Community Picnic & Stitchers Celebration
Saturday May 24, 11:30am-6:30pm
Drop-in community artmaking for the Delhi Pageant 11:30-4:30; Society of Stitchers picnic 4:30-6:30. Join us for the unveiling of this year's SOS embroidery project, bring your picnic blankets and food, we'll provide the music and good vibes. All are welcome.
WHEN: Saturday May 24, 11:30-6:30 (picnic: 4:30-6:30pm)
WHERE: Delhi Park, Picton - to the east of the dog park
Society of Stitchers Celebration! Community Gardens Flag Making & Community Picnic!
Saturday May 31, 11:30am-6:30pm
Drop in and help us make bunting (flags) for the Community Garden from 1-4:30; Society of Stitchers picnic from 4:30-6:30 (Stitchers please arrive at 4). Join us for the unveiling of this year's SOS embroidery project, bring your picnic blankets and food. The County Strings, cellist Amber Walton-Amar and violinist Jenna Gallagher, will be playing music for our enjoyment. All are welcome.
WHEN: Saturday May 31, 11:30-6:30 (picnic: 4:30-6:30pm)
WHERE: Delhi Park, Picton - to the east of the dog park
Mushroom Appreciation Day & Community Picnic
Saturday June 7, 11:30am-6:30pm ~ with Feral Folc
Join Feral Folc for an afternoon of Mushroom Appreciation and art-making, 1-4:30 PM. Community picnic 4:30-6:30, bring your picnic blankets and food, Pierre Bouchard and his drumming group will be creating a Tam-Tam style improvised drumming experience, please bring a drum or shaker if you have one you can bring. We will also have some extra drums available from the Picton Library Musical Instrument Lending Library (MILL), for those of you without a drum that wish to join in! All are welcome.
WHEN: Saturday June 7, 11:30-6:30 (picnic: 4:30-6:30pm)
WHERE: Delhi Park, Picton - to the east of the dog park
PECFN Day, Game of Shrooms & Community Picnic
Saturday June 14, 11:30am-6:30pm
PECFN Day: Join the Prince Edward County Field Naturalists for a day of free nature programming! 11-12 AM nature walk, 1 PM turtle talk, 3:00 nature square check-in, 6:45 chimney swift presentation, 7:30 chimney swift walk.
Game of Shrooms! Hide your mushroom-themed artwork in Delhi Park and be a part of the worldwide scavenger hunt! Please read the FAQ's on their website.
Community picnic 4:30-6:30, bring your picnic blankets and food. DJ Ombudsman will be spinning instrumental dub reggae from 4:30-5:30 and acclaimed multi-instrumentalist Matthew “Doc” Dunn will be playing a set from 5:30-6:30. All are welcome.
WHEN: Saturday June 14, 11:00-7:30 (picnic: 4:30-6:30pm)
WHERE: Delhi Park, Picton - across from the community gardens; if driving, use Lalor St entrance.
Monarch Day & Community Picnic
Saturday July 26, 11:30am-6:30pm ~ with SSJI
Join us for South Shore Joint Initiative's Monarch Day! Community picnic 4:30-6:30, bring your picnic blankets and food, DJ Sonja Scharf will be spinning tunes from 4:30-6:30 for our enjoyment. All are welcome.
WHEN: Saturday July 26, 11:30-6:30 (picnic: 4:30-6:30pm)
WHERE: Delhi Park, Picton - to the east of the dog park
Birdbone Theatre's Broom Dance
The DOI presents Broom Dance, shadow puppets with live music and song.
WHEN: Friday May 30, doors at 7 PM, show at 7:30
WHERE: DOI Studio, lower level of The Armoury, 206 Main St, Picton
TICKETS: $20 available HERE!
After the recent ice storm cancelled their March performance, we're delighted to welcome our friends Birdbone Theatre back to Picton for an intimate shadow puppetry performance of Broom Dance, joined by their partner in song and musical magic Ekaterina.
Broom Dance is a shadow puppet show for winter and winter witches. It is a shadow song for the threshold, for the liminal place between light and dark, between house and the howling wild. A luminous bow of song and cut paper to the wild dark and winter night.
The shadow play will be followed with lively music by Chanter la Pomme, a duo whose accordion and hurdy gurdy welcomes the tapping of toes and the dancing of feet!
Join us for an evening of puppetry, Slavic polyphony, hurdy gurdy and some sage crones to help you to make some sense of these wild days.
Public Art
We love creating art in public spaces. Available for hire.
We love creating art in public spaces - whether that’s painting murals or picnic tables, decorating our town Christmas tree, or animating public spaces with our giant puppets or projects like Boxtopia (a creative cardboard kingdom for kids). Get in touch if you’d like to know more!
