Category: Oxygen Art Centre

Oxygen Art Centre: Annual General Meeting, Nov. 13 at 6 PM

Oxygen Art Centre’s (Nelson Fine Art Centre Society) Annual General Meeting takes place on Thursday, November 13, 6:00 PM at Oxygen (#3-320 Vernon Street, alley entrance, Nelson, BC). Everyone welcome to attend.

Oxygen members and the general public are invited to attend the meeting, renew their membership or join for the first time, and learn about all the goings-on from this past year including reports on art classes, exhibitions, visiting artists, events, fundraising and much more.
 
Afterwards, Oxygen and Elephant Mountain Literary Festival will be hosting the second event of Author Reading Series: Home and Away, at 7:30 PM. Attendees are encouraged to stay for this event, which presents local authors, Ernest Hekkanen and Josh Massey. For more information about this event, visit our website here.
If you have any questions about the AGM and following Author Reading Series event, please contact us at info@oxygenartcentre.org.
 
In addition to the AGM proceedings, Members will be invited to vote on the following Special Resolution:
Notice to Members of Special Resolution
to be moved and voted on at the
Oxygen Art Centre AGM, November 13, 2019 at 6 pm.
Last year, Oxygen Art Centre complied with the Society Act transition by submitting new bylaws, which included a clause permitting, upon unanimous approval of the board, payment of fees, honoraria or per diems to board directors.  This is legal under the new BC Society Act.  To date, no director has been paid for their work as directors; the clause simply permitted such payments if the board chose to do so.
This clause, however, is not permitted by BC Gaming, so the Oxygen board is presenting a resolution to change the bylaw to comply with BC Gaming requirements.
Please see the current bylaw, and the resolution to be presented on November 13, below:
Current bylaw:
7.1 Directors may be remunerated (which includes fees, honoraria, per
diems, or any other form of payment) for their work as directors, upon
unanimous approval of voting directors.
 
Resolution:
Moved: That Oxygen Art Centre rescind the 2018 Oxygen Art Centre Bylaw 7.1
permitting directors to receive remuneration upon unanimous approval of the
Board, and replace it with the default clause from the Societies Act:
 
7.1 Unless permitted by the bylaws, a society must not pay to a director of
the society remuneration for being a director.
 
This resolution must be approved by 2/3 vote of members present.

Alterations to bylaws

17   (1) A society may alter its bylaws by filing with the registrar a bylaw alteration application.
(2) A society must not submit a bylaw alteration application to the registrar for filing unless the alteration proposed by the application has been authorized by special resolution.
(3) An alteration proposed in a bylaw alteration application takes effect when the bylaw alteration application is filed with the registrar.
(4) After a society alters its bylaws under this section, the registrar must furnish to the society a certified copy of the altered bylaws.
(5) Even if the bylaws of a society identify a provision of the bylaws as being unalterable, the society may alter the provision in accordance with this Act.

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 Oxygen Art Centre hosts Artist Talk by Slocan Valley-based artist Tanya P Johnson on her recent work in Mongolia, South Africa and Japan
Title:               “Tanya P Johnson: recent work in Mongolia, South Africa and Japan”
Event:             Thursday, November 7, 2019 @ 7:30 PM
Admission is free or by donation
 
Oxygen Art Centre hosts Artist Talk by Slocan Valley-based artist Tanya Pixie Johnson on Thursday, November 7, 2019 at 7:30 PM. Everyone welcome to attend. Admission is free or by donation.
 
Johnson’s Artist Talk will track her practice over the last two years. This will include residencies in Europe, collaborations, and exhibitions.
 
The talk will focus on a few key projects:  Story Keepers for Land Art Mongolia Biennale, Samson, a multi media performance production in Cape Town; Conversation with my Dead Self, Vancouver and Istanbul; and Afterlife of a House for Nakanojo Biennale in Japan.
 
Johnson works in various media including painting, installation, assemblage, paper cutting, printmaking, collage and writing. Her practice is often concerned with concepts of belonging, liminality and consciousness. It is informed by ideas of colonial accountability, relationship with land and an interest in transformation and ancestors.
 
Oxygen is excited to offer this event to share Johnson’s practice as it has evolved over the last two years across many borders and topics. The artist talk will take place at Oxygen Art Centre featuring a digital slide projection and a short open dialogue afterwards.
 

 
Artist Bio:
https://www.tanyapjohnson.com/
 
Tanya P Johnson is a visual artist based in the Slocan Valley, British Columbia and part time in Cape Town, South Africa. She was born in Nairobi, Kenya and grew up in Cape Town. She received her Honours Degree in Fine Art from Michaelis Art School at the University of Cape Town, majoring in painting.
 
