Thankfully, we’re closing the joint this weekend. There will be no gallery hours tomorrow, they’ll begin again on Wednesday. Everybody—relax.

over

S.

Stephen Remus
Director of Programming and Operations or Operations and Programming

2. Remnants
Fourteen drawings by Rob Elliott
Friday 16 October - Friday 6 November
Opening Reception Friday 16 October at 8pm

Rob Elliott's ink and gouache drawings bring to mind children's advertising and educational reading materials of the early 1970s. These images reminiscent of old confectionery ads and elementary school reading primers engage the viewer with their sinister humour and a playful sense of wit.

- from the artist’s statement

3. Like Light Off Water

The Minden DUO with Daphne Marlatt
Wednesday 28 October at 7pm
In the Pond Inlet, Brock University
General Admission $15 - general $10 - student

Celebrated Canadian poet Daphne Marlatt reads passages from her classic cycle of poems Steveston with an evocative soundscape composed and performed by Robert Minden & Carla Hallett.

Daphne Marlatt is an influential and daring writer author of over twenty-five books. For over three decades, she has explored different narrative structures and experimented with language and grammar to challenge literary customs as well as her readers’ expectations. Her long poem Steveston and her novel Ana Historic are considered classics of the Canadian canon. A founding editor of the bilingual journal Tessera, she is also admired for her contribution to feminist theory. Marlatt won the Dorothy Livesay Prize for Poetry and is a Member of the Order of Canada for her contributions to literature. She has spent most of life living on Canada's West Coast, and now lives in Vancouver.

The Robert Minden DUO is the creative partnership of Carla Hallett and Robert Minden. Working together, since 1986, in recording and performance projects, they formed the Duo in 1996 to explore an allusive world of storytelling and song. A relentless pursuit of the sonic possibilities of urban junk and children's toys inspires their creations. Recordings and live performance mix Minden's storytelling and Hallett's experimental vocals with uncommon acoustic instruments (musical saws, waterphones, toy piano, theremin, children's toys and found sounds) creating a dramatic mix. Their compelling sound was once described as the music of the, “the house band at the restaurant at the end of the universe.

“The music evokes the rippling and twinkling of water and light, together with haunting depictions of mysterious and erotic undercurrents mixed with the gentle beauty of the night sky.”
- Dianne Wells, The Whole Note Magazine, March 2009

“Like Light Off Water is a new kind of soundscape, the musical score of three psyches collaborating on what is certainly one of the great poems of the recent past.”
- Craig Tapping, Department of English,Vancouver Island University

4. Ex-Catholics Sought for Documentary

NAC member Blanca Lopez is directing a documentary about “recovering Catholics”. She wants to interview people who have left the Catholic Church. Are you willing to share your experience about leaving the church? Are you able to talk about dealing the guilt you feel having left the church? Share why you disagree with the doctrine and if your decision to leave the church has affected relationships with family & friends.

Email: recoveringcatholics@gmail.com

5. CRAM presents
Dos Grupos de Siete (+2) / Two Groups of Seven (+2)
An exchange exhibition between the Santiago de Cuba Cultural Factory "Luis Diaz Oduardo" and CRAM Collective
Mount Carmel, Chateau Park Museum & Art Centre - Niagara Falls, Canada

October 9 - 26, 2009

Opening Reception: Friday 9 October from 6 - 9 pm

The Cuban and Canadian artists in this exhibit exchange have attempted to address the environment as a broad but common starting point for their work. All the artists come with the understanding that ecological systems are dense, complex lattice-works of connections and relationships. The relationship that humankind now has with the natural world -- our place in the planet’s global ecosystem -- is governed by, and further complicated by, economic and political systems. In Canada, stands of ancient old growth red cedar are felled in Clayoquot Valley and exported to satisfy an American market, while in the Cuban city of Cienfuegos, tomatoes are grown in organoponicos (urban gardens) to provide what an American trade embargo has made scarce. As citizens of our two countries the points of entry in understanding the forces around environmental degradation and sustainability are vastly separated yet they are ultimately connected. The artists in these exhibitions have accepted the challenge to make these connections clear.