Boxtopia
A creative cardboard kingdom for kids and adults alike!
Boxtopia is our creative cardboard kingdom for kids! We show up with as many cardboard boxes as we can get our hands on and a whole bunch of art supplies, and we help kids create their dream box forts!
We do this project several times a year, often bringing Boxtopia to festivals or other special events. Boxtopia can be themed (ie: farm, pirates, circus) or just pure fun and imagination. Contact us if you want us to bring the magic of Boxtopia to your special event! Fun fact - adults love it, too!
MAKE A LANTERN
Making a lantern is fun and creative, and is suitable for most ages and skill levels
Join us in our studio for a lantern-making workshop! Making a lantern is fun and creative, and is suitable for most ages and skill levels, although younger ones will need assistance. Your lantern can be as simple or as complex as you wish, but it’s best to budget at least a few hours’ time to make one. No need to pre-register, just drop in when you wish!
We are located in the lower level of The Armoury, 206 Main St, Picton, all the way at the end of the hall. Please park on Main Street or the Mary Street parking lot.
The price is $15 per lantern and we’ll provide you with all materials and instruction. You can also buy a lantern kit from us if you’d like to make one at home.
Can’t make it to a workshop? Maybe you’re coming from out of town? We’ve made some tutorials below so you can make a lantern at home with readily-available materials. There are lots of other types of lanterns, too - the only kind we don’t like are sky lanterns - they are polluting and a fire hazard.
Make sure to display your lantern in the lantern gallery when you arrive at the Crystal Palace!
10 x 10 Art Show
The biggest show of small art in The County!
It’s the biggest show of small art in The County!
This event is a fundraiser for The Department of Illumination, a not-for-profit arts organization.
All works are for sale for $110 + HST.
We’ve had three years of our wild and wonderful 10 x 10 Art Show, from 2022 to 2024.
Watch this space for news about our 2025 edition - or event better, sign up for our newsletter to make sure you don’t miss the announcement!
Nuit Blanche North
A Huntsville festival that loves puppets and lanterns!
Last night was our third time participating in Nuit Blanche North, and wow! Krista & Susanne had a blast! It was a beautiful thing to watch people interact with our illuminated outdoor installation, “Co-habitation;” we also did two giant puppet processions, first with our pal Richard Underhill and the Rider Raiders, then with our new friends, Shout the band. Plus we saw all sorts of cool art and My Son the Hurricane blew our minds with all of their everything! Massive thanks to Huntsville Festival for the Arts and Dan Watson & crew for putting on a really special festival.
Craftivism
Workshops were co-hosted by: Nella Casson and Bill Stearman, creating a series of large fabric banners with activist themes.
Craftivism was a free workshop series in winter 2024, with facilitator fees funded by County Arts.
Taking place at The Department of Illumination Studio, we created a series of large fabric banners with activist themes. Workshops were co-hosted by lead artist Nell Casson and supported by Bill Stearman, longtime activist and award-winning quilter. Each banner highlights causes chosen by the participants. The banners were created using a variety of media and techniques.
Scarecrow Festival
A fun group activity building functional scarecrows from old clothes, straw and imagination.
Thanksgiving Weekend! {{ A fall event dedicated to making scarecrows. A fun group activity building functional scarecrows from old clothes, straw and imagination. Thank you to our sponsors for supporting us with materials for many years. }}
After 13 years of hosting Prince Edward County’s annual Scarecrow Festival, we have passed the torch to our friends at North Fire Circus for the 2024 event which will be happening at Macaulay Museum with proceeds supporting their production The Witches. To the countless people who attended and supported the Scarecrow Festival while it was in our care, thank you for the all years of fall fun, and we hope you will continue to support this community event.
Night Watch at Base31
Our biggest and brightest illuminated adventure to date.
Night Watch was The Department of Illumination’s biggest and brightest project to date: an illuminated adventure at Base31!
After nightfall, visitors could transport themselves into the nighttime world of illuminated spectacle. Equipped with a magical lantern, they would embark on a journey through 10 immersive exhibits brought to life with dynamic lighting, spectacular video projections and a soundscape for adventure.
This one-of-a-kind experience ran for two seasons, 2023 & 2024.
ALL ABOARD
A Port Hope artist residency, working with the community to create a tiny cardboard version of itself.
In September 2022 Krista Dalby and Nella Casson did a month-long artist residency at Critical Mass Art: Port Hope, working with the community to create a tiny cardboard version of itself! It was such a special project, and we are so grateful to Critical Mass for the opportunity, as well as support from The Prince Edward County Arts Council and VIA Rail Canada. Thanks to Two Blue Shirts Productions for this sweet video!
