Tuesday, April 08, 2008

New Trillium grant for VAB

We can officially announce today that Visual Arts Brampton has received a grant from the Ontario Trillium Foundation.

In their words, our grant is: "$10,000 over one year to support the delivery of new media and video-on-demand workshops for children and adults in the community by purchasing new computer equipment and helping to obtain instructors."

To break that down:
- we're getting new laptops which will allow us to restart our digital art training in the youth classes, and start workshops for adults,
- we'll be interviewing members about their art, using a digital video camera, and making those video segments on our website,
- taping segments about the studio, its programming, events, and exhibits, all of which will be available on our website,

Most importantly, we will be making a series of high definition video art instructional "vodcasts", which will be available where ever, whenever, to whomever. At least one 3 to 7 minute episode will be released each week for at least a year.

These workshops can be watched online as high quality full-screen streaming video, or subscribed to and downloaded through RSS feeds or iTunes, so that they can be watched offline on your computer, portable media player, burned to a DVD to watch on your TV, whatever.

Anyway, this is just a "soft announce", we won't be making too much of a deal about this project, until we have more to show for it.


More about Trillium and their grants

We are in the Halton-Peel "catchment area"; these 27 grants for our area total of $2,630,800. Across the province this year, Trillium's annual budget is $110 million, and will be further increased to $120 million by 2009-2010. [See Halton-Peel press release]

Ontario Minister of Culture Aileen Carroll noted to Trillium in a press release that “Our government is committed to fostering healthy and vibrant communities, right across Ontario. These Ontario Trillium Foundation grants will help build a stronger province by fuelling local economies and improving the quality of life of Ontarians.

Annual General Meeting: Monday, April 28, 7:30 pm

The 22nd Annual General Meeting (AGM) for the Visual Arts Brampton has been scheduled for Monday, April 28, 2008 at 7:30 pm.

The AGM includes the election of the Board of Directors, a review of VAB events over the last year, and current finances. It is important to attend or fill out a proxy (to allow a member in attendance to vote for you), to ensure we have a legal quorum.

Friday, April 04, 2008

Just 10 days until Juried Art Show entry starts

Easily one of Ontario's most prestigious juried art shows, the Art Gallery of Peel 35th Annual Juried Show is just ten days away.

The Gallery is extremely accommodating, as you can actually submit art to the show over an entire week, from Monday, April 14 to Sunday, April 20, at any point during gallery hours. Also, it's still just $15 to enter, $12 for members.

Artist Anna Yuschuk and Cambridge Galleries curator Ivan Jurakic are both jurying.

According to the Peel Heritage Complex, the show "frequently showcases artists on the tipping point of their careers." Almost half the entrants are from outside of Peel. Debra Ali, a Visual Arts Brampton member, was the People's Choice Award winner last year.

Awards
· Best in show, $1000
· Juror's award, $750
· Colony Lincoln Ford Award for Best Painting, $350
· People's Choice Award, $50

Links
· Juried art show office site
· Entry form

Wednesday, April 02, 2008

Local Notes hosted by former student

You can tell the VAB youth classes have been around a while, when one of the "junior class" (8-12 years old) students ends up hosting a television series. Radha Tailor recently became the host of Local Notes Brampton/Mississauga.

The show airs weekdays from 6 to 6:30 am, and from 12 noon to 12:30 pm.

(Interestingly, Local Notes Dufferin-Caledon is hosted by Jessica Miller, who posed for our portrait bunch during an event last summer.)

Keith, Pud on Rogers Daytime

Keith Moreau and Pud appeared on Rogers Mississauga/Brampton's Daytime yesterday, talking about Laughlines 10th anniversary, Steve Nease, and the group in general. The clip should appear, as streaming video, on the Daytime webpage archive.

Daytime is a "Local talk-show featuring community guests from Brampton and Mississauga." It's hosted by Gurdeep Ahluwalia and Kim McCleary.