Tiny art gallery fuels creation

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This article was published 30/05/2023 (971 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A white box with a hardwood floor made of popsicle sticks sits at the end of 566 Hanover Street. Tiny clay people gaze at the miniature sculptures standing on pedestals and little paintings hanging from the gallery ceiling.

Amber Funk, the creator of Steinbach’s only Free Little Art Gallery (FLAG), began the project last July.

“I wouldn’t have called myself an artist before,” Funk said. “I would say I’m an artist now. It feels like a part of me.”

Funk first came across the idea for a FLAG on Instagram. It was an idea based off free little libraries that have popped up in the past few years.

Funk said at the time she was going through her second miscarriage, and it was a way for her to cope with the loss and to keep herself busy.

“I was very focused on what I was going through and my own grief and trying to figure out what I wanted to fill my life with and what I wanted it to look like. I just wasn’t really thinking of other people,” Funk said. “I did want to add something good to the world. I wanted something beautiful. I just needed something that I could produce that would feel joyful.”

Funk and her dad built the structure and continue to add more space for creation. The FLAG now has fairy lights and a central light inside, clips for hanging art, more pedestals and easels, rocks surrounding it so visitors can sit, and Funk keeps paper and pencil crayons outside for people to use.

“It’s added a lot more space for people to imagine what they might put in there,” she said.

To stock the FLAG with art when she started, Funk made 10 pieces and estimates she’s left 100 different items there herself. In the last year, Funk has experimented with different mediums and techniques including water colour and acrylic paint, pencil crayons and basket weaving with lily leaves from her garden.

“It’s always interesting to put something out there and come out the next day and it’s gone,” she said. “You kind of just imagine what did someone think when they saw it and why is that something they were excited to take?”

Funk started posting monthly art prompts for the FLAG around Halloween. The current theme is ‘for the birds.’

Visitors can take something they like, leave something they have made, do both or just look.

“You do what speaks to you,” Funk said. “So far there’s always been new stuff coming and going. It’s been very organic.”

Funk likes to see people of all ages enjoying the gallery. Visitors have left clay sculptures, paintings, drawings, crochet items, sewing pieces and even a tiny book of poetry.

Now that the weather is improving, she said she’s been seeing many more people stop by and take a look.

Funk said it’s been a natural way to connect with her community in a low-pressure setting.