Alvar
A festival celebrating this unique and precious ecosystem of the Great Lakes region.
AN ECOLOGICALLY-INSPIRED ARTS FESTIVAL
In August 2022, The Department of Illumination presented ALVAR, a festival celebrating this unique and precious ecosystem of the Great Lakes region. We held sunrise dance parties, created eco-inspired art and activities, presented live music & finished up with some secret popsicles.
Artists: Nella Casson, Krista Dalby, Andrea Piller, Chrissy Poitras, Victoria Taylor | VTLA Studio, Kyle Topping, Bay Woodyard. Music: Teilhard Frost and Roper & Roper. Dance: Arwyn Carpenter Hands-on nature exploration: Cheryl Chapman of NatureHood-PEPtBO. Bead talk: Moira Gaddes
Funded by the Government of Canada
Venue Sponsor
Hands-on Nature Exploration courtesy of
WILD THING: a celebration of biodiversity
Bringing together the arts and sciences to create a delightful celebration of the natural world around us.
In 2022 we partnered with South Shore Joint Initiative to bring together the arts and sciences to create a delightful celebration of the natural world around us. We ran a series of school workshops where children learned about local species and created artistic interpretations; we hosted The Society of Stitchers, an embroidery club that collaboratively created a quilt of at-risk local species, and then we had a public celebration in Picton’s Benson Park with live music from KASHKA and That’s What She Said, crafts, the unveiling of our biodiversity quilt and a community procession.
THANK YOU TO OUR SPONSORS
Join our HERD!
Transform your bodies and bicycles into a joyful herd of beasts! We set off in a parade along the Millennium Trail, in PEC.
In September 2021 we hosted two events called Join our HERD! that took place in Picton and Consecon.
We invited the community to transform their bodies and bicycles into a joyful herd of beasts. We set off in a parade along the Millennium Trail, encountering a few surprises along the way, and culminating in a HERD celebration with live music, food and drink.
Presented by ====\\DeRAIL, Join our HERD! provided a much-needed expression of joy and playfulness, while raising awareness of the County’s histories, ecologies and the varied landscapes adjacent to the Millennium Trail. Where time is something to be considered rather than counted, the public was invited to add their own layer of meaning to this heritage landscape beyond its functional use as a recreation corridor. This initiative explored the untapped potential of the trail as a venue for artistic expression.
THANK YOU TO OUR PARTNERS + SUPPORTERS
The County of Prince Edward, Tourism Industry Association of Ontario, The County Foundation, Briarwood Development Group, Sarah Crawford + David Kirkwood, PEC Trails Committee, Ontario Provincial Police – Prince Edward County, Consecon Honey House Café, Parsons Brewing Company, Elizabeth Crombie, Noble Beast Farms, Prince Edward County Arts Council, Ameliasburgh Councillor Bill McMahon, Hillier Councillor Ernest Margetson, Picton Farm Supply, The Wellington Times, Picton Gazette, Watershed Magazine and Life Au Lait.
PLASTIC BITES BACK
Part of a water parade; Art that addresses the topic of plastic pollution.
The Department of Illumination was commissioned by Kingston’s Calliope Collective to create a float for HYDRA, a pilot project that took place in June 2021 in the waters adjacent Douglas Fluhrer Park. Designed as a ‘water parade,’ the overall theme of the event was water, and The DOI was asked to address the topic of plastic pollution. We wanted to create something beautiful while at the same time addressing the pervasiveness of plastic pollution in our waterways. The resulting work is a 13-foot rather menacing fish with gnashing jaws entitled Plastic Bites Back.
For six months we solicited our community to bring us their plastic recycling, and we collected more than 200 laundry detergent and water jugs which were painstakingly cut into fish scales. Lead artists Krista Dalby and Nella Casson constructed a lightweight frame out of cane, bamboo and wood, and then covered it in the plastic scales.
In June 2023 we participated in the next evolution of HYDRA: The Spirit of Water. More than 30 artists came together to contribute a dozen art pieces/performances which collectively told a story on water at Kingston Mill Locks.
Ice Box
A magical winter wonderland filled with art, music, dancing, installations and surprises galore. PLUS concerts, workshops, snow dances and cozy campfires!
ICE BOX was a winter festival that we held in 2019 and 2020 on the grounds of Macaulay Heritage Park. It was a magical winter wonderland filled with art, music, dancing and surprises galore, featuring five all-new art installations each year, plus concerts, workshops, snow dances and cozy campfires, all in a charming picture-perfect setting. In 2021, due to the pandemic, we offered an at-home version of the festival.
With so much programming going in collaboration with so many wonderful artists in each Ice Box event, we have a LOT of amazing memories!