Her childhood was a curious dialogue between art and dance classes and the reality of apartheid and revolution. This marked her life and continues to inform her work.
After art school, Johnson left South Africa on a cargo ship, working her passage to Europe where she was drawn to the edges and underbellies of European society. She became affiliated with punks, environmentalists, anti fascists and renegades in her continued search for perspective on her identity of being a seventh generation South African with European ancestry. Traveling Europe, she made and sold art, taught art, wrote essays, performed on the streets and painted murals.
 
She is an adventurer, seeker, land defender, freight hopper, hitch hiker, cargo ship traveler. Political and environmental activism brought her to North America.
 
Johnson lives with her family rurally in British Columbia. In addition to a rigorous studio practice, her life includes growing food, collecting seeds, picking medicines in the mountains, swimming in rivers and lakes, walking in the woods with her black dog and working with indigenous people. She is drawn to the random, is fierce about justice, likes foxes and dislikes locusts, sharks and oppression.
 
Johnson has translated her visual language into various media including paper cutting, printmaking, collage, installation, design, painting in public spaces and collaboration with playwrights and choreographers. Her art practice examines edges, belonging, real history, thresholds, the unseen and relationship with land. She is interested in the supernatural, transformation, culture, language, cosmology and ancestors.
 
Tanya P Johnson has shown nationally and internationally at numerous public and private exhibitions and attended artist residencies in Canada, South Africa and Europe.
 
 
 
Press Contact:
Julia Prudhomme
Executive Director
Oxygen Art Centre
info@oxygenartcentre.org
250.352.6322
 
 
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   Join us at Oxygen Art Centre for the second “The Big Draw” event on Sunday, October 20th

Events:

1. Sunday, September 29, 2019 from 11:00am-4:00pm
2. Sunday, October 20, 2019 from 11:00am-4:00pm
3. Sunday, November 17 from 11:00am-4:00pm

 
Oxygen Art Centre transforms the gallery into a community open studio over three Sundays this Fall. This all-ages three-part series of collaborative drawing workshops is in connection with the world-wide event known as “The Big Draw.”
 
Facilitated by Oxygen Art Centre member and artist Anita Levesque, “The Big Draw” theme for 2019 is #DrawnToLife and explores the healing and unifying impact of mark making and drawing.
 
These family friendly drop-in art making sessions run from 11:00am to 4:00pm over three Sundays through the Fall. Each session will focus on a different theme. Events are free or by donation. Open to everyone, whatever age or experience.
 
The second session will be held on Sunday, October 20, 2019 from 11:00am-4:00pm. The theme for this session is “Self portraits.” Self-portraits have a long tradition in art history and visual culture. The second session in Oxygen Art Centre’s “The Big Draw” event series celebrates the unique and beautiful qualities of the human portrait and processes of documenting the self. Join us in our drawing lab to participate in observational drawings utilizing mirrors and microscopes, bling contour drawing, full body tracings, silhouettes, musical chairs, exquisite corpse, and the great fun of drawing while in motion.
 
Oxygen Art Centre is committed to ensuring all exhibitions, programs, and events are accessible to visitors. Our facilities are wheelchair accessible and equipped with one accessible washroom. Please contact Oxygen if you have any questions or concerns about this event.
 
“The Big Draw” is generously supported by Osprey Community Foundation, BC Lions Club, and Nelson and District Credit Union.
 
Press Contact:
Julia Prudhomme
Executive Director
Oxygen Art Centre
info@oxygenartcentre.org
250.352.6322
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PUBLIC READING, WORKSHOP OCT. 23 AND 24 LAUNCHES 2019-2020 AUTHOR READING SERIES AT NELSON, B.C.’s OXYGEN ART CENTRE

            Much-honored B.C. author Kristjana Gunnars and Selkirk College creative writing instructor Leesa Dean will read from their works on Wed., Oct. 23 to inaugurate the 2019-2020 author reading series at Nelson, B.C.’s Oxygen Art Centre.

            The reading begins at 7:30 p.m. Oxygen, at 320 Vernon St. (alley entrance), the city’s only artist-run centre. Admission to the reading is free ($5 donation appreciated) and the event is open to the public.

            Icelandic-born Gunnars is a writer and painter from White Rock, B.C., whose books have twice been nominated for the Governor General’s Literary Award. Her novel, The Prowler (1989), was nominated in the fiction category, and a memoir about her father’s death, Zero Hour (1991), in the nonfiction category. She has also published collections of short fiction, cross-genre prose, translations, and essays. Her most recent publication is a book of poems, At Home in the Mountains, from Toronto’s Junction Press earlier this year.

            Gunnars also maintains an art practice, showing her work in Vancouver area galleries.

            Slocan Valley-based Leesa Dean’s collection of short fiction, Waiting for the Cyclone (2016), was nominated for the 2017 Trillium and ReLit Awards. She has also published poetry, non-fiction and interviews.

            The evening of Thursday, Oct. 24 at 7:30 p.m. Gunnars will present a workshop at Oxygen entitled “The Four Parts of Writing: Why They Matter Equally.” Her workshop will explore how creating with words involves inspiration, interactions with self and community, the physical act of writing, and the world of editing and publishing.

