Back in the day (the mid-18th century day) the education of young women in North America involved learning to create a variety of embroideries. The first project completed by most girls was a sampler of stitches that would serve as a guide for later projects. It was the notion of a sampler that served as the jumping off point for the embroidery workshop at KW|AG. For the workshop, ’Intro to Embroidery’ (Saturday, March 2, 2013), I wanted to create a project suitable for first-time stitchers, something that would allow them to practice several basic stitches but that put a contemporary spin on “girlhood samplers”. We stitched directly onto fabrics donated to us by several KW|AG staffers, outlining and filling in the details of the floral chintz patterns. Each participant took a fresh approach: some aimed to disguise their stitches by matching the colours exactly, while others tried to obliterate the existing pattern with bold colour choices.

Four hours of stitching flew by – at the end of the afternoon we were all commenting that we could have spent an entire day (or weekend!) working away on our samplers. There were moments of total silence when everyone was completely engrossed in what they were doing, punctuated with spirited conversation and the occasional exclamation, “my French Knots aren’t working!” We experimented with cotton, silk, and wool threads. Favourites quickly emerged amongst the stitchers: you can cover a lot of territory with wool but nothing beats the sheen of silk!

For inspiration we looked at the work of some contemporary artists using embroidery in their practices. Check out their work: Jenny Hart, Ghada Amer, Cayce Zavaglia, Megan Whitmarsh, Lauren DiCioccio, Heather Cameron, David R. Harper.

 

David R. Harper, I Tried and I Tried and I Tried, 2012, giclee print on canvas, cotton embroidery floss.

KW|AG is currently exhibiting David R. Harper’s work in Entre le chien et le loup. The exhibition runs through Sunday August 18, 2013. Come to the gallery and see how he uses embroidery in his practice.

Next we will be working on our knitting skills with Janet Morton in her ‘Experimenting with Knitting’ workshop, which takes place at the Gallery on Saturday, June 15 from 12 – 4 pm. Artist Janet Morton will teach basic knitting techniques; casting on and off, increasing and decreasing and how to work free from patterns.  Experiment with the sculptural potential of knitting and play with non-traditional materials, or scale, or apply your new skills to make something functional.  Materials included; feel free to bring your own needles.  Suitable for beginners and experienced knitters. Registration is required and the class is $45 +HST.

by Kate Carder-Thompson, School Programs Coordinator, KW|AG

During the run of our winter exhibitions, we have had a flurry of programming happening at the Kitchener-Waterloo Art Gallery.

At the end of last month, we heard from Krystina Mierins and Bill Clarke as part of our our Off Topic series. Inspired by Jane Buyer’s impulse to collect, as seen in her exhibition Gather… Arrange… Maintain, our February Off Topic was all about collections.

Krystina Mierins gave us a history of Andrew Carnegie’s extraordinary and ambitious collection of architectural casts which he amassed for the Hall of Architecture at the Carnegie Museum of Art in Pittsburgh. Opened in 1907, the Hall of Architecture was established as an education gallery for citizens of Pittsburgh who might not otherwise have the opportunity to see many of the world’s great architectural masterpieces. Carnegie collected reproductions and casts of buildings, from the Porch of the Maidens on the Acropolis in Greece to the façade of St.-Gilles-du-Gard in southern France.

To offer us an introduction into the “art” of collecting contemporary art, avid collector Bill Clarke regaled us with stories of everything from his first purchase (a Luis Jacob print), to acquiring works by every member of the Royal Art Lodge, to strategies for finding affordable original art. His best words of advice? Buy what you love and spend a lot of time looking at art to find out what that is.

The week before, the Gallery was host to our colleagues at the Lost & Found theatre, who presented a dramatic reading of Look, a play by local playwright Gary Kirkham, and a film version of the same work by Peter Conrad, entitled Invitation in its cinematic form. During the question and answer period, the playwright and filmmaker explored how the different media prompted drastically different adaptations of a story about an artist who kidnaps the art critic who gave his work a not-so-great review. The cinematic version takes a very dramatic, haunting approach to the story; here, the critiqued painting takes centre stage as a character in the film. The play, on the other hand, takes the form of a more personal, yet intense conversational exchange between two creatives.

What new topics will our programming be exploring? Coming up this spring, be sure to check out our next Off Topic on April 4^th at 7pm to complement our upcoming Expressions 38 exhibition. Both Darren O’Donnell and Soheila Esfahani will tell us about their innovative art projects done in collaboration with youth. We’re also continuing our Contemporary Art 101 lunchtime lecture series, which will be offered every Thursday in April at 12 noon.

By: Nicole Neufeld, Director of Public Programs, KW|AG.

