In this edition of The Bulletin:
- Call for Submissions for NAC’s Flea Market Gallery
- Move on Over! Kwong Chow Edition: Thurs 11 Feb
- NAC Member Marinko Jareb: Reinventing the Wheel: Thurs 28 Jan
- STILT CITY Prints for Sale!
- Downtown Talking Circle: Thurs 21 Jan
- The Sadies at Silver Spire Church: Fri 5 Feb
- BBoyizm at the FirstOntario Performing Arts Centre: Sat 6 Feb
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
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.
REINVENTING THE WHEEL
20 years of skateboard culture!
By NAC Member Marinko Jareb
Preview Thursday 28 January 6-10PM
Exhibition reception and performances Friday 29 January 6PM-12AM
Keystone Gallery: 101 Niagara Street, Toronto
This solo show is a retrospective of 20 years worth of skateboard inspired and influenced art by Marinko Marinkov aka *** aka Marinko Jareb aka sk8-master-b8 ;)
FRIDAY 29 JANUARY is the exhibition from 6-12, featuring audio and video performances by the artist and DJ DOUBLE DRAGON.
The artwork is up for all of December and January and can be viewed from the street view gallery, or by appointment – to arrange an appointment, info can be found at www.thekeystonegallery.com
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
Confluence Field Trips + Start Me Up Niagara invite you to a
Downtown Talking Circle*
Thursday 21 January 7PM
Start Me Up Niagara
17 Gale Crescent, St. Catharines
Who has been displaced by downtown revitalization and what supports are in place?
How can we have both downtown revitalization and better social justice?
What roles can the arts play?
Food Not Bombs will be serving.
*In a talking circle, one person speaks while the others listen. Speaker order moves around the circle. (You don’t have to speak if you want only to listen.)
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.
BBOYIZM: MUSIC CREATES OPPORTUNITY
FirstOntario Performing Arts Centre > Partridge Hall
Saturday 6 February 2016
Choreographer Crazy Smooth’s Music Creates Opportunity takes precise and mastered techniques and incorporates principles of contact improvisation, always within the context of street dance. The result is an hour-long celebration of dance, music and life featuring traditional street dances including rocking, b-boying, house dancing and pantsula, a street dance from Soweto, South Africa. We dare you sit still in your seat.
“The performers are accomplished street dancers and the energy is high! The audience leapt to their feet.” – Live Art Production
MORE INFORMATION
Crazy Smooth’s follow up from his extensive Canadian tour is a new street dance creation that increases the level of contemporary urban dance. Smooth continues to explore themes of personal expression through authentic street dance while pushing the boundaries of this increasingly popular art form. Music Creates Opportunity builds on that foundation, taking precise and mastered technique and incorporating partnering and principles of contact improvisation. The result is an hour-long explosion of movement that brings synchronicity and individualism together in a celebration of dance, music, and life.
PAC Members: $29.75 Children: $25 Regular: $35
** PAC MEMBERS BRING YOUR FRIENDS FOR FREE! **
