The five finalists of the 2012 Award will be announced in June, 2012. Selected work from the shortlisted artists will be featured in Toronto in an exhibition hosted by the Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art (MOCCA) from October to December, 2012. The winner of the 2012 Sobey Art Award will be announced during a gala event at MOCCA in Toronto in November, 2012.

Curator of the Sobey Art Award, Sarah Fillmore says:

“The call for nominations is open to Canadian artists 40 and under. We welcome this opportunity to survey the Canadian art landscape and see the wealth of work being produced therein. Curators, artists, galleries, critics – we call on you to bring forward those names you feel most passionately should be on everyone’s lips. Let this tenth anniversary of the Award be its best yet.”

The 2012 curatorial advisory panel is made up of five distinguished representatives from a Canadian art gallery in each of the five regions: the Atlantic Provinces, Québec, Ontario, the Prairies and the North, and the West Coast and Yukon.

The deadline for nominations is March 1, 2012.

For more information and nominations guidelines please visit www.sobeyartaward.ca

BACKGROUND

The Art Gallery of Nova Scotia is responsible for accepting nominations for the 2012 Sobey Art Award, from recognized agents and institutions. A panel of curatorial advisors, consisting of a representative from a noted gallery in each of five regions (Atlantic, Québec, Ontario, Prairies /North, and West Coast/Yukon), develops the shortlist for the Award. The curatorial panel creates a list of five artists from each region; these are selected from the list of nominated artists, and based on their professional knowledge of their regions and of the national art scene. The curatorial panel then meets and chooses one representative from each region to be included on the national shortlist. The panel will choose the winner in November 2012.

In 2002, the Sobey Art Foundation created the largest art award for a Canadian artist age 40 or under. Since its inception the Sobey Art Award and accompanying exhibition have been organized and administered by the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia. This year marks the 10th anniversary of the Sobey Art Award.

Sobey Art Foundation
The Sobey Art Foundation was established in 1981 with a mandate to carry on the work of entrepreneur and business leader, the late Frank H. Sobey, of collecting and preserving representative examples of 19th and 20th century Canadian art. One of the finest private collections of its kind, the Sobey Art Foundation has assembled exemplary examples from Canadian Masters like Cornelius Krieghoff, Tom Thomson and J.E.H MacDonald. The collection is housed in an intimate setting at Crombie House, the former home of Frank Sobey and his wife Irene in Pictou County, Nova Scotia. Tours are regularly scheduled throughout the summer months and by appointment year round.

Art Gallery of Nova Scotia
The Art Gallery of Nova Scotia strives to act as a gateway for the visual arts in Atlantic Canada by bringing the art of the world to Nova Scotia and the art of Nova Scotia to the world. It is an agency of the Province of Nova Scotia responsible for the preservation, exhibition and education of art through its branches in Halifax and Yarmouth.

CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS

Deadline February 21

As part of the W(here) Festival, community members and local artists are encouraged to submit an idea for a field trip or performative walk in Pictou County, NS.

Field trips may take place anywhere and be between 1 and 2 hours. Through walking and talking, this project seeks to discover new stories about “place” in Pictou County and share local knowledge in an artistic way.

Lead us to a special place, start a conversation or tell us a site-specific story. Is there something to do when we arrive? What makes this place special? Delve into history or make your own.

Field trips can be informal or staged. All forms of presentation are encouraged from historical research and tour, to on-location performance and site-specific sculpture. Artists, poets, storytellers, historians, filmmakers, environmentalists and star-gazers are all welcome to submit their idea for consideration by February 21st. Three walks will be selected and an honorarium of $250 paid to field trip hosts.

Through visiting local sites and listening to local stories, the goal of Walking in Place is to encourage new ways of thinking about “here”.

Your proposal should include:

- 1 page description (where you will take us? what will we talk about? what will we see?)

- 100 word biography (who are you, what do you do or make?, CV encouraged but not necessary)

- images, video, audio (Images and other media can add rich content to your proposal)

Some ideas:

- lead us through the night and tell us about the night sky

- read a poem you have written in the place it was inspired

- play us a piece of music on location

- take us on a boat tour, a picnic, a hike and tell us a tale

- lead us in a drawing class or another workshop in an interesting place

How to Submit:

Email your submission to wherefestival@gmail.com by Feb 21 2012 with the subject “Submission”. Documents may be Microsoft Word (.doc) or Adobe PDFs (.pdf). Pictures .jpg only please.

If you would like to discuss your idea before you submit, please contact Mary directly at wherefestival@gmail.com, 647 389 6393, or arrange a Skype chat. She is happy to discuss any questions you may have about this project and the festival more broadly.

