Artists + Community Symposium
Find out how you can get involved!
Join ACI Manitoba for a two day symposium exploring the strengths of artists + communities working together.
Artists + Community Opening Keynote + Reception - Thursday, March 8 free
7:30pm
- keynote speaker – Rick Lowe
“Art in the Social Sphere” 8:30pm – Stand up reception Presented by the Winnipeg Arts Council
Artists + Community Symposium – Friday, March 9
$35 early bird registration (before February 29) and ACI Manitoba members;
$55 after February 29 for non-members
8:30am – registration
9am – opening remarks
9:10 – Artists + Community: ‘Un/Defining the Practice’ – Leah Decter
9:30 – Artists + Community: Keynote Speaker – Zach Kunuk
10:45 – Artists + Community: Stories + Best Practices – panelists Jana Mckee, Jeff Nachtigall and Columpa Bobb;moderator Rick Lowe
noon - lunch
1:00pm – Artists + Community: Identifying Practical Tools + Skills – facilitated roundtable discussion
2:00pm – sharing circle and closing remarks
2:30pm – optional community art site tours
Who should attend? Artists of all disciplines, community activists and developers, program coordinators and directors, and community members.
The Artists + Community Symposium will take place March 8 and 9 at the Fort Garry Hotel, Spa and Conference Centre (222 Broadway, Winnipeg).
It will be an inspiring two day symposium for artists of all disciplines and community members of all backgrounds to explore what can happen when artists + communities work together!
To register or to learn more about this event, please contact the ACI Manitoba office at 927-2787 or email Lisa at
admin@creativemanitoba.ca.
Artists + Community Presenters:
Keynote Speaker - Art in the Social Sphere:
Rick Lowe is an artist who resides in Houston, Texas. His formal training is in the visual arts. Over the past twenty years he has worked both inside and outside of art world institutions by participating in exhibitions, and developing community based art projects. In 1993, Rick founded Project Row Houses, an arts and cultural community located in a historically significant and culturally charged neighborhood in Houston, Texas. In 1997, Rick and Project Row Houses were awarded a silver medal by the Rudy Bruner Awards in Urban Excellence.
Keynote Speaker – Artists + Community Symposium
Zacharias Kunuk won the Camera d’Or at Cannes 2001 for Isuma’s first feature, Atanarjuat The Fast Runner. He is president and co-founder in 1990 of Igloolik Isuma Productions, Canada’s first Inuit-owned independent production company. In 1981, Kunuk sold three sculptures in Montreal and brought home the Arctic’s first home video camera. Having completed the documentary Kiviaq versus Canada, Kunuk is shooting his latest documentary Exile. Kunuk is the winner of the National Arts Award, National Aboriginal Achievement Award and in 2005 was awarded the Order of Canada.
Artists + Community: ‘Un/Defining the Practice’
Leah Decter is Winnipeg based inter-media artist whose work integrates video and other digital media, textiles, performance and dialogic/social practice. She has exhibited widely in Canada and internationally in the US, UK, The Netherlands, Germany and Malta. Her work has been supported through numerous awards and is held in the collection of the Winnipeg Art Gallery as well as private collections in Canada, US and UK. Decter's social practice has included large-scale collaborative public art and intervention projects in Vancouver, Toronto and Winnipeg. She holds an MFA in New Media from Berlin-based Transart Institute.
Artists + Community: Stories + Best Practices Panelist
Columpa Bobb is the great granddaughter of Chief Dan George who was chief of the Tsleil -Waututh Nation. She has been active in many different art disciplines including acting, photography and writing poetry and plays. Bobb began attending theatre school at 16, and has been fully immersed in the arts ever since. She has been nominated for the Dora Mavor Moore Award and the James Buller Award. In 1997 she won a Jessie Richardson Theatre Award for Outstanding Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role for her work in Firehall Theatre's production of Drew Hayden Taylor's Only Drunks
and Children Tell the Truth.
Artists + Community: Stories + Best Practices Panelist
Jana McKee has been involved in Community Development (CD) and Education for the past 10 years, both in a paid and voluntary capacity, as a facilitator and as a participant. The last five years Jana has been practicing Community Development within the education system in Winnipeg, Manitoba. She is currently completing a thesis exploring the collaborative relationship between Community Development and Education.
Artists + Community: Stories + Best Practices Panelist
In 2006 Jeff Nachtigall developed an Open Studio model for healthcare. The Open Studio is based on the philosophy that we are all born artists and that art is our first language. This visual language transcends barriers and has the ability to bring people with diverse backgrounds together, and act as a vehicle for change, healing and hope.
