I hope you all had a great long weekend, a great launch to your summer. Did you get to take in some of the amazing arts happenings around town? Well there’s even more on the go this week and it’s all here in the Arts Round Up.
Not To Be Missed: La Chambre
TRUCK Contemporary Art’s current show La Chambre features the mesmerizing work of Jacinthe Lessard-L. who uses silicone to create moulds of vintage camera interiors.
Photos by Amy Jo Espetveidt, Quadrophonic Image
An example of one of the moulds.
I know I told you about the opening of La Chambre at TRUCK Contemporary Art last week. But if you didn’t make it to the show yet, you must. You really must.
I got to have a sneak peak before heading camping for the long weekend and if you too went away, you really should make time to see this show before it closes in June.
Artist Jacinthe Lessard-L. uses the interiors of different cameras and moulded them using silicone. She then took the shape, which varies from looking like a pyramid to a broken children’s toy, and photographed the product.
“I was interested in the space, the interior space of the cameras,” Jacinthe explains. “I was seeing it become smaller and smaller with the advancement of technology, digital cameras and stuff like that. This space has been so important in art history and linking photography with the history of painting and other forms.”
She says she was intrigued by the development of photography and the space itself that makes the image. So she collected different cameras – which one is which remains unlabeled to add to the playfulness of the work – and poured silicone into the bodies. When she extracted the pieces, the camera was unusable to create more images, but created something physical instead.
“Looking at photography, yet destroying the camera,” she says. “I wanted to look at the space where the images were forming themselves.”
La Chambre runs until June 14 at TRUCK Contemporary Art’s Main Gallery (2009 10 Ave SW).
Kick off Spring with Award Winning Musical
The lawns are greening up and the flowers are starting to bloom. It can only mean one thing, spring. And why not celebrate our short season with a musical?
Artists’ Collective Theatre is presenting the Tony Award winning Best Musical Spring Awakening this week at the Pumphouse Theatre.
Based on the infamous 1891 Frank Wedekind play, the show tells the story of self-discovery and budding sexuality as seen through the eyes of three teenagers.
Featuring a cast of local established and emerging artists including Tory Doctor, Eric Wigston, Kathleen Fullerton, Stefanie Lis, Kelsey Flower and Lara Zalusk, the show is directed by the company’s founder, the amazingly talented Amanda Liz Cutting.
“It is truly the most talked about new musical,” says Amanda. “We are so lucky to have the opportunity to showcase it for the first time in Calgary!”
Spring Awakening runs at the Pumphouse Theatre May 21 to 31. The show contains mature themes, sexual situations and strong language. Details here.
Workshop with guitar aficionado and pedagogue Jeff Gunn
Guitarist Jeff Gunn
Photo by Allison Eastman-Love
Attention guitar gods and those who just want to be better.
Toronto based guitar guru Jeff Gunn is coming to Calgary as part of his Hidden Sounds/Hidden Self workshops. Presented by Mayfair Music Publications and Long & McQuade the May 20 Calgary workshop will highlight key musical ideas from his book series Hidden Sounds: Discover Your Own Method On Guitar.
Jeff will be examining 10 life lessons learned through musical study and performance along side personal stories from his own journey as a guitarist, arranger, songwriter, columnist, author and professor.
“After traveling to more than 100 countries around the world and discovering new sounds and new approaches to music I am thrilled to have opportunity to share my musical discoveries on the guitar with audiences of all ages across Canada,” he says. “Together we will explore the hidden sounds of the guitar by using a range of positioning, artificial harmonic, simulation and percussive techniques.”
The interactive two-hour workshop is free but RSVP is required. Q&A and book signing to follow. Participants are encouraged to bring their guitar.
New at the Glenbow
Imaging seeing a painting by Salvador Dali that is so big, the museum presenting it had to build a special cove to accommodate it?
A whole crop of new shows is gearing up to debut at the Glenbow Museum and the first one up is Masterworks from the Beaverbrook Art Gallery that features the giant 13 x 10 foot Santiago El Grande (1957).
The show showcases the legacy of multi-millionaire business tycoon and philanthropist, Lord Beaverbrook and presents 75 paintings by world-renowned artists from the fifteenth to twentieth century – Eugene Delacroix’s Lady Macbeth Sleepwalking (1850), Henri Matisse’s ink study Leda (1945) and three works by surrealist master Salvador Dali. Prominent historical Canadian artists in the exhibition include Emily Carr, Lawren Harris, Franklin Carmichael, Robert Harris and J.W. Morrice.
