By Leslie Rowe-Israelson

The East Kootenays of British Columbia is home to a thriving glass community . You cannot travel to Invermere, B.C. without being influenced by the diverse art cultural scene, especially glass art. Glass blowing studios, flameworking studios, galleries and home-based kiln casting glass studios are an inspiration and a destination for many glass artists from across Canada.

One of these artists is Leslie Rowe-Israelson. Leslie and her twin sister, Melanie Rowe, have been creating in glass for the past 28 years. She moved to Invermere in 1998 from Jasper, Alberta, and has enjoyed the creative spirit carrying her to many parts of the world teaching and helping other artists to design and complete their kiln cast glass ideas. She feels very blessed to have been able to create one-of-a-kind sculptural pieces in glass, and wanted to share this experience. For years the twins traveled and taught at many world class schools such as Pilchuck Glass School, The Corning Museum of Glass Studio program, and Red Deer College in Alberta, just to name a few.

The last two years have presented a new challenge for the artist as she was diagnosed with cancer.  But instead of curling up and quietly going away, she embarked on a project to help others heal through art. Hence the “Drifting Leaves” world project was born. It got her out of bed everyday and became a healing tool for many artists around the world. She was the recipient of the GAAC Project Grant in 2009, which helped her to complete the project and hence get well in mind and spirit.

Leslie was also the recipient of a Major Projects Grant from the Columbia Kootenay Cultural Alliance in 2009. The project was called “ROMANCING MOUNTAIN LANDSCAPES” and her goal was to create 10 large glass panels in a new and innovative abstract colour bar technique. Uroboros Glass Company in Portland, Oregon invited the twins down to their studio factory where they created 4 of the 10 large panels.  The rest were created in her home based studio. It was such a gift to be able to take some time off and do some research and development of a new technique in which she had been dabbling for years, and to have the financial assistance to actually achieve her goal.

Special thanks to K. Leah Duperreault, one of GAAC’s two regional representatives for the province of British Columbia. Currently living in the town of Invermere, BC she plans to regularly contribute articles about talented glass artists in the Columbia Valley.

article by Gloria Hickey

Glass artist Urve Manuel observes the annual migration of Atlantic salmon and recognizes its primal urge to return home as the same urge that motivates her family and neighbours in Newfoundland and Labrador. “We mirror this survival strategy,” she says “Lifestyles are changing: jobs are lost due to depleted cod stocks, schools are closing and remote communities are dying.  There is a pressure to move away from home in order to make a living and raise families.  But the greatest pressure is to return home to where you belong.”

Urve Manuel has been a firefighter, logger and tree planter.

Visiting from British Columbia (she was born in Montreal, grew up in Ontario), Urve met her husband, a Newfoundland native, while on a “surf break” in Cape Ray. Despite the success and stimulation of “living away,” Ian Manuel had returned to Steady Brook, Newfoundland.  “He decided years ago that Newfoundland is where he wants to be.  And Ian will do whatever it takes to make a living where the people he grew up with live.” Urve speculates that the remoteness of many Newfoundland communities – highways were only introduced after Confederation in 1949 – accentuates both the province’s culture and the strong connection many Newfoundlanders feel to home.  But she is quick to add, “I think the theme of homesickness has a resonance right around the globe.”

Urve Manuel’s connection to the epic journey of salmon – and the subject of her latest glass installation titled Salmon Run – is deep.  In part, it is in the memories of an active childhood spent hiking and fishing.  But it is also intellectual as she was a graduate student at the University of British Columbia’s Department of Oceanography.  “I never finished my thesis on salmon migration; I got sidetracked and ended up firefighting.  I guess Salmon Run is my way of finally finishing that report,” she laughs.

Salmon Run by Urve Manuel

Salmon Run captures a riverbed in glass filled with 99 churning salmon of kiln slumped glass.  Their gleaming red, amber and blue bodies are flexed energetically, mouths open in exertion.  The fish are poised at different heights on transparent Lexan ‘pilings’ and low ceramic “stones”.  The river is composed of a winding glass table supported by hand-wrought, rhythmic metal legs. Above all the activity, a glass osprey soars quietly waiting for his chance to swoop down for a meal.  In the background are two stained glass panels that depict a different kind of predator– cottages nestled into the evergreen woods in one suggest the human presence, the other shows a lyrical birch glade with flowers.  Both show two ends of the rushing river.  The large-scale panels are set into sturdy 6 x 6 foot frames that Urve Manuel reclaimed from an old Ontario schoolhouse.

Just a few of the 99 Churning Salmon that make this impressive installation.

The ambitious glass installation betrays a huge appetite for physical work, to which Urve is no stranger.  She has been a firefighter, logger and tree planter.  Process photographs of the installation document Urve Manuel at the anvil, hammering out the legs for the riverbed table and producing the dozens of fish that took months and months of preparation. “For the past few months, this work was everywhere—living room, dining room, kitchen, studio, inside the car, outside on the deck… all consuming,” says Urve,” but I have a feeling that the drive to get it done and set up at the gallery was probably similar to the turbulent energy the salmon exude in their quest to propagate their species.”

For Urve Manuel there was no osprey soaring overhead but there were logistical challenges.  She worked for two years problem solving a way to realistically mount the glass fish– actual rocks were too heavy – and there were technical challenges with making the different glasses compatible.  “I originally wanted to use recycled glass for at least parts of the installation but it wouldn’t anneal properly,” she explains.  And then there was the cost which she says “floored her” when she added it all up at the project’s conclusion.   By necessity, the asking price for the installation is $43,200.

Salmon Run is a logical step in a glass career that has enthusiastically given shape, texture and colour to Urve Manuel’s love of the natural world.  Her studio has been home to herds of freestanding glass caribou.  She has made platters that are odes to the iridescent beauties of squid and the sudden fragile beauty of a northern orchid on the Newfoundland barrens. “Not all people want to wake up early to watch the sun strike the horizon and turn the mountains a deep fuchsia, but these people might still want to be a part of those scenes in a less physical way. My art allows me to share with others what gives me such deep joy,” concludes Urve.

Salmon Run was exhibited in the Craft Council of Newfoundland & Labrador Gallery, but has recently come down.  However, people can view it online at: http://www.craftcouncil.nl.ca/gallery/current_show.asp

Retour aux sources

L’artiste verrier Urve Manuel nous conte une histoire de poissons et de liens familiaux

L’artiste verrier Urve Manuel a établi en observant la migration annuelle des saumons de l’atlantique  un lien entre leur besoin pressant de retourner chez eux et celui de sa propre famille ainsi que de son voisinage à Terre Neuve et au Labrador. « Nous sommes le reflet de cet instinct de survie », dit elle « Notre mode de vie a changé : pertes d’emplois dues à l’épuisement des ressources en morue,  fermeture des écoles et disparition des communautés isolées. Quelque chose nous pousse à partir de  chez soi pour pouvoir gagner sa vie et avoir une famille. Mais la plus grande volonté est celle de s’en retourner chez soi, d’où l’on vient. »

Urve Manuel has been a firefighter, logger and tree planter.

En visite de Colombie Britannique (elle est née à Montréal et a grandit en Ontario), Urve a rencontré son mari, natif de Terre Neuve, durant des vacances d’été à Cape Ray. Malgré la réussite et l’excitation de vivre loin, Ian Manuel est retourné vivre à Steady Brook en Terre Neuve. « Il a décidé il  y a quelques années que Terre Neuve était l’endroit où il souhaitait être. Et Ian est prêt à tout pour retourner vivre auprès de ceux avec qui il a grandit. » Urve en déduit que l’isolement de la plupart des communautés de Terre Neuve –les autoroutes n’ayant été construites qu’après l’alliance de 1949- accentue d’autant plus la force culturelle de la province ainsi que l’attachement de ses habitants pour leur contrée. Mais elle ajoute rapidement, « je pense que le thème du mal du pays est valable tout autour de la terre. »

La relation d’Urve Manuel au voyage épique du saumon –et au sujet de sa dernière oeuvre en verre intitulée Salmon Run (le voyage du saumon)- est très profonde. C’est en partie à cause de ses souvenirs d’une enfance active entre randonnées et pêche. Mais c’est aussi pour le côté intellectuel car elle étudia au sein du département océanographique de l’université de Colombie Britannique. « Je n’ai jamais pu achever ma thèse concernant la migration des saumons ; j’ai été  amenée à finalement devenir pompier. Je suppose que Le voyage du Saumon est ma façon en quelque sorte de boucler le rapport », dit elle en riant.

Le Voyage du Saumon capture le lit d’une rivière en verre rempli de 99 saumons remuants en verre cuit au four. Leurs corps brillants aux teintes rouges, ambres et bleues sont énergiquement fléchis, la bouche ouverte dans l’effort. Les poissons sont suspendus sur différents niveaux dans les empilements de Lexan transparent et de « pierres » en céramique. La rivière est composée d’une table de verre en spirale soutenue par des pattes métalliques forgées rythmiquement à la main. Au dessus de toute cette activité, un balbuzard plane tranquillement prêt à plonger obtenir son repas. Dans le fond, deux panneaux en verre représentent  une autre forme de menace –dans l’un des cottages nichés dans les bois verts laissent supposer une présence humaine, l’autre montre une clairière de bouleaux et de fleurs. Chacune se poste à une des extrémités de la rivière grondante. De grande taille, les panneaux sont montés sur deux solides cadres de 6 x 6 pieds qu’Urve Manuel a récupéré d’une ancienne école en Ontario.

