Kareen Burns was the longest-serving member of the Huntsville Festival of the Arts board and was a good friend to many in the organization. When she died in June, there was a collective outpouring of grief in the community. (Read a tribute here.) Friends and family packed On the Docks Pub for a celebration of life in her honour.
A second celebration, hosted by the Huntsville Festival of the Arts, will take place this Friday, July 28, at The Other Side Studio.
It will be a minimalist event, as Kareen would have preferred it, with a few black and white photos of her serving as the backdrop along with some stones. Lots of them. Her daughter, Meghan, asked that something active happen during the celebration so attendees are invited to bring a rock along and Helena Renwick will lead the crowd in painting them. Those stones will later be placed in a rock garden in an as yet to be determined location, or they can be individually placed around town by those who painted them to be discovered randomly by passersby, said HFA president Karen Cassian. A Facebook page will be set up for people to submit photos of the stones that they discover.
But the celebration won’t end there.
The Festival plans to create an endowment fund for an annual fringe award worth $1,000 for the creation of fringe events in Kareen’s name, said Cassian. They will collect donations toward the fund at Friday’s event.
There will also be a more physical memorium: local sculptor Brenda Wainman Goulet is creating a bronze sculpture from Kareen’s Wellington boots. She is donating the cost of the mold and the Festival will cover the cost of the bronzing. They hope that, with the Town’s permission, the boots can be placed in the garden next to the Algonquin Theatre.
“We really wanted to do some lasting things,” said Cassian. “(Kareen) was such a fixture in this town. We all miss her and we wanted to create a bunch of things that would help us remember her.”
Enchantée begins at 5 p.m. on Friday, July 28 at The Other Side Studio, next to The Mill on Main facing River Mill Park. See the poster below for details.
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Wow, when I heard this I must say I was shocked. There are so few of the type of person that Kareen was in our world. She was filled with a spirit that few people are lucky enough to have much less witness. Just imagine how many lives she touched in oh so many ways. How big an involvement in so much of the community! I remember sitting in her eclectic living room and thinking how simple, how cool, but still how much at home I felt. Even her garden and the outside of the house spoke art, but divine simplicity. I think that I and probably many will always think of her down to earth art induced fashion and many a time I smiled as I watched her walk down the streets of Huntsville with one of her faithful and whole heartedly loved Golden Retrievers and wearing her boots. She loved her dogs dearly. I hope that the wellington boots she wore that Brenda Wainman Goulet is using to sculpt as a memorial tribute will include a Golden Retriever on those boots. Now I come to the amazing part of my words, just think, if Kareen Burns touched that much of a chord in me, a person who only knew her lightly, how much of a chord did she strike in the hearts of so many that knew her very well. Not many have immersed themselves in so many facets of life like she did. I hope that all those whose lives were touched even briefly will turn out on the July 28th since a person like Kareen Burns was truly an inspiration! I for one of many am very glad I had the opportunity to meet her.
Donations can be dropped off at the Algonquin Theatre box office. Cheques can be made out to the Huntsville Festival of the Arts re. Kareen. If you wish to donate online contact Rob Saunders. Thank you.
Carol Gibson V.P. HFA
Karen,
You can contact HFA general manager Rob Saunders for information on how to donate: [email protected]
On the day that we lost Kareen Burns, I was just home from having a new knee popped into my saggy self, and it was days before I actually realised we had lost her. For so many of us, this was a stunning loss. Kareen was one of the very first people I got to know when we moved to Huntsville in 2002. I believe we both served on the Chamber Board at the same time, but more than that, she made a point of coming into Soapstones in its wee first version of itself to ask how thing were going, and what my hopes for the business were now that the doors were open. She was still managing Swiss Chalet and while I made soap or whatever, she and I regaled each other with entrepreneurial tales, possibilities, and how running a business in a small town may qualify as a mental illness. I don’t think she ever came into my shop without a suggestion, an idea, a question or a request for our involvement in something. Her mind was always at top speed. I wish the both of us had had more time to just sit and make up lies and stories to crack each other up. Her work for the Festival of the Arts took her out of my orbit these last years but she still came in when she could, we still found something to laugh at, and she always had a suggestion for me on making the business better. She was nearly always right too. She is deeply missed.
Dawn (or anyone else) — is there somewhere where people who can’t make the Friday night event can make donations to the endowment fund online? Or a place in town where they can be dropped off?