Niagara Artists Centre is a not-for-profit, charitably registered, member-driven collective formed by and dedicated to serving the working artists and community of Niagara.
”Founded in 1969 as a collective of working artists, NAC is one of the oldest artist-run organizations in Canada.
NAC believes that the arts and critical dialogue on the arts are integral to a healthy community.
NAC gratefully acknowledges the support of the Canada Council for the Arts, the Ontario Arts Council, the City of St. Catharines, Ontario Trillium Foundation, Niagara Community Foundation and Delta Bingo Players.
Niagara Artists Centre Staff
I’ve been involved at NAC for over 15 years, as a volunteer, board director and staff member. Creatively, I’m primarily a screen-printer, but I also work in 16mm film and video and I paint and write from time-to-time. I was awarded the City of St. Catharines 2009 Trillium Established Artist Award. I consider my experience, wealth of community contacts, and the ability to bring people together to work toward a common goal things I bring to the benefit of NAC.
I’ve worked at NAC since 2005. I coordinate, promote, and help determine NAC’s full slate of exhibits in the Show Room, Plate Glass, and Flea Market Galleries, as well as the Dennis Tourbin Members Gallery. I also oversee the contracting of artists and supervise bookkeeping. I’m a print designer, performer, and co-founder of Suitcase in Point Theatre Company and the In the Soil Arts Festival. I recently co-directed a remount of Paris La Nuit by founding member of the Niagara Artists Centre, Dennis Tourbin.
I‘m a sculpture graduate from OCADU, who spent the past few years curating and managing residencies for Greenbelt Arts in Toronto. Before that, I worked for the student union as a programming coordinator, policy analyst, and lobbyist, getting my start in arts administration. I’m thrilled to be home and working at the NAC, a place I’ve been visiting since I was twelve, growing up in the Glenridge area. Besides managing administrative tasks in the NAC office, I also assist with member relations and events.
Board of Directors
Clelia Scala is a mask and puppet designer, collage artist and illustrator. She makes masks and puppets for theatre and has taught mask-making and puppet-making in classroom and workshop settings. In addition, Clelia has made numerous masks for private individuals, visual artists and performance artists, and for organizations such as the Toronto District School Board and Seneca College. She studied mask-making and theatre, film, and special effects makeup at Complections International and studied puppet construction and performance at the Humber Puppetry Intensive and the New England Puppet Intensive. Recent publications include a series of 43 collages for Alice in Plunderland (BookThug, 2015) by Steve McCaffery.
Her website is www.clelia.ca
Tamara Jensen is a practicing visual artist and entrepreneur in St. Catharines, Ontario. Co-founder of pioneering gourmet food truck El Gastronomo Vagabundo, Tamara was an early adopter of mobile marketing tools and has become a leader in digital marketing strategy. Driven by a passion to help Niagara’s entrepreneurs succeed, Tamara is a Digital Strategist with Form & Affect, where she helps local and global brands gain traction through advanced digital media strategies. Tamara is a volunteer small business mentor with Futurpreneur Canada, and a Starter Company mentor with the St. Catharines Enterprise Centre. The painting studio above her garage is underused, but makes for a pretty nice place to nap.
Emma German is a curator based in St Catharines. She holds an M.A. in Art History and Curatorial Studies from York University (2017), and a B.A in Visual Arts from Brock University. Emma has an extensive history supporting the local arts community as an active volunteer, board member, and curator, and has organized community-based exhibitions and projects at sites throughout St. Catharines including Centennial Gardens, City Hall, the VISA Gallery at MIWSFPA, and Rodman Hall Art Centre. Emma has held curatorial and administrative positions at the City of St. Catharines, Janis A. Barlow and Associates, Gallery 44 Centre for Contemporary Photography, and the Art Gallery of Ontario. During her tenure as Curatorial Assistant at Rodman Hall (2017-2018), she organized Up close and in motion, a year-long constantly shifting exhibition of the gallery’s permanent collection. Other curatorial projects include Exposing Liminalities at Critical Distance Centre for Curators (2018). Her research was recently published in the Journal of Curatorial Studies.
Candace Couse earned an M.F.A. from The University of Calgary, Alberta, Canada (2010). In 2014, she was accepted into Brock University’s Interdisciplinary Humanities Doctoral Program where she is conducting research on illness narratives in visual art practice. This research is being carried out with the support of The Joseph-Armand Bombardier Canada Graduate Scholarships Program Doctoral Scholarship from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. Couse has taught in Alberta, Ontario and France.
Geoff Farnsworth began his art training in Vancouver before moving to New York City to study at the Art Students League from 1997 to 2002. Here he trained from the model full time before working in the abstract classes where his style began to synthesize form with colour, process, and experimentation. A post 9-11 environment with tightening visa restrictions finally prompted him to follow his long time urge to move to Toronto where he furthered his studio practice. He currently lives and works in St. Catharines, Ontario. His paintings have been shown in New York City, Washington DC, Minneapolis, Toronto, Vancouver, Winnipeg, Thunder Bay, Niagara Falls, Norway, Sweden, and Trinidad.
