Last year I was pretty casual about taking pictures around Spectrum, but this year I thought it would be nice to be a bit more thorough - especially because I've had a lot of interest in my images of downtown Medicine Hat as of late (take our Thinking Hat exhibit for example). I was out on both Saturday and Sunday to catch some of the activities on 1st Street and in Riverside Park. Despite a bit of rain, there were lots of energetic and enthusiastic people out enjoying the festival - myself included.
Ideas swirled for months about what might be next for Thinking Hat, the photography and design-fueled exhibit about Medicine Hat's downtown that SPECTACLE and I collaborated on last fall. After a stint at the public library, all of the panels moved into storage at City Hall where they stayed until yesterday. Leading up to Spectrum on Friday, we were asked if we wanted to display our exhibit in the storefront windows of the former Centennial Stationers (currently unoccupied) on 2nd Street in downtown Medicine Hat. Naturally, we thought that sounded great!
With Phil and Jessie (of SPECTACLE) in Calgary, the task came to me to organize the display and get things set up (thankfully Brandy from City Hall was able to help out too). It actually took surprisingly little time, and I was really pleased that almost the entire exhibit fit in the windows. The only thing omitted was the Beveridge Block material, and that seemed like an obvious choice seeing as the building (fittingly where our exhibition debuted) is already under renovation now.
Thinking Hat, our celebration of Medicine Hat's downtown history and the potential for its future, should be up for several weeks in this location. I even cleaned the outside of the windows so the artwork and designs would really pop.
What more can I say? Have a look if you come down for Spectrum, or take a glance at the display while heading to the Monarch Theatre (it's right next door). We hope Thinking Hat will open your eyes to the history that's worth preserving in our downtown, and how a few fresh ideas could bring the energy back.
