In this edition of The Bulletin:
- HELP! Uh, we mean BINGO!
- Call for Submissions: SMALL FEATS
- Call for Submissions: What About Rodman Hall?
- Call for Submissions: NAC’s Flea Market Gallery
- Call for Submissions: DOC Institute’s 2016 Breakthrough Program
- Alice Crawley STILT CITY Prints for Sale
- Move on Over! Kwong Chow Edition
- The Sadies at Silver Spire Church
HELP! uh, we mean BINGO!
NAC’s been running charitable bingos since before there were casinos in Ontario. You might, in fact, think of the bingo hall as the original provincial casino–wow, has gambling come along way. Alas, Bingo’s been trying to keep pace.
The hall where NAC used to operate bingos moved from Queenston Street to Bunting Road and has re-invented the heck out of itself. Gone are the kernels of unpopped corn to mark card numbers, vanished is the fog of blue secondhand cigarette smoke that hung in the air. This is a new, slick, wall-to-wall carpeted, fresh-air, soooo-phisticated bingo hall. It’s set-up to feel a little like a casino, actually, and the coffee’s not half-bad.
Changed too are the systems for how charities conduct bingos. It’s easier now than ever, they trust us with nothing! We just have to present a pair of volunteers at our designated bingo and we collect our monthly stake (about $300).
What we need are some NAC members to step up and make this happen. Right now there’s only three of us qualified to do it.
It’s once a month, always on a Saturday night, it begins at 9:30PM, and last for two hours. If we had ten volunteers you’d only have to do it once a year!
So easy! So fun! Step up and get trained to do it and then drop this impressive new skills-set on your resume!
The next session for bingo volunteer training is Tuesday 2 February at 6:15pm at the Bingo Hall at 124 Bunting Road in St. Catharines. It takes all of about twenty minutes.
Please email: minister@nac.org with your enthusiastic request to pitch in.
talksoon
overnout
S.
Stephen Remus
Minister of Energy, Minds, and Under the B, Legs Eleven
Niagara Artists Centre
small feats
Sign on by Friday 12 February
Deadline for Art Works is Saturday 2 April at 4pm
SMALL FEATS is Saturday 9 April 2016
DOWNLOAD THE FORM HERE
Artist members of NAC, your Artist-run Centre needs you! We’re seeking remarkable art works from you created in the confines of a single square foot. We have lots of space, but only the best works will be accepted. We’ll line the walls of our Dennis Tourbin Members Gallery and sell them off for $200 each. Contributing artists choose to donate all or half the proceeds of their work to NAC.
NAC will supply some materials on request (canvas or masonite) but photographic, mixed-media, and works on paper will also be considered. You must be a member in good standing to participate.
Let us know if you intend on making work by filling out the form (above) and emailing it to nacsmallfeats@gmail.com by Friday 12 February at midnight.
Completed works get dropped off at NAC by Saturday 2 April at 4pm.
Need to renew or sign on?
You can swing by NAC and we’ll hook you up or stay home and do it online here.
What About Rodman Hall?
Deadline for submissions:
Thursday 24 March at 5PM at NAC
As an art gallery, Rodman Hall’s place in the consciousness of our community has fluctuated over its fifty-five-year history. The art gallery has at times been a proud emblem of civic health and an indicator of our collective progress, while at other times it has been misunderstood and purposefully marginalized.
The history of the Niagara Artists Centre and Rodman Hall are intertwined. Rodman Hall’s founding curator and director, Peter Harris, was one of NAC’s founding sixteen members. NAC also made an early home in the Coach House on the grounds of Rodman.
The place of the Rodman Hall Art Centre in our community is once again the subject of deliberation. Brock University, which in 2003 pledged to be the sole operator of the art gallery for twenty years, is now reconsidering the terms of its supporting role.
Why is it that our community leaders have not always recognized the value of having a strong, well-resourced public or university art gallery like Rodman Hall?
NAC is interested in the ideas that the visual artists of Niagara would like to share about Rodman, an organization that is mandated to support the development of artists and cultural workers in southern Ontario, as well as providing art experiences that enrich peoples’ lives.
What is the role of a public gallery such as Rodman in a community like ours?
What will the future of Rodman Hall look like?
What should our community leaders recognize about the value of an art gallery such as Rodman Hall?
The Rodman Hall website includes a thorough history of the gallery. Artists are encouraged to visit the site. We’re also going to organize an opportunity for those interested to go over to Rodman and poke around, dig into the permanent collection, and that kind of thing.