L’ambitieuse installation de verre se révèle être gourmande en efforts physiques, ce qu’Urve n’ignore pas. Elle fut tour à tour pompier, bûcheronne et planteuse d’arbres. Des photos des étapes de création de l’installation montrent Urve martelant sur l’enclume les pattes son lit de rivière table  et produisant les douzaines de poissons, ce qui demanda des mois préparation. « Durant ces derniers mois, cet ouvrage était partout –dans le salon, la salle à manger, la cuisine, le studio, dans la voiture, sur la plateforme extérieure… c’est très prenant », dit Urve, « mais j’ai l’impression que mon entrain pour en venir à bout et l’installer au sein de la galerie est probablement équivalent à l’énergie turbulente relâchée par les saumons dans leur quête de reproduction de l’espèce. »

Au lieu de la menace du balbuzard pour Urve Manuel ce sont plutôt des contraintes logistiques qui l’ont défiée. Pendant près de deux ans, elle a travaillé afin de trouver une façon réaliste de monter son poisson verre –de véritables pierres étant trop lourdes- et il fallu aussi prendre en compte les défis techniques afin de rendre les différents types de verre compatibles. « A la base, je souhaitais utiliser du verre recyclé pour certaines parties de l’installation mais cela ne se détrempait pas correctement », explique- t- elle. Ensuite il y eu la prise en compte des coûts qui selon elle l’ont impressionnée, lorsque additionnés jusqu’à l’aboutissement du projet. Par nécessité, le prix demandé pour l’installation est de $43,200.

Le Voyage du Saumon est une étape logique à la carrière verrière ayant motivé et donné forme, texture et couleur à l’amour d’Urve pour la nature. Son studio a été le refuge de hordes de caribous sur pieds en verre. Elle a fait des plats qui sont de réelles odes à la beauté chatoyante des calmars et la beauté fragile et brève d’une orchidée du nord sur les paysages dénudés de Terre Neuve. « Tout le monde n’est pas forcément d’accord pour se lever tôt afin d’aller voir le soleil atteindre l’horizon et colorer les montagnes en un fushia profond, mais ces personnes auront peut être tout de même l’envie de profiter de ces scènes d’une manière moins sportive. Mon art me permet de partager avec les autres ce qui me procure une joie si profonde », conclue Urve.

The opening presentation  at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts for the 2010 GAAC conference was given by the Maritime  artist Peter Powning, …he has lived and worked for the last 35 years in Markhamville, New Brunswick. So, what could better for a first ‘maritime’ article than an excerpt from his talk “Going Public”  unfortunately it will be minus most of the slides.

His opening talk was predominantly about Public commissions hence… “GOING PUBLIC” The following is a segment that I chose from the talk that I thought would be of interest to artists and GAAC members alike. “Lynne”

“I will show and discuss some of the public commissions I am involved with in the context of my mixed media practice. I’m particularly interested in the context of public art and the ways in which it engages the public. As well, I’m interested in the commissioning process and its effects on creative thinking.

I work principally in glass, clay and bronze. They all involve transformation by fire.

A good deal of the work I have been engaged in over the last few years deals with metaphor based on ideas concerning balance, fragmentation and transformation: of the body, heart, mind, spirit, nature, language & culture. The work is meant to have the feel of the artifact: an emotional artifact made solid, cultural artifacts for our times. I’ve also been making photographic images over the years and these have recently become an important element of my artistic production as well.

I’ve lived and worked for 35 years in Markhamville, New Brunswick in a high hill valley surrounded by boreal forest. My work and life are informed by a rural existence and my long connection with place. This may sound romantic, at times it feels that way, but mostly it just is the way things are, sometimes pleasant and easy but often enough challenging and difficult. What I’m attempting with my work is to produce objects that excite me and that connect with other people. It’s really as simple as that. I also like the thought of the work started here in my studio going out into the world.

Being an artist is a perilous and peculiar occupation that has many and varied rewards as well as many and varied insecurities and pitfalls. I live a ying yang existence with periods of secluded creation bamboozled by periodic public exposure when I venture beyond the hills of home to see if the work really works and hasn’t just become a delusory obsession.

Glass found it’s way into my work gradually during the 1980’s. I spent a winter in Providence RI where I had a studio next to Howard Ben Tre before he was well known. I helped him with some mold making and he has helped me over the years with my interest in glass.

I have always needed to address a market of some sort with most of what I produce. Public art is another market. Unlike most of what I’ve done, which has been sold to individuals, public art becomes part of the public commons. All artists enter a market place whether it’s a close circle of like-minded artists and academics, public museums, artist run spaces, or through galleries. Getting our work out there in some way is part of what being an artist is about. We communicate. We all need a “public”. With public art our “market” is determined by location and visibility and the ability of public art to connect, to create engagement. The transaction is supported by money one way or another but it’s not about money.

Why go big? Well first of all it’s a creative challenge, a technical and organizational challenge and I enjoy challenges. I also have to admit that it’s fun. I get to play. I think play is an essential ingredient in what we all do. Play is a serious element of creativity. Public art also allows me to move out of the gallery space and onto the street, park or public building site. The work has a public identity rather than a private one. It’s a less sheltered, more exposed place to be as an artist. The artist who makes public art becomes a public artist, and has to deal with the expectations, understanding of, and interpretation by what Annie Gerin in the book Public Art in Canada calls, “ … non-specialized publics outside the gallery space”       a polite way of saying your average bozo. I don’t say this meaning to denigrate your average bozo but to point out that we spend much of our professional lives sheltered from public opinions of the sort that come from people uninterested in art, even antagonistic to art in general, or who at least have had little conscious exposure to contemporary art

The public doesn’t get to choose what it is confronted with in terms of public art (or architecture or much else of the landscape, urban, town or country for that matter). In the case of art however, the question of value often comes up. An ugly light standard at least has the value of lighting something. A hideous condo building does house people however badly. The case for art is more difficult and not as readily apparent.

Citizens see the work whether they want to or not, and those offended by art in general, or the tax money spent on art or the content of the art can be bluntly expressive about what they think. It can be quite a jolt coming out of our comfortable circle of support to encounter opinions expressed in letters to the editor regarding our precious endeavors, especially as stated in the wild west of anonymous comments made in on-line blogs in reaction to media coverage of a public unveiling. That being said public dialogue is an important element attached to public art. It can take years for a public sculpture to settle into its environment and become a part of  “place”, a “local” rather than an intruder. Public art can form part of a community’s identity. I think it’s a hopeful pursuit, in the sense that with public art we are engaged in the notion that we can improve and evolve, that there can be positive change amidst all the negative and difficult complexities of life in the 21^st century. Making permanent, site specific objects one at a time, by hand says we think we’ll carry on, that it’s worth the effort.  It’s an act of direct unmediated public engagement.

Artistic and cultural value is a can of worms but in a sense value is predetermined by the very fact that public sculpture happens. Cultural forces have made a case for the inclusion of public art in construction budgets, and various levels of government, most notably municipal, have bought the argument. The idea of “creative cities” is in ascendency. Public art is perceived to have value as an indicator of enlightened policy and as an attractant to the sorts of people and activities that make a city a desirable place to live.

At least part of the value of public art is similar to the value of art and the individually made object in general. A public sculpture distinguishes its locale as being differentiated from the increasingly homogenized big box mass culture we swim in. It is site specific. Architecture and parks can help humanize where we live, public art goes further by not only making connections with people and place but by having something to say. It can become part of the connective cultural tissue of a specific place. Public art is a kind of cultural eruption or focal point. Even poorly conceived public art becomes a record of cultural decisions made, a reflection of the community from which it springs. Value accrues to public art over time.

In my case a public art commission starts with the personal and builds from my reaction to the site and proposal guidelines. It will have visual references as clues to meaning, it will involve the careful use of materials in ways meant to evoke response, it will be in a context that gives further meaning and it will gather associations as the process goes along. It might attempt to be bold, beautiful, serene, humorous, provocative or all of these things together: serenely, provocative perhaps. My work is intended to engage not instruct.

I respond to a site. By necessity I respond to the thematic requirements of the request for proposals and try to make those considerations work for me. Underlying the impulse to engage in public art making is the same basic creative urge that makes object-making an imperative in my life. It is a need to engage the world and understand the world through the production of objects inspired by creative observation. Seeing what is there to be seen, internalizing it, then physically manifesting a response. The process is a visual, tactile interpretation of experience that comes from that zone beyond word-thought, that deep well that word analysis can only skim the surface of. That holy place of creative imagining that analysis flattens. This is true whether the source of inspiration is an ancient artifact, a beautiful cup or a rock formation. I try to trust my instincts.

I often have to overcome an initial irritation with the thematic expectations set out in the request for proposals for public art competitions. It’s rare to be given a free hand. The sculpture has to satisfy a jury that it meets requirements. This can mean dealing with very specific historical facts, or something about the purpose of the building it is associated with, or a grab bag of art jargon fluff.

Public Sculpture can have many limitations and restrictions. It has to be virtually vandal proof, weather proof, building code compatible, engineered, liability proof, not invite invasion by or habitation by birds, beasts or the homeless, be skate board proof, cleanable if tagged with paint, and still be culturally viable, at least to the satisfaction of a jury of unknown composition.

In canvassing several artist friends who have at one point or another been involved in percentage for the arts programs it is clear that none of them find the process satisfactory. In fact as soon as an artist can ditch the process and find commissions that forgo the lottery aspects of trying to get sculpture commissions through percentage for the arts programs they move on. This is a problem. It leaves the field open to the less accomplished, the desperate, or the amateur with credentials, or artists who have a big enough practice that they have the cash flow to hire people to work on proposals allowing them not to be too distracted from their creative work by the time sink of making endless proposals. The only solution I can see to this is for municipalities that commission public art to have the courage to have some of the larger commissions done on the basis of a pre-determined short list rather then the easy out of calls for Expressions of Interest or Requests for Proposals. That would mean that mixed juries would at least be supporting active professionals without being distracted by large numbers of essentially poorly or unqualified applicants.

I’ve been researching the winning proposals for some of the percentage for the arts commissions lately and there are quite a few absolutely inexplicable choices being made. In following up on how the winners were selected made it is clear that the juries were dominated by people without arts backgrounds and I have to say it shows. So more varied approaches to commissioning public art are essential to continue to engage the most accomplished artists to participate in the process. There is a need for jury education through workshops and broad exposure to some of the great public art in the world. I hate to see large amounts of money being squandered on mediocre “safe” art. I have to admit though that the process doesn’t encourage me to risk making the bolder, wilder proposals that I might if I felt confident about the jury mix. The chance to work on large public commissions still drives me to engage in the process though with considerable more selectivity than in the past.

ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING

Meeting Minutes

May 30, 2010

Present from the Board of Directors: Brad Copping (BC), Marcia Devicque (MD), Caroline Ouellette (CO), Rika Hawes (RH), Natali Rodrigues (NR), Jamie Gray (JG)

Present: GAAC members (GM)

Started: 10:05AM

BC:  Thanks for coming to both the conference and this meeting. The conference was amazing – a continuous journey of organization. It’s done much for our community. Many thanks to the folks in Montreal.

MD:  This conference shows the world we’re a community. And the website is a gift to our community. As far as treasurer duties go, the books are now computerized. Accountability and transparency are of ultimate importance – the books are open to everyone. Historical information is also available. At this point membership and accounting are integrated. When all the numbers are in, we’ll meld Espace Verre and GAAC books together so we know where the money is coming from / where it went / how many students / full members / members at the door. This will be valuable when we hand all this off to Calgary. We do file taxes and are registered as non-profit organization. The books go to a chartered accountant post-conference. May 31 is the end-of-year. Once everything is in, numbers will be posted on the website. The position of Treasurer is now open – does anyone know anyone to take this on? This position will be fully mentored until the new person is completely comfortable. Quickbook program is easy to use.

RH: To clarify, we have tentatively set Calgary for our next conference in 2013. Since our last conference in Red Deer, we have set up a new website. This involved a high level of commitment from a number of individuals working together. Paypal has been integrated. Espace Verre did a great job getting grants and corporate sponsors for the conference. The Canadian Medical Association contacted us some time ago about a possible bequest. There is a person (un-named to us) who’d like to fund a national award in glass and sculpture. We are the intermediary for the glass prize which would be a $500,000 endowment. The magazine is now on-line. The paper version cost as much to produce as we received in revenue from membership fees. Now the magazine is timely, contemporary and has cut down on expenses so that funds can be funnelled into other projects: members’ exhibitions, grants, etc.

BC:  Benefits to the new website: there are now many hits (1700 unique views per month) to the website; membership has grown (from under 200 two years ago to 400+ currently).

GM (Sue Rankin): The search engines have given us a high profile so that we come up first and fast.

RH:  The website was originally administered by a volunteer but Christy Haldane is now on contract to do the updates, so it’s much better. It’s important to note that the Board is still all volunteers.

GM (Lucy Roussel): It’s important to note that the schools have made GAAC membership a focus.

BC: We’re trying to get the students connected more. We now give a free one-year membership to every graduating Canadian student in order to help keep them connected to the community in that important first year out of school.

GM: (Peter Sharpe): What is now the benefit to being a member since the magazine is no longer in hardcopy form?  Perhaps many felt that the receipt of the magazine justified the membership. There was a feeling of having an art magazine in hand, and it had potential to be circulated and recycled to other people. Thank you to those who made the magazine. It’s understandable that it had to go on-line. Thank you, also for the Board’s hard work – the conference was great.

RH: We had much discussion around change to the magazine. The cost benefit was extreme. For persons who have not got e-mail, we tried to contact them to attempt to connect them with this new media.

BC:  We’re setting up the tools for the next generation. The benefits the paper copy provided, we hope are now covered by the website. Those benefits are now available to a much wider audience.

NR:  We can now more fully promote Canadian glass. Where once we were sending out only 250 magazines per quarter, now 1700+ people are seeing it in any given month.

MD:  This also helps promote a “green” attitude. Plus, people can view the magazine and site at their convenience as well as go ahead and share it with anyone else.

BC:The potential is that we’ve released ourselves from the burden of the cost to produce a hardcopy magazine. We have talked about and may possibly do an annual publication, which would be a hard copy book. We’re still working on that concept to make sure it meets high standards. We’ve set ourselves up in a position where we can do much more.

MD: A section for our institution membership (which includes galleries and other institutions) has not yet been developed, so there’s that to come also.

BC:  We will continue with on-going improvements. It’s of ultimate importance that membership gives feedback about how we evolve the website.

GM:  Can we set up something whereby viewers to the site can request and purchase poster prints of artists’ work?

BC: Possibly. We’re using Paypal now so it will be possible to have extra conference t-shirts for sale, etc. An archive for the magazine exists of old issues and it would be good to get them onto the website now. What we really need is to collect information about what’s going on in the various regions. We need content. Our regional reps are now regional editors and we’ll be collecting info from them four times a year: video work, artist profiles, reviews, etc. We’ll take as many regional reps as we can get, because GAAC is about sharing info. If things are happening, let’s share that.

GM: (David James): At one time people joined in order to get the magazine; is the magazine members-only access? What are the advantages to joining now?

BC:  No, it’s public access. The main advantage to purchasing membership is to have an artist directory on the website.

NR:  We’re fundamentally different from Glass Art Society (US) and we’re spread across the country. Conferences were previously the only way we could communicate. The website is now a locus for communication. It also helps students because we can direct them to the site for reference.

RH:  There are also GIIN, project grants, artist directory, exhibitions. It’s important to note that hardly anyone applies for the project grant more than one year.

GM: (David James): Why is there a differentiation between students and professionals.

BC:  It’s so that we can recognize when someone’s under instruction. There’s a different level of engagement and community about being in school, a recognition of who those other students are. There’s a richness to having that; it’s not us and them. It would do a disservice to the broader world if we didn’t differentiate because if you’re a student you may be making work inspired by someone else’s work – it looks like someone else’s work – but as a professional that’s not ok. We also create a financial subsidy in the case of students; it costs slightly less for them to be members.

RH: Also when you see this is student work, you notice if it’s really good.

GM: (Sue Rankin): If collectors are looking at the website, they like to see the progression of student to professional. Student exhibitions at galleries are about once a year, so that’s less now.

NR:  It also provides an opportunity for networking for students. Also, we need to reach out to different kinds of communities: those who haven’t gone through schools, who’ve taught themselves or gone through small schools. These small groups need to be part of GAAC.

BC:  Social media, like Facebook, is also important as a means of communicating to more communities.

RH: One thing we’re struggling with is the issue of bilingualism.

CO:   It’s very good when we can have French/English translation at the conferences. As a French speaker I want to sound right, express things in my own language. It’s something we should do at all conferences.

NR:  The conference in Calgary will be bilingual.

GM:  The translators did a great job at this conference.

RH:  We are concerned that Espace Verre is being tapped out regarding translation within the website but the cost of paying for translation is prohibitive. So we’re not sure where to go from here.

CO:  I volunteer to translate one large article a month.

GM (Jessica McDonald): I volunteer to do the opposite (French to English).

BC:We need to more French content on the site.

GM (Laura Sassville): I would love to write an article.

BC:  Excellent -spread the word that articles are always welcome, from anyone who cares to submit one.

RH:It’s a great opportunity to get published, get your thoughts out to your community, to share it.

GM (Randy Kaltenbach): Would this be a good exercise to give to bilingual students?

GM (Peter Sharpe):

GM (Mathieu Grodet) : Will there be something like a retrospective, a resume about what’s happening in the year, an archival record, something that stays?

BC: The annual would cover that.

GM (David James): There is a national library for paper magazines, but now that we’re electronic, how do we now handle nationally archiving anything? This type of thing is accessed by researchers.

RH:  We can submit things on CD.

BC:  There are internet archives on-line but they do take time before they appear. Eventually digital archives will become a reality.

BC:  Regarding those who are leaving the Board: Caroline, Natali, and Marcia. Marcia will mentor in another treasurer before she officially steps off. Thank you! It’s a thankless job in some ways, behind the scenes so to speak, but it’s much appreciated.

NR:  Personal commitments have been inhibitive for me, but this is a rich experience, so if you have any interest in Canadian glass sign up. Work for your community.

JG:  Have we officially announced Calgary as our next conference?

NR:  Tentatively; ACAD must be asked if they would be willing to host.

GM (Lou Lynn): It would be better to say that there is an expression of interest for a conference in Calgary.

BC:  As to new commitments to the board : Diana Fox (AB), Rachel Wong (TO), Steve Tippin (TO), and his wife (promotions/publicity), Benjamin Kikkert (TO). These people have expressed an interest.

RH: We’ve had conversations with people, solicited recommendations, but our question is are any of you interested in being on the board? Or know someone? You would participate in meetings, projects, roles to help get things done?

Response: Wendy McPeak (AB): board member Catherine Labonte (QU): regional rep

GM (Laura Sassville): What if we’re interested in doing a single particular project?

RH: Speak with us and we’ll make sure it meets our mandate. After that we would be in communication and assist with networking, and would help to solicit involvement. We would see that an article would be written for the magazine.

BC:  If anyone has photos / stories from this conference, please consider submitting them.

RH:  These should be good photos, print-ready, crop-able, with photographer’s info and permission to use them. Events live on through documentation.

GM (Sue Rankin): Is there documentation available from the conference? Were there transcriptions of lectures?

NR:  Is the keynote speech available to us?

RH:  The actual lecture belongs to the speaker, even if the recording of same is not. In future, we should solicit summaries from all the speakers.

Motion: Natali Rodrigues made the motion that Wendy McPeak be voted to the Board Seconded: Brad Copping All in favour / none opposed

GM (Mathieu Grodet): Will commit to translating text.

GM (Ga‘lle Donati): Know someone in France who will do translations for a low price. Will submit info on this on the feedback form. (flore.donati@gmail.com)

GM (Jessica McDonald): What percentage of GAAC membership are collectors? For them, losing the hardcopy magazine may not be good.

BC:  It’s a small percentage. As an enthusiast, you’re going to be there no matter what. You support the community.

RH:  What people get out of it varies person to person. They’re also supporting the larger community.

GM (Jessica McDonald): Are we just an association of artists?

RH: That’s pretty much who we’ve been. GIIN gives people current info about exhibitions, etc., and we try to send things out that are very timely there. It’s also your choice as to whether or not you read it.

NR: We are always open to suggestions/solutions.

RH: We’re cautious about advertisers on the site because sometimes they’re Canadian and sometimes not. Our conference sponsors are on the website for the next couple of months. Our main focus is promoting excellence in Canadian glass.

BC:  We’ve always had an institutional membership rate which includes a page in the artists directory. It’s up to the institutions what they choose to post on their profile. We need to include these members but may need to take some other approach to support them.

