If you were to spend even a few minutes listening to local ceramicist Kirsti Smith speak about her artwork, you probably wouldn’t believe she called her mother crying the first time she had to take a ceramics class.

The emerging sculptural and functional ceramicist — who now has thousands of followers on social media, has been featured in local galleries, and has found success selling her work through her online gallery — discovered her passion purely by accident after being put into the wrong class in 2013 while studying business and art at the University of Waterloo.

Smith says she knew she wanted to explore art more after painting and sculpting through high school, but she was trying to “be logical,” figuring business would help her achieve the ultimate goal of becoming a full-time artist. But since she wasn’t very passionate about the programs she was studying, she didn’t pick her courses on time and was forced into a ceramics class she had no desire to take. Now she can’t imagine her life without it.

“I’m so grateful I accidentally got put into that class, because it changed my whole life,” explains Smith. “It captured my entire heart. It’s unreal. I think the idea being able to make your canvas and then also paint on top of it — that really drew me in. And the functional aspect and intimacy really drew me in too, because everybody has a favourite mug.”

Smith then transferred to Sheridan College to study craft and design before again moving to NSCAD University in Halifax where she completed her Bachelor of Fine Arts in ceramics.

In 2020, when she was out of school and back in her hometown of Peterborough, she began focusing on developing her online gallery, Gallery K, while keeping a steady job as a barista at Cork & Bean. She has since participated in artist residencies which allowed her to dedicate all her time to her craft while working on promoting herself through social media.

With some viral Instagram reels and TikToks that have led to international sales, Smith now has more than 13,800 followers on Instagram and more than 26,200 likes on her TikToks.

“It’s actually funny when I see it correlate,” she says. “I’ll post a TikTok and it’ll get some likes and then an hour later I’ll get a sale in California and I know that was from my TikTok. Sometimes it’s just dead and it feels like you’re talking to nobody but then, when it does actually work, I realize that there are people out there. There’s a reason for this.”

Smith, who has always worked out of her home studio, is preparing to move into a rented studio space in the back of Watson & Lou in downtown Peterborough, which she’ll be sharing with tattoo artist Beth Davis. Together, the artists will be opening up their studio for public visits during the monthly First Friday Art Crawl beginning on October 6.

The new studio location makes sense, since Smith’s mugs and sculptures have been sold out of Watson & Lou for over a year and a half. In Peterborough, her work has also been sold out of Modern Makers Shop, and in Toronto at the Gardiner Museum. Previously, she has also been exhibited at local galleries including the Art School of Peterborough’s Launch gallery and for the Peterborough Arts Collective.

Additionally, earlier this summer, Smith attended the Toronto Outdoor Art Fair, where last year she received the Ceramics Excellence Award — something she says she is still “overwhelmed” by considering that show included a lot of well-established artists.

Though she’s continuing to grow as an artist, she’s grateful that she’ll be starting to work out of Watson & Lou, one of the first local spaces to show her support as she builds her career.

“They were actually the first ones who really believed in me, and encouraged me to raise my prices,” Smith recalls. “They made me feel so validated as a craftsperson. Watson & Lou already has such a soft spot in my heart, and now getting the studio space there, I get to represent Watson & Lou forever.”

Smith also plans to use the new studio space to offer one-on-one wheel throwing lessons and group workshops.

“Ceramics can be very elitist or expensive, so if it’s a hobby it’s hard to get into,” she explains. “Making it more available to the community is my ultimate goal and dream. Hopefully one day I’ll be applying to grants to get ceramics more available to whoever wants to try it, because it’s such an amazing outlet.”

Using her chosen medium as her emotional outlet is exactly how Smith develops her ideas, designs, and inspirations for most of the pieces that she creates. She explains that her process involves “flooding” her emotions into her drawings, before “bringing the drawings to life” using porcelain.

“[Porcelain] is very hard to sculpt with but I make them very small, so my sculptures survive through the kiln,” she notes, adding that as she’s creating, she’s always considering how people can physically interact with her pieces.

“That’s a very important part of fine art for me — the intimacy created with touch that is so taboo in the fine art world,” explains the ceramicist. “And it’s common with functional work. You’re not afraid to touch it. But as soon as it’s labelled as fine art, it’s off limits.”

Smith says she wants to make people feel comfortable touching her work, which is why her October 6th open studio show is going to be “fully interactive.”

No matter how complimentary it may seem, Smith points out she would never encourage someone to keep her art locked away in a China cabinet for safe keeping.

“You lose that real connection with the object and that, more than anything, is what I want to build — the connection and the intimacy of the moment,” she explains, adding she was recently at a show where two of her pieces broke, but she was unbothered because that meant people were interacting with her art.

As Smith moves into her new studio and begins to plan shows and workshops, all while balancing the upcoming influx of business during the holiday season, she is preparing for a busy few months. But she wants nothing less.

“It feels like my dreams are coming true, which is really, really amazing,” she says. “I just hope it keeps going. My truest dream was always to have a real studio, so just having that happen now is incredible and I’m so excited to hopefully be making more of an income off it. Things are coming along and it’s amazing.”

