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Culture

Salisbury Chosen for Cultural Community Pilot

The Union of Municipalities of New Brunswick (UMNB) has announced that the Town of Salisbury has been selected as the host community for a pilot project to support the development of a municipal cultural policy for 2024-2025. 

The project is the result of a new partnership between the Association Acadienne des Artistes Professionel.le.s du Nouveau-Brunswick (AAAPNB), ArtsLink NB, and the Association Francophone des Municipalités du Nouveau-Brunswick (AFMNB) and UMNB, made possible with the support of the federal and provincial governments.

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March 12, 2024 in Community, Culture, Grants

Resonance New Music at the Saint John Arts Centre 🎻

Two of our summer interns, Jean Schnell and Lessa Thornton, were able to attend The Saint John Arts Centre Summer Classics Series, which has been ongoing throughout July and August.

Robin Streb, Nadia Francavilla, and Andrew Reed-Miller of Resonance New Music playing violin, viola, and bass at the Saint John Arts Centre.
Robin Streb, Nadia Francavilla, and Andrew Reed-Miller of Resonance New Music

This event has two more days of lunchtime performances on August 10th and 17th. Todays performance showcased Resonance New Music with Andrew Reed-Miller, Robin Streb, and Nadia Francavilla.

The group was well synchronized and each instrument complimented the other. They applied their talents thoughtfully and used their instruments in a very unique way. It was an enriching experience.

ArtsLink recommends you visit the remaining shows by Tim Blackmore on August 10th and the Carleton Chamber Players on the 17th!

Both are at 12:15pm at the Saint John Arts Centre. For more information, see the schedule here.

August 3, 2022 in Community, Culture

The End of CreatedHere Leaves Gap in NB Arts Sector

We are greatly saddened to hear of the closing of CreatedHere Magazine. CreatedHere was established in 2014 to discover and document the stories of New Brunswick artists and improve their ability to present themselves regionally, nationally, and internationally through thought-provoking critical writing. 

CreatedHere supported NB’s arts sector by providing opportunities for arts writers and artists to reach a national audience and provided paying work for critical arts writers. Now with the closure of this publication, on top of the closure of Canadian Art Magazine earlier in the pandemic, New Brunswick’s artists and arts writers have very few avenues for promotion and public critique of their work. 

Cover of CreatedHere Magazine Issue #13 working art

ArtsLink strongly believes that critical arts writing is vital to the health of an arts community. To that end, we hosted two intensive workshops on critical arts writing in 2018 and 2019, and many of the participants in those workshops went on to write for CreatedHere. The loss of this publication leaves a void in New Brunswick’s arts landscape.

Without the representation of our artists in periodicals across Canada, our artists are at a serious disadvantage. Whether it is a lack of understanding of the unique qualities of Atlantic art-making or unfamiliarity from jurors, promoters, festivals, or managers outside of NB, this contributes to the export difficulties our arts sector faces. New Brunswick ranks 7th among the 10 provinces for its relative trade deficit, exporting only 29 cents for every dollar of cultural imports.

The critical discourse developed through the lens of arts writing helps cultivate art excellence. It helps our artists frame themselves in an international context, contributing their voices and perspectives to a global arts community. Our sector needs to participate in this larger conversation. Understanding how to talk to artists about their work, how to contextualize work (in contemporary arts discourse, via one’s local influences, the meanings embedded in form etc.), and understanding your audience or market are all integral to taking up the task of writing for the arts.

We are grateful for the contribution that CreatedHere made to the New Brunswick arts sector over the near decade of its existence, and it is our fervent hope that arts writers and artists will once again have many opportunities to publish like those that CreatedHere worked so hard to provide.

April 13, 2022 in Advocacy, Community, Culture

Creative Consults

News

NEW program: Creative Consults! Apply today.

  • Posted by
  • VANS
  • October 5, 2020

Visual Arts Nova Scotia is excited to announce a new program starting in November called Creative Consults!

Want to share your expertise with artists as a consultant? Apply today!

This new program will function as a service directory for VANS members to book consultations with member specialists in various fields. The consultation services will be catered to the professional development of the Artists’ needs. The directory on the VANS website provides members with exclusive access to consultant services tailored to meet their needs.

If you are a VANS member and would like to become a consultant in our program, please fill out the application form no later than October 18th.

To apply, please use either the Google form OR fill out the PDF form and send it to freya@visualarts.ns.ca

Please contact the Creative Consults Program Coordinator Freya Poirier for more information or questions at freya@visualarts.ns.ca

Apply Now – Google Form
Apply Now – PDF Form

ABOUT THE CREATIVE CONSULT PROGRAM

Creative Consults is an online program for VANS members to access artist-informed expertise. Members will have access to a directory of consultant profiles and book directly with a creative expert that suits their needs. Each member consultant will have a profile on our website, making their services available to members, and set their hourly rates for each service.

Recommended rates are between $40 and $100 per hour.

