Beer Parlour Project

It's a little over two years in, and I reflect fondly on our adventures with the Beer Parlour Project, so far.

Our first outing was back in July of 2022.  That was BP 1.0 and we visited the Hidden Gem Tavern in the Egremont Hotel.  We were green as grass, and stumbled around trying to figure out how we wanted to photograph people and conduct the interviews.  Flash forward a little over two years and we just completed BP 20.1, our second visit to the Shady Lady Tavern in the Peers Hotel.

In between we visited establishments from Vancouver Island to the Crowsnest Pass to southern Saskatchewan and all over central Alberta.  We have visited a total of 20 different establishments.  But we've made return visits to five of them, for a total of 25 outings.  Sadly, some of the people that we've met along the way have passed on.  Equally sad is the fact that some of the hotels that we have visited have since closed, with a few more up for sale.  I'm glad that we've taken the project on, and have had the opportunity to experience and document these wonderful old places.

Chris and I have refined our approach and now have a much better idea of what we are doing.  We are doing a much better job of the interviews and the photographs.  We also have a much higher comfort level as when we started out with the project, it was something foreign to both of us, and beyond our respective comfort zones.

Our goal is to visit 100 [or more] small town hotel taverns.  If we maintain the same pace it will probably take seven to eight more years to accomplish that.  But as the destinations become further afield, the travel costs and time restraints continue to be an issue.  At some point along the way we plan to put together a gallery exhibition and show off some of the best photographs.  We also hope to interest a publisher and see if we can have the project turn into a coffee table book.  I think some arts grants are going to be needed to see the project through, so we will have to start applying for those in the next little while.  

In the mean time we now have our website a little more functional.  There is always a backlog as it takes a while for me to get around to developing and scanning all of my film.  I checked this morning and I have ten rolls of 35mm film that need to be developed, as well as a bunch of 4"x5" large format stuff.  But there are now photo galleries on the website for at least half of the locations that we have visited.  And more will be uploaded in the near future.  Chris has also done at least preliminary research on many of the hotels and we have a brief write up for the ones that also have photo galleries.  If the book project comes to fruition, the written component will be expanded.

Here is a link to the website for anyone that has not yet seen it...   beerparlourproject.com