Category: Oxygen Art Centre

CONTEMPORARY ART MENTORSHIP SERIES, “WHORL,” CONSIDERS TIME, EMBODIMENT, AND SOMATICS WITH NADIA CHANEY AND ZOE KREYE

Artist Talk

Saturday, April 1, 2023 @ 1:00 – 2:30 PM

Nadia Chaney + Zoe Kreye

Free to attend; Register via EventBrite

Workshop #1

Saturday, April 15, 2023 @ 1:00 – 3:00 PM

Nadia Chaney

Registration fee: $20; Register via Google Form

Workshop #2

Saturday, April 29, 2023 @ 1:00 – 3:00 PM

Zoe Kreye

Registration fee: $20; Register via Google Form

Taking its name from something that whirls, coils, or spirals or whose form suggests such movement, and the concentric arrangement of a snail’s shell, Oxygen Art Centre is thrilled to present “whorl,” a public artist talk and contemporary art workshop featuring Nadia Chaney (Kanata, Canada) and Zoe Kreye (Vancouver, Canada).

To begin the series, Chaney and Kreye will present an online artist talk on Saturday, April 1, 2023, from 1:00 PM to 2:30 PM PST. The event will introduce the public and workshop participants to the artists and their respective practices. A short Q&A period will follow the talks, which will touch on the overlapping and divergent threads in their work. Free to attend, the public can register for the event through Oxygen’s website and EventBrite.

Following the artist talk, the whorl programpresents two online workshops with the artists on Saturday, April 15^th and Saturday, April 29^th from 1:00 to 3:00 PM PST. Emerging and established artists are encouraged to register to attend both or an individual workshop by completing a Google Form via Oxygen’s website. A registration fee of $20 will be required to attend.

Nadia Chaney is an arts facilitator, poet, and performer, whose recent research explores time through interdisciplinary collective reading practices. Her focus on relational attunement through musical improvisation, automatic drawing, and embodied synchronicities will be engaged in this workshop. Chaney’s current work is as the founder and caremaker of the Time Zone Research Lab, a non-local and nonlinear collective for arts-based research into the nature of time and temporality. Through her workshop, participants will be welcomed to the Time Zone Research Lab archive!

The Lab uses an intuitive process called Web Walking to trip lightly through the recordings of 102 daylong conversations about Time and Temporality. Participants in Chaney’s workshop will punctuate the Web Walking with silence (for making) and elongate its strands with whatever thoughts, bidden and unbidden, occur to us. Chaney’s workshop will employ the art of deep listening and tentacular thinking.

Zoe Kreye is an interdisciplinary artist whose performance and installation work engages audiences in participatory and embodied happenings. Her focus on motherhood, grief, and the experience of loss in the body are activated through painting, tapestry, and ceramic works, alongside her somatic and bodywork practices. Kreye’s workshop will invite participants to engage in a series of movements to engage with drawing and sculpture through somatic practices.

The workshops are two-hours in length each and provide participatory engagements with contemporary art discourses and practices to encourage non-linear curiosity in your creative approaches.

whorl is an Oxygen Art Centre contemporary art series that invites the public and artists of all stages and backgrounds to engage in intensive artistic mentorship on the topics of embodiment, somatics, and performance practice. 

The artist talk featuring Nadia Chaney and Zoe Kreye will take place on Saturday, April 1, 2023, from 1:00 – 2:30 PM PST (Zoom). Admission is free and everyone is welcome to attend.

The workshops require a $20 registration fee and will be open to only twelve participants each. Nadia Chaney’s workshop will be offered on Saturday, April 15, 2023, from 1:00 – 3:00 PM PST. Zoe Kreye’s workshop will be offered on Saturday, April 29, 2023, from 1:00 – 3:00 PM PST. Registration will occur on a first come-first serve basis until filled.

This program is generously supported by Columbia Kootenay Cultural Alliance.

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Image Credit: Nadia Chaney (L), Zoe Kreye (R); Images courtesy the Artists

Press Contact:

Julia Prudhomme

Executive Director

Oxygen Art Centre

info@oxygenartcentre.org

250-551-6329

Artist Biographies

Nadia Chaney was born in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan (Treaty 6) of Indian descent. Performing and presenting since early childhood, Nadia has been professionally active since 1998 in poetry, music, creative non-fiction, visual arts, social practice and performance installation. She has also trained in clown, short and long fiction, memoir and action theatre. At the core of these many modes is community art and the belief that creativity is an illimitable birthright for all beings, human and beyond.

Her current work is as the founder and caremaker of the Time Zone Research Lab, a non-local and nonlinear collective for arts-based research into the nature of time and temporality. There are currently 332 international members of the Time Zone, plus a complementary drop-in research node designed for children ages 3-17, the Star Holders. We have completed 103 sessions, and over 75 children’s sessions thus far.

Our main instructors at the Time Zone are a ceramic octopus (Epok the Usher) created by Wai-Yant Li and designed to generate quantum oscillations and tentacular transversals across chronosocial materialities and a centenarian sourdough starter who hears everything. 

Through practices of reading, care work, listening, singing, dreaming, sleeping, baking, improvising, puppeteering, painting, film, interrupting, transpersonal shift and rhythm(s) (and more) we investigate two major questions: 1) how can we be more intimate with Time 2) how can we help to liberate Time / how is Time incarcerated. Our methods are both a- and interdisciplinary, deeply social, intentionally secretive (both secret and secretion), generous, gentle, and fun.

