NEWS RELEASE
SUSTAINABLE ORILLIA
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The student pieces of art chosen for Sustainable Orillia’s 2025 Ontario Species Need Your Help calendar will be on display at Molly Farquharson’s Hibernation Arts studio on Peter Street South from Wednesday, Sept. 4 until Friday, Sept. 27.
The pieces focus primarily on species that are at risk in Ontario. The 2024 contest asked students to consult the Ontario government list and to pick one or more of the 180 species whose very existence, in some cases, is threatened here in Ontario. The show at Hibernation Arts will feature some well-known species — the monarch butterfly, the red-headed woodpeckers, the massasauga rattlesnake, for example — but you’ll also see the Canada warbler, the grey fox, the nine-spotted lady beetle and the many others chosen by the students. You’ll not only learn about these species and the Ontario environment; you’ll marvel, at the same time, at the exuberant ability of the young student artists.
Sustainable Orillia is very proud of the local student participation in the 2024 Student Art Contest. Three hundred 19 entries were submitted from several area elementary schools and the three high schools. Cash prizes were presented to those students whose work was chosen as contest winners to be featured in the 2025 Sustainable Orillia calendar — appropriately titled Ontario Species Need Your Help.
Twelve of the entries grace the pages of Sustainable Orillia’s 2025 calendar, while six more are used to illustrate other pages in the calendar, including the cover. Copies of the calendar will be on sale at Hibernation Arts during the three weeks of the show. Price is just $10. You won’t want to miss having one of these colourful calendars to hang in your home or office as a reminder of what’s at stake in Ontario’s natural world.
The September Student Art Show will feature the top pieces and, for each piece, identify the student artist’s name, grade and school. A brief comment by the artist will accompany each work.
While downtown, plan to drop in to Hibernation Arts studio gallery at 17 Peter St. S., say hello to Molly, and enjoy the student work being displayed over the three weeks. You’ll enjoy other work on display in her studio, as well.
The studio gallery is open from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Tuesday to Saturday (closed Sunday and Monday).
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