            “Many writers,” Gunnars said, “make the mistake of neglecting one or more of these areas. As we explore these, I want to do so interactively and have everyone in the workshop contribute to the formation of as comprehensive a view of writing as possible.”

            Cost of the workshop is $10.

            The October reading and workshop is the first of four author presentations at Oxygen during fall 2019 and spring 2020. “We call the series ‘Home and Away,’” said Oxygen Art Centre Executive Director Julia Prudhomme.

             “Three of the four events pair a local author with a B.C. writer from elsewhere.” Prudhomme said. “Oxygen has a long tradition of promoting home-grown artistic talent while simultaneously bringing to the West Kootenay artists who can inspire local practitioners of the art form while broadening our local audiences’ knowledge of and appreciation for the arts.”

            The second event of Oxygen’s 2019-2020 reading series will feature two Nelson writers on Nov. 13, launching a new novel and reading by Ernest Hekkanen, and a reading by novelist and poetry slam host Josh Massey. The series is supported in part by the B.C. Arts Council and the Columbia Kootenay Cultural Alliance, and co-sponsored by Nelson’s Elephant Mountain Literary Festival.

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Press Contact:

Julia Prudhomme

Executive Director

Oxygen Art Centre

info@oxygenartcentre.org

250.352.6322

CUTLINES: Kristjana Gunnars; Leesa Dean

MEDIA RELEASE: Closing Dinner for “Nostalgic Geography” exhibition at Oxygen Art Centre

 
 
Date:               Friday, September 27, 2019
Time:              5:30 PM
Location:        Oxygen Art Centre, #3-320 Vernon St. (alley entrance), Nelson, BC
 
Join us for the Closing Dinner of local artists prOphecy sun and Darren Fleet’s exhibition, “Nostalgic Geography: Mama and Papa have Trains, Orchards and Mountains in their Backyard” at Oxygen Art Centre.
 
The Closing Dinner celebrates the exhibition, and the support and collaboration that took place throughout the creation of the video and sound installation. The artists wish to invite the community to a shared meal in the gallery as a way to thank the many players that made this work possible, as well as to extend a seat at the table to others.
 
The dinner will be held in the gallery among the installation. Prepared by the artists, the meal will be vegan, vegetarian, and sensitive to dietary restrictions. This event is by donation, everyone are welcome to attend.
 
Press Contact:
Julia Prudhomme
Executive Director
Oxygen Art Centre
info@oxygenartcentre.org
250.352.6322
 
 
—
Julia Prudhomme
Executive Director / oxygen art centre
info@oxygenartcentre.org
www.oxygenartcentre.org
#3 – 320 Vernon St. Alley Entrance.
Nelson, British Columbia
(1) 250-352-6322

MEDIA RELEASE: Oxygen presents “The Big Draw,” a series of open, free drawing sessions for the community
Oxygen_PostCard-BigDraw
 
Events:

1. Sunday, September 29, 2019 from 11:00am-4:00pm
2. Sunday, October 20, 2019 from 11:00am-4:00pm
3. Sunday, November 17 from 11:00am-4:00pm

 
Oxygen Art Centre transforms the gallery into a community open studio over three Sundays this Fall. This all-ages three-part series of collaborative drawing workshops is in connection with the world-wide event known as “The Big Draw.”
 
Facilitated by Oxygen Art Centre member and artist Anita Levesque, “The Big Draw” theme for 2019 is #DrawnToLife and explores the healing and unifying impact of mark making and drawing.
 
These family friendly drop-in art making sessions run from 11:00am to 4:00pm over three Sundays through the Fall. Each session will focus on a different theme. Events are free or by donation. Open to everyone, whatever age or experience.
 
The first session will be held on Sunday, September 29, 2019 from 11:00am-4:00pm. The theme for this session is “The healing power of nature.” Nature has the power to calm and still the mind. To draw means to slow down, look meaningfully, and with curiosity. It is the difference between a long-held gaze versus a quick glance. Join us at Oxygen Art Centre to take part in this first drawing lab, providing opportunities to study, observe, and experience nature through observational drawing stations, rubbings, tracings, and drawing to audio landscapes.
 
Oxygen Art Centre is committed to ensuring all exhibitions, programs, and events are accessible to visitors. Our facilities are wheelchair accessible and equipped with one accessible washroom. Please contact Oxygen if you have any questions or concerns about this event.
 
“The Big Draw” is generously supported by Osprey Community Foundation, BC Lions Club, and Nelson and District Credit Union.
 
 
 
—
Julia Prudhomme
Executive Director / oxygen art centre
info@oxygenartcentre.org
www.oxygenartcentre.org
#3 – 320 Vernon St. Alley Entrance.
Nelson, British Columbia
(1) 250-352-6322