Zoe Kreye creates interdisciplinary art projects that explore transformation, embodiment and collective experience. Recent projects include De Fem (WAAP, Vancouver), Make Our Own Air (SPACE, London), Our Missing Body (Hochparterre Berlin, Western Front, Kamloops Art Gallery), FutureLoss (grunt gallery), Unlearning Practices (Unit Pitt, Goethe Satellite, <rotor> Graz). Working in the realms of sculpture, dance/movement, drawing and somatics, her projects take shape as installations, workshops, rituals and journeys. Materially she works close to the body using clay, cloth, foam and gestural lines. She creates artworks through transcendent experiences, then invites publics and performers into the installations to embody, disrupt and explore the transformative capacity of sensation, narrative and ritual. She holds an MFA in Public Art and Social Practice from the Bauhaus University Weimar and a BFA in Sculpture from Concordia University Montreal. She co-founded the Berlin artist collective Process Institute. She is currently based in Vancouver and teaches studio and Social Practice at Emily Carr University.

Canisia Lubrin + Jessica Johns to read at next event

5 April 2023 @ 4:00 PM PST (Zoom) Canisia Lubrin Jessica Johns Register via EventBriteWe are thrilled to welcome Canisia Lubrin and Jessica Johns at Oxygen Art Centre’s Author Reading Series on Wednesday April 5th at 4:00 PM PST on Zoom.Acclaimed poet, editor and writer Canisia Lubrin’s work explore ideas of social justice and the limits and possibilities of art, form, and language.Polyvocal in register, Lubrin’s second book, The Dyzgraphxst (M & S, 2020) mines meanings of kinship through the wide and intimate reach of language across geographies and generations. Against the contemporary backdrop of intensified capitalist fascism, toxic nationalism, and climate disaster, the figure Jejune asks, how have I come to make home out of unrecognizability. Marked by and through diasporic life, Jejune declares, I was not myself. I am not myself. My self resembles something having nothing to do with me.The Dyzgraphxst (M & S, 2020) won the OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Poetry and the overall Literature prize, the Griffin Poetry Prize, and the Derek Walcott Prize. That same year, she was awarded the Canada Council’s Joseph S. Stauffer prize for literary achievement and the Windham-Campbell prize for a body of work. Among other honours, her writing was finalist for the Governor General’s Award, the Pat Lowther Memorial Award, and Trillium Book Award for Poetry.Accompanying Lubrin is writer, editor and nehiyaw auntie, Jessica Johns with her debut novel, Bad Cree (Harper-Collins, 2023), where dreams, family and spirits collide.Bad Cree (Harper-Collins, 2023) follows Mackenzie, a Cree millennial, when she wakes up in her one-bedroom Vancouver apartment clutching a pine bough she had been holding in her dream just moments earlier. When she blinks, it disappears. But she can still smell the sharp pine scent in the air, the nearest pine tree a thousand kilometres away in the far reaches of Treaty 8.Mackenzie continues to accidentally bring back items from her dreams, dreams that are eerily similar to real memories of her older sister and Kokum before their untimely deaths. As Mackenzie’s life spirals into a living nightmare—crows are following her around and she’s getting texts from her dead sister on the other side—it becomes clear that these dreams have terrifying, real-life consequences. Desperate for help, Mackenzie returns to her mother, sister, cousin, and aunties in her small Alberta hometown. Together, they try to uncover what is haunting Mackenzie before something irrevocable happens to anyone else around her.Haunting, fierce, an ode to female relations and the strength found in kinship, Bad Cree is a gripping, arresting debut by an unforgettable voice.The evening will also feature a reading by student writer from the Selkirk College Creative Writing Program.Join us on Wednesday, April 5, 2023 @ 4:00 PM PST on Zoom to participate in the second instalment of the Author Reading Series featuring Canisia Lubrin and Jessica Johns. Admission is free or by donation. Register via EventBrite to attend.This event is generously supported by this Columbia Kootenay Cultural Alliance. Special thanks to Oxygen’s Author Reading Series committee.ABOUT THE AUTHORSCanisia Lubrin is an acclaimed poet, editor and writer. Her writings explore ideas of social justice and the limits and possibilities of art, form, and language. Her books include the story collection, Code Noir (Knopf, 2023). Her first book Voodoo Hypothesis (Wolsak & Wynn, 2017) was named a CBC Best Book. Her second book, The Dyzgraphxst (M & S, 2020) won the OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Poetry and the overall Literature prize, the Griffin Poetry Prize, and the Derek Walcott Prize. That same year, she was awarded the Canada Council’s Joseph S. Stauffer prize for literary achievement and the Windham-Campbell prize for a body of work. Among other honours, her writing was finalist for the Governor General’s Award, the Pat Lowther Memorial Award, and Trillium Book Award for Poetry. Anthologies that include her fiction were finalists for the Toronto Book Award and the Shirly Jackson Award. She was twice longlisted for the Journey Prize. Lubrin is a 2022 Civitella Ranieri Fellow and has held writer residences at Queen’s University and the appointed inaugural 2021 Shaftesbury Writer in Residence at Victoria College, University of Toronto, where she has taught creative writing. Lubrin previously taught at the Banff Centre, multiple community and literary organizations, and universities and colleges in Toronto. Her work is widely published and anthologized and has been translated into four languages. In 2021, the Globe & Mail’s named Lubrin Poet of the Year. She is poetry editor at Canadian press McClelland & Stewart. Jessica Johns is a nehiyaw auntie with English-Irish ancestry and is a member of Sucker Creek First Nation in Treaty 8 territory in Northern Alberta. The former managing editor of Room magazine, she co-organizes the Indigenous Brilliance reading series. Johns’s writing has been published in Grain, Glass Buffalo, SAD magazine, Red Rising Magazine and Canadian Art, among others. Her debut poetry chapbook, How Not to Spill, was a co-winner of the bpNichol Chapbook Award, and her short story “Bad Cree,” upon which her novel is based, won the Writers’ Trust of Canada Journey Prize and a silver medal at the National Magazine Awards. Johns’s “Bad Cree” (2022) is a haunting debut novel where dreams, family and spirits collide. Mackenzie, a Cree millennial, wakes up in her one-bedroom Vancouver apartment clutching a pine bough she had been holding in her dream just moments earlier. When she blinks, it disappears. But she can still smell the sharp pine scent in the air, the nearest pine tree a thousand kilometres away in the far reaches of Treaty 8.  