Soheila K. Esfahani, My Place is Placeless, installation view.

At a recent Curator’s Circle event, artist Soheila Esfahani talked about the evolution and transitions in her work, leading to her current installation in the Eastman Gallery, My Place is Placeless, part of the Ornamental Boundaries exhibition, which also features the work of Brendan Tang.

As an undergraduate student in the Fine Arts department at the University of Waterloo, Soheila was encouraged by professors Doug Kirton and Art Green to pursue her interest in the art of writing, particularly the calligraphic script of her mother tongue, Farsi. It became a way to connect with her past.

As her paintings moved towards abstraction she began exploring “the negative spaces in between, searching for something that is not attainable. Not being able to reach it is motivating …the mapping of a quest.” In the process she also began to switch the conceptual bar of her work, abandoning painting in favour of more ephemeral materials. She transitioned to writing on acrylic, playing with the shadows created by the technique, then moved to Mylar cut-outs of imitation Farsi texts.

A volunteer helping to stencil “culturedpallet@yahoo.com” during the installation.

In 2008, while working on her Master’s degree in Fine Arts at Western, she began making sculptures which she positioned on pallets, eventually abandoning the sculptures themselves in favour of working directly with the pallets. “People were always asking me for translations of the texts I had been using – but what does translation really mean?” The pallets themselves are objects of translation, they move in-between, crossing boundaries and cultures.  In her current installation in the Eastman Gallery, the pallets form a sculptural wall, delicately inscribed on one side with designs replicated from the Grand Mosque in Isfahan, where Soheila’s family is originally from.  On the reverse side, the pallets are stamped  with an email address,  (culturedpallet@yahoo.com), ready to track their next move as they return to circulation as shipping pallets, on to the next stage of their journey.

My Place is Placeless is on view in the Eastman Gallery through Sunday March 3. Learn more about Soheila’s work at her website, soheila.ca

By: Caroline Oliver, Director of Development and Marketing, KW|AG

Fun and silly things are happening at KW|AG for families and children this February and March!

Family Sundays *
More than 140 Family Sunday fans joined us February 3rd for our monthly Family Sunday program. Family Sundays offer an afternoon of inspiring and innovative activities for people of all ages to do together. The highlight of this month’s edition was the ever-growing “Future City” project – a collaborative sculpture built by visitors using unusual sculpting materials like Styrofoam balls, toothpicks, twist ties, and foam letters to create their vision of a futuristic-looking city. The results were “futuristic, fantastic, and funky” as KW|AG’s Executive Director, Shirley Madill, described it. Visit our website to see what you have to look forward to at our next Family Sunday on March 3rd.

The finished product of the “Future City” project at Family Sunday, February 2013.

Family Day *
If you enjoy Family Sundays at KW|AG, you won’t want to miss out on the super-fun activities we have planned for this year’s Family Day Holiday on Monday February 18^th.  Things get silly in the studios where we’ll be making “Doughnut Garland” inspired by the repeating patterns in our current exhibitions and funny “Lunch Bag Faces” made out of paper lunch bags and magazine clippings.  We are also building a collaborative “Miniature Zoo” that will grow and grow throughout the day.  Our favourite storytellers from the Kitchener Public Library will be here telling tales at 1 pm, 2 pm, 3 pm, and 4 pm, and local dramatist, Arlene Thomas, will encourage you to “act out” with drama activities and games at 1:15 pm, 2:15 pm, 3:15 pm, and 4:15 pm.  All other activities are drop-in anytime between 12 – 5 pm.

Children act out the exhibitions with Arlene Thomas at Family Day, February 2012.

March Break Camp
Although we’re just saying “hello” to February, March will be here before we know it which means our popular Art Escape March Break Camp is fast approaching.  With a full house last year we look forward to welcoming new and returning faces to the gallery again this year.  Some of our campers’ favourite projects from 2012 included stop-motion animation, universe paintings, insect models, and figure drawing.  One camper described the camp as “a great experience to learn cool things” and another said their favourite part of camp was “meeting new people and being able to spend time making art.”  Art Escape is a wonderful way to learn new skills, meet new friends, and to make great memories.  And if there’s one thing our campers walk away with, it’s what KW|AG Artist Educators tell them at the beginning of each camp: “There are no mistakes in art!” 

Visit our website for more details about Art Escape and sign up today to ensure your budding artists have something fun and creative to do this March Break.  It’s sure to be an amazing week filled with innovation, learning, exploration, and most of all, fun!

Artist Educator, Karoline Varin-Jarkowski, and campers gather ‘round the “Paint Station” at Art Escape March Break Camp, March 2012.

* To help maintain programs like Family Sundays and Family Day, we suggest a donation of $5 per child.

