North and Agricola

HALIFAX — A big superhero-styled “POW!” drawn on a chalkboard greets visitors to the North End’s newest art studio and workshop space. The Wonder’neath Artist Collective will show off its renovated digs to the public on Sunday.

Of the group’s four members, three live within two blocks of the Isleville Street studio.

“We walk by all the time to get our kids to and from school. As mother-artists (who) are trying to find time to work, it makes all the difference. Being a block from home means you can get in there every day,” says Heather Wilkinson, a visual artist and one of the collective’s members.

Wilkinson is joined by Melissa Marr, Odessa Spore and Gillian Robinson.

Like superheros, they’ve been busy lately. Refinishing floors, moving walls, running silkscreen classes … and that’s on top of other work commitments, parenting and, in the case of several members, home-schooling.

The four women have been fixing up their new digs – next door to the Barber of Isleville – since they got the keys in February. They want to use the space to both teach and create. There’s a large common area and kitchen for workshops, and two smaller rooms where the visual artists among them can work on their own projects.

A launch event dubbed an Ice Cream and Art Social is set for 1 p.m. this Sunday.

“Each of us have some sort of an ice-cream maker. I don’t know if any of us are experts, but it’s pretty hard to go wrong. Get some fresh ingredients and freeze them up. Add some sugar,” says Wilkinson, before bursting into laughter.

Of course there will also be art.

“Hopefully we’re going to have some art materials up so that we can help people work on something. And we’ll have some of our own work up on the walls for people to look at.”

Wilkinson and Marr work together on numerous school-based art projects. The name Wonder’neath came from a recent project they facilitated at St. Joseph’s-Alexander McKay school.

“We were building this temporary structure that was like a big canopy that had all these little objects of wonder hanging down from it. … Our students would build this piece and we’d set it up and other people would be invited inside and it would kind of create this temporary fantastical space,” said Wilkinson.

“And the name just stuck with us.”

The Isleville space is already scheduled to host Grade 1 students for silkscreening workshops. Ideas for future projects include summer day camps for children, pre-school programming and even night-time slots for adults looking for a temporary studio.

“Sometimes people just need a little extra space and time to kind of pull it all together and this would be a space maybe where people could do that.”

Wonder’neath Artist Collective is located at 2819 Isleville. An Ice Cream and Art Social will take place there 1 to 5 p.m. on Sunday, May 30. Free admission.