19 April 2023 @ 4:00 PM PST (Zoom) Kathy Friedman Erin Robinsong Register via EventBrite Join us for the last event for the Spring 2023 Author Reading Series program featuring Kathy Friedman and Erin Robinsong. Everyone welcome to attend. Admission is free. Learn more on our website.MOREEDUCATIONArt Speak – Peer to Peer Work Sharing Facilitated by Emilie Leblanc KrombergIN PERSON 4 Classes: Mar. 27 – Apr. 17 Mondays: 5:00 – 6:30pm *UPDATE*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: $40 Low-tech Printmaking w/ Natasha SmithIN PERSON 4 Classes: Mar. 28 – Apr. 18 Tuesdays: 5:30 – 8:30pmExplore the basics of low-tech printmaking to investigate processes that can be done without the use of a printmaking press. Simple plate-making and image transfer methods will be demonstrated and students will learn a variety of printmaking techniques including monoprinting and collagraphy. This is a very fun, process-based course and is appropriate for artists of all levels.Material Fee: $20 + Material ListCourse Fee: $170TOTAL FEE: $190 Intro to Screen Printing w/ Marcus DénomméIN PERSON 4 Classes: Mar. 29 – Apr. 19 Wednesdays: 6-9pmIntro to screen printing is an open and welcoming course to all folks regardless of creative and artistic experience. It will take place over four sessions and cover every step involved in the screen printing process. Each member of the class will leave with a limited edition run of their artwork printed on a variety of substrates and a thorough understanding of how to silkscreen.Material Fee: $60Course Fee: $170TOTAL FEE: $230 Intro to Bolex Camera, Film Processing + Cameraless Animation w/ Brian LyeIN PERSON 2 Classes: Apr. 1 & 2 Sat. 10am – 4pm & Sun. 10am – 3pmIn this two-day, hands-on workshop participants will be introduced to the Bolex film camera and how to process black and white 16mm film using a non-toxic, homemade film developer consisting of instant coffee, washing soda, and vitamin C powder. In groups of three, participants will shoot and hand process two 100-foot rolls of film in a DIY darkroom. Participants will also learn and experiment with cameraless animation by drawing directly on clear 16mm film. The course is suited to those curious about film and/or wanting to process film at home.No experience necessary. Material Fee: $55Course Fee: $155TOTAL FEE: $210 Lino Printing – Reduction Technique w/ Myra RasmussenIN PERSON 1 Class: Apr. 15 Saturday: 10am – 4pm (1hr lunch)In this class students will use one lino block and print it multiple times, carving a bit away each time. Through this process we will create a print with multiple colours, each layer overtop the previous one. This class is appropriate for all skill levels, whether you have experience with relief printing or if this will be your first time.  Material Fee: $20Course Fee: $80TOTAL FEE: $100 The Open Studio – Making time for the Actor’s Work w/ Valerie CampbellIN PERSON 1 Class: Apr. 22 Saturday: 10am – 5pm (1/2hr lunch)This workshop will offer a rare opportunity for actors–one that is the norm for visual artists–a full day in an open studio setting to work and play with an emphasis on process over product. Explore your art, work on your craft. Flex your creative expression muscles, loosen up your imagination, and cultivate responsiveness, spontaneity, and authenticity.Suitable for experienced and aspiring actors with an interest in creative process and for those looking for a place to practice away from the constraints of a production.TOTAL FEE: $95 Magic of Memory w/ Rayya LiebichONLINE 4 Classes: May 23 – June 15 Tuesdays: 6:30 – 8:30pmWe often recall memories in fragments. By accessing our scattered memories and borrowing from the container of non-linear structures we can record our life stories in authentic and innovative ways. Each week we will take a deep dive into a different literary form (prose poetry, flash non-fiction, epistolary writing, and the hermit crab essay) to enter our material sideways and find new shapes to unpack our experiences. Each class will include a study of the craft, guided writing prompts, and readings by authors who push the boundaries of hybrid creative non-fiction (CNF) forms. If you are working on a difficult memoir or looking for new ways to tell your familiar stories, this series will give you a chance to play, experiment, and come back to the magic of memory and the importance of meaning-making.  TOTAL FEE: $95REGISTERFALL SEMESTERPlan ahead! Oxygen’s Fall 2023 Semester is now open for registration. Continue learning a medium, explore a new one, dream, sing, and gather together, make your own screen printed artist book, and learn to paint! Learn about the classes, instructors, and how to register via our website. Spaces limited. Contact Natasha Smith (Education Coordinator) with questions or registration support.REGISTERJOINSupport your artist-run centre by becoming an Oxygen Art Centre Member. Oxygen Memberships run from $2 (Senior/Student) to $5 (Single) to $10 (Families) and significantly help our organization. Become a member today! MEMBERSHIP BENEFITSEvents, Tours and Artist TalksVolunteer, Networking and Mentorship ExperienceRegular mailings and newslettersVoting Privileges at Oxygen Art Centre’s AGMAccess to current Exhibition Publications and CataloguesArtist-in-Residence and Exhibition ToursRegister ONLINE or by MAIL Already a Member? Consider making a Donation.REGISTERImages (top to bottom): (1) Composite image of two book covers: Canisia Lubrin (L) + Jessica Johns (R); (2) Canisia Lubrin (L) + Jessica Johns, photo by Madison Kerr (R); (3) OAC ARS poster, 2023; (4-10) OAC Spring semester promotional images, 2023; (11) OAC 2023 Spring and Fall Semester promo image, 2023; (12) “Become a Member” text overlaid on an image documenting an installation in progress at Oxygen Art Centre, 2015;