RH: A large question is how do we maintain control over our internet presence?

GM (Peter Sharpe): Strict editorial control is needed.

BC:  Sally McCubbin has taken that on, and Arron Lowe is publisher. So there are people overseeing this because we recognize the importance of paying attention to those details.

GM (Peter Sharpe): Can we affirm them to exercise that editorial control?

RH: The paper magazine was where we had editorial issues. The content was sometimes not good. So by taking the control back, we reassumed that responsibility. The critical rigor wasn’t there but now we’ve got it back. We’re always in contact with the people who are working on the magazine.

GM (Peter Sharpe): I have a background in manuscripts, so I’m happy to lend a hand to articles. Sometimes people have trouble with their grammar so I can help. The only thing is that images are slow on my computer.

BC:  That’s a generous offer, thank you.

RH:  Thanks for all the good questions and feedback. It’s important that we get the feedback so that we know where to go from here. What kind of initiatives will we continue with? For example, the project grant is only going on because membership supports it; only a couple of people a year benefit from it.

NR: If there’s something that’s not working for you, please suggest a solution. We’re a small organization so membership can help by being a “think tank”; it’s proactive.

GM (Laura Sassville): Being a student and semi-professional, we feel pretty lucky that as soon as you get into school, you get into the community. Glass is a big family and that’s a strong point for us because we exchange and grow. So, thank you for including students.

Motion: Natali Rodrigues made the motion to adjourn the meeting Seconded: Rika Hawes All in favour / none opposed

End of meeting: 11:30AM

ASSEMBLÉE GÉNÉRALE ANNUELLE

Compte rendu de la réunion

30 Mai 2010 

Membres présents du Conseil d’administration

Brad Copping (BC), Marcia Devicque (MD), Caroline Ouellette (CO), Rika  Hawes (RH), Natali Rodrigues (NR), Jamie Gray (JG)

Présents: membres du GAAC (GM)

Début: 10:05 AM

BC:      Merci d’être venu à la conférence ainsi qu’a cette réunion. La conférence était superbe- un grand voyage d’organisation. Cela a apporté beaucoup à notre communauté. Un grand merci aux personnes de Montréal.

MD:     Cette conference démontre publiquement que nous sommes une communauté. Et notre site Internet en est un honneur. En ce qui concerne la trésorerie, les comptes sont maintenant informatisés. La transparence en comptabilité est d’une très grande importance –les comptes sont accessibles à tous. Des archives sont aussi disponibles. Désormais, la comptabilité et les adhésions sont intégrées à la base de données. Quand toutes les données seront enregistrées, nous fusionnerons Espace Verre et les comptes GAAC afin d’avoir une meilleure visibilité sur la provenance des fonds/ leur utilisation/ le nombre d’étudiants/ de membres réels/ de membres en attente. Cela sera précieux lorsque nous fournirons le tout à Calgary. Nous cotisons bien à certaines taxes et sommes inscrits en tant qu’organisation à but non lucratif. Les comptes vont vers un comptable agréé après la conférence. La clôture de l’année se fait le 31 mai. Lorsque tout sera enregistré, les données seront accessibles via le site internet. La place de trésorier est désormais vacante – quelqu’un connaîtrait il une personne qui serait intéressée? Cette position sera totalement accompagnée tant que la personne ne se sentira pas à l’aise avec le poste. Le logiciel Quickbook est simple d’utilisation. 

RH:     Pour clarifier tout cela, nous avons pour objectif  d’établir notre prochaine conférence à Calgary en 2013. Depuis notre dernière conférence à Red Deer, nous avons créé un nouveau site web. Cela a nécessité un fort engagement pour un certain nombre de personnes ayant travaillé ensemble. Payppal y a été intégré.

Espace Vert a fait du très bon travail pour obtenir des bourses et des entreprises sponsor pour cette conférence.

L’Association Médicale Canadienne nous a contacté il y a quelques temps pour une éventuelle donation: une personne (dont nous ignorons le nom) souhaiterait financer un prix nationale de verre et sculpture. Nous serions l’intermédiaire en ce qui concerne le prix de verre qui serait alors une dotation de $500,000.

Le magazine est à présent mis en ligne. La version papier nous coûte autant à produire que ce que nous avons récolté grâce aux frais de cotisation. A présent le magazine est prêt, moderne et a réduit ses dépenses pour que les fonds puissent être employés à d’autres projets : expositions des adhérents, bourses, etc.

BC:      Les avantages du nouveau site web: il y a maintenant beaucoup de visites (1700 visionnages par mois), le nombre des membres a augmenté (de moins de 200 l’année passée à plus de 400 présentement).

GM (Sue Rankin): Les moteurs de recherche nous ont fourni un profil élevé qui nous permet d’apparaître dans les premiers et rapidement.

RH:     Le site était géré au départ par des bénévoles mais Christy Haldane est maintenant sous contrat pour les mises à jour, ce qui est beaucoup mieux. C’est important de prendre en compte que tous les membres du conseil restent totalement bénévoles.

GM (Lucy Roussel): C’est aussi important de savoir que les écoles ont fait de l’adhésion au GAAC une priorité.

BC:      Nous essayons d’attirer l’attention de plus d’étudiants. Nous offrons maintenant un an d’abonnement à chaque étudiant diplômé canadien afin de l’aider à rester en lien avec la communauté dans ce passage important qu’est sa première année après l’école.

GM (Peter Sharpe):  Quels sont à présent les avantages d’être membre depuis que le magazine n’est plus sous format papier ? Peut être que beaucoup pensaient que la réception du magazine justifiait le tarif d’adhésion. Il y avait cette impression de posséder un magazine d’art qui avait le potentiel de circuler de main en main et à être passé à d’autres. Merci à ceux qui ont réalisé ce magazine. Sa mise en ligne est compréhensible. Merci aussi au dur travail de la part du conseil –la conférence était super.

RH:     Nous avons beaucoup discuté des changements du magazine. Le bénéfice sur les coûts est extrême. Pour ceux qui n’ont pas d’adresse mail, nous avons tenté de les contacter pour les familiariser à ce nouveau media.

BC:      Nous établissons des outils pour la génération future. Nous espérons que les avantages fournis par la version papier sont à présent tout a fait compensés par ceux sur internet. Ces avantages sont maintenant accessibles à un bien plus grand nombre de personnes.

NR:     Nous pouvons à présent promouvoir pleinement le verre canadien. Quand auparavant nous n’envoyions que 250 magazines par trimestre, désormais plus de 1700 personnes peuvent y avoir accès au cours de n’importe quel mois.

MD:     Cela nous aide aussi à promouvoir une démarche écologique. De plus, les gens peuvent regarder le magazine et le site Internet à leur convenance et ensuite le partager avec qui bon leur semble.

BC:      Le potentiel est dans le poids du coût pour produire cette version papier du magazine dont nous nous sommes dégagés. Nous en avons discuté et envisageons peut être de faire une publication annuelle qui serait sous format papier. Nous travaillons encore sur ce projet pour s’assurer qu’il ait le niveau requis. Nous nous sommes mis dans une situation ou nous pouvons des lors faire bien plus.

MD:     Nous n’avons pas encore développé de section pour les établissements membres (comprenant les galeries et les autres institutions), cela reste donc aussi à venir.

BC:      Il y aura par la suite des améliorations continuelles. Il est très important que les adhérents partagent leurs impressions concernant la progression du site internet.

GM:     Pouvons nous mettre en place un système pour que les visiteurs du site web puissent voir et acheter des impressions version posters des travaux des artistes ?

BC:      C’est probable. Nous utilisons Paypal à présent pour mettre en vente les t-shirts restants des conférences, etc.

Il existe des archives du magazine sur d’anciens thèmes et il serait intéressant de pouvoir les mettre également sur le site. Ce dont nous avons réellement besoin est de pouvoir collecter les informations concernant les événements dans chaque région. Nous avons besoin de contenu. Nos représentants régionaux sont maintenant éditeurs régionaux et nous récolterons les informations par leur biais quatre fois par an : des vidéos, des profils d’artistes, des critiques, etc. Nous aurons recours au plus grand nombre possible de représentants régionaux car le but de GAAC est de partager l’information. Si des choses ont lieu, alors partageons les.

GM:     (David James): Il fut un temps ou les gens devenaient membres dans le but d’avoir droit au magazine, l’accès au magazine sera-t- il toujours réservé aux membres? Quels seraient les avantages de cotiser à présent ?

BC:      Non, il sera rendu public. L’avantage majeur d’acheter la carte membre sera pour avoir accès au répertoire des artistes sur le site.

NR:     Nous sommes fondamentalement différents de la Glass Art Society (US) et nous sommes étalés sur tout le pays. Les conférences étaient auparavant le seul moyen de communiquer. Le site web est maintenant un vecteur de communication. Il aide aussi à rediriger les étudiants plus facilement vers notre site comme référence.

RH:     Il y a aussi GIIN, les projets de bourses, le répertoire des artistes, les expositions. Il est important de comprendre que peu peuvent prétendre à la bourse projet pour plus d’un an.

GM:     (David James):  Pourquoi fait on une différence entre les étudiants et les professionnels?

BC:      C’est afin de pouvoir savoir lorsqu’une personne est encore sous enseignement. Le degré d’engagement et de communauté est différent pour ceux qui sont à l’école, une reconnaissance de qui sont ces étudiants. C’est un enrichissement de le savoir, ce n’est pas juste pour eux et nous. Cela ne rendrait pas service aux autres si nous ne différencions pas car lorsque vous êtes étudiants, il arrive parfois de travailler en vous inspirant de l’œuvre de quelqu’un d’autre – cela s’inspire du travail de quelqu’un d’autre- mais en tant que professionnel cela n’est pas tolérable. Nous créons aussi une subvention financière pour que cela coûte légèrement moins cher aux étudiants d’être adhérents.

RH:     Aussi lorsque vous constatez que c’est un travail d’étudiant, vous pouvez vous rendre compte s’il est vraiment de qualité.

GM (Sue Rankin): Si les collectionneurs regardent le site Internet, ils apprécient de pouvoir constater la progression d’étudiant à professionnel. Les expositions d’étudiantes dans les galeries arrivent environ une fois par an, c’est donc moins maintenant.