- from the catalogue essay by Stephen Remus

artistas de la huésped / Guest Artists: Jorge Luis Chávez Gomez, Vivian Lozano Caballero, Israel Tamayo Zamora, Miguel Angel Lobaina Borgues

+ artistas cubanos / Cuban Artists: Jorge J. Knight Vera, José Armando Medina Sabania, Orestes Larios Zaak, Gregorio Pérez Escobar.

CRAM Artistas / CRAM Artists: Melanie MacDonald, Ernest Harris, Jr., Carolyn Wren, Stephen Remus, Richard Litwiniuk, Sandy Fairbairn, Tobey C. Anderson, John Venditti

Mount Carmel, Chateau Park Museum & Art Centre
7021 Stanley Avenue, Niagara Falls, Ontario
Gallery Hours: Weekdays 9-4pm, Sat - Sun 10-3pm

Contact: Julia Packer info@chateaupark.ca www.chateaupark.ca 905-371-3922

Contact: Tobey C. Anderson http://www.cramart.ca/

6. The Wine King Float and Dominion
On display in the Show Room
Wednesday 30 September – end of November
Opening Reception Friday October at 8pm

This year's Niagara Wine Festival Parade had twice the royalty. Since 1952, the Grape King has ruled over the festival, but in 2009 the Wine King of Dominion City joined the parade on a float of his own. The Grape King didn’t have to worry about a battle for supremacy, however, the Wine King character and the community of Dominion are fictional creations of renowned Canadian cartoonist Seth.

The Niagara Artists Centre and its artist members teamed up with Seth and RENDER* to create a parade float from far away Dominion City, the mythical place where Seth's stories take place. The float featured the Wine King, a rotund wine lover about ten feet high, and a gathering of cartoon grape minions.

The float is now parked and on display in The Show Room of the Niagara Artists Centre. Exhibited with it is a scale model of Dominion City as well as historic images of the grandest days of the Grape & Wine Festival Parade. "The three things are a good fit," says NAC Director Stephen Remus. "Dominion is a throwback to the hay days of fifty years ago. A sense of those times that escapes nostalgia is pervasive in Seth's world. I think the Wine King offers us an opportunity to celebrate the history of our parade without being sentimental".

Born in Clinton, Ontario, Seth began work as a cartoonist in the mid 1980s. After over twenty years of artistic output, he's created a number of graphic novels and strips (including Clyde Fans, Wimbledon Green, and George Sprott), had his work featured three times on the cover of The New Yorker, contributed a twenty-five issue serial for the New York Times Magazine, and exhibited his Dominion City at the Art Gallery of Ontario. The exhibition component of the exhibit at NAC is being toured by RENDER and was curated by Andrew Hunter.

The Wine King Float and Dominion City will be on view in NAC's newly renovated Show Room from Wednesday 30 September until the end November. There will be an opening reception for the exhibition on Friday 16 October starting at 8pm.

*A program established in 2006 to shift the University of Waterloo Art Gallery’s focus to innovation. render.uwaterloo.ca

7. Global Day of Climate Action Change

The Niagara Region’s Earth Beat Drum Circle is teaming up with OPIRG ( Ontario Public Interest Research Group) and CLIMATE ACTION NIAGARA (CAN) to support the 350.org Global Day of Climate Action Change.We are allied with thousands of other groups in over one hundred countries to support positive community action for global warming issues. We are seeking volunteers from among NAC membership to take the lead on creating some signage for the event. We require one or two banners saying simply "350" or "350.org" to be hung inside and outside the venue location at 73 St. Paul Street. We would also like portable, "weather resistant" numbers -- a 3, a 5 and a 0 -- that can be used in photo ops around the downtown core. Anyone interested in participating in, learning more about, or helping with the event is asked to contact Andrew Urlocker at 905-984-5431 or at urlocker.aj@gmail.com.