Wednesday, November 03, 2010

Fresh, Local, Craft! at the Ontario Crafts Council

























I am in the following show at the OCC which opens tomorrow! The Greenbelt Quilt is an amazing project that has toured Ontario over the past few months. Come and see it's unveiling!

Fresh, Local, Craft!
At the Ontario Crafts Council
990 Queen Street West
Toronto


November 4 - December 12

Opening Reception: Thursday, November 4th, 7:30 – 9:30 pm

Panel Discussion: Thursday, November 4th, 6:00 – 7:30 pm. The Great Hall, 1087 Queen St W, Toronto

Fresh, Local, Craft! is an exhibition that fuses community-building and environmental activism with the processes of craft making. Springing from a fruitful partnership, Fresh, Local, Craft! also constitutes the final tour stop for the Greenbelt Quilt of Possibilities project. The Quilt project originated through the Friends of the Greenbelt Foundation’s request for assistance in creating a community work that celebrates and advocates for Ontario’s protected Greenbelt space. In response, the OCC organized and implemented the project with Kate Busby as curator, and has been running a tour of the Quilt throughout 2010 with noteworthy stops at Queen’s Park and the G8 Summit in Muskoka.

Underlying the connection between quilt-making and community building is the more widespread movement of craft as a popular medium for activism, where craftspeople and artists engage their creativity as a tool for change. Local economies, sustainability, recycling and up-cycling are addressed in different techniques, media and processes to question dominant norms of consumerism, worth and health. The
Quilt contributors deal with these issues in their donated textile squares and reflections, and in Fresh, Local, Craft! their voices are accompanied by ten artists whose work expands on the question of stewardship through textiles, glass, ceramic, paper, wood and metal.

Fresh, Local, Craft! explores the dynamic between individual and communal processes of making in response to our relationship with the local environment. It celebrates the positive role that the Greenbelt plays in our lives, including its ability to bridge urban and rural life with the preservation of Ontario’s rich natural environment. Perhaps most importantly, the exhibition points in a direction where objects, food, air, water and soil are integrated into a society that no longer takes them for granted.

Fresh, Local, Craft! includes the work of: Glenna Agnew, Wendy Anderson Breedveld, Lizz Aston, Jayne Barrett, Tara Bursey, the Burr House Spinners and Weavers Guild, Maggie Butterfield Dickinson, Karen Chisvin, Natalie Drajewicz, Lise Downe, Roisin Fagan, Evann Frisque, Brette Gabel, Judy Gingrich, Fabienne Good, Margaret Gurica Hannigan, Clayton Haigh, Philip Hare, Beverley Hastings, Linda Heron, Pat Hertzberg, Kate Hunter, Mark Jaroszewicz, Sheila Jonah, Colleen Kennedy, Jen Kneulman, Mary Kroetsch, Katherine Laco, Sophia Lada, Kathy Lakatos, Kaitalin Lawford, Lory MacDonald, Nola McConnan, Valerie McLean, Karen Menzies, Lee Meszoros, Midori Nagai, Stacey Olson, Janet Patterson, Dorie Preston, Laura Preston, Julia Prime, Louisa Pucci, Danielle Reddick, Mary Ann Rich, Jean Pierre Schoss, Alison Seale, Brenda Secord, Don Stinson, Anastasia Tiller, Cheryl Trudeau, Catherine Vamvakas Lay, Linda Varekamp, Mary Walker, Wendy, Wallace, Helena Wehrstein, Liz Wilde, Erica Wilson, and Sandi Wong.

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