PROGRAM STRUCTURE

Application
Once the expert has applied, a jury will choose the consultants based on the expertise they offer to artists and meet the eligibility criteria. This program is a VANS member-to-member benefit. The VANS membership is required to activate the consultants’ profile in the Creative Consults directory. There is no fee to participate beyond the VANS membership. Not a VANS member? You can become one here.

Consultant profile
Once the application is approved and the VANS membership status is confirmed, The consultant’s profile will appear on the Creative Consults page through the VANS website. Each profile will include a photo, short bio, list of consulting areas and the hourly rate for each type of consult they offer. We ask consultants to have clear service rates provided for members’ inquiries.

Booking requests
A member will search through the profiles to find a consultant that suits their needs. The consultant will receive a booking request from a VANS member via email and ensure they have the skills the member is seeking and are available. The consultant will follow up with the booking request within a week of receiving it. They will then independently coordinate a date and time with the member for the consultation within 3 months of the request.

Before the meeting
The consultant will email an invoice to the member stating the member’s consult needs, the consultation type, amount of hours booked, the total amount owed, payment instructions, date and meeting place confirmed (virtual meetings are encouraged at this time).

Payment
Once the meeting is confirmed, the member will send the payment directly to the consultant. It is advised that the consultant asks for the payment 2-3 days before their meeting. It is the consultant’s responsibility to collect their remuneration from the member.

After the meeting
The consultant will send VANS and the member a receipt to confirm the consultation’s completion. The member will receive a survey to provide feedback on their experience.

AREAS OF EXPERTISE

(Could include but not limited to)

Applications

Grant Writing

Exhibition Proposals

Residency Applications

Public Art RFPs

Financial Management

Accounting

Budgets

Funding

Design

Graphic Design

Website Development

Printing

Exhibition

Installations

Transportation

Layout

Documentation

Business

Contracts

Brand Identity

Networking

Sales

Project Management

October 16, 2020 in Community, Culture

Gathered Blooms and Fredericton Summer Residencies
As our familiar landscapes give way to warm yellows, browns, and reds, the exhibitions Gathered Blooms and Fredericton Summer Residencies remember the lush, vibrant colours of summer. Alongside these shows,
A Fredericton Collection honours a collector’s vision and a love of art.
All works are available to view online, and they are on display to view in person until Saturday, October 31, 2020.
Mingle outside with the artists and tour the gallery in limited numbers from 4-7 pm on Thursday, October 8, as part of the Queen Street Mini Gallery Hop in coordination with Gallery on Queen and the CreatedHere Studio.
Face masks are required.
Gathered Blooms
Flowers and gardens have long inspired artists; countless paintings, poems, and music pieces sing the praises of nature’s colourful, beautiful, and perfumed plants.
(While it isn’t winter yet, the following poem by Lucy Maud
Montgomery illustrates that feeling of longing of summer blooms while they nestle in over the colder months.)
Frosty-white and cold it lies
Underneath the fretful skies;
Snowflakes flutter where the red
Banners of the poppies spread,
And the drifts are wide and deep
Where the lilies fell asleep.
But the sunsets o’er it throw
Flame-like splendor, lucent glow,
And the moonshine makes it gleam
Like a wonderland of dream,
And the sharp winds all the day
Pipe and whistle shrilly gay.
Safe beneath the snowdrifts lie
Rainbow buds of by-and-by;
In the long, sweet days of spring
Music of bluebells shall ring,
And its faintly golden cup
Many a primrose will hold up.
Though the winds are keen and chill
Roses’ hearts are beating still,
And the garden tranquilly
Dreams of happy hours to be­
In the summer days of blue
All its dreamings will come true.
-Lucy Maud Montgomery, The Garden in Winter
A Fredericton Collection
A look into a person’s personal collection is an intimate, powerful experience. To witness the works that someone has carefully tended over years, much like a garden, is a special experience; each piece, an investment in itself, was chosen for a specific reason, be it a story behind the work, a shared relationship with the artist, or that inexplicable spark of emotion upon first glance.
It is also quite special to come across older works from artists one is familiar with, and see their progressions.
We are honoured to display the works of one gentleman’s collection, who is a good client and friend of the gallery, and to have them available for purchase once again, so that others may continue to enjoy them.
Fredericton Summer Residencies
This past summer, a group of artists participated in the City of Fredericton’s Summer Residencies at Odell Park and the Fredericton Botanic Garden. Their mediums range from visual arts, to music, textile, fine craft, and literature, and it is glorious to see what they’ve created.
While it was a different residency experience due to COVID-19, these artists were still able to have close, genuine contact with the park’s and garden’s trees, resident flowers and plants, fauna, and the atmosphere of the area.
The featured artists are: Jacqueline Bourque, Renata Britez, Cat Candow, Jasmine Cull, Sasha French, Darcy Hunter, Emily Kennedy, Karen LeBlanc,
Riel Nason, Tracey O’Brien, Sarah Sarty, Caroline Simpson, Ralph Simpson, and Kirsten Stackhouse.
New Work
New to the gallery is a delightful new paper sculpture of a caribou by France Pillière, exquisite coastal landscapes by Matthew Collins, and dreamy cityscapes by R.F.M. McInnis.
Click on the images or individual artist names to see more!
Support Small!
There are plenty of ways to support small businesses, such as:
1 – Telling friends & family
2 – Following on social media
3 – Engaging with their posts
4 – Giving them a shoutout
5 – Signing up for their newsletter
6 – Leaving a positive review on Google!
Upcoming Exhibitions at Gallery 78
November 6 – 28, 2020
WILD & DOMESTIC – Anna Syperek and Michael McEwing
Lee Horus Clark and Yolande Clark
NEW WORK – William Forrestall
Introducing Jared Betts
December 4 – 23, 2020
NUTCRACKER – A Group Exhibition
85th BIRTHDAY EXHIBITION – Peggy Smith
CHRISTMAS CHOICE
Try our interest-free payment plans!
1 – Choose your favourite piece
2 – Let us know how long you’d like to pay (interest-free up to 12 months, and alternate terms can be arranged)
3 – That’s it! Set up automatic e-transfers or let us process your monthly credit card payments
An artwork may be purchased outright at $2,000 for example, or:
$333.33/mo. (plus tax) for 6 months
$166.67/mo. (plus tax) for 12 months
Ask us for alternate terms!
Notable Mentions
Congratulations to Kristen Bishop for being chosen to receive the 2020 Nel Oudemans Award, which goes to an emerging artist in the fields of fine craft and design. It continues to be a mark of distinction for New Brunswick artisans. Go Kristen!
Congratulations to Matt Cripps for being selected as a regional winner for the BMO 1st Art! virtual exhibition – read about it here!
The opening for the exhibition, Space, Place, Home, will be on Thursday, Oct. 8 from 5-8 pm at the Galerie d’art Louise-et-Reuben-Cohen at the Université de Moncton, with some of the artists and the curators presenting at every hour at 5:30, 6:30, and 7:30. Click here for more information! The exhibition is on display until Oct. 18, 2020.
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October 7, 2020 in Community, Culture

