Oxygen Art Centre

Oxygen Art Centre is currently accepting proposals from artists and collectives for an alternative exhibition space entitled “O2.”   We accept submissions to this call from professional and emerging artists and collectives who are situated in the Columbia Basin/West Kootenay region. Oxygen Art Centre encourages applications from BIPOC, LGBTQIA2S+, and persons with disabilities. Artists will be paid CARFAC fees. Installations will be on view for two-months. Oxygen’s window project is entitled O2. O2 is a window. O2 is Oxygen Art Centre’s off-site gallery.Located on the Stanley Avenue side of the Nelson Trading Company building (430 Baker Street) in downtown Nelson, B.C., O2 is a window-turned-gallery. Window Dimensionsexterior: 44″ W x 45.5″ Hinterior: 42.5″ W x 45.5″ H x 15″ Ddoor window: 37.5″ W x 43″ HNote: The window is secured by a lock. It does not feature electricity or lighting.  Applicants can submit proposals via Google form. Please review submission guidelines for more information. Deadline to apply:   September 20, 2023 by 12 PM Midnight PSTContact info@oxygenartcentre.org with questions or how to apply via alternative method.HOW TO APPLYApplications are to be submitted by Google Form and should include the following:  Artist Bio (up to 150 words) Please provide a summary of your practice history, training, and any contexts that inform your work. We value diverse forms of arts education and arts practices and invite you to note lived experiences, mentorships, employment, exhibition histories, and any learning experiences that have led you to cultivate the work you are proposing.Include artist(s) website or social media where applicable. Project Proposals (up to 500 words)Please describe your current artistic practice and/or your project proposal for the window site. The project proposal does not need to be the final iteration of the project or artwork, rather a possible vision for the window installation. Please include any logistical installation details, as necessary. For further framing, please refer to the guiding questions above.  Documentation (up to 10 images/media)>> Any media or content that demonstrates your artistic practice.*Unfortunately, due to the limited space of our window display, we are not accepting digital media or large sculptures at this time. **1 MB file size each (.jpeg format with a resolution of 72 dpi at 1024 x 768 pixels)>> Images must be labeled as number_title_lastname (example:01_Untitled_Oxygen). >> Documentation list: For images, please include image numbers, artist name, title of work, year, medium, and dimensions. The FormPlease use this Google Form to apply. The bio and statement are submitted as text responses and can be prepared in advance and copied and pasted. Documentation is to be uploaded. Please refer to the above guidelines for more information on file sizes, etc. ***Due to the exhibition site, please make sure your proposal fits with the window’s measurements.  DEADLINEWe are accepting until submissions until September 20, 2023 by 12 PM MidnightNeed support or to apply another way? Please get in touch with info@oxygenartcentre.org

COMMUNITYOxygen Art Centre presents a series of community art events entitled Lost Cat! Taking place during the Fall 2023 and Spring 2024 semesters, the series offers free art-making sessions with regional artists on a range of artistic mediums. The first workshop of the series takes place on Saturday, September 23, 2023, from 1:00 to 3:00 PM at Oxygen Art Centre. Artist and filmmaker Brian Lye leads the workshop, which explores phytograms on 16mm film. Participants will make camera-less films using plants, vitamin C, washing soda, and motion picture film. We will use an eco-processing technique that involves laying plant matter directly on the film strip. The plant matter will leave an imprint on the film that will be projected at the end of the workshop. Participants need to be present for the entire two-hour workshop. All materials provided. No experience necessary. Everyone welcome.Admission is free. Interested participants are expected to take part in the full two-hour session. Contact us with any questions about the sessions or access needs to the facility. Lost Cat! is generously supported by the Columbia Kootenay Cultural Alliance.LEARN MOREINSTALLATIONPoppy’s Embrace  Jaymie Johnson + Keiko Lee-Hem August 2023 Inspired by the perfect pink and purple poppies growing in our gardens, and the refuge we each find in nature, we’ve transformed this space into the inside of a poppy flower. The experience is enriched by sounds recorded from our garden poppies, of bees busily collecting nectar and pollen, and birdsong in the distance. We invite you to spend a few moments in this serene yet whimsical space of year-round summertime simplicity. May this poppy’s embrace offer a momentary escape from the busy-ness of the outside world, and a chance to be soothed by the refuge that nature offers our over-stimulated minds and bodies. @jaymie.johnson + @keiko.creativeLEARN MOREFALL SEMESTER

Register today! Spaces limited! Oxygen’s Fall 2023 Semester is open for registration. Continue learning a medium or explore a new one, dream, sing, and gather together, or make your own screen printed artist book! Learn about the classes, instructors, and how to register via our website. Spaces limited. Contact Natasha Smith (Education Coordinator) with questions or registration support.

