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In this edition of the Bulletin:

1. Get in Gear! June is membership month at NAC
2. New Work by William Griffiths in the Dennis Tourbin Members Gallery Saturday 18 June
3. Maureen Brown and Mike James on the TCO Terrace Saturday 18 June
4. Kanehsatake: 270 Years of Resistance: Free Screening at The Film House


Membership Month Assault Approaches Readiness

NAC’s elite administrative team is ready to pester the faithful and the uninitiated alike with a near incessant barrage of hounding in an effort to cajole every living soul our organization has ever encountered into signing up as a NAC member in this month of June.

In our age of marauding capitalism, the pledge to stand as a fellow of Niagara’s storied Artist-run Centre can only be accomplished by a cracking of the personal purse and the evacuation of at least $40, plus HST ($45.20).

Though the summer’s humidity may be owed in some part to the collective sighs these membership missives will prompt across Niagara, take heart! We have made a genuine effort to improve the ease of this exercise.

This membership drive is fully equipped to accept major credit cards online! You just login, drop your digits and expiry and you’re in! As well as a being a mindless means of transferring your hard-earned scratch, paying with credit also holds a seldom mentioned promise: Seeing as we teeter at the precipice of a global debt crash, there are real possibilities that before thirty days have transpired your obligations to NAC may be washed away in a unimaginable tidal flood of economic crisis. But, hey, you’ll be a NAC member in good-standing! Like the dinosaur dealmakers who still wander our world are fond of espousing, It’s a Win-Win!

The highlight of membership month is sure to be our open house on Saturday 25 June beginning at 7PM. The deal is members bring a friend(s) down to NAC, the board and staff show off all that NAC makes happen, and then we sign on some new members. By 9PM we’ll be up on the Thomas Craig Oliver Terrace for a set by Parisian sensation DJ Mo-Tang (Maud Rostaing). All free! All formidable!


New Work by William Griffiths

Dennis Tourbin Members Gallery at NAC
Opening Reception Saturday 18 June at 7PM
On display until Friday 8 July 2016
Artist Statement 
My art straddles two worlds: photography and painting. My inspiration, consciously or subconsciously, comes from the environment, and the allure found within. I am intrigued by the beauty in the natural world (landscapes, trees, rocks), as well as the beauty in man’s manufactured masses (metal, deteriorating structures, forgotten dwellings). I photograph overlooked objects, and use them as inspiration for abstract work. I strive to recreate the moment, and express what I see.

I use unorthodox materials, and experiment with different mediums to emulate the surfaces I see. I am constantly challenging myself, and inventing new ways to relate what I see. I search for methods outside the norm to express myself. I take the medium into unfamiliar practices, and push it to create a new language for itself. Colour, texture and depth are the tools I use to bridge unconventional and traditional acts of painting. By merging abstract and representational methods, I work to create mood and beauty

through transformation, similar to nature’s regeneration and structural decay. Leaving myself open to chance and mistakes gives way to new ideas, and this creative process is most important to me, regardless of the work’s final outcome.

William Griffiths
William was born and raised in St. Catharines, and he currently lives in Niagara Falls. Although he is a graduate of Sheridan College, in the Illustration program, he is a self-taught painter, and photographer. His work has been showcased in solo and group exhibitions, in Toronto, Montreal, Kelowna, San Francisco, and Madrid. He has also participated in several International Art Fairs. His work displays prominently in private and corporate collections.


MAUREEN BROWN + MIKE JAMES
Country Blues Night on NAC’s Thomas Craig Oliver Terrace
Saturday 18 June 2016
Doors at 8PM / Show at 9PM

Tickets: $15 in advance / $17 at the door (+HST)
Advance tickets available at Mindbomb Records and Niagara Artists Centre (NAC)

If You’ve Got the Time
I’m thrilled NAC’s presenting these two veteran musicians. Both are living locally and both have had storied careers as drummers, but they’re also mulit-faceted performing talents. Going to be another intimate and special night up on the Terrace. See you there.

overnout
S.

Stephen Remus
Minister of Energy, Minds, and Resources

Maureen Brown
With Dave Tufford on guitar and Dave Mullen on bass
Maureen Brown is a multi-award winning drummer, singer, (four-time Canadian Blues Drummer, three-time Mapleblues Female Vocalist of the Year nominee), bandleader, actor, artist, writer and recording artist. Maureen Brown has performed with such great artists as John Hammond, Otis Rush, Watermelon Slim, Big Mama Thornton, Richie Hayward, Oscar Peterson, Kim Wilson (The Fabulous Thunderbirds), and Ian Thomas, to name but a few. Fronting her own bands, Maureen also plays a ‘female’ washboard and enjoys the adventure behind the tubs. Living in St. Catharines, Maureen is actively performing.

Mike James
Mike has had a life in music. Born in Buffalo, he played his first pro gig as a drummer with a band called the Misfits at the age of thirteen. At fifteen, his next band was The New Breed (penciling in a moustache when they played bars). After moving to California in the late 60s, he was a founding member of legendary Buffalo hard-rockers Talas. He played drums for them for a year before touring with Jamie King Colton and then coming back to Buffalo and putting together Cock Robin. CR had a record deal with Amherst Records and Mike was with CR from 73 until 77 when he moved to Nashville. There he began working with RCA recording artist Chip Hawkes (of British invasion favourites The Tremeloes). Mike lived in Nashville until he met his wife on tour in Manitoba, they’ve been together thirty years. For the last few years Mike has been writing steady and performing on guitar. Active in Ft. Erie as the MC and host the Musician Night at The Crystal Chandelier in Crystal Beach, Mike recently moved to St. Catharines.


Kanehsatake: 270 Years of Resistence
Canada 1993. Directed by Alanis Obomsawin. 119 min. PG

Thursday 23 June 8PM at The Film House

The Niagara Artists Centre and the Audrey Shimizu Memorial Fund are the proud sponsors of a free public screening of Alanis Obomsawin’s Kanehsatake: 270 Years of Resistance as a celebration of National Aboriginal Day. This National Film Board documentary is a striking instance of indigenous filmmaking and storytelling that documents the 1990 military siege of a Mohawk reserve near Oka, Quebec. The Oka crisis was a defining moment in Canadian history and Obomsawin’s film is a masterpiece of on-the-ground documentary filmmaking.

GENERAL ADMISSION SEATING: 

This FREE screening is in support of National Aboriginal Day (June 21). We ask that you reserve your tickets through our website to avoid disappointment.


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