By: Alex Krueger, Public Programs Coordinator

Meeting people is easy!

All images are from Speed Networking at KW|AG, Jan. 24, 2013

Last week, KW|AG and KPL partnered up to host Meeting People is Easy, a speed networking event at the Gallery.  On a Thursday night, a gallery full of attendees working in different disciplines came together to meet, converse, connect, and even make a little art! 

The concept behind “speed” networking is simple: every attendee is paired with another at a table for just enough time for introductions and a short conversation (5 minutes, in our case).  Once that time is up, everyone moves to another table, and meets someone else.  For freshmen networkers, speed-networking is a great way to overcome beginner’s jitters.  Meet someone you’d like to connect with more?  Find them at the post-event reception!  Not quite connecting with your tablemate?  No problem!   You’ll both be paired with someone new in a moment.  We provided some creative activities (like the office supply tower-building pictured here) at each table to help break the ice.

Thanks to DJ Froyo for his DJ and glockenspiel (!) services, and Little Mushroom Catering  for the delicious nibbles.

With the success of this event, we definitely hope to host another event soon!  Sign up for the KW|AG mailing list to keep up to date on all future events and programs at the Gallery!

By: Emily Gove, Community Programmer KPL and KW|AG.

Lieutenant Colonel Hugh J. Heasley was a prominent Kitchener citizen – K-W Citizen of the Year in 1959. Involved in many local organisations, he was (in 1958-60) the second Board President of the Kitchener-Waterloo Art Gallery. In 1973, we gratefully received a donation of nine paintings from his Estate, including a charming portrait of his wife, Allison.

Before treatment.

Portrait of Mrs. Allison L.M. Heasley was painted by Canadian artist Kenneth K. Forbes in 1928. In 84 years, she has seen the marks of time: a slight bloom in the unvarnished paint and a fine layer of dirt that obscured the original bright colours of the composition; one or two scratches in the surface; a loosening of her frame. Most recently, she came to have a mark of red paint on her white dress.

During Treatment.

We enlisted the services of long time Conservator Keith Bantock, of London, Ontario. Mr. Bantock took the painting into his care for approximately two months. At the end of this time she was returned to us as you see her, here: the entire surface cleaned, so that the colours are bright again, and protected with a safe varnish that will keep them bright. The scratches have been carefully in painted. The work is secured in its frame and has been given a protective backing board. She is back on her feet and ready for action.

After treatment.

We are pleased to unveil Portrait of Mrs. Allison L.M. Heasley, putting her best foot forward.

By Jennifer Bullock, Assistant Curator & Registrar, KW|AG.

Shortly before our holiday break this year we had an unforgettable visitor come in to see our most recent show, Ecotopia, guest curated by Amanda Cachia. This show featured contemporary art, and explored environmental conservation and the contrasts of architecture and decay in our technologically driven age.

The visitor was an Old Order Mennonite in her 50s, dressed in her traditional clothing and hairstyle. She explained that she would have otherwise assumed that the gallery was an expensive place that she couldn’t afford until she saw a sign on the outside of our building advertising that we had free admission. She also told me that this was her first visit to an art gallery.

Later, she came to the front desk and spoke about how moved she was by the show, and specifically by a piece called “Pinocchio” by BGL. She explained that she lives in the country and has seen so much of the area around her home taken over by new housing developments and roads, leaving very little of the natural habitat that once was. As she told her story, she became very emotional and started tearing up.

What surprised me the most – based on her traditional appearance – was her connection to this contemporary piece of art, and not, as I wrongly assumed, to the more traditional drawings and paintings that were showcased elsewhere in the gallery. Our Education Department will also attest to the fact that our Gather at the Gallery participants, (recently diagnosed individuals with Alzheimer’s and their caregivers), often have the strongest reactions to our contemporary exhibitions.

Art can affect us in many different ways, eliciting feelings of happiness, joy, anger, confusion, or sadness. Here at KW|AG, we see everyone: families, students, theatre-goers before a show starts (we share a building with The Centre In The Square), people who visit us every day, once a year, or for the first time ever. Seeing the emotional reaction of this special visitor really reminded me that art can be accessible for anyone and EVERYONE, especially at a great gallery like KW|AG!

Milena McCormack has been the Visitor Services and Volunteer Coordinator at KW|AG since October 2012. She grew up in Kitchener, has lived in Nova Scotia, South Korea and Australia, and is a graduate of the Master of Museum Studies program at the University of Toronto. As KW|AG’s Visitor Services and Volunteer Coordinator, Milena is responsible for recruiting and training volunteers, scheduling our Gallery Attendants, assisting with the coordination of special events, and meeting and speaking with the many visitors that come through our doors on a daily basis.