LEARN MORELet’s Phytogram! with Brian LyeIN PERSON1 Class: Oct. 1Sunday: 10 am – 4 pm (1hr lunch) This 5-hour workshop will introduce participants to the process of making cameraless films using plants, vitamin C, washing soda, and 16mm motion picture film.  We will use an eco-processing technique that involves laying plant matter directly on the film strip.  Participants will initially work as a group to create a test phytogram film. After viewing the test film participants will have time to make a short independent work. All medium-specific materials included. Material Fee: $20Course Fee: $75TOTAL FEE: $95Registration Deadline: SEPTEMBER 25REGISTERArt Speak – Peer to Peer Work Sharing Facilitated by Emilie Leblanc KrombergIN PERSON4 Classes: Sept 21, 28, Oct. 5, 12Thursdays: 5 – 6:45pm Artists of all disciplines (professional or not) are invited to share their work in a safe space and engage in contemporary art dialogue with other open-minded art loving individuals. Themes will be proposed as a potential starting point for exchanges and artistic practices to grow collectively. The objective for this workshop is for artists to make, share, discuss, and learn together. TOTAL FEE: $40Registration Deadline: SEPTEMBER 14REGISTERDreaming into Poetry with Rose NielsenIN PERSON8 Classes: Sept. 19, 21, 26, 28, Oct. 3, 5, 10, 12Tues. & Thurs.: 10am – 12pm This course offers a poetry-writing approach that looks through the lens of Jungian dreamwork as we search for images, symbols, and metaphors in our dreams, bringing unconscious material into consciousness. In the process, we will explore a variety of fixed form and free verse poetry to learn which forms might best serve the dream’s tone and theme. TOTAL FEE: $230Registration Deadline: SEPTEMBER 12REGISTERBalkan Choir with Bessie WappIN PERSON8 Classes: Sept. 21 – Nov. 9Thursdays: 7 – 9pm Add your voice to the bold dissonance and clear sweetness of ancient multipart Eastern European a cappella songs of love and lust, harvest and hearth, wartime, badly arranged marriages, and drunken husbands. No prior experience required. In the last class we will enchant an audience with what we’ve learned. Material Fee: $10Course Fee: $230TOTAL FEE: $240Registration Deadline: SEPTEMBER 14REGISTERLetters to the Beyond with Rayya LiebichIN PERSON1 Class: Oct. 29Sunday: 10 am – 12 pm Join poet and writer Rayya Liebich in this two hour workshop to write letters to your departed. In a safe space explore your grief through private writing and take some time to honour your loved ones. These letters can be delivered to the magical mailbox at the Remember The Dead event organized by the Polka Dot Dragon Arts Society’s on Sunday November 5 (https://polkadotdragon.ca/) All writing materials, stationary and envelopes are being provided by the Polka Dot Dragon Arts Society.TOTAL FEE: $10Registration Deadline: OCTOBER 20REGISTERDrawing The Costumed Figure with Deborah ThompsonIN PERSON4 Classes: Oct. 4 – 25Wednesdays: 5:30 – 8:30pm This four week imaginative and process-based course will focus on drawing skills through the study of the costumed figure. Staged poses with a costumed model will serve as the main prompt throughout the course. Review of primary drawing elements such as line, mark, value, and space will be covered as an introduction to the language of drawing. Specific exercises will explore compositional strategies, use of value or tonal range, and contrasting textures will be part of the curriculum. Studies will be used to develop a narrative drawing. Photographs taken of the model or from other sources will also be explored towards their use in developing a drawing. One-on-one and group critiques will be ongoing. Attention will be drawn to the use of the costumed figure throughout the history of art. Materials: graphite, coloured chalks, charcoal, conté, and a variety of papers.Note: This course is best suited to students with some previous drawing experience and an interest in exploring narrative qualities of the figure.  