Sappyfest for Dummies wants you to create your doppleganger for this year’s festival
Sackville-based artists Shary Boyle and Graham Patterson are working to convince Sackville residents to create dummies–modeled after themselves–that will be part of a special audience during the Sappyfest music and art festival this August.
The project is called Sappyfest for Dummies, and the artists held an ‘idea jam’ workshop last week at Struts Gallery. CHMA was there and spoke to Boyle, as well as some potential local dummy-makers.
Boyle says the plan is to gather as many Sackville dummies as possible into the Ralph Pickard Bell Library theatre over the festival weekend. It “will be a moment to remember,” says Boyle, “having as many members of the community self-representing their doppelgangers, avatars, or dummies, as we’re calling them, in the seats of the theatre.”
The project is not just for artists or skilled craftspeople. On Thursday Boyle and Patterson outlined a wide range of techniques that people can use, from basic stuffed-clothes porch dummies to more sophisticated structures with wooden frames. There’s also many options for heads and faces, including photocopied photos, papier maché, and simply drawing on a paper bag. Boyle herself created her dummy with torn corrugated cardboard and a hot glue gun, while Patterson’s features a found piece of wood which, with the right embellishments, bears a surprising resemblance to the artist.
Boyle and Patterson are collecting pledges from those who have expressed interest in the project, to commit them to following through with the project.… Continue
Struts brings three days of art workshops and events to Sackville with No Ceiling: It’s About Time
This week Struts Gallery is embarking on a three-day art fiesta involving 14 different artists presenting work in various disciplines, all touching on the idea of time. No Ceiling: It’s About Time kicks off this Thursday with a workshop from Struts’ latest artist-in-residence, Jordan Hill.
Program director Simone Schmidt dropped by CHMA to talk about No Ceiling: It’s About Time:
“We wanted to do a program that imparts skills and gets dialogue started,” says Schmidt. “A lot of the time, artists can be kind of sequestered, showing their work in isolation… not even be able to interact with the public at all. So we wanted to really get people talking and together again.”
“And the theme of time… the thing is time just grips us all. So it’s quite relatable, and it’s quite inescapable,” says Schmidt.
No Ceiling: It’s About Time is offering four workshops, which Schmidt says are free, designed for beginners, and open to all. Jordan Hill is teaching about projection mapping (projecting images onto 3D shapes), Lee Jones and Great Grip are hosting an introduction to e-textiles where participants can create their own ‘light up’ bookmark; Janet Hammock is leading a sound walk to teach about the practice of ‘deep listening’; and artist Nadia Moss hosts a queer life drawing workshop.
Struts partners with nomadic gallery SAVAC, to bring ‘Clearings in the Fog’ to Sackville
This Friday evening, Struts Gallery is hosting a free screening of films from six different artists from around the world, thanks to the South Asian Visual Arts Centre, or SAVAC.
SAVAC is a longstanding artist-run-centre that specializes in partnering with local centres all over the world to showcase culturally diverse artists. As a nomadic gallery, SAVAC brings its exhibitions on tour, and cultivates partnerships along the way.
CHMA sat down with SAVAC staffer Abedar Kamgari this week outside the sunny yellow walls of Struts Gallery on Lorne Street, to find out more:
This is Kamgari’s second visit to Sackville, having previously brought her own art practice to town as a Struts artist-in-residence in 2022. “Some folks in the community might remember helping me make beads,” says Kamgari. “It was a lovely time.”
The Friday evening screening is called MONITOR 15: Clearings in the Fog, part of a series featuring experimental film and video. “Experimental Film is it’s a hard thing to define,” says Kamgari. “It’s a way for the filmmakers to respond to the environments around them, to go and explore.”
The films featured in MONITOR are more open-ended and exploratory than narrative films, says Kamgari. “It almost feels like this little bubble between the world of commercial film and the world of abstract and conceptual art. It kind of moves between those worlds.”
The six films in ‘Clearings in the Fog’ are created by artists with “connections to India, Indonesia, Egypt, Palestine, Iran, and of course, Canada,” says Kamgari.… Continue
The Sweetest Little Thing is back in person at the Owens Art Gallery for Valentine’s Day
Valentine’s Day is coming up next week, which in Sackville means it’s time for another edition of The Sweetest Little Thing, a fundraising event led by Struts Gallery and the Owens Art Gallery. The event has been happening since 1999, and features an art auction with donated works from artists from Sackville and beyond.
For the past two years, the Sweetest Little Thing has been virtual, but this year the event returns to an in-person gathering at the Owens Art Gallery, and a physical exhibition of the works up for auction at the gallery.
Hear Owens director-curator Emily Falvey talking about The Sweetest Little Thing on Tantramar Report:
Falvey says that in addition to being an important fundraiser for the Owens and Struts, The Sweetest Little Thing is also a community event, and, “a time to celebrate the artists who have contributed to our programming.”
For the past two years, the event was a virtual variety show, which Falvey says was what was needed at the time. “I know that there were a lot of people in particular, in 2021, who really appreciated that because we weren’t able to be together,” says Falvey. “We’ve worked really hard to keep that sense of community connection alive during the pandemic.… Continue
Sappyfest is back! The art and music festival prepares to transform Bridge Street this weekend
The pilons will go up this evening for a planned closure of Bridge Street between Lorne and Main Street to prepare for the return of Sappyfest to downtown Sackville.
CHMA spoke with Sappyfest volunteer, board member and past chair Jeska Grue about what’s in store for the weekend-long music and art festival.
Grue says the large tent that serves at the main stage for the festival goes up Thursday night, and set up will continue on Friday. The first mainstrage show is Friday night with Julie Doiron, Kelly McMichael, Tough Age, and Hot Garbage.
Shows will also take place at the Sackville Legion, Ducky’s, the Vogue Cinema and the Mount Allison Chapel. Struts Gallery is also a focal point with art on exhibition, an artist panel discussion, and local busking favourite Harris McSheffery performing at the weekly Friday BBQ.
Struts is also hosting the Phonoautomat on Saturday afternoon, billed as “a miniature, instant recording booth where you can record up to five minutes of anything you like and walk away with physical copies on cassette to share with friends and family.”
The shows and events run through to Sunday night, when the festival wraps. Scroll down for the full schedule listing (subject to change) or check out sappyfest.com.
Grue says she expects several hundred attendees this year. “It may be a little bit smaller than our last in-person festival,” says Grue. “People have a lot of commitments this summer and a lot of traveling going on, but we will have quite a few people around.”… Continue
‘There is a complete absence of accessible transportation’: Volunteer-driven group hopes to buy vans with wheelchair ramps
Listen to Tantramar Report for Tuesday, June 7, 2022:
… Continue
Tantramar Report Year In Review: Sackville arts
We are joined by Owens Art Gallery director Emily Falvey and Struts Gallery director Paul Henderson for a conversation about the arts scene in Sackville and New Brunswick, touching on the impacts of the pandemic, and also New Brunswick’s low profile in the arts, and what it means for artists and audiences.… Continue