1. Alone Together
Video installation
Farheen HaQ
Saturday 3 May - Saturday 14 June
Opening Reception:
Sunday 4 May at 2pm
The Niagara Artists’ Centre is pleased to present a homecoming exhibition of work by video artist Farheen HaQ. Now living in Victoria BC, Farheen is originally from St. Catharines and attended Sir Wintson High School where she studied under NAC member and Laura Sabia award winner Carolyn Wren. She has quickly established a name for herself as an emerging contemporary visual artist to watch, having shown in Los Angeles, New York, Toronto, and Vancouver.
“NAC is excited to bring Farheen back to St. Catharines and celebrate her work,” says Director Stephen Remus. “Farheen has demonstrated that our regional arts community produces artists with voices that are relevant in the larger international art milieu.”
Farheen uses herself as the subject of her video and photo-based work as she investigates the body as a site of struggle between coded systems of ritual and gender.
“Women’s bodies are wrapped up in many layers of codes. My video and performance work is a medium through which I come to understand my own body and perform my gender as a struggle,” explains Farheen.
Farheen will bring to NAC two single channel video installations: two large projected pieces entitled “Homing” and "Adrift" and a piece presented on a triptych of smaller monitors called, “Remember.”
This exhibition is supported by the Audrey Shimizu Fund. Audrey was a NAC member best known for her work about ecology and the environment. In her memory, family and friends created a donor designated endowment fund held by the Niagara Community Foundation that annually contributes to the payment of exhibition fees for women artists showing at NAC.
To view more of Farheen’s work visit www.farheenhaq.com
2. International Workers' Day Exhibit and Celebration
Presented by the St. Catharines & District Labour Council, the Niagara Artists' Centre, & the Centre for Labour Studies at Brock.
Saturday 3 May at 7pm - $5
At the Niagara Artists’ Centre
A celebration of international labour with an exhibit of work by NAC members that will be sold at silent auction. Two prizes of $250 and $150 will also be awarded by a jury. The event will be licensed with special musical guests Dave Bidini, Anne Feeney, and Red River Rebellion.
About the Musicians:
Dave Bidini
Dave Bidini is a singer, songwriter and guitarist. He was a founding member of the popular band Rheostatics. After 20 years together, the band played its final concert in the spring of 2007. Dave is also a prolific author, who often writes about music and sports. On A Cold Road: Tales of Adventure in Canadian Rock, his first book, is based on a cross-country tour the Rheostatics did with The Tragically Hip. For Tropic of Hockey: My Search for the Game in Unlikely Places, he interviewed professional hockey players in far-flung places, including Romania, Hong Kong and the Middle East. His other titles include The Best Game You Can Name and Baseballissimo. Dave’s two most recent books, Around the World in 57½ Gigs and For Those About to Write, were published in fall 2007.
www.davebidini.ca
Anne Feeney
Pittsburgh-based agitator Anne Feeney performs music that she says is designed to “comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable.” Not many women have chosen to walk the path of Woody Guthrie, but Feeney’s made a career of it for the past 35 years. She has lived her life on the frontlines – performing at thousands of rallies, picket lines and demonstrations over the years – including the WTO demonstrations in Seattle, Solidarity Day in Washington, DC, and for 1.5 million at the April 25, 2004 March for Women’s Lives. Feeney’s bottomless songbag draws on Irish, bluegrass, traditional, labor, pop, folk and contemporary material. She’s as likely to sing a traditional song or an obscure gem by one of her many friends in the singer/songwriter circuit as she is one of her own award-winning songs. Feeney’s anthem, “Have You Been to Jail for Justice?” is featured on Peter, Paul and Mary’s CD, “In These Times,” and also on “Carry It On,” – their 5 CD boxed set. While Feeney may prefer the excitement of performances at rallies and demonstrations, she knows that many of her fans prefer pepper-spray free environments to listen to the songs and stories that make up her sometimes caustic, sometimes hilarious, always inspiring show.
www.annefeeney.com
Red River Rebellion
www.myspace.com/redriverrebellionmusic
3. Call For Submissions
Make a Face
Theatre Beyond Words
Fundraiser
Open call to artists!