Material Fee: $20 + Material ListCourse Fee: $205TOTAL FEE: $225Registration Deadline: SEPTEMBER 27REGISTERThe Screen Printed Artist Book with Marcus DénomméIN PERSON4 Classes: Oct. 3 – 24Tuesdays: 6 – 9 pm A “Part 2” of the Intro to Screen Printing course from the spring semester, The Screen Printed Artist Book will take on a more ambitious project involving many colour layers and the complex nature of publication design and bookmaking. Each participant will leave with a limited edition of artist books, which will be hand bound and printed. Participants will also have a chance to learn about the process of publication design that uses tools such as Adobe InDesign. Basic screen printing knowledge is an asset.2 classes @ Afko.Sérigraphie studio (807 Baker St.), and 2 classes at OxygenMaterial Fee: $60 (all materials provided)Course Fee: $175TOTAL FEE: $235Registration Deadline: SEPTEMBER 26REGISTERKeep on Keeping on with Susan Andrews GraceONLINE5 Classes: Oct. 4 – Nov. 1Wednesdays: 1:30 – 3:30 pm Sometimes the hardest thing is keeping on. This workshop is suitable for poets at all levels; it offers a new beginning and keys to a sustainable practice. Whether you want to begin new poems or finish a book manuscript this writing workshop will help you trigger new energy and habits in your poetry practice.TOTAL FEE: $180Registration Deadline: SEPTEMBER 27REGISTERGenerative Sound for Analogue Film Projection with Kyle WhiteheadIN PERSON1 Class: Oct. 7Saturday: 10 am – 4:30 pm (1/2 hr lunch) Kyle Whitehead’s expanded-cinema projects IMMANENT UNION, Draft for a Scenario and Circles of Confusion leverage different approaches for creating generative soundscapes from analogue Super 8 film projections. In this workshop he will share strategies for creating custom electronic devices for the purpose of generating or modulating sound with light. Focusing on the use of Arduino and the powerful Mozzi synthesis library, workshop participants will learn how to build and customize their own light-controlled synthesizers to be used with projected film images, or any other light source.TOTAL FEE: $90 (All materials Included)Only 6 spaces availableRegistration Deadline: SEPTEMBER 29REGISTERPainting from a Model #3 (No Instruction)IN PERSON1 class: Oct. 8Sunday 1 – 5 pm Participants will have the opportunity to work from a model holding a single pose for an extended session (3.5 hours).  No instruction is offered. Participants will be asked to bring their own materials in their preferred medium.TOTAL FEE: $35Registration Deadline: OCTOBER 2REGISTER Poetry & Bookmaking with Rayya Liebich and Myra RasmussenIN PERSON1 Class: Oct. 14Saturday: 10 am – 3 pm (1hr lunch) Join visual artist, Myra Rasmussen, and poet, Rayya Liebich on an interdisciplinary journey to create a handmade book with your original poetry inside.  We will start by reading poems for inspiration and then move into a “patchwork poetry” writing activity.  We will then explore a few techniques for creating handmade books. The afternoon will be devoted to each participant working on their own handmade book using mixed media, collage, and poems from the morning session.Material Fee: $5Course Fee: $95TOTAL FEE: $100Registration Deadline: OCTOBER 6REGISTER