Pauline Young Wabanaki/People of the Dawn

Wabanaki/People of the Dawn is the first in a new series of commissioned flags created for the Owens Art Gallery’s exterior flagpole. Designed by artist Pauline Young, the flag features two figures in a birchbark canoe paddling from sunrise to sunset and represents the territory of Mi’kma’ki as a living relationship between land and sea. In the artist’s words, “Land and sea, from sunrise to sunset, it is all Mi’kma’ki.”

Pauline Young is a respected Mi’kmaq visual artist from Metepenagiag First Nation. In her work, she draws inspiration from the natural environment and the legacy of her father, Philip Young, a renowned artist who exposed her to art at a very young age. Employing a variety of media, including painting, drawing, and stained-glass, her artistic practice carries forward both family and cultural traditions of storytelling and image-making.

Installed on the roof of the Owens Art Gallery, which is located in a nineteenth-century, beaux-arts building, Wabanaki/People of the Dawn is an important assertion of Mi’kmaq sovereignty. Every year, the Owens will commission a Mi’kmaq artist to design a new flag for both the flagpole and its permanent collection. Two flags will be made each time: one for the wind and one for the vaults. These flags are sewn, not printed, so that the labour of their makers is physically apparent. Every five years, the gallery will exhibit the flags together, the weather-beaten ones next to their partners from the vaults. This project thus serves as an ongoing land acknowledgement that honours the L’nuk (Mi’kmaq) as the traditional owners and custodians of the unceeded lands upon which the Owens was built.

To keep this project grounded in community, each artist who designs a flag will nominate the artist for the following year. We are thrilled to announce that the artist designing the flag for 2021 is Natasha Patles. Patles is a talented artist from Eel Ground First Nation with a Diploma in Fine Craft and Applied Design from New Brunswick College of Craft and Design. We look forward to working with her on this important collaboritive project.
Photo: Mathieu Léger
We would like to acknowledge, honour, and pay respect to the traditional owners and custodians—from all four directions—of the land on which we live. It is upon the unceded, ancestral lands of the L’nuk (Mi’kmaq) that the Owens Art Gallery is located. While this area is known as Sackville, New Brunswick, it is part of Siknikt, a district of the greater territory of Mi’kma’ki. This territory is covered by the “Treaties of Peace and Friendship,” which the Mi’kmaq Wolastoqiyik, and Peskotomuhkati first signed with the British Crown in 1725.
The Owens Art Gallery would like to thank Mount Allison University, the Canada Council for the Arts, and the Ruth Lockhart Eisenhauer Art Fund for supporting this project. We also sincerely grateful to Patricia Musgrave-Quinn, Indigenous Affairs Coordinator, Mount Allision University, as well as our exceptional staff, student interns, volunteers, and supporters in the community of Sackville and the broader Atlantic region.
October 5, 2020 in Community, Culture