The Art of Revival, Creating Community
Laurel Corbiere works on her craft in the studio at RDP
Elevating visual arts through creative connections during summer art workshops tradition.
Somewhere between a blank canvas and the final brushstroke lives a quiet transformation. Sometimes it begins with the sound of charcoal on paper, the warmth of sunlight through tall windows or simply showing up to try. It happens in studios where the air is thick with turpentine, stories and shared silence. In spaces like these, time slows. Something shifts. And without fanfare, a person begins to remember who they are when they create.
For Laurel Corbiere, that moment arrived under the soft hum of fluorescent lights in a Red Deer Polytechnic studio, the smell of paint and possibility mingling in the air.
“I unlocked something I wasn’t sure I still had,” she said. “Drawing again renewed my confidence.”
Laurel was one of nearly 300 artists who joined Red Deer Polytechnic’s Series Summer Art Workshops last year. The program is more than just painting and pottery. It is a reclamation of something deeply human: the joy of making, the vulnerability of learning and the rare luxury of spending uninterrupted days inside a studio, hands covered in clay, glass, graphite or ink.
And while this revival is powerful, it is also part of a much larger story.
Once hailed as Canada’s largest summer arts school, Series began in 1983, with the idea of this program travelling to various communities in Alberta. Championed by legendary RDP Visual Art Diploma instructor Ian Cook, Series moved to RDP in 1984. The program grew from 180 artists to more than 1,000 and became a cultural institution.
“We heard that Alberta Culture was planning on disbanding the travelling Summer Series,” Cook recalls. “I proposed that the Alberta Government locate the program permanently at Red Deer College (now Polytechnic), and it was eventually approved.”
What followed was nearly four decades of creative momentum, drawing in artists, authors and instructors from across the country and beyond.
Then came the COVID-19 pandemic. Amid a drastically reduced number of classes and shuttered studios, Series became a shell of its former glory.
But in 2023, a spark was re-ignited. Two weeks of workshops became four. And in 2024, Series welcomed 291 artists, 31 workshops and 19 instructors from as far away as New York. The feeling was unmistakable. Series was back.
And it was different.
The expanded workshops included everything from natural fabric dyeing to metal work and writing. Skill levels range from “never touched a brush or artist’s torch” to professional artists.
This year, that offering grows again: 53 workshops, spanning one-day ‘Taste of Series’ samplers to immersive one- and two-week deep dives in disciplines as diverse as metal embossing, bronze sculpture, woodworking, fibre sculpture, traditional Indigenous practices, stop-motion animation, contemporary watercolour and more.
For Laurel, the drawing workshop was part summer escape, part creative resurrection.
“Coming into the studio each day felt like a break from everything else,” she said. “The time flew by.”
But what she remembers most isn’t her own rediscovery, it’s witnessing someone else’s.
“One of my classmates had never drawn before and by the end of the week, she was creating work she didn’t think she could.”
These are the kinds of moments that make Series memorable.
The art is only part of it. What Series really offers is time. Permission. Connection.
And belief.
Red Deer Polytechnic President Stuart Cullum, a vocal supporter of Series, sees programs such as this as essential.
“When we think about what our society and economy need, we need creative minds,” he shares. “People who can imagine, invent and build.”
That spirit of discovery moves through Series studios each summer like a quiet force. And in 2025, the theme Unlock Your Creativity captures exactly that.
Each week, the latest creations are brought out of the studios and put on public display. Visitors are invited into the rhythm of creation itself, a chance to witness artistic growth as it takes shape.
Proceeds from artwork sold help fund scholarships. For many, this support makes participation possible. For some, it marks the beginning of a path they never thought they could take.
And this is what makes Series remarkable. Not just the award-winning instructors or the world-class studios or the fact that someone like Jean Pederson, whose work hangs in the Royal Collection at Windsor, might be teaching the person next to you how to mix pigment.
It’s that anyone can find their way in.
Whether you’re a sculptor from Sylvan Lake or a schoolteacher from Sydney, Australia; whether you’ve never held a paintbrush or have work in a national gallery, Series doesn’t ask where you’re from. It asks where you’re willing to go—to unlock your creativity.