NR:     Cela fournit aussi l’occasion aux étudiants de créer leurs réseaux. Nous devons aussi atteindre différentes sortes de communautés : ceux qui ne sont pas passés par le scolaire, qui ont appris par eux même ou dans de petites écoles. Ces petits groupes doivent faire partie du GAAC.

BC:      Les réseaux sociaux comme Facebook sont aussi d’importants moyens de communication pour beaucoup de communautés.

RH:     Une des choses pour laquelle nous avons des difficultés actuellement concerne la question du bilinguisme.

CO:     C’est très bien lorsque des traductions français/anglais sont disponibles aux conférences. En tant que francophone, je souhaite exprimer justement les choses dans ma propre langue. C’est quelque chose que nous devrions faire pour chaque conférence.

NR:     La conférence de Calgary sera bilingue.

GM:     Le traducteur a été très bien durant cette conférence.

RH:     Nous sommes conscients du fait qu’Espace Verre soit défavorisé en ce qui concerne les traductions au sein du site Internet mais le coût d’un traducteur est inabordable. Nous ne sommes donc pas encore surs de comment faire à ce propos.

CO:     Je me porte volontaire pour traduire un grand article par mois.

GM (Jessica McDonald):  Je me dévoue pour faire l’inverse (du français à l’anglais).

BC:  Nous devrions mettre plus de choses en français sur notre site.

GM (Laura Sassville):  Je serai ravie d’écrire un article

BC:      Excellent –passez le message que d’autres articles sont toujours les bienvenus pour quiconque souhaiterai nous en soumettre un.

RH:     C’est une bonne occasion pour se faire publier, faire sortir ses idées en dehors de la communauté, les partager.

GM (Randy Kaltenbach):  Est ce que ça pourrait être un bon exercice pour les étudiants bilingues?

GM (Peter Sharpe): Un petit mot concernant la prochaine conférence: à celle ci, les traducteurs demandaient sans cesse au public de répéter leurs questions pour la traduction, donc pour la prochaine conférence, il est important que l’audience puisse avoir accès à un micro.

MD:     Nous espérons arriver au point où nos finances seront telles que nous pourrons payer des écrivains car nous avons l’impression qu’il y en a trop peu et l’offre d’un salaire pourrait donner un coup de pouce. Chacun peut choisir d’écrire.

NR:     La communauté artisanale australienne a un niveau de discussion élevé.

BC:      Studio Magazine fonctionne de cette sorte mais en anglais seulement.

RH:     Il y a des formulaires de feedback, merci d’en remplir un. Il y en aura aussi une version électronique.

GM (Mathieu Grodet):  Y aura t il quelque chose comme une rétrospective, un sommaire de tout ce qui a lieu au courant de l’année, des archives, quelque chose qui reste?           

BC:      C’est l’annuel qui couvrirait cela.

GM (David James): our les formats papiers, il existe une bibliothèque nationale, mais maintenant que nous sommes passés à l’électronique, comment allons nous gérer l’archivage au niveau national? Ce genre d’accès est utilisé par les chercheurs.

RH:     Nous pouvons leur fournir les documents sur CD

BC:   Il existe des archives en ligne sur Internet mais cela prend un certain temps avant qu’elles apparaissent. Viendra un jour où les archives digitales deviendront monnaie courante.

BC:  En ce qui concerne ceux qui quittent le bureau: Caroline, Natali et Marcia. Marcia initiera un nouveau trésorier avant sont départ officiel. Merci ! C’est un travail ingrat en soit et qui a lieu derrière les coulisses pour ainsi dire,  mais c’est très apprécié.

NR:     Des engagements personnels m’en ont empêché mais c’est une belle expérience, donc si vous portez un intérêt au Canadian Glass, inscrivez vous. Travaillez pour votre communauté.

JG:  Avons nous annoncé officiellement que notre prochaine conférence aurait lieu à Calgary?

NR:     Pour le moment; ACAD doit d’abord confirmer s’ils désirent nous accueillir.

GM (Lou Lynn): ela semblerait plus adéquat de dire qu’un fort intérêt à été exprimé pour que la conférence ait lieu à Calgary.

BC:      Quant aux nouveaux volontaires au conseil: Diana Fox (AB), Rachel Wong (TO), Steve Tippin (TO), et sa femme (promotion/publicité), Benjamin Kikkert (TO). Ces personnes ont exprimé leur intérêt.

RH:     Nous avons discuté avec beaucoup de monde, demandé des recommandations, mais notre question est, est ce que certains d’entre vous seraient intéressés pour faire partie du bureau? Où connaîtraient-ils quelqu’un ? Vous participeriez aux réunions, aux projets et apporteriez une aide à la réalisation des choses.

Réponse:  Wendy McPeak (AB): membre du conseil

            Catherine Labonté (QU) : représentante régionale

GM (Laura Sassville):  Est il possible de participer à un seul projet en particulier?

RH: Venez nous en parler et nous vérifierons si cela nous convient. Apres cela nous garderions contact, nous vous aiderions pour le réseau, et nous vous aiderons à solliciter des participations. Nous ferions en sorte qu’un article soit écrit pour le magazine. 

BC:  Si quiconque a des photos, ou des anecdotes sur la conférence, n’hésitez pas à nous les soumettre.

RH: Il faut que ça soit de bonnes photos, prêtes à être imprimée, récupérables, avec les informations du photographe et sa permission de les utiliser. Les événements continuent de vivre à travers la documentation.

GM (Sue Rankin):  a t-il de la documentation disponible concernant la conférence? Y a t-il une retranscription des exposés disponible?

NR:  Est ce que le discours d’ouverture nous est accessible?

RH: Les exposés appartiennent à leur orateur, mais pas l’enregistrement de ceux ci. A l’avenir, nous demanderons à chaque présentateur un résumé.

Motion:  Natali Rodrigues a suggéré que Wendy McPeak soit élue au conseil.

Appuyé:  Brad Copping

Tous favorables/ pas d’opposition

GM (Mathieu Grodet):  S’engage pour traduire les textes

GM (Gaelle Donati): Connait une personne en France qui peut faire les traductions à bas prix. Elle fournira les informations à ce sujet sur le formulaire de feedback. (flore.donati@gmail.com)

GM (Jessica McDonald): Quel pourcentage de membres du GAAC sont des collectionneurs? Pour eux, la perte de la version papier pourrait poser problème.

BC: C’est un très petit pourcentage. Si vous êtes amateur, vous serez la quoiqu’il advienne. Vous soutenez la communauté.

RH: Ce que les gens en retiennent varie d’une personne à l’autre. Ils soutiennent aussi la communauté à plus grande échelle.

GM (Jessica McDonald):  Sommes nous juste une association d’artistes?

RH: C’est à peu près ce que nous représentons. GIIN fournit aux gens des informations sur l’actualité des expositions, etc., et nous nous efforçons de les leur envoyer en temps et en heure. C’est aussi votre choix de les lire ou non.

NR: Nous sommes toujours ouverts à d’autres suggestions/solutions.

RH: Nous sommes attentifs aux annonces publicitaires sur le site car certains sont canadiens et d’autres pas. Nos sponsors pour la conférence seront présents sur le site web pour les mois prochains. Notre principal intérêt est de promouvoir l’excellence au sein de Canadian glass.

BC:  Nous avons toujours proposé une cotisation professionnelle impliquant une page dans l’annuaire des artistes. C’est aux établissements de décider ce qu’ils désirent mettent sur leur profil. Nous nous devons d’inclure ces membres mais nous devrons peut être trouver une autre façon de leur apporter notre soutient.

RH:  Une des grosses problématiques sera comment garder le contrôle de notre présence sur Internet?

GM (Peter Sharpe):  Un contrôle éditorial strict est nécessaire.

BC:  Sally McCubbin a repris cette fonction et Arron Lowe est éditeur. Il y a donc des personnes en charge de surveiller cela car nous sommes conscients de l’importance de ce genre de détails.

GM (Peter Sharpe): Pouvons nous nous référer à eux concernant le control éditorial?

RH: Le magazine papier était la raison pour laquelle nous avions des problèmes éditoriaux. Le contenu était parfois mauvais. Donc en reprenant ce contrôle, nous assumons de nouveau cette responsabilité. Il n’y avait plus de rigueur critique mais maintenant nous l’avons de nouveau. Nous sommes toujours en contact avec les personnes travaillant sur le magazine.

 GM: (Peter Sharpe): Je possède une formation en manuscrits donc je peux vous aider pour les articles. Parfois certains ont des soucis de grammaire donc je peux leur rendre ce service. Le seul hic est que mon ordinateur est relativement lent pour les images.

BC: C’est une offre généreuse, merci beaucoup.

RH: Merci pour toutes vos bonnes questions et vos feedbacks. C’est important pour nous de récupérer des feedbacks pour nous aider à décider vers quoi nous orienter pour la suite. Quelles sortes d’initiatives poursuivre ? Par exemple, le projet de bourse n’est d’actualité que parce certains membres le soutiennent, seul un petit nombre de personnes en bénéficieront chaque année.

NR:  S’il y a des choses qui ne vous conviennent pas, n’hésitez pas à suggérer d’autres solutions. Nous sommes une petite organisation donc cela peut nous aider en devenant un groupe de réflexion, c’est proactif.

GM (Laura Sassville): En tant qu’étudiante et semi professionnelle, nous apprécions le fait de rentrer dans la communauté dès que l’on entre dans l’école. Le verre est une grande famille et c’est un point fort pour nous car nous échangeons et progressons. Merci donc pour votre prise en compte des étudiants.

Motion :   Natali Rodrigues a fait la motion pour ajourner la réunion.

Appuyé:   Rika Hawes

Tous favorables/ pas d’opposants 

Fin de la réunion: 11:30 AM

By Brad Copping

Having the opportunity to travel during the summer months in Canada has a certain pleasure.  For me the ability to pitch a tent and camp along the way has always been a means of moving towards a better understanding of other places.  As a child my parents would secure a pop up tent trailer from friends for the annual two week road trip through Ontario’s provincial parks, or the one special year when we toured the east coast, the strongest memory being of a late night wind storm tear-down in some pasture/campground/lighthouse on the Gaspé Bay peninsula.

