 SURREALIST ADVENTURE DRAWING - Join artist-in-residence Maren K Elliott on Friday September 25th for a playful art making session using games, creative prompts, and methods inspired by surrealism to unlock wacky, mysterious, and novel forms of expression with images and text. Some basic drawing and collage materials will be provided but feel free to bring your own sketchbook, paper, markers, pens, coloured pencils or other dry drawing supplies. Location: Fensala Hall, 24 Main Avenue, Markerville, Alberta Time: 7:00 — 9:00 pm Artist Bio: Maren K Elliott (she/her) is an interdisciplinary artist and community activator from ᐊᒥᐢᑲᐧᒋᐋᐧᐢᑲᐦᐃᑲᐣ (aka Edmonton) whose work spans visual arts, performance, and new media. Now based on unceded Algonquin territory (Ottawa ON), she blends movement, music (viola, voice), and imagery to spark human connection. Maren's creations draw on beauty and humour to explore topics such as mental health, climate anxiety, and gender and sexuality-based discrimination. She has exhibited work in multiple cities across Canada and performed nationally and internationally, including at Pride (Ottawa, Toronto), Strike with Force (Mexico City), and with Team Canada at the Waacking World Festival (Lima, Peru). Maren is interested in taking art beyond the limits of traditional gallery and theatre settings, from hospitals to bars to the streets and more, and has produced socially engaged arts events in Edmonton, Toronto, and Ottawa/Gatineau. She is passionate about accessibility and the arts as a catalyst for empathy and change.  Maren Kathleen Elliott,"Urania" Mixed Media Collage
 Judith G. Brownlee - Artist Bio ‘Judy‘ Brownlee has always loved the written word since she was a young child. She was first published in 1976. Poetry is a special love of hers, however writing prose and journaling have been present in her work since at least her twenties. Her writing has been stashed in a dresser drawer for years and has now been lifted into the light on her desk, as retirement has afforded her time for reflection. Judy was born in Alberta and retired after a career of 40+ years in health care. She is an active member of Writers’ Ink and Writers’ Guild of Alberta. She resides in Red Deer, Alberta. Introduction - Red Deer, Alberta
I have been a writer my entire life! I remember writing diaries as a child and, later as a teen and early twenty-something, drafting poems of angst. The diaries were burned and the poems languished in boxes here and there. Over the years, I have written many travel journals, which fortunately are still a pleasure to read. In my senior years, an occasional poem cropped up here and there in my scribblings. Then I joined Writers’ Ink, a Red Deer and central Alberta writers’ group which meets weekly. During and after the pandemic, we switched some of our meetings to Zoom. This continues, with alternating in person and zoom meetings. It is a creative, social, sharing, educational and critiquing group, which has spurred me on to write a lot more, and to step out of my genre which is poetry, occasionally. I have a lot of poems that are languishing on my desk, in my computer and on my telephone. In addition, I have some creative nonfiction and some flash fiction stories which need to become exposed. Time to do something with them!  IN THIS ISSUE:
Vol 38 #2 is finally available, and even though leaves are starting to change and the furnace is kicking on during the night here's your chance to fondly look back on the summer months! Closing Day for the Creamery Museum was September 7, but we have several events still coming up. FCSS is putting on a free Intergenerational Paint Program at Fensala on Sept. 11; please pre-register at rdcounty.ca/programs. Our Fall Supper Fundraiser is happening Sept. 19 starting at 5pm for $65pp; and Kairos Blanket Exercise takes place in the Hall on Sept. 26 starting at 12:30pm for $10pp. Fensala Hall Concert Series 2026-2027 (celebrating 10 years!) kicks off Oct. 24 featuring Tim Isberg, with individual and Season Pass tickets available. Purchase tickets online for any of these events and more at historicmarkerville.com/tickets. Plus, there are photos from many of the events that took place from March to July for you to enjoy, and a lovely surprise on the last page, submitted by artist-in-residence Cathy Scott! Download your copy today from our Google Drive archive!  Artist Bio:
Heather Jean Jordan is a singer-songwriter, poet, and multi-instrumentalist whose work blends folk music, storytelling, and social justice. A trained opera singer turned ukulele troubadour, she has performed across the prairies, including festivals, theatres, and Folk Alliance International. As Banff’s 2025 & 2026 Poet Laureate, her song “A Single Seed,” co-written with Banff Elementary students, received national media attention, international airplay, and a letter of recognition from Prime Minister Mark Carney. Her poetry has been set to music and performed alongside leading Canadian poets including Chimwemwe Undi and John Samson Fellows. She is one third of popular folk harmony trio The Three Sisters. The group recently received the Anne O’Hara Award for their performance at Canmore Folk Festival and were awarded a two week mini recording residency at the National Music Centre to take place in May 2027.  Meet Photographer Árni Haraldsson on Thursday, August 27 at Fensala Hall from 3:00 - 4:00. He will be sharing a slideshow presentation of houses he has photographed over the years, including Geir’s House in Seyðisfjördur, occupied by a local character and “folk” artist, as well as some fishermen’s turf huts up near Húsavík. Having travelled extensively, he will also show other houses, further afield, such as Chekov’s house and garden in Crimea, and a Guest House in the lake country of Kerala, South India, that featured in an Indian film.
While staying at the Buttermaker’s House in Markerville, Árni will be photographing the nearby Stephan G. Stephansson House and surroundings. Part of his project is to compare the homes of these two renowned Icelandic writers. He is interested in Stephansson as a writer and as seen in juxtaposition with Gunnarsson. In other words: the houses of two renowned Icelandic writers, in particular the idea of the private house as an abode that harbours remnants or traces of lived life. Árni Rúnar Haraldsson - Artist Bio Árni Rúnar Haraldsson was born in Reykjavik, Iceland in 1958, and grew up in Sauðárkrókur in Skagafjörður. He came to Canada with his family at age ten. He enrolled in the Vancouver School of Art, studying drawing and painting but ended up concentrating on large-format photography. Árni, recently retired, was an Associate Professor of Photography at Emily Carr University of Art & Design, Vancouver. A few years ago, Árni did a residency at Skriðuklaustur, near Egilsstaðir in eastern Iceland. Skriðuklaustur is the location of a house built by the Icelandic author, Gunnar Gunnarsson, famous for having written The Good Shepherd and The Black Cliffs, among other prose. Árni’s interest in photographing Gunnarsson’s house was to consider its history and repurposing – from private residence to public cultural centre; and to also situate the house in relation to its surrounding environment, both in terms of place and time – landscape and light.  Take a Step Toward Reconciliation! Join us for a Blanket Exercise and experience an interactive learning opportunity that explores the shared history between Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples in Canada.
Suitable for ages 12+ | Everyone is welcome. Join us for an opportunity to learn, listen, reflect, and deepen our understanding of Indigenous histories and experiences in Canada. This event will be held at Fensala Hall, 24 Main Avenue, Markerville on September 26, 2026 from 12:30pm - 4:00 pm. It's open to the public, tickets are $10, with children under 12 getting in free. Space is limited to 50 participants. Facilitated by Community Members of the Urban Indiginous Voices Society (UIVS), Red Deer |
Historic Markerville is owned and operated by
Stephan G. Stephansson Icelandic Society
Stephan G. Stephansson Icelandic Society
We acknowledge the traditional lands and territories of the Indigenous Peoples who have lived on these lands and taken care of them since time immemorial. We acknowledge that the Historic Sites of the Stephan G. Stephansson Icelandic Society are on traditional Treaty 6 Territory. We recognize the Cree, the Nakoda Sioux, the Dene, the Saulteaux, as well as the Métis and Inuit who have lived on and cared for these lands for generations. We acknowledge the Traditional Knowledge Keepers and Elders, both past and present, and are grateful for their contributions that helped keep this land beautiful. We make this acknowledgement as an act of reconciliation.