ABOUT THE FESTIVAL

W(here) Festival – June 26th to June 30th 2012

Where? Here.
Placing rural art practices on the map in Pictou County
In June 2012 the W(here) Festival* begins and ends on its feet, exploring ideas of place, art, and community. Taking place in Pictou County, Nova Scotia, local and visiting artists will lead audiences in a series of “field trips” engaging participants in an interactive way. In addition, the festival will feature an exciting evening of local artist talks, a special roundtable discussion about place-based art, and a public video drive-in downtown.

Discover new terrain, new histories, and new possibilities for artistic thinking at the W(here) Festival this spring in Pictou County. All events are free and family friendly.

Visiting Artists

Marlene Creates is an acclaimed environmental artist and poet who lives and works in Portugal Cove, Newfoundland. Born in Montreal, Creates studied visual arts at Queen’s University (ON). For over thirty years her work has been an exploration of the relationship between human experience, memory, language and the land, and the impact they have on each other. http://www.marlenecreates.ca

Sheilah Wilson was born in Caribou River (NS) and studied photography at the Instituto Allende (Mexico) and visual art at NSCAD University before receiving her Masters of Fine Arts from Goldsmiths College (UK). Wilson’s work is an investigation of the seam that binds experience to language, story to teller and fantasy to history through photography, site-specific public art and performance. http://sheilahwilson.com

Curator

Mary MacDonald is an artist, arts administrator and curator hailing from Pictou. Mary graduated from Mount Allison University (BFA 2006) and is presently studying towards a Masters of Fine Arts in Criticism & Curatorial Practice at OCAD University (Toronto). Most recently as Assistant Director of Eastern Edge Gallery (St. John’s), Mary organized the presentation of exhibitions and events, facilitated community programming, and produced the graphic design for the gallery. http://mfmacdonald.wordpress.com

The W(here) Festival is a part of Mary MacDonald’s graduate thesis work and ongoing research and is supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council.

* Pronounced Where Here Festival

Wainio writes that her work “explores the role that painting may still play in opening up a discursive space around history, material culture, narrative, globalization and (what is evoked by) various historical forms of representation, both ‘high art’ and the vernacular.”

She completed her Master of Fine Arts at Concordia University in 1985 and has since produced a significant body of work based in an investigation of historical fairy tales. Wainio’s work has been widely exhibited in Canada, and internationally in the United States, China, Spain and the Venice Biennale. In addition to her artist talk, Wainio will visit the Mount Allison University Fine Arts Department to conduct studio visits as well as a group discussion.

Carol Wainio will present her work as part of the Visiting Artist Program, a series co-sponsored by Mount Allison’s Department of Fine Arts, The Owens Art Gallery, and Struts Gallery. Other artists in the series include Benny Nemerofsky-Ramsey, Sara Angelucci, the Fastwurms, Kevin Yates, Shary Boyle and Christine Fellows. The Visiting Artist Program is funded by a grant from the Canada Council for the Arts to the Department of Fine Arts at Mount Allison University.

For more information about Wainio’s visit, or the Visiting Artist Program, please contact Leah Garnett at (506) 364-2498. Additional information about Wainio and her work can be found on the following website http://www.carolwainio.com/index.php

Come out to Seven Lorne and view the collaborative project from Penny Smart and Erin Orsztynowitz entitled “Golden”. “Golden” runs from June 20th – June 25th.

“Natural Selection” is an exhibit of new works by Corey Isenor. Corey’s work deals with pattern and repetition as well as focusing on the natural environment and our perception of it. “Natural Selection” will be showing from June 20th – July 3rd.

Artist-in-Residence closing reception
J.R. Carpenter

“Writing Coastlines” is a project by Struts Gallery artist-in-residence J.R. Carpenter. Inspired by the writings and maps of Samuel de Champlain and the great Canadian/American poet Elizabeth Bishop, J.R. aims to uncover successive generations of Sackville’s narrative. The project combines experimental writing, performance, collaboration, historical research, cartography, and communication networks. J.R. will have Zines for sale at the event but is encouraging those that are interested to bring Zines of their own to trade or show.

For more information please email Struts Gallery & Faucet Media Arts Gallery at events@strutsgallery.ca

Seven Lorne Street
Struts Gallery & Faucet Media Arts Centre
events@strutsgallery.ca
http://strutsgallery.ca/

Entering into its second year, IMAF is extending its scope to include media artwork created by artists residing in or hailing from the four Atlantic provinces. This year’s festival theme is Seeing Ahead of the Curve. In an ever-expanding sector full of new creation-technologies and modes of dissemination it is easier than ever to connect specific local perspectives to the broader world consciousness. In this spirit, IMAF 2011 seeks to connect media art works made throughout the Atlantic provinces: What do they have in common? How do they differ? Is there an Atlantic-voice?With screenings province-wide, workshops, panel discussions, networking events, streetprojections, and parties, IMAF2011 is a little festival with big heart.

