In this edition of The Bulletin:
- STILT CITY Prints for Sale
- The Curse of Clara: Thurs 17 Dec 7PM at NAC > Tomorrow Night!
- NAC’s Annual General Meeting: Sat 19 Dec 2PM at NAC
- A New Place to Dwell: 8MM Film Mashup + Live Music: Sat 19 Dec 8:30PM at NAC
- Call for Submissions for NAC’s Flea Market Gallery
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
The Curse of Clara
Special Niagara Screening
Based on the autobiographical short story by Vickie Fagan
THURSDAY 17 DECEMBER – TOMORROW NIGHT!
DOORS at 7PM / SCREENING at 7:30PM
When small-town girl Vickie is accepted into the prestigious National Ballet School and selected to play “Clara” in the Company’s holiday production of The Nutcracker, things look like they couldn’t get any better. And they can’t, because that’s when Vickie finds out about the mysterious Curse of Clara. Thankfully, she’s got a good friend, the 1972 Summit Series and an imaginary mentor (in the form of Phil Esposito) to keep her “on pointe.” Starring Saara Chaudry, Sara Botsford, Sheila McCarthy, Karen Kain, Bob Cole, and Phil Esposito.
THE CURSE OF CLARA: A HOLIDAY TALE is a new original animated special airing on CBC-TV in December as part of its holiday programming lineup. A young dancer’s dreams come true when ballet, hockey and the holidays converge.
Inspired by the autobiographical short story “The Curse of Clara or My Big Fat Disappointment” by Vickie Fagan, the 30-minute special is set against the backdrop of The National Ballet of Canada’s Nutcracker and the 1972 Summit Series, a Canada-USSR showdown that shaped hockey history.
THE CURSE OF CLARA: A HOLIDAY TALE stars Hockey Hall of Fame inductees Phil Esposito and Bob Cole (Hockey Night in Canada) and National Ballet of Canada Prima Ballerina Karen Kain as themselves with Sheila McCarthy (Little Mosque on the Prairie, Emily of New Moon) as the narrator, Sara Botsford (E.N.G., Legal Eagles, Still of the Night) as the ballet mistress and Saara Chaudry (Max and Shred, Degrassi) in the roles of Vickie and Clara.
www.curseofclara.com
NAC’s Annual General Meeting
Saturday 19 December at 2pm
At the Niagara Artists Centre – It’s a potluck!
All members are encouraged to attend this scintillating review of the activities of the last year. Highlights include power point, motions, election of the board directors, and adjournment. A bag of chips has sufficed as a contribution to the buffet in the past, but some members actually try.
A NEW PLACE TO DWELL
Saturday 19 December at 9PM
Sound + Vision at NAC
Doors Open at 8:30PM / Show begins at 9PM
ONE HOUR SHOW! LICENSED EVENT!
Pay-what-you-can / suggested $10
Live Music by SEVERAL FUTURES
Super 8 Film Mashup by Jonathan Culp
A New Place To Dwell is a live multi-screen Super 8 film mashup, with driving accompaniment from Toronto avant-rock band Several Futures. This one hour performance features dozens of one-of-a-kind film clips from the “orphan film” archives of Jonathan Culp – from horror movies to home movies, from living rooms to dance floors. Projected on three 50-year-old Technicolor loop projectors, these images are orchestrated into a bizarre, kinetic journey through the 20th century camera’s gaze.
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