Oxygen Art Centre info@oxygenartcentre.org #3- 320 Vernon St. (alley entrance) Nelson, B.C. V1L 4E4 Canada 250-551-6329 Facility access information Hours of Operation:  Wednesdays – Saturdays, 1:00 – 5:00pm (during exhibition run) Admission by donation Oxygen Art Centre acknowledges with gratitude that we are located on the tum xula7xw/ traditional territory of the sn̓ʕay̓ckstx/the Sinixt People. As uninvited guests we honour their ongoing presence on this land. We recognize that the Sinixt Arrow Lakes, Sylix, Ktuxana, and Yaqan Nukij Lower Kootenay Band peoples are also connected with this land, as are Métis and many diverse Indigenous persons. We are grateful for the financial support we receive from Canada Council for the Arts, BC Arts Council, BC Gaming, Province of BC, Government of Canada, Vancouver Foundation, Columbia Kootenay Cultural Alliance, Columbia Basin Trust, United Way, Osprey Community Foundation, Nelson Lions Club, and Nelson and District Credit Union. We offer thanks to Elephant Mountain Literary Festival and other key partners including Hall Printing, Speedpro Signs, and Selkirk College for their support. We especially thank all of our volunteers, donors, and members. Oxygen Art Centre is committed to ensuring all exhibitions, programs, and events are accessible to visitors. Our facilities are wheelchair accessible and equipped with an all-genders washroom. Please contact Oxygen if you have any questions or concerns about your visit.

CANISIA LUBRIN AND JESSICA JOHNS TO READ AT SECOND AUTHOR READING SERIES EVENT

5 April 2023 @ 4:00 PM PST (Zoom)
Canisia Lubrin

Jessica Johns

Register via EventBrite to attend

We are thrilled to welcome Canisia Lubrin and Jessica Johns at Oxygen Art Centre’s Author Reading Series on Wednesday April 5^th at 4:00 PM PST on Zoom.

Acclaimed poet, editor and writer Canisia Lubrin’s work explore ideas of social justice and the limits and possibilities of art, form, and language.

Polyvocal in register, Lubrin’s second book, The Dyzgraph^xst (M & S, 2020) mines meanings of kinship through the wide and intimate reach of language across geographies and generations. Against the contemporary backdrop of intensified capitalist fascism, toxic nationalism, and climate disaster, the figure Jejune asks, how have I come to make home out of unrecognizability. Marked by and through diasporic life, Jejune declares, I was not myself. I am not myself. My self resembles something having nothing to do with me.

The Dyzgraph^xst (M & S, 2020) won the OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Poetry and the overall Literature prize, the Griffin Poetry Prize, and the Derek Walcott Prize. That same year, she was awarded the Canada Council’s Joseph S. Stauffer prize for literary achievement and the Windham-Campbell prize for a body of work. Among other honours, her writing was finalist for the Governor General’s Award, the Pat Lowther Memorial Award, and Trillium Book Award for Poetry.

Accompanying Lubrin is writer, editor and nehiyaw auntie, Jessica Johns with her debut novel, Bad Cree (Harper-Collins, 2023), where dreams, family and spirits collide.

Bad Cree (Harper-Collins, 2023) follows Mackenzie, a Cree millennial, when she wakes up in her one-bedroom Vancouver apartment clutching a pine bough she had been holding in her dream just moments earlier. When she blinks, it disappears. But she can still smell the sharp pine scent in the air, the nearest pine tree a thousand kilometres away in the far reaches of Treaty 8. 

Mackenzie continues to accidentally bring back items from her dreams, dreams that are eerily similar to real memories of her older sister and Kokum before their untimely deaths. As Mackenzie’s life spirals into a living nightmare—crows are following her around and she’s getting texts from her dead sister on the other side—it becomes clear that these dreams have terrifying, real-life consequences. Desperate for help, Mackenzie returns to her mother, sister, cousin, and aunties in her small Alberta hometown. Together, they try to uncover what is haunting Mackenzie before something irrevocable happens to anyone else around her. 