Theatre Beyond Words is calling all Niagara Artists, both professional and student, to submit entries to the 2008 Make a Face mask live & silent auction to be held Friday, June 6, 2008 at 7:30pm located at the Niagara Artists Centre in downtown St Catharines. Continuing on the highly successful Mask-R-Aide in 2006 where 28 imaginative masks were created and juried; this year’s Make a Face will give 50% of the auction bid back to the artist! Here’s your chance to make a mask to help raise funds for you and Theatre Beyond Words!
Prizes:
Professional Artists: 1st Prize - $200.00 2nd Prize - $125.00 3rd Prize - $75.00 People’s Choice - $75.00
Students: 1st Prize - $100.00 2nd Prize - $75.00 3rd Prize - $50.00 People’s Choice - $50.00
Download this PDF for more information.
Theatre Beyond Words
145 King Street - St. Catharines
L2R-3J2 - Ontario - Canada
905-687-4896
info@theatrebeyondwords.com
4. Call For Submissions
Niagara Indie Film Fest
Niagara’s National Short Film and Video Festival
The Niagara Indie Film Fest is a national artist-run competition created to showcase emerging Canadian short film and video works. The festival is designed to encourage independent production and to provide a forum for filmmakers and cinema buffs to meet and interact.
Entry Deadlines
Independent – Friday 16 May 2008
Student – Friday 9 May 2008
Categories – Comedy, Drama, Documentary, Animation, Experimental
More information and downloadable forms available at www.niagaraindiefilmfest.org
5. The Big Time Speakeasy
Suitcase in Point's 2nd Annual Fundraiser
Friday May 2nd Doors @ 8pm, Show @ 9pm
The First United Church, 95 Church Street, St. Catharines
(Corner of Church and Clarke)
It's the 1920s and prohibition has spread like wildfire! St. Catharines has gone dry. Never fear, Suitcase in Point's on the up and up! Grab your glad rags and get your wiggle on at The Big Time Speakeasy in a (not so secret) secret location! Sling back some giggle water, and get spifficated! Enjoy live music, dancing and a variety of special performances, featuring Dave Clark's Woodshed Orchestra. Be sure to bring your wad of clams for the most silent, silent auction ever! Shhhh! (Tell everyone you know). Shhhh!
Tickets $10
Available at Strega Café, The Office Tap & Grill, Pan Café, and on the handshake streets of St. Kitts
Call 905-228-1353 or info@suitcaseinpoint.com
Password required for entry and available upon purchase of a ticket.
6. Nuts - Another Mixed Bag
Sheldon Rooney at CRAM
May 9 - 27, 2008
Opening Reception: Friday, May 9th, 8:00 pm
Pastel and ink drawings done over the winter to combat the gloom. And a balm for my addiction to The News Hour With Jim Lehrer. In contrast to writing a book about a psychotic pen salesman and making up songs about gambling women who fight and the first Wal Mart Church. After taking up the spirit of another dead hero and continuing the good fight. You might ask yourself, WTF? This is good. R.I.P. Kurt Vonnegut.
The CRAMplex
www.cramart.ca
24 James Street - 2nd Floor
downtown St. Catharines - The Garden City of Niagara
between Christopher's Magazines & Smoke Shop and The Office Tap & Grill
Ontario, Canada
Contact: Tobey C. Anderson
Mobile: 905.380.3910
info@cramart.ca
Hours: when the sandwich board is out and by appointment.
Events catered by The Office Tap & Grill
7. Spring & Summer 2008 Art Classes
Rodman Hall Arts Centre
109 St. Paul Crescent
St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada L2S 1M3
Registration begins Monday, April 21 at 11 a.m. through the Centre for the Arts Box Office.
Whether you're looking for evening classes or weekend workshops for yourself, or after-school classes or summer camps for your kids, Rodman Hall is the place to be this Spring and Summer!
All of our classes are instructed by local professional artists. We keep our classes small so you can benefit from individual instruction - but this means that space is limited, so register early!
For full course listings, visit our website:
www.brocku.ca/rodmanhall/education
To register by phone, contact the Centre for the Arts Box Office: 905.688.5550 ext. 3257, or register online at
www.arts.brocku.ca