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International Day Without Art


December 1 is World AIDS Day and International Day Without Art

A Declaration of loss:
Today we stand together.
Today we stand in silence.
Today we mourn the loss of painters, photographers, dancers, printers, actors, film makers, singers, choreographers, poets, sculptors, musicians, designers… all the artists who have died of AIDS.

Today we collectively grieve the loss of future work from recognized artists, as well as the absence of countless artists yet to be. Today we declare our loss.

December 1 is a Day without Art, an international day of observance which focuses attention on the profound impact AIDS has had on artists and the world arts community.

Since 1990, each year an increasing number of galleries, theatres, artist groups and individuals have participated in a vast array of commemorative events.

Day without Art celebrates the lives of colleagues and friends while mourning their loss in our creative communities.

Dec 1, 2011 DWA activities/commemorations include: gallery closings; shroudings of art; special art exhibitions; distribution of commemorative pins and handbills;
announcements on CJAM 99.1 fm; information campaigns; charitable contributions; and a joint World AIDS Day / Day Without Art public candlelight vigil at 7:00 pm at the Art Gallery of Windsor. The 2011 Windsor Day Without Art Collective are:

AIDS Committee of Windsor
Arts Council Windsor & Region
Artcite Inc.
Backroom Artists’ Collectives
Broken City Lab
CJAM Radio 99.1 fm
Common Ground Gallery
Made in Windsor
Media City Festival
Nobel Peace Project
U of W School Of Dramatic Art
U of W School of Visual Arts
U of W Visual Arts Society
Windsor’s Community Museum
Windsor Endowment for the Arts
Windsor Pride
Windsor Printmakers Forum
Windsor Symphony Orchestra

Please join the AIDS Committee of Windsor, the Art Gallery of Windsor
and the Windsor Day Without Art Collective in celebrating the lives of our
beloved friends and colleagues at a joint World AIDS Day / Day Without Art
Candlelight Vigil at 7:00 pm on December 1 at the Art Gallery of Windsor, 401 Riverside Dr. West, Windsor, ON.

Refreshments will be served; admission to the the vigil is FREE and open to all.

All are welcome!

For more information, download the poster: DWA poster 2011

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Tonight! CBC Windsor Hosting a Town Hall Meeting on Youth Retention

This might, or might not, actually answer a question attracting and retaining recent grads in Windsor, but either way, it should be interesting viewing. Given the people set to speak, it’s quite possible that there’s going to be a lot more of the same noise (well except for Vincent Georgie, there are a lot of good things coming from his efforts at Odette), but here’s hoping there’s a chance for the conversation to open to the floor where some more expansive ideas can start to be generated. My fingers are crossed that this doesn’t turn (exclusively) into a propaganda + complaint session, but instead actually becomes a productive forum for conversation.

CBC Windsor has been asking what it is the young, tech-savvy children of the Baby Boomers are looking for in a city – and whether Windsor has what it takes to attract and keep Generation Y.

On Tuesday, November 29, we’ll be bringing those young voices together for a special town hall hosted by CBC News Windsor at 6 anchor Susan Pedler and online host Greg Layson.

Joining in the conversation are Windsor Mayor Eddie Francis, City Councillor Al Maghnieh, Vincent Georgie from the Odette School of Business, Dave Bussière from Admissions and Recruitment at the University of Windsor and Michael Lomonaco from Open Systems Technology in Grand Rapids, MI.

Our audience will be encouraged to use their mobile devices during the event to chat with Greg, tweet (#cbcwdr), respond to others’ tweets, update their Facebook status or follow CBC at www.facebook.com/cbcwindsor.

The event will be a mix of taped stories, chat, and special guest panelists.

It all happens Tuesday, November 29th at 8:00 p.m. at the Capitol Theatre.

Good on CBC Windsor for pulling this together. I’d love to see this happen on a more regular occasion (well, this being a range of off-site and issue-driven programming). I’ve asked students from my class to go, and hopefully some other BCLers will join Sara (I think she said she was going). Unfortunately I won’t be able to make it, I’m giving a workshop on grant writing at the ACWR (tonight at 7pm).

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DX Salon Nights: In Conversation

Poster for DX Salon Night with BCL & DoUC

Michelle and Justin head up to Toronto on December 8th at 6:30pm at 234 Bay Street for an interview with the Department of Unusual Certainties, as part of the ongoing DX Salon Night.

Not familiar with the Design Exchange?

The Design Exchange (DX) is Canada’s design centre and museum with a mission to promote the value of design.  We are an internationally recognized non-profit educational organization committed to promoting greater awareness of design as well as the indispensable role it plays in fostering economic growth and cultural vitality.  We build bridges by improving communication between various design disciplines, educators, businesses and the general public through programs, exhibits, lectures, and workshops.

Yes, we’re excited. Hope you’ll join us.

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New Website is Up (but we’re working out the kinks)

RIP BCL v4

It felt like it was time for an update around here. With the winter coming, it seems right to have something a little brighter.