Haunting, fierce, an ode to female relations and the strength found in kinship, Bad Cree is a gripping, arresting debut by an unforgettable voice. 

The evening will also feature a reading by student writer from the Selkirk College Creative Writing Program.

Join us on Wednesday, April 5, 2023 @ 4:00 PM PST on Zoom to participate in the second instalment of the Author Reading Series featuring Canisia Lubrin and Jessica Johns. Admission is free or by donation. Register via EventBrite to attend.

This event is generously supported by this Columbia Kootenay Cultural Alliance. Special thanks to Oxygen’s Author Reading Series committee.

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About the Authors

CANISIA LUBRIN is an acclaimed poet, editor and writer. Her writings explore ideas of social justice and the limits and possibilities of art, form, and language. Her books include the story collection, Code Noir (Knopf, 2023). Her first book Voodoo Hypothesis (Wolsak & Wynn, 2017) was named a CBC Best Book. Her second book, The Dyzgraphxst (M & S, 2020) won the OCM Bocas Prize for Caribbean Poetry and the overall Literature prize, the Griffin Poetry Prize, and the Derek Walcott Prize. That same year, she was awarded the Canada Council’s Joseph S. Stauffer prize for literary achievement and the Windham-Campbell prize for a body of work. Among other honours, her writing was finalist for the Governor General’s Award, the Pat Lowther Memorial Award, and Trillium Book Award for Poetry. Anthologies that include her fiction were finalists for the Toronto Book Award and the Shirly Jackson Award. She was twice longlisted for the Journey Prize.

Lubrin is a 2022 Civitella Ranieri Fellow and has held writer residences at Queen’s University and the appointed inaugural 2021 Shaftesbury Writer in Residence at Victoria College, University of Toronto, where she has taught creative writing. Lubrin previously taught at the Banff Centre, multiple community and literary organizations, and universities and colleges in Toronto. Her work is widely published and anthologized and has been translated into four languages. In 2021, the Globe & Mail’s named Lubrin Poet of the Year. She is poetry editor at Canadian press McClelland & Stewart.

JESSICA JOHNS is a nehiyaw auntie with English-Irish ancestry and is a member of Sucker Creek First Nation in Treaty 8 territory in Northern Alberta. The former managing editor of Room magazine, she co-organizes the Indigenous Brilliance reading series. Johns’s writing has been published in Grain, Glass Buffalo, SAD magazine, Red Rising Magazine and Canadian Art, among others. Her debut poetry chapbook, How Not to Spill, was a co-winner of the bpNichol Chapbook Award, and her short story “Bad Cree,” upon which her novel is based, won the Writers’ Trust of Canada Journey Prize and a silver medal at the National Magazine Awards.

Image Credit: Canisia Lubrin (L) + Jessica Johns, photo by Madison Kerr (R)

Oxygen Art Centre

info@oxygenartcentre.org

250-551-6329 

—

www.oxygenartcentre.org

#3 – 320 Vernon St. Alley Entrance

Nelson, British Columbia , V1L 4E4

Tel: 250 551 6329

Oxygen Art Centre acknowledges with gratitude that we are located on the tum xula7xw/ traditional territory of the sn̓ʕay̓ckstx/the Sinixt People. As uninvited guests we honour their ongoing presence on this land. We recognize that the Sinixt Arrow Lakes, Sylix, Ktuxana, and Yaqan Nukij Lower Kootenay Band peoples are also connected with this land, as are Métis and many diverse Indigenous persons.

EDUCATION

Register today for Oxygen’s Spring 2023 Semester!  We are thrilled to share an exciting offering of classes ranging from drawing and painting to acting and screen printing, and more!  Oxygen’s education program is designed to inspire, promote, and support creativity for our regional and expanded communities. Scroll down the newsletter to learn more about each class or visit our website. Spaces are limited + going quickly! Register via www.oxygenartcentre.org

AUTHOR READING SERIES

22 February 2023 @ 6:00 PM PST (Zoom) Joshua Whitehead Kaitlyn Purcell + Peyton Ernst (Selkirk College Creative Writing student)Register via EventBrite to attend  Joshua Whitehead is a Two-Spirit, Oji-nêhiyaw member of Peguis First Nation (Treaty 1). He is currently an Assistant Professor at the University of Calgary where he is housed in the departments of English and International Indigenous Studies (Treaty 7). In the last few years, following the publication of his debut novel Jonny Appleseed, Joshua Whitehead has emerged as one of the most exciting and important new voices on Turtle Island. Joining Whitehead is artist, poet, storyteller, and scholar, Kaitlyn Purcell who is a proud member of Smith’s Landing First Nation, and the Writing Revolution in Place creative research collective. She is a PhD student at the University of Calgary studying Indigenous Literatures, Creative Writing, and Community-Based Learning. Purcell’s debut book, ʔbédayine (2019, Metatron Press) follows narrator, Ronnie, who learns what it is to be a young Indigenous woman, almost-alone in the city; unable to hear herself over its noise, see through the glare of its lights to find the ground beneath her feet. Winner of the 2018 Metatron Prize for Rising Authors and nominated for a 2020 Indigenous Voices Award, Purcell’s writing is a poetic force to reckon with the complexities of an Indigenous female narrator.Everyone welcome to attend. Admission is free. This event is generously supported by the Columbia Kootenay Cultural Alliance.

BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Oxygen Art Centre announces their Board of Directors for 2023! We are delighted that Anita Levesque (Chair), Carol Wallace (Secretary), Samonte Cruz (Director), and Gabby Asbell (Youth Chair) are returning for another term! Alison Talbot-Kelly and Chelsea Freyta have been working with the board in an interim capacity since 2022, and we welcome them officially this year, along with new members, Marilyn Lee, who is stepping into the Treasurer position, Suzanne Simoni, and Laurel Terlesky. As artists and volunteers, Oxygen’s Board of Directors are excited to work together on youth outreach initiatives, our accessibility action plan, non-hierarchical organizational structures, and developing new ways to support arts and culture in our community. Learn more about the Board of Directors here.

View this email in your browser Author Reading Series, Education, and moreAUTHOR READING SERIES22 February 2023 @ 6:00 PM PST (Zoom) Joshua Whitehead Kaitlyn PurcellRegister via EventBrite to attend Oxygen Art Centre’s Author Reading Series begins its 2023 season on Wednesday February 22nd at 6:00 PM PST on Zoom featuring Joshua Whitehead and Kaitlyn Purcell.   Joshua Whitehead is a Two-Spirit, Oji-nêhiyaw member of Peguis First Nation (Treaty 1). He is currently an Assistant Professor at the University of Calgary where he is housed in the departments of English and International Indigenous Studies (Treaty 7). In the last few years, following the publication of his debut novel Jonny Appleseed, Joshua Whitehead has emerged as one of the most exciting and important new voices on Turtle Island.   In his first non-fiction work, Whitehead explores Indigeneity, queerness, and the relationships between body, language, and land through a variety of genres (essay, memoir, notes, confession). Making Love with the Land (2022, Knopf Canada) is a startling, heart wrenching look at what it means to live as a queer Indigenous person “in the rupture” between identities.   Whitehead’s Jonny Appleseed won Canada Reads 2021, was shortlisted for the Governor General’s Literary Award for fiction and the Canada First Novel Award and won the 2019 Lambda Literary Award for gay fiction, in addition to having been optioned for a four-part digital miniseries.   Joining Whitehead is artist, poet, storyteller, and scholar, Kaitlyn Purcell who is a proud member of Smith’s Landing First Nation, and the Writing Revolution in Place creative research collective. She is a PhD student at the University of Calgary studying Indigenous Literatures, Creative Writing, and Community-Based Learning.   Purcell’s debut book, ʔbédayine (2019, Metatron Press) follows narrator, Ronnie, who learns what it is to be a young Indigenous woman, almost-alone in the city; unable to hear herself over its noise, see through the glare of its lights to find the ground beneath her feet. Winner of the 2018 Metatron Prize for Rising Authors and nominated for a 2020 Indigenous Voices Award, Purcell’s writing is a poetic force to reckon with the complexities of an Indigenous female narrator.   In talking about the book, Purcell shares that “ʔbédayine is a series of stories inspired by my adolescent years in Edmonton. ʔbédayine is about sexual sovereignty. It’s about Indigenous ways of knowing, the importance of community, and the effects of intergenerational trauma. I’ve always loved my mother’s hometown Fort Smith, but, like most small communities, it seems like a difficult place for queerness to exist” (2018, Metatron Press). Copies of Whitehead’s and Purcell’s books will be available at Nelson’s Otter Books or can be ordered online in advance of the reading. Those interested in attending the event can register via Eventbrite through the link on Oxygen’s website and social media accounts.   Join us on Wednesday, February 22, 2023 @ 6:00 PM PST on Zoom to participate in the first instalment of the Author Reading Series featuring Joshua Whitehead and Kaitlyn Purcell. Admission is free or by donation. Register via EventBrite to attend.   This event is generously supported by this Columbia Kootenay Cultural Alliance.  ABOUT THE AUTHORSJoshua Whitehead (he/him) is a Two-Spirit, Oji-nêhiyaw member of Peguis First Nation (Treaty 1). He is currently an Assistant Professor at the University of Calgary where he is housed in the departments of English and International Indigenous Studies (Treaty 7).   He is the author of full-metal indigiqueer (Talonbooks 2017) which was shortlisted for the inaugural Indigenous Voices Award and the Stephan G. Stephansson Award for Poetry. He is also the author of Jonny Appleseed (Arsenal Pulp Press 2018) which was long listed for the Giller Prize, shortlisted for the Indigenous Voices Award, the Governor General’s Literary Award, the Amazon Canada First Novel Award, the Carol Shields Winnipeg Book Award, and won the Lambda Literary Award for Gay Fiction, the Georges Bugnet Award for Fiction and Canada Reads 2021.   Whitehead is the editor of Love after the End: An Anthology of Two-Spirit and Indigiqueer Speculative Fiction, which won the Lambda Award in 2021.   Whitehead’s latest book Making Love with the Land was published in 2022 with Knopf Canada, exploring the intersections of Indigeneity, queerness, and, most prominently, mental health through a nêhiyaw lens. The book was shortlisted for the Hilary Weston Writers’ Trust Award for Nonfiction.   You can also find his work published widely in such venues as Prairie Fire, CV2, EVENT, Arc Poetry Magazine, The Fiddlehead, Grain, CNQ, Write, and Red Rising Magazine.   Kaitlyn Purcell (she/her) is Denesuline-Irish and an urban member of Smith’s Landing First Nation. Kaitlyn is a PhD candidate at the University of Calgary whose creative research meditates on mommy issues and intergenerational healing. She is the recipient of numerous awards, including a doctoral SSHRC award and the Metatron Prize for her debut poetic novella ʔbédayine. Her writing can be found on Artspeak, Esker Foundation, and YYZ Artist Outlet.REGISTERMOREEDUCATIONRegister today for Oxygen’s Spring 2023 Semester! We are thrilled to share an exciting line up of classes ranging from drawing and painting to acting and screen printing and more!  Spaces are limited + going quickly! Register via www.oxygenartcentre.org *Please note a few updates to the semester and schedule as of 11 January 2023.Sculptural Lantern Making w/ Myra RasmussenIN PERSON 1 Class: Feb. 4 Saturday 9:30am – 3:30pm (1hr lunch)Explore a lantern making technique that combines wire, string and paper, which instructor Myra Rasmussen learned from artist Chiba Sakuryu at the Aomori Nebuta Lantern festival. Participants will make a wire frame, cover it with paper, and paint with ink, wax, and dye. Lanterns will be lit with battery powered LEDs. Myra will demonstrate how to make a wearable headpiece resembling a frog. Students can follow her example, or make their own shape. Following the class, we encourage all participants to bring their lanterns to the Polka Dot Dragon Lantern Festival, held at Lakeside Park on the evening of Feb. 11th, 5 – 7pm.All Materials provided by The Polka Dot Dragon Arts SocietyTOTAL FEE: $75Moth Catchers w/ Jim HolyoakONLINE 5 Classes: Feb. 6 – Mar. 6 Mondays: 8 – 10pmMoth Catchers is a nighttime sketchbooking club. As a relaxed, exploratory practice, drawing can be an effective form of mindfulness. Via Zoom, and with a webcam above his hands for demonstration, artist Jim Holyoak will lead participants through weekly sketchbook exercises, including: warmups, air/water drawing, speed/pressure/cadence, drawing two-handed and with the non-dominant hand, blind self-portraits by touch, automatism, asemic writing (handwriting without semantic content), synesthetic drawing (drawing