Recycled Box World Created by Summer Art Campers, 2012.

Check out the inventive projects we’ve got planned for our PD Day Camps – coming up soon on January 18, April 19 and May 31.

For the January 18 camp, kids ages 7 – 9 make paper owls, starting with a simple drawn outline and building from there, using oil pastels, torn paper and patterning. For their next project, they  build their own paper roll world using recycled materials, markers and other supplies. Their imaginary world can be embellished with paper trees, vehicles, people and animals. Our third project for the day is an exploration of  line, shape and colour. Each child starts with their own piece of paper, draws a specific line, then swaps with a neighbour. Each “swap” is guided by specific instructions that encourage awareness of shapes, lines, placement and design.

Winter and snow are the themes for the 10-13 year olds. Working with paper, pencils, rulers, fine-liners and pencil crayons, campers create snow fort designs and cartoon snowmen. And because it’s not really winter without snowflakes, snowflakes made from recycled papers become the starting point for working with stencils and dry-brush techniques. Interesting stencil materials on offer include doilies, mylar, stickers, mac tac, and masking tape. To complete the snow-themed day, things are going 3D! Using corrugated cardboard bases, recycled boxes and egg-cartons the kids will have a blast making mini snowfort maquettes.

The day winds down with an Art Show to share all this creativity with family and friends.
PD Day Art Camps – January 18th, April 19 and May 31, from 9 am to 4 pm. Drop-off is between 8:30 – 9 am and pick-up is between 4 – 5 pm. $43/day.  Sign up here.

Urban Imaginary – Dec 6, 2012

Do you ever wonder what would happen if creativity took hold of a city? We certainly do at KW|AG, so we decided to host a conversation about how active citizenship can shape our urban environments. We invited a small group of creative thinkers to offer their insights into the work they do to make the city they live in the place where they want to be.

No stranger to these kinds of conversations, our very own Executive Director, Shirley Madill, introduced the evening and started the conversation by highlighting the visionaries, from Plato to Le Corbusier, who have paired ideas of utopia and a vision for the future with the built environment – the city. Shirley offered an inspiring journey through centuries of thought-provoking answers to the question of the evening: “what is our urban imaginary?”

Writer Steven Logan, a member of The Visible City Project, started the conversation in the basement of a conventional suburban home in Toronto. This basement, filled with artifacts and mementos, reminds us that suburbia isn’t simply made up of cookie cutter homes; it contains personal stories and its own hopes and dreams for the future. This place introduced Steven to the story of the Leona Drive Project – an unconventional exhibition of site specific installations in a series of six vacant bungalows slated for demolition by Hyatt Homes. He encouraged us to think about suburbia as part of the urban imaginary, with its own very specific histories and ideologies.

Putting ideas into practice, artist Justin Langlois responded by showing documentation of a city in transition. Street-level art interventions bring the city to life and ask its citizens to view the urban landscape through a new lens. Animating possibilities housed in the in-between spaces of the city, places like abandoned land and parking lots, Justin asks the question: “How might we reimagine a place, or… How might we imagine a new place entirely through action?” Through the artist collective he co-founded, Broken City Lab, Justin gave us a peek into how he took the idea of urban imagination and put it into practice.

Scott Sorli, who teaches architecture, media, and communications at the University of Toronto and is co-founder of Toronto’s street window gallery convenience, also spoke about his fascination with what happens to places in transition. Scott took a very local perspective, looking down the street from where he lives, and opened an art gallery in the window of an old convenience store, now rezoned into obsolescence. Convenience is a 24/7 gallery positioned just in front of a TTC bus stop and on a major (unofficial) cycling commuter route. The location allows unsuspecting pedestrians and commuters to become patrons of the arts. Given the nature of the gallery, the space also opens itself up to the possibility of artistic experiments, risk taking, and a reimagining of familiar urban spaces.

All told, judging by the lively conversation that followed, many of us walked away from the evening dreaming about how we too can put our urban imagination into practice and excited that we live in a place like Kitchener-Waterloo where our urban imagination is alive and well.

At the end of November, KW|AG hosted our first ever karaoke night, Hopelessly Devoted.  In addition to belting out some classic hits, many attendees visited our video confessional booth to reveal their secret celebrity crushes.  Check out their confessions below:

Thanks to all who attended and sang their hearts out!

We hope that you’ll attend our next (free!) event for young professionals, Meeting People is Easy: a networking/games night hybrid for professionals working in all disciplines!  Click here (link: http://meetingpeopleiseasy.eventbrite.ca) for more information and to register.

Photos of the event are on our Facebook page.

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.492428610780610.106587.133522043337937&type=1