Finished works will be accepted at NAC for consideration by the Programming Committee from Saturday 19 March until Thursday 24 March at 5PM.
Artists are also expected to submit an artist statement of no more than 250 words along with a short biography not exceeding 150 words.
The group exhibition, tentatively titled, What About Rodman Hall?, will open with a reception on Friday 1 April at 8PM in the Show Room Gallery at the Niagara Artists Centre, 354 St. Paul Street, downtown St. Catharines.
Artists with works accepted for exhibition will be paid at rates above those recommended by the Canadian Artists Representation Copyright Collective (CARCC).
Questions about the exhibit can be directed to Stephen Remus at the Niagara Artists Centre minister@nac.org. Please include What About Rodman Hall? in the subject line.
THE LAST THINGS
Call for Submissions
NAC’s Flea Market Gallery
Deadline for proposals: Wednesday 2 March 2016 to be received at NAC by 5PM
Once a thing is gone, that is the end of it.
–Anna from In the Country of the Last Things by Paul Auster
Members of the Niagara Artists Centre are invited to submit proposals for art work to be included in an exhibition entitled The Last Things at NAC’s Flea Market Gallery.
Using materials sourced from the Flea Market, artists are invited to reconfigure found materials as a way of speculating on a post-industrial future. Tools, prototypes, contrived artefacts, and other imaginings are suggested to evoke a future era of salvage and survival. THE LAST THINGS proposes an imagining of future material cultures, the socio-political circumstances of those futures, and the kinds of innovations and responses that could arise with the
disappearance of advanced technologies and newly manufactured goods. The exhibit wonders: Where and how does art merge with utility? What kinds of hybrids might arise out of necessity?
The title of this exhibition draws inspiration from the 1987 dystopian novel In the Country of the Last Things by Paul Auster. Set in a speculative future of an urban post-industrial wasteland, it follows Anna, a collector who scavenges and sells useful found objects.
The St. Catharines Factory Outlet Flea Market—Niagara’s largest flea market—coincidentally opened its doors the same year that In the Country of Last Things was published. In 2010, NAC converted an 8’ x 10’ flea market booth into a gallery and invited artists to create site-responsive work for the space. THE LAST THINGS is one of over fifteen exhibits to be shown at NAC’s Flea Market Gallery since it opened. The Flea Market currently accommodates over 250 booths, and welcomes 2500 visitors every Sunday.
Your submission for the LAST THINGS should include:
- a 300-word proposal describing the work and how it relates to the theme
- up to five relevant drawings, diagrams or photographs that support your proposal (sized 1024 x 768)
- a short artist statement/bio
- up to ten images of related past work (sized 1024 x 768)
A jury will select works to be included in The LAST THINGS exhibited at NAC’s Flea Market Gallery in Spring 2016. CARFAC recommended artist-fees will be paid to selected artists or collectives.
For more information or questions please contact NAC member Maggie Groat at maggiegroat@gmail.com
DOC Institute’s 2016 Breakthrough Program
Now Accepting Applications
DOC Institute’s Breakthrough Program is back! Eight emerging,
high-potential producers will be selected for group and one-on-one mentorship as they prepare to successfully pitch and sell their projects at the prestigious Hot Docs International Documentary Festival.
Selected producers will receive guidance from top industry funders, distributors and broadcasters, as well as an All-Access pass to Hot Docs.
The Breakthrough Program takes place in Toronto. For those travelling to Toronto, DOC Institute may be able to provide assistance.
Application Deadline: February 10, 2016.
For more information, and to apply: http://bit.ly/1n3pUmy
**DOC Institute has a mandate of supporting inclusion and diversity in the documentary industry, to eliminate the barrier to market entry for all filmmakers.
Stilt City Prints for Sale!
Print sale to found an endowment in the name of Alice Crawley
Announcement by NAC Members John Crawley and Gaby Piper-Crawley
This print, entitled Stilt City, was created based on an original pen and ink drawing by my mother, Alice Crawley, circa 1972. The drawing was used as the cover for the fourth edition of Twelve Mile Creek magazine, a magazine of art and literature edited by Alice that served as a forum for local, national, and international artists and writers. In particular, contributors to the noted edition were R. Johns, John Miller, David McFadden, Dennis Tourbin, Ted Dixon, Catherine Hraber, John B. Boyle, Samual Robinson, and Ivan Jirous.