from sound, touch, etc.), modes of hatching, modes of contour drawing, drawing from video/film, drawings as gift exchange, negative-space creatures, hybrid drawings (such as animal/machine and house/mountain), scale (microcosm/macrocosm), drawing from memory, and approaches to drawing cartoons and comics. These exercises will be punctuated with discussion, creative writing exercises, and presentations about nighttime as subject matter, including Nocturnes, Lullabies, and ecologies of silence and darkness. Material Fee: Material ListCourse Fee: $120TOTAL FEE: $120REGISTERWriting What We Love w/ Susan Andrews GraceONLINE 5 Classes: Feb. 8 – Mar. 8 Wednesdays: 1:30 – 3:30pmThis workshop will prompt students to bring poems that they love and admire to then develop skills and techniques to develop your own craft. Together we will investigate theory and poetic form. Through this course students will develop skills to move beyond self-consciousness in composition and come to see poetry with fresh eyes. The formal response to your study will be in your own writing. TOTAL FEE: $120Fantastical Futures: Drawing from the Imagination w/ Deborah ThompsonIN PERSON 4 Classes: Feb. 8, 22, Mar. 1, 8 (no class Feb.15) Wednesdays: 5:30 – 8:30pmThis four week playful, process-based drawing course will focus on drawing from our imaginations to create a variety of hybrid creatures. Numerous prompt-like exercises from photographs, dreams, text, sound, and a model will aid in the development of an imaginative world in your drawings. Students will engage in collaborative drawing exercises to encourage a non-rational mind. Each class will highlight the work of a contemporary artist whose work exemplifies the ideas and processes presented. Some attention will be given to drawing materials and techniques such as line quality, proportion, scale, tonal range, and texture development, as well as the use of graphite, ink, chalk, and pencil crayon.Material Fee: $25 + Material ListCourse Fee: $180TOTAL FEE: $205REGISTERBeginner Drawing w/ Catherine McIntoshIN PERSON  6 Classes: Feb. 24 – Apr. 21 (no class Apr.7) Fridays: 5:30 – 8:30pmThrough a mixture of experimental exercises and longer observational drawings, this course will cover the basics of drawing to build awareness of line, volume, and form. Whether you are doing this for pleasure or wanting to develop your drawing technique, this is a great foundational course that is broadly applicable to a range of creative processes. Material Fee: $25 + Material ListCourse Fee: $260TOTAL FEE: $285Solo Performance Development w/ Bessie WappIN PERSON 8 Classes: Feb. 16 – Apr. 20 (no classes Mar. 16 & 23) Thursdays: 7 – 9pmIs there a particular story you’re burning to tell? An entire show already written in your head? Or maybe just a few words scrawled on a scrap of paper? Whatever the starting place, through writing exercises, improvisation, and supportive peer feedback we will move everyone’s projects forward, and share what we get up to with invited guests in the last class. Material List: Notebook pen/pencilTOTAL FEE: $230REGISTERPainting from a Model #1 (no instruction)IN PERSON 1 Class: Feb. 19 Sunday: 1-5pmParticipants 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: $35Investigating the Actor’s Process w/ Valerie CampbellIN PERSON 1 Class: Feb. 18 Saturday: 10am – 4pm (1/2hr lunch)This workshop will offer an immersive day of exploration and investigation to open the doors to actor’s work.The course will increase spontaneity, playfulness, and freedom with the intention to move out of comfort zones towards an expanded, fuller expression of your creative self.Suitable for both aspiring actors and those interested in the creative process.TOTAL FEE: $90REGISTERA Brush with Colour w/ Deborah ThompsonIN PERSON 2 Classes: Feb. 25 & 26 Sat. & Sun.: 10am – 4pmThis two-day painting course focuses on a specific approach to painting–the exploration of colour!  The study of colour mixing followed by its application through hands-on painting exercises will be the central working process of the course. It is perfect for students who have some painting experience and wish to expand both their understanding of colour mixing and their application of paint. Some of the ideas covered will include: colour as value or tone, warm /cool colour contrasts, complimentary colour palette, and how to create movement and depth in a painting. The class will include demonstrations on colour mixing, paint application, and underpainting techniques. References from artists throughout history will be utilized to illustrate the ideas presented. Ongoing feedback and sharing work will be part of the class.Material Fee: $25Course Fee: $145TOTAL FEE: $170Magic of Memory w/ Rayya LiebichONLINE 4 Classes: May 23 – June 15 Tuesdays: 6:30 – 8:30pmWe often recall memories in fragments. By accessing our scattered memories and borrowing from the container of non-linear structures we can record our life stories in authentic and innovative ways. Each week we will take a deep dive into a different literary form (prose poetry, flash non-fiction, epistolary writing, and the hermit crab essay) to enter our material sideways and find new shapes to unpack our experiences. Each class will include a study of the craft, guided writing prompts, and readings by authors who push the boundaries of hybrid creative non-fiction (CNF) forms. If you are working on a difficult memoir or looking for new ways to tell your familiar stories, this series will give you a chance to play, experiment, and come back to the magic of memory and the importance of meaning-making.  TOTAL FEE: $95REGISTERPainting from a Model #2 (no instruction)IN PERSON 1 Class: Mar.12 Sunday: 1-5pmParticipants 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: $35Figure Drawing #2  (no instruction)IN PERSON 4 Classes: Mar. 26, April 2, 17 & 23 Sundays: 6:30 – 8:30pm *UPDATE*Drawing sessions will provide the opportunity to draw from a model with poses ranging from 1 minute to 20 minutes.  No instruction is offered. Participants are expected to provide the drawing materials of their choice.TOTAL FEE: $60REGISTERArt Speak – Peer to Peer Work Sharing Facilitated by Emilie Leblanc KrombergONLINE 4 Classes: Mar. 27, Apr. 24, May 8 & 15 Mondays: 5-6:30pm *UPDATE*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: $40Low-tech Printmaking w/ Natasha SmithIN PERSON 4 Classes: Mar. 28 – Apr. 18 Tuesdays: 5:30 – 8:30pmExplore the basics of low-tech printmaking to investigate processes that can be done without the use of a printmaking press. Simple plate-making and image transfer methods will be demonstrated and students will learn a variety of printmaking techniques including monoprinting and collagraphy. This is a very fun, process-based course and is appropriate for artists of all levels.Material Fee: $20 + Material ListCourse Fee: $170TOTAL FEE: $190REGISTERIntro to Screen Printing w/ Marcus DénomméIN PERSON 4 Classes: Mar. 29 – Apr. 19 Wednesdays: 6-9pmIntro to screen printing is an open and welcoming course to all folks regardless of creative and artistic experience. It will take place over four sessions and cover every step involved in the screen printing process. Each member of the class will leave with a limited edition run of their artwork printed on a variety of substrates and a thorough understanding of how to silkscreen.Material Fee: $60Course Fee: $170TOTAL FEE: $230Intro to Bolex Camera, Film Processing + Cameraless Animation w/ Brian LyeIN PERSON 2 Classes: Apr. 1 & 2 Sat. 10am – 4pm & Sun. 10am – 3pmIn this two-day, hands-on workshop participants will be introduced to the Bolex film camera and how to process black and white 16mm film using a non-toxic, homemade film developer consisting of instant coffee, washing soda, and vitamin C powder.