During my time at the School of Craft and Design I had the good fortune to experience the spring and late fall camping trips that Kevin Lockau lead back into the quartzite hills of Killarney Park.  While the weather was not always amenable to skinny-dipping I think it was on these trips that I started to learn that my muse would reveal itself when I allowed my mind to quiet and simply observe and respond.  That observation was on both a grand scale, the forms generated by landscape, and also on a micro scale, the things between the rocks, or hidden below the surface of the water.  The response would involve the manipulation of materials on hand in the place and feedback from others doing the same and, while we would document our endeavors, in the end it was not the arrangement of sticks and stones that was important but how the whole experience affected how we made our own work.

While my muse has revealed itself in these and other designated sacred spaces, it has recently been kicking my ass down a few thousand kilometers of southern Saskatchewan gravel roads, tracking the Swift Current River from its headwaters near the historic town of Eastend and the continental divide there which sends the stream in the next coulee to the besieged Gulf of Mexico, and north through its winding route where it meets the South Saskatchewan River at a point where the Saskatchewan has been drowned under a lake named for a politician and created by a dam named for another.  While my first experience of Saskatchewan was a brief star-gazing rest stop of the roof of my long dead ’77 Honda Accord hatchback somewhere on the Trans-Canada, I have since come to love this much overlooked province.  My current journey was inspired in part by reading “River in a Dry Land,” a book given to me some years ago by my partner Sue Rankin’s brother Mike.  Trevor Herriot’s writing about the Qu’Appelle River basin is told with a keen naturalist’s and traveler’s eye, but is grounded in the compassion of a lifelong community member of this watershed.  Although the headwaters of the Qu’Appelle are also buried under Lake Diefenbaker, the river’s soft green shoulders form one of the most picturesque valleys in the Canadian prairies.  And so I followed that valley to the southeast, crisscrossing it as many times as possible before dropping in to the north side of Rankin Marsh (named for the conservation efforts of Sue and Mike’s grandfather Andy Rankin).  The marsh sits at the top end of Buffalo Pound Lake, another man-made lake which supplies both drinking water and extensively utilized recreational opportunities to the residents of Regina and Moose Jaw.  Just beyond the lake’s dam is where the Moose Jaw River joins the Qu’Appelle and this confluence headed me back south to the city of Moose Jaw and a visit with the curator of the city’s expansive public art gallery, Heather Smith, with whom I am working on a personal exhibition for next spring.

The trip home with my ever hopeful canoe still on the van roof did not diminish the muse’s pushing and prodding and dragging of feet through the water rich vastness of northern Ontario.  But home and its own sacred calling meant most of this would have to wait for another summer.  So now the hard work begins, teasing out the questions and digging up some answers, meshing my past Saskatchewan experiences and creating my responses to this journey, this portage across the prairies.

What have you experienced this summer that is inspiring you and your work?

By Brian Burton

The author stands in front of the Toronto’s Direct Energy Centre which boosts a 30-storey wind turbine producing 1 million kilowatt hours of energy per year - the first of its kind in North America and the first permanent turbine in the City of Toronto. It is also home to a permanent educational exhibit which explores energy use and the environment and features interactive displays showcasing sources of energy and methods of energy conservation.

The standard textbook definition of fenestration, which finds its roots in the Latin word for windows fenestra, refers to the design, arrangement and portioning glazing component systems within a building.  However, the topic involves much more than merely glazing design and placement.

In fact, in the field of building science we typically apply the term to any “controlled” aperture in the building envelope that permits the passage of air or light or serves to enable entry and egress of occupants. As such, fenestration components are considered a key element of façade engineering. In addition to a huge list of glazing materials, the elements include internal & external shading systems, skylights, clerestories, roof monitors, light pipes, and tubular daylighting devices. Doors are included in the list because they are operable and allow entry or egress and many have glazing components.

Although it is a highly technical and complex subject, I can assure you it is also an art form.

In Canada, where the citizens are 80% urbanized and typically spend over 90% of their time indoors, obviously these components also play an essential role in our well-being. We spend more money on construction per capita than just about any other country in the world and fenestration components are generally considered the most expensive element of the building envelope.  Global demand for fenestration products will reach the $125 billion mark in 2011.

These components act as a filter of conditions between inside and outside and play a significant role in achieving quality of life and comfort in buildings by bringing in natural light, solar heat, and fresh air.  They also serve as a physical and/or visual connection to the outdoors.

They are subject to all the elements of the outdoor environment including freeze-thaw cycling, UV radiation, driving rain, snow, heat stress, wind loads, impact, dust, acid rain, impact, forced entry and deliberate abuse. These components are also exposed to conditions on the interior including humidity, condensation, temperature variations, and the effects of occupancy.

In addition to controlling heat flow, sound transmission, solar radiation, air and rain leakage, fenestration components are expected to transmit light without causing glare, allow entry of fresh air without causing drafts while preventing entry of insects, to be airtight but easy to operate, and to bring in solar heat in winter while preventing solar heat gain in the summer. As I like to point out – we should probably be thankful that fenestration components are rarely called on to perform all of these functions at the same time!

Also often overlooked is the important function these components play in comfort and safety of the occupants which buildings scientists consider to be one of the most important functions provided by the building enclosure.

We all know that the ability to control fenestration components is very important to the occupant. Technology has granted us the means and we have come to expect more control over nearly everything in our environment that affects us, including the elements involved in fenestration.

I have been involved in a longstanding debate with several academics involved in the field of building science who insist the specialty should be called building “physics.” However, I know quite well that psychology is a major component of fenestration and, as a result, the use of the term physics is not appropriate. In actual fact it is part of environmental psychology, which examines the interrelationship between “built” environments and human behaviour.

Even though we have been manufacturing glass for thousands of years, the full potential of modern fenestration products has not been fully exploited to date. One architect I spoke with did point out, however, that it took us 2,000 years from the time we discovered “blown” glass before we were able to manufacture glass strong enough to safely fabricate windows. However, once we had mastered the art we did not look back. The use of glass in buildings is so popular that it appears close to dominating construction.

The use of glass in buildings is increasing and innovation in fenestration products is altering the way we live our lives. Glass is widely used in almost every aspect of our daily lives:  in our homes, offices, cars, computers and telephones.

Glass technology has its own language. When I visited the web site for the Corning Museum of Glass it listed 817 words that were unique to the glass industry. Glass innovations such as computerized control systems, coating techniques, solar control technology, and the integration of micro-electronic and mechanical know-how to create “smart” glass (able to react and respond to external forces) are constantly evolving. I have also noticed over the years that many innovations and inventions incorporate glass components almost routinely, perhaps because it is “invisible.”

We may take it for granted; however, glass has managed to gradually transform agriculture, horticulture, architecture, transportation, medicine, science, art and even our culture. The earliest form of glass that was discovered by mankind was that of the natural glass called obsidian. Obsidian is a natural bi-product of volcanic eruptions and it was prized by prehistoric societies the world over for its colours, sharp edges and workability. It can be fractured to produce weapons, tools and arrowheads. It can also be polished to create mirrors. Because of its scarcity it was traded around the world for centuries to, among others, the Native Americans, who prized this unique substance. Also on the list of natural glass is fulgurite, created when lightning strikes sandy soils under the right conditions, and tektite, which is created from meteorite impacts – extraterrestrial glass!

The story I hear repeated very often as told by the Roman historian Pliny tells us that Phoenician traders noticed that a clear liquid formed when the nitrate blocks on which they placed their cooking pots melted and mixed with sand from the beach. The tale makes for interesting reading, but I for one am highly sceptical that it is true. I suspect that, as with many other inventions, it is a case of man “mimicking” nature; in this case observing what occurs during volcanic action or lightning in direct contact with silica sand and then experimenting in an attempt to duplicate the phenomenon.

There are nine primary uses of glass.  These include:

• As a medium for art.
• As a substitute for precious stones/jewellery.
• For vessels and vases, which eventually led to the invention of the glass bottle.
• Glass and glazing used in windows, fenestration components, insulation and construction products.
• Glass used for mirrors.
• Lens, telescopes, eyeglasses.
• Scientific and medical instruments which created an interest in optics during medieval times.
• Cameras, television, computers (e-glass), appliances, automobiles, telephones, and many more electronic devices.

There are some ways glass is used which are miscellaneous, esoteric and unusual.  To list only a few, these include items such as glass clothing, glass bullets, fire grenades, glass furniture, liquid crystal windows, suspended particle devices, glass pavements, apotropaic glass, Libyan Desert Glass, witch balls, uranium glass, neodymium glass and, my favourite, glass slippers.

Brian Burton was recently appointed to the Personnel Committee for the CSA’s Fenestration Installation Technician Certification Program. Brian is a Building Science Marketing Consultant for Kleinfeldt Consultants Ltd and can be reached at bburton@kcl.ca or visit www.kcl.ca

PAR LAURA SASSEVILLE

Partie 1 de 4

Le 29 mai 2010, Montréal, VERRE COUTURE, le défilé et la fête de clôture du congrès du GAAC : un franc succès. Tous étaient ravis de ce qu’ils ont vu sur le cat walk.  Nous sommes heureux que l’idée de Laura Donefer se soit concrétisée à la hauteur de ses attentes. Wow !!!! Quel show !!!

Quelques semaines plus tard, je reçois un courriel me demandant, si je voulais, écrire un article sur le défiler.

Pour être honnête, l’écriture de cet article sur le défilé, vu de l’intérieur, me semblait moins palpitante.

Par contre, en revisitant mon expérience à la participation et à l’aide à l’organisation de l’évènement,  le métissage de 2 mondes : fluidité et libre mouvement du vêtement opposé au verre fragile et fixe. Je me suis questionné sur l’avenir du verre : est-ce le cadre défini par les conseils des métiers d’art, les centres de formation et les Universités Canadiens est à l’aube d’être redéfini?

Depuis l’introduction du verre en Amérique, le verre à une orientation étroitement lié avec l’objet utilitaire, l’œuvre d’art et l’intégration à l’architecture. Pourtant, le verre m’apparaît en pleine expansion au-delà du simple objet ou sculpture avec une identité locale.

