Thousands of people were in Crescent Park yesterday for ParkArt, checking out the wares of new and returning vendors. 

Baking, painting, clothing, jewelry and ceramics were just some of the items up for sale at the Moose Jaw Museum & Art Gallery’s (MJMAG) largest annual fundraiser.  

The fundraising goal for the annual event was $30,000 according to Jennifer McRorie, director/curator of the MJMAG. “It goes towards all of our various operations. The education programming, exhibition programming.” 

She said that in 2019 they had 80 vendors, and they saw a return to those pre-pandemic numbers this year, with 76 registered vendors. “Last year we had 55 vendors.” 

While McRorie did not have official numbers yet, she noted that the turnout was great, and she thought the number of attendees was over 4000. “Pre-pandemic, our numbers were about 4500 people, and so I’m hoping that we’ll see numbers back up to that.” 

Over 30 volunteers helped to make yesterday’s event possible, assisting with admissions, a raffle, and penny parade.  

McRorie said one of the changes this year was to the layout. “We’ve had some comments from people saying it’s easy to move around.” 

She said initially one of the vendors was concerned about being out of the way. “She was worried that she wouldn’t get enough crowd, and she came up to me and said, ‘I take back everything.’” 

“She said, ‘the flow is really good, and people are coming by my booth,’ and she was selling well - so that’s really great to hear,” added McRorie. 

Violet Tang, operations manager with the MJMAG, arrived at her new position at the end of May and this is her first Park Art. “The dynamism and the energy that people bring into the park – it was very impressive.” 

Tang said that the MJMAG is looking into building a webpage for ParkArt with video interviews of participating vendors. “I’ll be editing the videos and also editing some photographs to see what we can put together for this year’s event, and hopefully next year we’ll have a whole page for ParkArt.” 

One other feature at this year’s ParkArt was a 50/50 raffle to fundraise towards the purchase of “Peggy” - a 7-foot tall, 700 lb bronze horse created by Saskatchewan-renowned artist Joe Fafard.  

“She was made at his foundry, which is in Pense,” explained McRorie, saying that Peggy was one of seven horses created by Fafard.  

The total cost for the MJMAG to purchase Peggy is $100,000, with McRorie saying that Peggy is likely valued as being closer to $200,000 now. 

“She’s a knockout, and I would love to put her out in the park at some point once she’s fully purchased. We’ve got about $14,000 still left to fundraise for her.” 

You can find more about the Moose Jaw Museum & Art Gallery here.  

PeggyViolet Tang, Peggy, and Jennifer McRorie