Bowman Arts Centre gallery program curator Darcy Logan is excited about  the second installment of  Documentaries on Contemporary Art, which begins Monday, Jan. 11.  This year’s theme and  title is ‘ Collectives, concepts and culture.
“ The intent of the program is to  expose  artists in the community  to broaden  their knowledge of trends in art,” said Logan who spends a good part of the year researching and obtaining the rights to numerous films  about art techniques, mediums, concepts, styles and trends. The films will be shown in the Bowman Art Gallery music room every Monday until March 29 at 7 p.m. each night.
 This year’s series begins  Jan 11 with two films — ‘The Eye: Antony Gormley’ about the internationally acclaimed  sculptor who is known for  ‘Angel of the North’ and the  ‘Eye: Chris Ofli’ which is about the artist “Within Reach’ for the British Pavilion at the Venice Biennale which  combines a cycle of paintings depicting lovers  in a Paradise like garden in a shimmering glass dome.)
“ Most of them are about contemporary art. Some of them are movements which set the stage for contemporary art,” Logan continued.

The University of Lethbridge’s  literary arts magazine Whetstone  returns  this spring after a 10 year hiatus.
Originally formed in 1971 by a cadre of  university professors, writers and poets to support  the literary arts, it closed its doors in 1999.
“Professor Dr. Jay Gamble actually  approached  the university’s creative writing association  if there was interest in bringing it back,”  said managing editor  Rylan Spendroth, who said approximately 25 people came to a meeting about resurrecting the magazine.
“We didn’t know if we were going to  bring back Whetstone or of we were going to start a brand new literary magazine,” he said during the official relaunch party at Henotic, Dec. 12, which featured a handful of  of potential  contributors reading their  selections of prose and poetry as well as  the music of Jesse and the Dandelions and Jordan Clermont.

When art meets music, the result is  the Phonoréalistes, aka local ukulele wielding folk duo, the Cedar Tavern Singers.
Mary-Anne McTrowe and Daniel Wong have been playing  their unusual brand of  folk music  inspired directly by the University of Lethbridge Art Gallery and its extensive art collection since 2006.
“We don’t just write about the art gallery,” Wong said.
“We also write about the Arthur Erickson  building and sculptures on campus,” McTrowe added, noting the Canadian architect who designed the university provides very inspirational  subject matter.
“And the university collection is well known across Canada, just not  as well known in Lethbridge. We just wanted to bring the people behind the scenes a little bit,” she continued adding she became interested in the collection while earning her  BFA  back in 1998. Wong earned his BFA in 2003 and shared her enthusiasm.
Canadian Artist Sorel Etrog’s  Expo ’67 attraction, Sculpture of Moses, located in the foyer of the fine arts building,  and one of the subjects of their 2009 EP “Mandate For Research,” inspired the duo.
It was built in 1967 and came to the University of Lethbridge in 1968.
“The base started to crawl and there was the danger that it could fall. In 2003 it started to shift,” McTrowe added.
The duo were asked to write a few songs about the University of Lethbridge Art Gallery.
“I wanted to learn an instrument   none of my friends were playing, so I chose the ukulele,” McTrowe said, adding the pair use a variety of non-traditional instruments like glockenspiel, tambourine and  washboard.