• Works of all genres are welcome.
• Maximum length of 30 min. (Special exceptions are possible, please contact IMAF to discuss possible exceptions).
• Sorry, no installation submissions this year.
• We are interested in works created for web distribution as well as traditional platforms.
• Works must be created by (the major creative force behind the work must come from) an individual who resides in or has significant ties to the Atlantic Provinces.
• Rough cuts can be submitted. Please indicate if your submission is a rough cut.

Dates:
• Submission deadline is March 1st, 2011 (post-marked by March 1st, 2011)
• Successful Applicants will be notified by April 1st, 2011
• Presentation Copies must be at IMAF by April 15th, 2011
• IMAF 2011 takes place from May 12-15th 2011 at locations across PEI (Summerside, Charlottetown and Georgetown).

Details:
• Submission Forms can be found on our website at www.islandmedia.pe.ca/festival.html
• Submission copies must be submitted as a DVD (Region 1 NTSC – please test to make sure that the DVD works) OR as a Quicktime file on a DVD or CD.
• Selected works will be screened as high-quality Quicktime files. Please make sure that you have a high quality quicktime version of your work available. Details on this will be communicated to successful applicants.
• All submissions must be accompanied by a signed and completed IMAF Submission Form.
• All selected works will receive an Artist Fee based on current CARFAC rates.

Contact
Dave Ward – IMAF Director – (902)892-3131 or davewardchtn@gmail.com
Millefiore Clarkes – IMAF Curator – onethousandflowers@gmail.com
www.islandmedia.pe.ca/festival.html – IMAFestival Page

Cozy living room at Nova Scotia artists' retreat.

The Little House at Hunts Point is a fully equipped, welcoming non-smoking retreat located in the quaint fishing village of Hunts Point, Nova Scotia, 90 minutes from Halifax. Set on a lovely lot with a tiny brook, it’s a three-minute walk to the picturesque, working wharf and Hunts Point Beach with its crescent of white sand. The two bedroomed Little House has a woodstove to cozy up to, making it a perfect year round retreat: the beaches are great walking even in February.

Seven minutes away, in the historic Loyalist settlement of Liverpool, there are terrific museums, an excellent library with internet access, several good restaurants, the White Point Golf Course and the best Frenchy’s in Queens County!

This shoreline is a necklace of gem-like beaches. Hunts Point Beach is a step away with great swimming and kayaking. Five minutes down the old #3 is Summerville Beach, a mile long strand of white sand, with a warm river and an old railroad bridge for jumping from at the far end. A little further along, beyond Port Mouton, is Carters Beach: three crescents of white sand and turquoise water where whales sometimes rest offshore. Beyond again, is the Kejimkujik Seaside Adjunct, a National Park with seals and whales, seabirds and trails through the remarkable headland.

As professional artists, we have sympathy for folks looking for that quiet retreat space and we’ll negotiate rates. Call 902 867 1293 or email Shelley on shelleyslittlehouse@gmail.com. Check our website www.littlehouseathuntspoint.ca for pictures, calendar, rates and testimonials from writers and musicians who’ve visited!

Peter Gordon, Chair of William Grant & Sons, founded the Artist-in-Residence program in 2002 to encourage and celebrate international contemporary art and artists. Each year, Glenfiddich sponsors up to eight artists from around the world to live and work at the distillery in Dufftown.  The residency, valued at roughly £10,000 per artist, represents Glenfiddich’s commitment to pioneering spirits, the arts and the communities it serves.

Artists live in crofts at the distillery and are encouraged to find inspiration from their unique setting in the Scottish Highlands. One of the special benefits for artists is the opportunity to work in an international community, to share in a dialogue with other artists and foster cross-disciplinary ideas.

The Glenfiddich Artist-in-Residence program has sponsored more than 40 artists since its inception in 2002.  Canadian artists have included Damian Moppett (2010), Arabella Campbell (2009), Dave Dyment (2008), Jonathon Kaiser (2007), Annie Pootoogook (2006) and Myfanwy Macleod (2005).

Process and Deadlines

The Artist-in-Residence program covers the cost of travel, living expenses and working materials while at the residency. Interested artists must be available to live at the distillery in Scotland for a period of three months from June to August.

The deadline to apply is February 25, 2011. To apply for the residency, please send a brief statement (500 words maximum) together with a current cv by email to Charles Reeve at creeve@ocad.ca. A committee comprising Charles Reeve (OCAD U curator), Lisa Deanne Smith (OCAD U assistant curator) and Vladimir Spicanovic (dean, OCAD U Faculty of Art) will select the shortlist of Canadian artists. Andy Fairgreive, Glenfiddich’s curator for the residency, will chose the finalist from this list.