This marks the first time this collection has been shown in Canada outside of the Beaverbrook Gallery in Fredericton.
Masterworks from the Beaverbrook Art Gallery runs May 24 to August 24 at the Glenbow Museum.
Fall in Love With Words Again
If you love reading, books, thoughts and the like, this is a great week to be in Calgary.
There’s a bunch of different literary events going around town picking just one might prove too much.
Like the next TEDxCalgary Community Meetup is taking place at Shelf Life Books (1302 4 St SW) on May 23 at 7pm. They’ll be showing two talks at the event (so don’t worry about watching them in advance), and discussing the connections between creativity and vulnerability. Details here.
In fact, Shelf Life Books is a great place to be this week.
There’s the Judgement Game Interactive Book Launch Charalee Graydon on May 21 at 7pm – an opportunity to play a role in the judicial system of a fictional country – and their monthly Happy Endings reading on May 23 at 8pm – featuring readings by Dan Perry, Annalise Klingbeil, Brittany Lyseng and Scoot Laird.
There’s also the CBC – Calgary Reads Annual Book Sale this weekend at the Calgary Curling Club.
Things are being done a bit differently this year with the sale only running Friday and Saturday and include a Late Night Date Night shopping with a cash bar and live music.
And If you want to go #bananas4books at the sale, you can enter their Twitter contest for a 30-second chance to fill up a wheelbarrow full of free books. It’s easy to enter, just post a tweet with the hashtag #bananas4books, mention and follow Calgary Reads on Twitter. Complete rules here.
CBC – Calgary Reads Annual Book Sale goes down May 23 and 24 at the Calgary Curling Club. Admission is $2 and kids under 12 get in free.
There’s also the launch of Glenbow Librarian Jennifer Hamblin’s new book, CALGARY’S STAMPEDE QUEENS – which you are all invited to attend – on May 21 at 7pm in the museum’s Library and Archieves. RSVP here.
And you’re running out of time to vote for the winner of the $10,000 Alberta Readers’ Choice Award.
A team of librarians selected a longlist of ten books by Alberta authors, then a jury whittled that number down to five finalists and now it’s your turn to vote for the winner.
The vote closes at 11:59pm on May 31 with the winner announced at the Alberta Literary Awards gala in Calgary on June 6.
See? Great week to be a word lover.
Beakerhead Break
We here at Calgary is Awesome love stuff that makes our wonderful city even cooler and one of those is Beakerhead.
The inaugural gathering of all things art, science and engineering took place last year and it’s slated to return and rock the streets of Calgary again this September. And they want you!
Right now they have a couple of call outs open (email for more info) – Create an Art Car or an Art Bike and Build a Creative and Cathartic Catapult.
Plus they’re always looking for clever inventions and ingenious artworks. Why keep it in your backyard, when you could bring your contraptions to exhibit at Beakerhead? You can even sign up to be a volunteer – they’re now recruiting people of all ages and skill sets to help with the event.
Beakerhead hits the streets of Calgary this September 10 to 14 and keep an eye out as the team gears up to launch their program next month.
BANG ON!
Arts Out and About
Still need some more to fill your calendar? Not to fret, there’s more yet…
I THINK OF YOU ON MOUNTAINTOPS is Mary Rothlisberger’s exploration of North American landscapes and communities and opens this week at The New Gallery.
Photo courtesy of The New Gallery
Over at The New Gallery Mary Rothlisberger’s I THINK OF YOU ON MOUNTAINTOPS explores large spaces in small ways.
After her recent stint at the John Snow House, Mary used her proximity to the Rockies to add to what began as a mobile journey of road residencies throughout North America’s mountain ranges. The show and her work consists of series of photographs, notes, maps, and drawings propelled by stories of awareness and interaction embodied by the landscape.
I THINK OF YOU ON MOUNTAINTOPS runs Friday, May 23 to Saturday, June 21 at The New Gallery (208 Centre Street SE) with an opening reception this Friday at 8pm.
The University of Calgary is helping to launch a new book that evolved from the work done as curators of the 2013 retrospective of Marion Nicoll’s work with an accompanying exhibition.
Nicoll – the first female instructor at the Provincial Institute of Art and Technology now the Alberta College of Art and Design – is best known for bringing abstraction into practice in Alberta.
This Thursday, May 22, author Elizabeth Herbert will launch Marion Nicoll: Silence and Alchemy, published by the University of Calgary Press. Herbert co-wrote the book with Ann Davis and, as an Open Access publisher, the University of Calgary Press has made the book available for free download.
