Memberships coming due

Just a reminder that most Visual Arts Brampton memberships expire tomorrow. You do get a grace period in terms of user fees for the first little bit of the year, but it is important to fill out a form, and drop off cash or check for $35 to renew.

Photos of 2009 Youth Achievement Awards

Congratulations to all the students for participating in the 2009 Youth Achievement Awards. Photos of individual students will be deleted as of Tuesday, January 19, 2009. Download your photos as soon as possible, before they're gone. Group photos, of each award level, will be kept online permanently.

Picasa Web Album Slideshow

2010 Youth Achievement Awards

This weekend is the 2010 Youth Achievement Awards at the Visual Arts Brampton Creative Arts Studios. Saturday, December 19, 2009 at 11 am to 12:30 pm.

All regularly scheduled youth classes are done for 2009. Only those who entered the awards, and their guests, are welcome. Space is limited. Pizza and other snacks will be served.

VAB to be at BBOT via BAC

As previously announced on our events page, Visual Arts Brampton will be participating in the Brampton Board of Trade's January After Business event. Hosted by the Brampton Arts Council, Brampton Arts Council members will be displaying in the Rose Theatre lobby, from 5 to 7 pm.

The BBOT holds After Business networking events monthly. VAB president Keith Moreau often represents the group at these functions; once before we've had a display at the event.

Züm züm

Multiple adult and youth members of Visual Arts Brampton use public transit to get to the studio. They'll no doubt be as thrilled as we are that two Züm roots will run past both the studio and Artway.

What's Züm? Pronounced "zoom", it's upcoming Brampton's commuter bus rapid transit service. With more frequent buses (every 7-10 minutes during peak hours, and 15 minutes off-peak), the expansion of the existing Brampton Transit system makes limited stops, meaning quicker overall travel times.

In September 2010, a route on Queen Street will run between downtown Brampton to York University. More exciting to us are the 2011 and 2012 additions, on Main Street and Steeles Avenue, respectively. Both the VAB studio and Shoppers World (home to Artway and Fridge Front) are at Main and Steeles.

VAB has always prided itself on its transit-friendly location. Near to the Shoppers World transit terminal, there's easy access to a large number of routes on Brampton Transit, Mississauga Transit, and GO Transit. One recent addition to our open studio regulars come by transit from Oakville, riding Mississauga's Hurontario route from the south to the no4rth termini.

Dominos

It appears 1.5 million people watched this before us, but it's worth a view. Mona Lisa, made of dominos. (And if you're thinking, "wow, Mona Lisa's overused", take a look at some of the hundreds of parodies and adaptations in this rapid fire slideshow.) This domino fellow's also done his cat, a 3D dice, you can even request your own portrait. Neat.

WinterLights tonight; Paralympic mascot to attend for VAB

Chinguacousy Park will be a hub of action tonight, filled with activities in celebration of WinterLights. From 6 to 9 pm, come see Christmas trees decorated by local elementary schools, and jumbo postcards by local high schools. Free activities include cookie decorating, crafts, horse and carriage rides, and live entertainment including a Nativity pageant (6:30, 7:30 and 8:30 pm). There's even going to be a reindeer!

Podi, the Canadian Paralympic Committee mascot, will be attending on behalf of Visual Arts Brampton. VAB will be having a Fridge Front Gallery exhibit this coming March, focusing on the Canada's Paralympic team and their sports. Among the guests at tonight's event, Billy Bridges, part of the gold medal-winning 2006 Torino Paralympic sledge hockey team.

The event will be judged as part of Brampton's bid in the annual, national WinterLights competition. WinterLights is run by the same organization as Communities in Bloom. We encourage you to bring non-perishable food items and/or unwrapped new toys for the Peel Regional Police's Toys for Tots.

Complete details can be found at The Brampton News, and The Brampton Guardian.

Podi Paralympic to be at Battalion game, for VAB

Podi, the mascot of the Petro-Canada Paralympic Schools Program, is visiting Brampton this week, courtesy of Visual Arts Brampton. Why VAB? We'll discuss that later.

Podi is the spokescat of a program around since 2003, aiming to raise awareness of Paralympic sport and athletes with a physical disability. Podi was launched in 2007 by the Canadian Paralympic Committee, in the leadup to the Beijing Paralympics, making appearances around the country.

Podi will be appearing:

• Thursday, December 3: Brampton Battalion takes on the Oshawa Generals at the Powerade Centre, from 7 to 10 pm. During the intermission, there's a demonstration of sledge hockey by some local teams; sledge hockey is a Winter Paralympic sport.
• More dates may be announced.
  

In the new year, VAB's students will be creating artwork featuring Canadian Paralympians, for display at Fridge Front Gallery. Many thanks to the Canadian Paralympic Committee for providing the reference photos they will be working from, and letting Podi visit Brampton.