There are no restrictions on who can apply in terms of age, type of practice, or stage of career. However, we are most interested in artists who are at the cutting edge of the artistic movement of the moment and who communicate effectively about their work.

For more information, contact Charles Reeve at creeve@ocad.ca or visit glenfiddich.ca.

Twenty-five students will receive awards under the Arts Scholarships Program. The program recognizes and encourages New Brunswick students who have demonstrated exceptional talent and who are pursuing a career in the arts. Students can receive up to $2,500 for full-time studies in the arts and $1,000 for part-time or short-term studies.

Eleven Artist-in-Residence applications were also approved. This program provides opportunities for organizations in NB to host visiting artists for up to a year.

The deadline for the two programs was February1^st, 2010. A Multidisciplinary jury composed of professional New Brunswick artists evaluated the applications.

The following students have received funding under the Arts Scholarships Program:

Classical Music

Andrew Appleby, Fredericton                        $2,500

Pierre-André Doucet, Moncton                      $2,500

James Fogarty, Moncton                                $2,500

Juliane Gallant, Riverview                             $1,000

Alain Gaudet, Moncton                                  $2,500

Aaron Good, Hanwell                                    $2,500

Anthony Savidge, Fredericton                        $2,500

Greg Webber, Fredericton                              $2,500

Craft

Kristen Bishop, Fredericton                            $2,500

Daniel Gallagher, French Village                    $2,500

Celine Gorham, Fredericton                           $2,500

Rachel Anne MacGillivray, Fredericton         $2,500

Alexandra Keely MacLean, New Maryland   $2,500

Leigh Merritt, Tay Creek                                $2,500

Deborah Payne, Saint John                            $2,500

Dance

Jane Alison McKinney, Rothesay                  $2,500

Alyson Miller, Colpitts Settlement                  $1,000

Literary Arts

Isabelle Claude Lévesque-Martin, Saint-Ignace     $2,500

Media Arts

Matthew Brown, Fredericton                          $2,500

Gabrielle Houle, Dieppe                                 $2,500

Visual Arts

Nicholas Frenette, Moncton                           $2,500

Karen Furlotte, Fredericton                            $2,500

Sarah Lillian, Hamilton, Fredericton               $2,500

Broderick LeBlanc, Fredericton                     $2,500

Shannon Randall, Fredericton                        $2,500

Artist-in-Residence Program Recipients

Classical Music

Université de Moncton, Moncton                      $10,000

University of New Brunswick, Fredericton       $9,100

University of New Brunswick, Saint John         $10,000

Dance

Les Productions DansEncorps, Moncton        $4,200

Literary Arts

New Brunswick Museum, Saint John,                                                           $5,000

Université de Moncton, Département d’études françaises, Moncton             $5,000

University of New Brunswick, Faculty of Arts, Fredericton                          $10,000

Media Arts

Mathieu Léger, Moncton                    $5,000

Non-Classical Music

Galerie Sans Nom Coopérative Ltée, Moncton          $5,000

Theatre

NotaBle Acts Theatre Company, Fredericton             $5,000

Société du Monument Lefebvre inc., Memramcook  $5,000

For information on these and other artsnb programs, visit www.artsnb.ca or call 1-866-460-ARTS (2787), toll free within New Brunswick.

Nova Scotia College of Art & Design

The NSCAD feminist collective is seeking work by artists and writers across Canada (women, men, transfolk, radical feminists, closet feminists) in any media (time-based, new media, old media, print media, flat media, mass media, essays, rants, poems) addressing the title Feminism: Now. This juried show will take place December 1st to 12th 2009, concurrent with the 20th anniversary of the École Polytechnique Massacre (December 6th). Written/textual  works will be considered for a zine to accompany the show.

This two day workshop at the Nova Scotia Agricultural College is for people who want to learn about the creation of garden items from natural materials. It is an opportunity to learn how to lead groups in creating natural garden structures using living willow.

The Instructor: Deb Hart, a talented artist from England

Instructor/Technician – Landscape Management, Writtle College

Deb Hart

Deb Hart has developed her own creative skills as a willow weaver and runs a series of successful workshops with students, visiting school groups, and keen amateur gardeners. She has been commissioned to create imaginative horse jumps, living walls, and sculpture. In addition, her work has been featured on the Writtle College campus.  Pieces to be found there have included a range of functional garden items from structural supports for roses and innovative woven fences to fantasy inspired igloos and tunnels.

Participants in willow work classes have produced many garden features including abstract and animal sculptures, fences, and garden buildings. Deb has the ability to encourage the development of new skills and confidence in a friendly and supportive atmosphere.

Cost of registration – $200. The course will be limited to 20 participants. To register, contact cyndy@eastlink.ca