Linda Steer is an art historian and professor in the Department of Visual Arts at Brock. She is also a partner, a parent, a fan of surrealism but not a surrealist, and an admirer of strange and beautiful things.
Print-maker, mall ninja, and multidisciplinary juggler. Teetering on the fulcrum of minimalism and intellectual purity to craft experiences both online and in real life. I’m fueled by craft beer, spite and tortilla chips. Check me out on Myspace or YouPorn!
Alyssa M. General niyakohsennò:ten, Kanyen’kehá:ka niyakonhwentsyò:ten, yakonyáhten, táhnon Ohswé:ken nityakowé:non. Alyssa M. General is Mohawk Nation Turtle Clan from Six Nations of the Grand River Territory. She is an artist, educator, and language revitalist. Alyssa has helped create a series of films in Kanyen’kéha with Onkwawén:na Kentyóhkwa, developed illustrations for children’s television show Tóta tánon Ohkwá:ri, and has received national recognition for her poem Enkonte’nikonhrakwarÃhsya’te. Alyssa currently is the artistic director with indigenous publishing company, Spirit & Intent.
I am a Niagara native who grew up close to the breeze of Lake Erie. My early love of Photography and Light has allowed me to hone unconventional methods in many different disciplines with some of my heros. I am currently working on several film projects for Neil Young; I am co-producing a short film with Daryl Hannah; and recently my work can be seen in the Timberlake/Demme film that premiered at TIFF 2016 and is now streaming on Netflix. As well, I continue to be a Daniel Lanois film collaborator for over a decade. My works both still and moving pictures are internationally collected and appear on stages and in theaters across the globe. Niagara is where I return to meditate, and find peace in my own life while preparing for the next sojourn.
Mandate
Mission Statement
Niagara Artists Company is a not-for-profit, charitably registered, collective formed by and dedicated to serving the working artists and community of Niagara.
NAC provides a forum for the development, exhibition and appreciation of contemporary art by providing facilities, equipment, professional expertise and a supportive atmosphere for arts research, advocacy and dissemination.
NAC believes that the arts and a critical dialogue on the arts are integral to a healthy community.
Vision Statement
NAC is striving to educate and contribute to a community that gets excited about art, that supports and recognizes local artists and cultural institutions, and that understands an investment in the arts is an act of enlightened self-interest.
Goals of Organization
The aspirations of the Niagara Artists Company are categorized in four functional areas.
Artist Relations
- Develop greater curatorial rigour
- Enhance cross-cultural relations
- Increase professional artist memberships
- Sustain satellite activities – film, performing
- Increase, improve publications, catalogues
- Increase member driven programming
- Increase member career development
- Increase educational programming
Audience Relations
- Increase audiences
- Maintain program continuity – two galleries
- Increase publications, catalogues
- Increase educational programming
- Increase public art initiatives
- Develop an online art job bank
- Maintain a flexible performance space
- Create on line art sales mechanism
Community Relations
- Increase public recognition
- Increase human resources, volunteers
- Increase membership and donors
- Increase political advocacy for artists
- Add strategic business alliances, partners
- Assume leadership as an artist-run centre
- Continue influencing the gentrification of the neighbourhood
Resource Management – Human, Facility, Equipment, Financial
- Own and control a higher visibility, functional building
- Increase human resources, administration
- Diversify revenue sources
- Develop a NAC store online
- Create an accessible digital archive
Summary of Programs and Services
General Program Guidelines
- Provide a platform for interdisciplinary contemporary art
- Provide a members’ gallery, main gallery and multi-purpose place of assembly
- Choose regional, national and international exhibits of special interest to the community
- Balance examples of regional practice with the work of artists from outside Niagara
- Maintain artist fees and project-related expenses above minimum CARFAC standards
Current Programs and Services
Niagara Artists Centre offers a resource for the development of the contemporary arts in Niagara and a forum for the appreciation of contemporary arts in Niagara.
Resource for Members
As a Resource to Member Artists, NAC provides:
- Exhibition space/members’ gallery
- Professional expertise
- Equipment, tools and internet access
- Educational workshops and publications
- Communication network, bulletins, information
- A film library
- Promotion, referrals, and liaison to clients
- Advocacy for the rights of artists
Forum for Arts Appreciation
As a Forum for the Appreciation of Contemporary Arts in the community, NAC provides:
- Juried exhibitions in its Main Exhibition Space
- Publications
- Educational workshops/screenings
- Referrals and liaison with artists
- Information and a library
- Film collection
Artistic Priorities
Operating Guidelines
NAC . . .
- Provides a platform for interdisciplinary contemporary art
- Provides a members’ gallery, main gallery and multi-purpose place of assembly
- Chooses regional, national and international exhibits of special interest to the community
- Balances examples of regional practice with the work of artists from outside Niagara
- Maintains artist fees and project-related expenses above minimum CARFAC rates
- Offers a resource for the development of the contemporary arts in Niagara
- Is a forum for the appreciation of contemporary arts in Niagara