To browse and purchase functional and sculptural ceramics from Smith, visit www.galleryk.ca or follow her on Instagram and TikTok.

Every Thursday, we publish live music events at pubs and restaurants in Peterborough and the greater Kawarthas region based on information that venues provide to us directly or post on their website or social media channels. Here are the listings for the week of Thursday, September 21 to Wednesday, September 27.

If you’re a pub or restaurant owner and want to be included in our weekly listings, please email our nightlifeNOW editor at nightlife@kawarthanow.com. For concerts and live music events at other venues, check out our Concerts & Live Music page.

With the exception of karaoke, we only list events with performing musicians. Venues may also host other events during the week (e.g., dancing, DJs, comedy shows).

Public Energy Performing Arts announced its 30th anniversary season on Wednesday (September 20) at a media event at Market Hall Performing Arts Centre in downtown Peterborough, featuring a dramatic aerial dance performance from visiting artist Diana Lopez Soto whose completed work will be presented at the venue next April.

Soto’s work Nomada is being developed through a two-week residency at the Market Hall with Public Energy, which has partnered with some of Canada’s most prestigious dance presenters to commission this new work, including Canadian Stage and Danceworks in Toronto and the PuSh Festival in Vancouver. Nine years in the making, the finished work will be on tour in Canada later this season and will be performed at the Market Hall on April 5 as the penultimate event in Public Energy’s 2023-24 season.

According to Public Energy’s executive director Bill Kimball and managing director Eva Fisher, a theme running through much of the 2023-24 season sees artists using dance and song to heighten awareness of the importance of our connection to the land.

Public Energy’s history is rooted in Peterborough New Dance, an organization founded in 1994 that inherited a discontinued dance presenting program operated by Peterborough’s artist-run centre Artspace. Supporting both new and existing work from independent choreographers, Peterborough New Dance’s founding director was Kimball, who had curated Artspace’s dance program from 1980 to 1994. In 2001, Peterborough New Dance became incorporated as a charitable organization under the name Peterborough New Dance and Performance.

In 2003, Peterborough New Dance adopted a second name, Public Energy, under which it expanded the organization’s activities beyond dance into related disciplines of contemporary theatre and performance. The second name came from an early mandate adopted by the Peterborough New Dance to “create a kind of public energy around the presentation, creation, and touring of contemporary dance.”

The words “Performing Arts” were added to Public Energy’s name in the 2019-20 season to reinforce the multi-arts mandate and alleviate ongoing confusion among some members of the public that the organization was a utility company.

Over the past 30 years, Public Energy Performing Arts has worked with more than 2,000 artists — including dancers, actors, choreographers, directors, designers, visual artists, filmmakers, sound artists, writers, and theatre technicians — and mounted more than 500 shows, classes, workshops, talks and other events seen by over 50,000 audience members and participants. A significant portion of Public Energy’s programming is with Indigenous artists, with the organization taking both a local and provincial lead in Indigenous arts programming.

Running from November until April, Public Energy’s 30th anniversary season showcases the best of the world of dance, theatre, and performance, including projects with connections to Norway and Mexico, as well as two artists with strong local connections (Jon Hedderwick and Charlie Petch). This year, Public Energy is also deepening its partnership with Trent University’s Nozhem First Peoples’ Performance Space, which continues to attract some of the country’s best Indigenous artists.

Below is a list of the performances for the 2023-24 season. Advance tickets for all performances are available via the Public Energy Performing Arts website at publicenergy.ca.

Zaagi’idiwin: Our Mothering Heart (November 3 and 4)

From Vancouver’s contemporary Indigenous performance company O.Dela Arts, Zaagi’idiwin: Our Mothering Heart includes three performances that together run for around 50 minutes.

“Journals of adoption,” a solo created and performed by Sophie Dow, extends a choreographic exploration through two journals of origin: one text from Sophie’s birth mother’s experience of pregnancy and process of offering her up; the other text from Sophie’s own reflections, queries and rumination as an adopted child.

“Slip away,” a solo created and performed by Samantha Sutherland, explores themes of loss and hope relating to the endangered state of the Ktunaxa language, shares accounts of the current efforts toward preservation of the endangered language, and showcases dreams of how it may continue enlivened in the future.

“Rematriate XX23,” a new work in development by Olivia C. Davies, is conceived as a love letter for the experience of motherhood, honouring the one who carries us in her womb, nurturing and nourishing, and who will live forever in our hearts.

Zaagi’idiwin: Our Mothering Heart will be performed at Nozhem: First Peoples’ Performance Space (Room 101, Enwayaang Building, 1 Gzowski Way, Peterborough) at 7 p.m. on November 3 and 4 with a 3 p.m. matinee performance on November 4. Tickets are sold on a sliding pay-what-you-can scale from $5 to $25.