Along side the launch is the opening reception for Fine Lines: Drawings from the Nickle Collection and the Mackie Donation, which features 130 pieces by Canadian artists including Marion Nicoll. The pieces were donated by Calgary artist and University of Calgary fine arts graduate Helen Mackie.
The event is free and open to the public. The book can be purchased at the event with the author available for signings.
Marion Nicoll: Silence and Alchemy book launch and the opening reception for Fine Lines take place May 22 from 5pm to 8pm at the UofC’s Gallery Hall and the Nickle Galleries, Taylor Family Digital Library (410 University Court NW).
Join Lindsay Kupser alongside some of Calgary’s finest emerging talent for Lindsay Kupser and Friends: a celebration of Calgarian musicians and artists.
Photo by J. Shia
The same night sees local singer-songwriter Lindsay Kupser and her curated evening of Calgary’s finest emerging talent.
Lindsay Kupser and Friends: a celebration of Calgarian musicians and artists will be taking over the
Leacock Theatre at Mount Royal University this Thursday May 22 for an art sale, reception and concert.
Although Lindsay currently lives in Boston, she’s returning home to launch her new EP while sharing the stage with some this city’s most promising emerging talent in an attempt to create more awareness for the next crop of talent merging onto the local music scene.
On hand will be six musicians ranging from bluegrass to pop (Doll Sisters, Robbie Bankes, Mariel Buckley,Francis Cheer, Ruben Young & Aaron Pollock and Kirsten Ludwig), one spoken word poet (Carley Mayson) and five visual artists (Katie Green, Celeste Christy, Melissa Skowron, Katya Worbets and John Francis Gerrard).
“All of these talented young people are at the heart of the Calgary art scene and are innovators in their field,” Lindsay says.
The concert will feature two song sets from each invited music act and an art show and sale alongside a live on-site painting to be auctioned off during the event. Lindsay will also be performing songs from the newly recorded The Boston EP for the first time live in Calgary.
“I’m very excited about performing in my hometown for friends, family and Calgary’s arts community,” Lindsay says. “But largely, the concert’s purpose is to support the talented Calgarians also taking part.”
It all gets underway at 6pm and all the details can be found here.
For film fans, Calgary Society of Independent Filmmakers’ Summer 2014 Secret Cinema series launches this week.
Back in1997 CSIF acquired an extensive library of over 2500 Super 8mm and 16mm films from the Calgary Public Library and every month in the summer they invite a member to curate an evening of film.
The screenings are free, held outdoors in our cozy courtyard and sometimes feature surprise musical guests. The only catch is that for copyright reasons they can’t disclose the name of the film until you see it.
Calgary Society of Independent Filmmakers’ Summer 2014 Secret Cinema series kicks off on Tuesday, May 20 at 9pm with a night curated by Carl Spencer.
Another great ticket this week is ImaginASIAN 2014 – a series of events put on by the Asian Heritage Foundation – and their Festival Market.
The presentation of pan-Asian arts, crafts, entertainment, displays, interactive activities and food takes over the Chinese Cultural Center this Saturday, May 24 from 12pm to 5pm. All the details can be found here.
For musical lovers, The Centre for Performing and Visual Arts at Central Memorial High School will be running Sound of Music (A Musical).
All actors in this musical performance are full time high school students enrolled in PVA, a program designed to give students from across the Calgary region an enriched three year experience in visual art, dance, theatre arts or music.
This show brings all their fresh talent together to present one of the world’s most beloved musicals.
Sound of Music (A Musical) runs May 20 to 25 at Central Memorial High School (5111 21 St. SW). Details here.
And last, but not least, is a community workshop with artist Adad Hannah.
Put on by The City of Calgary’s Public Art Program, the fun, free, hands-on workshop to creatively explore the concepts of form, shape and space as they relate to us as individuals and as a community.
Adad is the artist commissioned to create public art for the new Quarry Park Recreation Facility (108 Quarry Park Road SE) and will use the information and ideas shared at this workshop to help him determine the final design of the large-scale, permanent public art installation at the centre. Community Workshop with Artist Adad Hannah takes place Wednesday, May 21 from 5:30pm to 8pm at Riverbend Community Association (19 Rivervalley Dr SE). It’s free to attend but an RSVP is required.
Do you have something awesome coming up and want to be part of the Calgary Arts Round Up? Drop me a line at amy @ calgaryisawesome.com!