Nos dernières décennies sont teintées par la mondialisation, l’immigration, les échanges culturels et l’utilisation de nouvelle technologie. Ils ont influencé le marché mondial par l’accessibilité du même bien de consommation partout dans le monde. Par exemple, IKEA et le cybermarché (ESTY, EBAY…), pour en nommer quelques un. Ainsi qu’un malaisien peut avoir la même lampe IKEA numéro style Alang qu’un québécois.

Maintenant, notre consommation et la fabrication de nos biens ne sont plus exclusivement locales. Le design n’est plus défini que par nos grands espaces verts.

Certains s’exclameront que nous perdons notre identité; à mes yeux, ceci enrichit nos sociétés culturellement par cette ouverture vers le monde. Par contre, l’important c’est de s’approprier de ces avantages et de travailler à garder la production locale.

De façon analogue, nous ne cuisinons plus que les ragoûts de pattes de cochons ou le rôti de bœuf le dimanche. Les produits qui paraissaient exotiques à grand-maman sont un incontournable sur notre liste d’épicerie. Même les instruments et plats de cuisson, comme le tagine, les baguettes et le wok font parti de notre quotidien autant que le plat en fonte.

Alors, je me demande:

Si la création est le reflet de nos sociétés, alors chaque artiste et designer expriment avec leur vision, un fragment de cette nouvelle réalité?

C’est peut-être pourquoi nous constatons de plus en plus le métissage des genres et ça dans toutes les sphères de création : musique, mode, design, architecture et métiers d’art.

Vous vous dites peut-être que le métissage à toujours exister, à mon humble avis, jamais autant constater aujourd’hui, clairement nous sommes dans la poste modernité à la puissance 10.

À mon tour, je vous pause la question : Les nouvelles générations de créateurs qui ont grandi avec une plus grande ouverture et accessibilité sur le monde, démontrent-t-ils plus de faciliter à construire un vocabulaire visuel qui mélange design, styles, cultures, matériaux et technologies? Dans la prochaine année, à l’aide d’article, d’interview et de rencontre, j’essayerai de répondre à la question…à suivre….

BY LAURA SASSEVILLE

Part 1 of 4

On May 29, 2010, in Montreal the VERRE COUTURE’s Glass Fashion Show and the closing party of the Glass Art Association of Canada (GAAC) was a great success! Everyone was amazed by what they saw on the cat walk.

We were happy that Laura Donefer’s idea became a reality. Wow!!! What a show!!!

A few weeks after the show, I got an email asking me if I wanted to write an article on the subject of the Glass Fashion Show.  To be honest, viewed from the inside, writing an article on the VERRE COUTURE sounded to me to be less thrilling.  However, after revisiting my experience of participating and helping organize the event, I asked myself a lot of questions regarding the mix between the two worlds which are the flow and the free movement of clothing opposed to the fragility and stiffness of glass. I questioned myself about the future of glass; is the framework defined by the Conseil des métiers d’art of Québec and the Canadian universities on the verge of being redefined?

Since the introduction of glass to North America, the limited orientation of glass has been related to glassware, art work and the integration of glass art work into architecture. Nevertheless, glass objects and sculptures appear to me to be in full expansion with a local identity.

Our last few decades have been tainted by globalization, immigration, cultural exchange and use of new technologies. These influence the overall market by making the same consumer goods available world wide. For example, you have IKEA and cyber shopping (ESTY, EBAY, just to name a few). A Malaysian can buy an IKEA lamp with the same model number and style as a person from Quebec.

Today our consumer goods are no longer exclusively manufactured locally. Designs are no longer defined by our great outdoors. Some will claim that we are losing our identity.  However, for my part, I believe this will enrich our society culturally by opening our minds to the world. Nonetheless, it’s important to capture the advantages of the new world but to keep the production local.

Traditionally, we no longer cook pig’s feet stew or roast beef on Sundays. The products that once seemed exotic to grandma are now a must in our groceries list.  Even the hardware in our kitchens, such as tagine, chop sticks and woks, have all become as much a part of our mundane cooking as the old frying pan.

So, I’m asking myself, “If creation is the reflection of our society, then can every artiste and designer express themselves with their vision, a fragment of a new reality?”  This is perhaps the reason we are observing more and more intermingling between different types, styles and every sphere of creation: music, fashion, design, architecture, fine arts and arts and crafts. You may say that this intermingling has always existed but, in my humble opinion, today we see it a lot more.  We are in the post modern era to the 10th power.

It’s my turn to ask you a question.  Do the new generation of designers and artistes who have grown up with greater openness and accessibility to the world demonstrate a greater ease in building a visual vocabulary that mixes design styles, cultures, materials and technologies?  In the next year, through articles, interviews and reports, I will try to answer that question.  To be continued!

By Jill Allan, B.C. Representative for the Glass Art Association of Canada

On June 10, the BC Glass Art Association hosted a fundraising dinner and presentation by Preston Singletary, a Seattle artist whose beautiful works merge traditional Tlingit design with European glass processes.  Singletary was exposed to the Seattle glass world through his friendship with Dante Marioni, who suggested he take a job as night watchman at the Glass Eye studio in Seattle.  He eventually became a member of the production team at that studio and went on to develop his skills by working with glass masters Lino Tagliapietra and Pino Signoretto and by studying Scandinavian design at Kosta Boda.  Singletary’s skilful rendering of the traditional Tlingit designs that adorn his work was refined through study and collaboration with Northwest Coastal artists such as Steve Brown and Joe David.  In addition to maintaining a successful studio practice, Singletary is a member of the board of trustees for the Pilchuck Glass School and the Seattle Art Museum.

The dinner took place at a restaurant in the business district and was comprised of a small group of collectors and makers.  Complimentary to the intimate gathering, Singletary opened his presentation by singing a traditional Tlingit love song.  After singing to us he began to describe the path he had taken to become the artist he is today.  Singletary received no formal art training but through experience working at Pilchuck and in Seattle built glass making skills.  Through his own research he learned about modernism and the 19^th century artists’ attraction to ‘primitive’ art.  He was inspired by the Surrealists and their ideas about psychology, the sub-conscious and dreaming.  Stirred by this research, he began to consider using traditional Tlingit designs in his glass work, drawing on the graphic imagery found in surface decoration on baskets and wood carved forms to inform his own work.  He told the story of Raven Stealing the Light as a kind of metaphor for the way that curiosity and pushing the boundaries of what is acceptable often paves the way for new growth.  Singletary showed the work of other Native American artists working in glass and discussed the art programming at the Institute of American Indian Art in Santa Fe, New Mexico, where glass instruction has become available.  Today he views his work as a hybrid of two traditions of creativity:  European glass making married with Tlingit design.

Singletary has an exhibition called ‘Echoes, Fire and Shadows’ at the Museum of Glass in Tacoma Washington until Sept. 19^th, 2010.

www.prestonsingletary.com

www.iaia.edu

www.museumofglass.org

By Kai Scholefield

A Calgary-based glass art collective comprised of artists Phillip Bandura, Tim Belliveau and Ryan Fairweather have plenty to celebrate as they prepare to travel to Europe for the second consecutive year. The Bee Kingdom art collective, as they are known, has been invited to speak at the Pergamon Museum in Berlin after working with artist Felekshan Onar during a residency at the Glass Furnace in Turkey last year.

Collaboration is a fundamental element in the design and creation of the Bee Kingdom’s work (hence the reference to a hive in their name), and much of their content is drawn from natural phenomenon. And during their residency in Turkey the Bee Kingdom combined their dynamic with Felekshan to create a glass sculpture adapted from their Beacon series.  The resulting collaborative piece was selected to show in an exhibition of modern Islamic art at the Pergamon museum in October later this year.

During the show at the museum, select artists have been invited to speak about their work and the Bee Kingdom are among those chosen few.  Their particular talk will touch on their experiences working in Turkey with Felekshan and how it has informed their art making practice.  The Bee Kingdom will also have the opportunity during this talk to present the concepts behind their own solo exhibition Soft Power which runs in conjunction to the Pergamon exhibition.

Presented by the New Glass and Photography Gallery in Berlin, Soft Power was originally coined as a political term by Joseph Nye in 1990 for the degree of influence a nation possesses based on its cultural identity.  The individual works by each artist orbit this theme of cultural attraction but also maintain clear elements of each artist’s own motif of cute culture, political satire, and mythologies and boundaries between the wilderness and industrialization.

The Bee Kingdom’s solo exhibition opens in September, with their talk at the Pergamon occurring in October.  Both are made possible by support from the Canada Council and the Alberta Foundation for the Arts.  More information on the Bee Kingdom can be found at www.beekingdom.ca

September 2010 at Vetri Glass-Seattle

David Calles: Combinaciones de Filigrana

Exhibition Dates: September 2nd – 30th, 2010

Artist Reception: Thursday, September 2nd, 5:00 – 8:00 p.m.

Vetri Glass-Seattle is pleased to present glass artist David Calles in Combinaciones de Filigrana, his first solo exhibition with the gallery.  The show features colorful blown and cold-worked glass sculptures in classic geometric shapes. Working in a studio that overlooks the waterways of Victoria, Calles is influenced by his natural surroundings.  He passionately endeavors to capture a “little shock of color from nature” in his vivacious sculptures.

Calles chooses simple forms like ovals, squares, and rectangles, as canvases for brilliant expressions of color.  His “Pimpollo” series, a name taken from the Argentine vernacular for any perfect and elegant object, resemble the teardrop silhouette of a rosebud.  Just as the bud is a symbol of spring and life, the bright colors and visual electricity of the Pimpollos act as a year-round reminder of the exuberance of spring.

Elements of each piece — understated forms, bold cane patterns, variations in surface texture — are meticulously crafted to highlight the relationships between contrasting and complimentary hues.  With deft precision Calles cuts and fuses pieces of glass cane into flat sheets that he then picks up onto a gather of hot glass.  The sheets of cane have to match the diameter of the bubble exactly in order to retain the integrity of the design.  Each color expands according to its viscosity creating the hypnotic ebb and flow of the cane pattern.