Alice was the matriarch of Niagara’s artists, with a career beginning in the 1950s and continuing until her death in 2011. She was one of the founding members of the Niagara Artists Co-operative, now the Niagara Artists Centre, along with Dennis Tourbin, John Moffat, and John B. Boyle.
In 2001, for my 60th birthday, mom presented me with the original ink drawing and I became its honoured caretaker. It has hung in a place of prominence in our home ever since.
My wife Gaby and I have made the decision to share this work with the help of the Niagara Artists Centre. We commissioned NAC printmakers Stephen Remus, Dave Legge, and Natasha Pedros to create a limited edition of fifty hand-screened prints on Arches watercolour paper depicting this view of downtown that has since disappeared, but more importantly, to create a legacy for my mom. We are offering this print for sale with all proceeds donated to the Alice Crawley Endowment, a fund held by the Niagara Community Foundation that will support exhibit fees for women artists showing at the Niagara Artists Centre.
Each numbered edition of the print is offered for sale at the price of $400 (unframed). They are now available at NAC, open Wednesday to Friday 10AM to 5PM, Saturdays 12NN to 4PM, or often by chance. Please contact them if you have any questions or would like to see the print in person.
John Crawley
NAC Champion Member
MOVE ON OVER!
A Fundraiser for NAC
Thursday 11 February at 7PM
At the Kwong Chow
You need to get on this like white on rice!
In September we launched our pop-up dinner and entertainment series on the Thomas Craig Oliver Terrace right here at NAC. Seven courses of phenomenal cuisine followed by a wonderful performance by Niagara’s own accordion heartthrob Mark Lalama. Here’s what some of you said:
“Last nite’s event was smashing! We enjoyed every minute and every bite and every sip and every musical note! . . . and bonus—met some more wonderful St. Catharine’s people.”
“Wonderful evening, all around! You guys did a great job.”
“St. Catharines never had it so good. NAC does the unexpected and
consistently makes it extraordinary. Can’t wait to see what you do next.”
Well, that wait’s almost over. The next edition in NAC’s series of fine dining and knockout entertainment events is coming down the pike like a snow plough on full throttle!
Our generous chefs are back with us again to create our epicurean feast; Andrew McLeod and Kyle Paton of Bolete (soon opening downtown), and Adam Hynam-Smith of El Gastrónomo Vagabundo (the pioneering and award-wining food truck that’s rambled all over Niagara and the GTA these last five years). Since our last event, Chef McLeod placed second in PEI’s prestigious Garland International Chef Challenge. So let’s be real here, these are not only some of the best chefs in Niagara, there some of the best chefs anywhere!
Though we won’t be under the stars at NAC this time, we’ve found a venue a few doors down at our end of St. Paul that will provide the eclectic energy we thrive on.
The Kwong Chow is one of the oldest, continually operating restaurants in downtown St. Catharines, first opening its doors in 1981. It’s a brightly shining example of the classic Chinese/Canadian restaurant that was once ubiquitous in towns and cities of all sizes. The place is renowned among downtowners for its rare style: chandeliers, red velvet wallpaper, and a tabletop video game. The Kwong Chow—we are near certain—is also the last place on this earth where hamburgers and cheeseburgers are sold at the same price, we invite you to an alternate universe of free cheese!
Working from nothing more than a mention in passing, Wing and Soo, the Kwong Chow’s proprietors, have generously offered their restaurant as the host venue for our MOVE ON OVER fundraiser. That’s mighty neighbourly.
The event’s entertainment is sure to astonish, we guarantee it. However, for legal reasons, news of our headlining act must remain confidential at this time.
Seating is limited, buy your tickets early!
MOVE ON OVER! takes place on Thursday 10 December at the Kwong Chow Restaurant in downtown St. Catharines.
Tickets are $125 each. A charitable receipt of $60 will be issued for all tickets purchased.
THE SADIES
Presented by IndoorShoes & NAC
Friday 5 February 2016 8PM
Silver Spire Church, downtown St. Catharines
Formed in Toronto in 1994, the band has released 16 studio albums, including 2010’s Darker Circles, which the A.V. Club describes as, “…full of strong melodies, beautiful guitars, and the ghosts of a unsettled past” and which Under The Radar praises as, “…twangingly irresistible guitar interplay.”
$20 IN ADVANCE
8:00 PM | ALL AGES | LICENSED
Tickets: www.ticketfly.com/purchase/event/1040485
Physical tickets available at Mindbomb Records
Moving images by artist members of the Niagara Artists Centre.
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