti painted on the inside of this room.”

She said she hopes the mini exhibit helps people appreciate the good in the city's downtown.

“It's starting to become something fantastic,” Peters said.

“The arts scene is really exploding. I really wanted to be part of that, hence the move downtown. I hope that I can help people understand why I love downtown, and maybe they can agree, to some extent, and maybe they can get a different perspective on what's down there.”

The mini art exchange has been popular since it was installed last year, said Myths and Mirrors artistic director Sarah King Gold.

The partnership with Peters brings the project to a different level. While the cabinet will revert to its original purpose after Up Fest, King Gold said there's a possibility of working with other artists in the future.

“It's good to kind of change it up a little bit and use the space in a different way,” she said.

Learn more at mythsandmirrors.org.

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Heidi Ulrichsen

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