There’s also a bunch of new features that we’re still working out, so please be patient. All of our content is on here, somewhere. Let us know if you have any particular trouble finding things.

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Martha Street Studio Residency Day 3: Install & Exhibition

A quick three days at Martha Street Studio finished up with the opening for our exhibition, All the Stories We’re Not Telling About Winnipeg. The show features a series of posters made by participants from our workshops and created in response to the stories they collectively wrote.

The exhibition runs until January 5, 2012!

We have to extend an incredibly huge thank you to everyone at Martha Street Studio for facilitating this residency and exhibition. We were floored by the support we received there and were lucky enough to host some exceptionally great Winnipegers at our workshops.

Needless to say, we had a great time — and below is how it all came together.

Continue reading “Martha Street Studio Residency Day 3: Install & Exhibition”

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Martha Street Studio Residency Day 2: Another Day in Manisnowba

After a full night’s rest and a wholesome breakfast at The Tallest Poppy, we headed back to Martha Street Studio to formulate a game plan for our second work session and workshop later that evening. Knowing that we had an inordinate amount of work to do before our opening, we decided to spend the bulk of the day getting the visual material (posters) completed and ready to hang.

Our workshop participants from Monday night left us with a very good chronological story and a number of great Letraset statements on paper. Our intention is to combine the posters and text from both sessions into a body of work. We also had pockets of time to consider our exhibition layout and what we should include.

Pictured above is a rough layout of the workshop poster series colour options, each of which may or may not denote an emotion or theme.

Continue reading “Martha Street Studio Residency Day 2: Another Day in Manisnowba”

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Martha Street Studio Residency Day 1: Winnipeg / Winterpeg

Arriving in Winnipeg late Sunday night, we were met with our first taste of winter for the year. It seemed like the right introduction to Winnipeg. This residency and exhibition is all about exploring the narratives that are (and are not) circulated about the city of Winnipeg, and perhaps any story of Winnipeg should indeed begin with the winter.

Suzie from Martha Street Studio picked us up at the airport and gave us a quick driving tour before we settled in at MAWA‘s apartment. Monday morning, we headed in to Martha Street Studio and got started right away sorting through the materials and work spaces available to us.

Among many things, we also got (re)acquainted with silk screening, which is now officially one of our favourite things to do.

Continue reading “Martha Street Studio Residency Day 1: Winnipeg / Winterpeg”

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Next Week’s Adventure: Martha Street Studio in Winnipeg

Next week, Justin, Michelle and Josh will be stationed at Martha Street Studio in Winnipeg to do a quick residency involving workshops, walks, and a lot of on-the-ground research leading up to an exhibition.

In Winnipeg? Check out the Martha Street Studio facebook page for more event information!

Here’s the details:

Martha Street Studio houses an exhibition gallery open to the public 5 days a week from 10–5pm. Martha Street Studio also has an inventory of artists’ work for sale and an archive of work produced at the studio since 1988.

“All the Stories We’re Not Telling About Winnipeg”

We know a city from the stories we tell about the city. But, we can also know something about a city from the stories we don’t tell about it. Winnipeg is no different. Some of these stories we tell are about celebrating everything the community has to offer, while others are about all of the things that make the city a difficult place to love. However, there are still other stories that fall somewhere between the two, based on the personal narratives we all chart as we live, work, play, and move throughout the city. These stories of our everyday experiences are the ones that we don’t hear enough about.

You are invited to participate in the creation of a sprawling series of posters featuring the titles of all the stories Winnipeg isn’t telling, written by you. Facilitated by Broken City Lab, this workshop will begin with shared story telling, community mapping, and DIY design tactics and culminate in an exhibition at Martha Street Studio, of all the posters.

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WORKSHOP INFORMATION:

Monday, November 21st, 6-9pm
Tuesday, November 22nd, 6-9pm
Each workshop costs $10.
Sign up now, space is limited!
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EXHIBITION INFORMATION:

“All the Stories We’re Not Telling About Winnipeg”
Broken City Lab Exhibition at Martha Street Studio
Opening November 23rd 5-8pm
Exhibition runs November 24th-January 5th

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And, we’ll definitely be trying to blog as much as we can about the trip! More soon.

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Ephemeral Situations (fireworks & doves), Awarded

It’s always a bit strange to get so many random emails about great work, and so often there’s not enough time to really explore. Today, though, I’m glad I took a couple minutes to look this over.

The Szpilman Award is awarded to works that exist only for a moment or a short period of time. The purpose of the award is to promote such works whose forms consist of ephemeral situations.

Above, Péter Szabó lit fireworks and fired confetti-canons and smoke-machines for the workers who arrived early in the morning at factories and a bus-station in Romania and Hungary. As some of these factories were to be shut down soon, his labor of love towards the stressed and worried workers appears almost like an alien artistic ritual in the midst of a hopeless daily routine.

The winner of the award, Jaroslav Kyša uses doves as living barriers in the city of London by secretly scattering their favourite fodder in front of shops or across busy streets.