Bubie’s Tapes (January 17 to 21)

While preparing a pot of matzo ball soup for his daughter, Peterborough spoken word artist Jon Hedderwick recounts personal and family experiences from the Russian Revolution, through the Holocaust and beyond, as told by his Bubie Sarah in cassette tape recordings she left behind.

Through these stories, Bubie’s Tapes reveals much about the history and ongoing impacts of antisemitism in Canada and around the world.

Bubie’s Tapes will be performed at The Theatre on King (171 King St, Peterborough) at 8 p.m. from January 17 to 20 with a 2 p.m. matinee performance on January 21. Tickets are sold on a sliding pay-what-you-can scale from $5 to $25. All shows will be presented as relaxed performances, with ASL interpretation to be available for one of the performances (to be announced).

Vástádus Eana – The Answer is Land (March 3)

From Norwegian choreographer Elle Sofe Sara, Vástádus Eana – The Answer is Land is a 90-minute performance about community and kinship between people, with nature, and with the land we all share. The choreography is inspired by demonstrations, spiritual practices of the Sámi people in northern Europe, and formation dance.

“Seven black-clad women, fists raised, brandish megaphones above their heads, in front of Esplanade Tranquille,” reads a description of the performance. “They start dancing to ask the land for permission to gather on it. Then, walking with heads held high, they lead the audience into the depths of the theatre for Vástádus eana: a galvanizing choreographed concert that amplifies the long-repressed voices of the Sámi people.”

“Through their polyphonic chants and their movements, the performers draw us into an a cappella story of resistance and healing. Their voices are rooted in joik, the captivating Sámi music sung while travelling across the land. Embodying memory, they celebrate the alliances between all living creatures and the land, between nature and the community. Inspired by socio-ecological movements and Sámi spirituality, this hymn pays tribute to all those who fight injustice.”

Vástádus Eana – The Answer is Land will be performed at 2 p.m. on March 3 at Market Hall Performing Arts Centre (140 Charlotte Street, Peterborough). As the description implies, the performance will begin outdoors, at an accessible location very near the theatre to be determined (guides will be on hand to provide assistance). Tickets are sold on a sliding pay-what-you-can scale from $10 to $20.

Izzie M: The Alchemy of Enfreakment (March 8 and 9)

From Indigenous artist collective Chocolate Woman Collective in Toronto, Izzie M: The Alchemy of Enfreakment uses the circus freak show as an allegory to examine the tension between the sacred and the profane and the ways in which things that are sacred in Indigenous societies became profaned for entertainment and profit.

This theme also relates to the underlying structure of Indigenous effigy mounds and earthworks, because some of them were not only brutally excavated and looted but also used as race tracks and amusements parks.

Formerly known as Side Show Freaks & Circus Injuns, Izzie M: The Alchemy of Enfreakment was created by Chocolate Woman Collective founder Monique Mojica (Guna and Rappahannock) and features Mojica and Barry Bilinsky (Metis/Cree). It will be performed at Nozhem: First Peoples’ Performance Space (Room 101, Enwayaang Building, 1 Gzowski Way, Peterborough) at 7 p.m. on March 8 and 9, with tickets sold on a sliding pay-what-you-can scale from $5 to $25.

Nomada (April 5)

Created and performed by Mexican-Canadian artist Diana Lopez Soto, Nomada is a solo performance that brings together aerial dance, rigging design, installation art, and contemporary Mexican dance.

Representing a journey inspired by personal stories of displacement, rituals of water, cycles of sustainability, and the connections of our bodies to land, Nomada is the result of extensive collaboration with some of Canada’s most talented composers, designers, and projection artists, as well as family and knowledge keepers from the community of Michoacan, Mexico.

Nomada is supported by the CanDance Network commissioning program with five presenters across Canada taking part, including Peterborough’s Public Energy Performing Arts, Toronto’s Canadian Stage and Danceworks, Nanaimo’s Crimson Coast Dance Society, and Vancouver’s PuSh International Performing Arts Festival.

Nomada will be performed at 7:30 p.m. on April 5 at Market Hall Performing Arts Centre (140 Charlotte Street, Peterborough). Tickets are sold on a sliding pay-what-you-can scale from $10 to $20.

No One’s Special at the Hot Dog Cart (April 24)

Written and performed by award-winning playwright, author, and spoken word performer Charlie Petch, No One’s Special at the Hot Dog Cart tells true stories from their past as a 911 operator, hospital bed allocator, emergency room clerk, and street worker.

Directed by Adam Lazarus and supported by dramaturg Donna Michelle St. Bernard, No One’s Special at the Hot Dog Cart is filled with busking performance, novelty instruments, clown, tragicomedy, lessons in de-escalation technique, and a deep appreciation of street communities.

No One’s Special at the Hot Dog Cart will be performed at 7:30 p.m. on April 24 at Market Hall Performing Arts Centre (140 Charlotte Street, Peterborough). Tickets are sold on a sliding pay-what-you-can scale from $5 to $25.

kawarthaNOW is proud to be a long-time media sponsor of Public Energy Performing Arts.