David Calles has owned and operated Miramontes Artworks in Victoria BC — a studio for independent glass artists as well as a resource for designers and non-glass artists – since 2007.  Originally from Buenos Aires, Argentina, Calles went on to study in London, England and train as a silversmith in Mexico before receiving a Bachelor’s degree in Art from Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island and graduated from the glass program at Sheridan in Ontario, Canada. He has studied under Laura Donefer, Randy Walker and Ed Schmidt and his sculptures are exhibited in galleries across Canada and the United States.

Vetri Glass

Contact: Susan Marabito, Director

susan@vetriglass.com

1404 First Avenue, Seattle WA, 98101

Phone: 206.667.9608 Facsimile: 206.621.9447

1821 E Dock St #101, Tacoma WA, 98402

Phone: 253.383.3692 Facsimile: 253.383.3687

Image details: “ Pimpollo Rosebud”, 15”h x 22”w x 6”d, blown glass, 2010.

For images and additional information please visit: www.vetriglass.com

By Jill Allan

From June 15^th to July 2^nd I attended the neon making class ‘Illuminating Experiments’ taught by Jeremy Bert at Pilchuck Glass School in Washington State.  Before leaving for the course I was looking forward not only to all the new skills I would be learning but also to a change of venue and an opportunity to reflect on my career path.  My desire to learn about neon has been growing over the past few years, inspired by a series of patterned drawings with thread and paper that I want to adapt into a series of neon screens – making shapes with light.   I now feel that this body of work is within the realm of my ability!

Pilchuck Glass School is located on a mountainside close to Stanwood, Washington.  It is a peaceful and beautiful setting.  Students are housed in dormitories or cottages and provided with three meals a day, access to a print shop, wood shop, metal shop, library, the internet, state-of-the-art glass making and finishing studios and equipment, a school store, and an open, optimistic atmosphere of creative energy.  Every evening after dinner we enjoyed slide presentations of work made by the instructors, artists-in-residence or staff.  When I was there, approximately 110 people on campus (staff and students) were also in attendance.  I was in a class with eight other students, a teacher, and three teaching assistants.  We received a lot of instruction and support from the teaching staff and enjoyed lectures and demonstrations from visiting artists invited to Pilchuck from nearby Seattle.

In order to make neon you need variously configured torches which allow you to heat the glass tubes specifically.  The ribbon burner torch has a long flame that allows the artist to evenly heat a large area of tube.  The other torches used have torch heads that face each other to make a hot zone between them; these torches are either hand held or mounted on a stand at which you can work while standing with glass tubing in both hands.  When using the hand held torch to make a ‘butt’ joint between two pieces of tubing or an electrode and tubing, one of the pieces of glass tubing is held in place on a stable surface by bean bags because one of your hands is holding the torch.   In order to keep the tube from collapsing on itself while you are heating and shaping it a hose is attached to one end and the other end is sealed so that you can create pressure in the tube and inflate it slightly after making a bend.   It takes a while to get used to the torches and to figure out how not to kink the tubing or over-inflate the tubing, both of which make it vulnerable to breakage, or collapse under the pressure of the vacuum pump.  Joining two pieces of tubing together is also tricky as the two ends must be of equal heat and the joint must not be over-inflated or it will be weak.  I guess it is kind of like a one-person mini incalmo!  Most of the tubing we used was commercially made for the sign industry and coated in phosphorous to make the different colours available.  The colour also depends on which kind of gas is used:  either neon or argon.  The neon gas burns bright orange and the argon is a soft purple.  When you add a little bit of mercury to the argon it glows brightly white.  We did make our own tubing one day and tried different colours but the gasses glowed so brightly that the coloured glass didn’t really show up.  However, the optic molded glass made great affects!  Once the tubing is bent and has electrodes on it, it is sterilized and filled with gas and then it is ready to mount and light up.  Jeremy had come to Pilchuck with salvaged transformers for us to use to power our pieces.  We also experimented with using a solar panel to charge two batteries which powered two neon pieces and a bunch of LED lights.  I think that using solar energy as a power source increases the viability of neon as a public art resource.

Some things about making neon are really difficult!  For instance, making round gentle curves…it is very tricky to heat the glass evenly when you are heating a large area of it and to let it fall into that curved shape without making a kink in the curve.  Actually, making anything round is a great challenge!  I tried to balance practicing difficult shapes with making the patterned angular pieces that were based on my drawings.  I found a book in the campus library about Chinese Lattice designs and also worked from that for inspiration.  I observed the instructors at the ‘bombarder’ where the glass tubes are sterilized and then filled with a very specific volume of neon or argon.  Bombarding is extremely dangerous because of the high voltage used to heat the glass for sterilization, so we students were not permitted to use this piece of equipment.  The day before it was time to clean up everyone set up their projects for a studio ‘walk through’.  Our studio looked like a lantern from outside with all the windows glowing from our projects.

I am so grateful to have had this opportunity to learn about a new skill that I am eager to put to use in my practice!  I feel like there is a lot of potential for neon in terms of public art as well as pieces for private collections.  It means so much to me that Circle Craft Co-operative and the BC Glass Art Association were able to support me with scholarship funding to build a new skill that I can put to use in my practice as well as share with my community here at home.

Jill Allan is one of the Glass Art Association of Canada regional representatives for BC.  She graduated from the Alberta College of Art + Design in Calgary in 1999 and currently lives on Vancouver Island, travelling from there to Chemainus, Vancouver and Victoria to make her work.

A Review of the Toronto Outdoor Art Exhibition

By: Steven Tippin

The Toronto Outdoor Art Exhibition (TOAE), held July 9 to 11, 2010, began the same as any other year: too much rain, too few parking spaces and very little sleep. In its 49th year, TOAE is a juried showcase featuring contemporary fine art and craft that takes place on Nathan Phillip’s Square at the foot of Toronto’s City Hall.

As the largest outdoor art exhibition in Canada, it offers a fresh-air alternative to conventional art shows and galleries. An estimated 100,000 visitors attend the exhibition every year, including a number of gallery representatives and art dealers.  Side-by-side, established artists, undiscovered talents and entrepreneurial students sell their work directly to the public and make lasting connections with art dealers and collectors.

This year, TOAE featured 384 artists from painting, photography, printmaking, sculpture, ceramics, drawing, fibre, glass, jewellery, metal, mixed media, watercolour and wood. The 2010 show had 22% fewer artists overall than the previous year, due to construction at Nathan Phillip’s Square; however, there were 50% fewer glass artists.

With an economy that is reportedly on the mend, glass artists had various reasons for participating and those who did not apply had equally compelling reasons for not participating this year.

Muriel Duval, a flameworker who traveled from her studio in Laval, Quebec was one of 19 glass exhibitors at TOAE. “My first goal was to gain exposure and to display my art to new customers,” said Duval. “I was also looking for networking if galleries or curators were interested in my creations.” She described the show as being a successful venture in which she nearly ran out of inventory.

Arron Lowe decided not to apply, but had previously exhibited in the show for five consecutive years. He pondered whether or not the show offered enough exposure and compensation to offset the demanding workload.

“I’d often envy the 2D artists who show up with a luggage trolley, setting up in record time,” Lowe explained.  “On the flip-side, as a glass artist, I’ve got a truck, dozens of boxes, plinths, a dolly and hopefully a friend who is not working that day to help lug it all to the booth.  Not to mention all the work leading up to the show.”

Lowe also mentioned that he wanted to enjoy the show as a non-exhibiting artist. “I have not ‘seen’ the show in six years!  Being a participant means you are pretty much tied to your own booth. I was really looking forward to attending this year’s show, and it did not disappoint.  It was still a great opportunity to be the reunion it always is, but I also had a chance to see some really amazing art.”

While TOAE is the largest outdoor art exhibition of its kind in Canada, it is one of many shows this summer for glass artists to showcase their talent. For those of you who are about to showcase your work in a different show this summer, or for those of you who are thinking about applying for next year, here is a list of tips and advice from glass artists who participated in TOAE 2010:

Toan Klein: “Stay upbeat. Have fun. Don’t forget that you’re there to sell. Leave your ego at home. Oh yeah, sometimes it’s wise to put yourself between your work and some of the characters that meander by.”

June Pham: “Bring something like museum gel or draft stop if your work is subject to wind.”

Amanda Parker: “Try to display your work consistently and with your own aesthetic in mind. Bring lots of food and water! Oh, and if you are bringing a tent make sure it is easy to set up!”

Muriel Duval: “85% of my sales were with credit cards.  I believe that it is a must at that show. You cannot afford to lose a sale because you don’t take credit cards.”

Emma Gerard: “Make your display simple to transport and simple to setup.”

Jeff MacIntosh: “If you’re intending on selling work at the show and making a profit, make sure you bring a variety of work to cover all price points. Low cost-high volume works tends to be the easiest to sell. Make sure all work is professional cold-worked and ready to sell.”

Steven Tippin: “When applying to juried shows, it is important to have good images of your artwork. At the show, stay hydrated and make time to eat. Hours can easily fly by between meals when you are in the sun talking about your work.”

Tara Macdonald: “If you want customers to take your work seriously, make your booth look as professional as possible.”

GLASS ARTISTS RECOGNIZED AT TOAE

Each year, TOAE presents more than $30,000 in awards and prizes to participating artists. Glass artists at TOAE 2010 were recognized with the following awards:

• Paull Rodrigue (Best of Category-Glass)
• Steven Tippin (Best Student Glass & Marie Collins Memorial Award)
• Aaron Oussoren (Glass Honourable Mention)

TOAE 2010 BY THE NUMBERS

• 1,200 applications juried in 2010
• 384 artists invited to participate
• 22% fewer participants than 2009
• 47% fewer glass artists in TOAE 2010 than 2009
• 17% fewer painters in TOAE 2010 than 2009

Hi,

These are some shots of a sculpture (Split Rock) that I installed yesterday in Toronto. It’ll be awhile before the landscaping gets done. It’s on the roof of the podium for the new Toronto International Film Festival building and Festival Tower condo development in Toronto. It’s about 6′ high x 18′ wide x 9′ deep, natural boulder, cast bronze and fabricated bronze.

Cheers,

Peter