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Get Creative This Year At Oxygen Art Centre

Oxygen Art Centre has launched their education program for the whole of 2023 including a range of course formats for all levels. Oxygen’s education program is designed to inspire, promote, and support creativity for our regional and expanded communities.

The education program is continually developing and expanding with new artist instructors joining the faculty each semester. Oxygen’s faculty teach what they know and what they are passionate about, and this is translated into their course design by sharing their practices with students.

“Oxygen’s classes are not just about learning an artistic or writing technique, they are an opportunity to delve into a creative process and develop your personal creative voice in an intimate, nurturing, and supportive environment” says Natasha Smith, Oxygen’s Education Coordinator.

To register and learn more about the semesters, classes, and instructors, visit Oxygen’s website. Registration takes place through Google Forms on a first-come first-serve basis. Class sizes are small, ranging from seven to twelve students in each.

Not sure where to start? Contact Oxygen’s Education Coordinator, Natasha Smith at education@oxygenartcentre.org or 250-551-6329 with any questions.

Join the magic that is learning a new skill and exploring creative processes this year at Oxygen Art Centre.

For more information on courses, Oxygen Gift Certificates, and to register: www.oxygenartcentre.org,  education@oxygenartcentre.org.

Photo Cutline: Drawing class at Oxygen Art Centre, 2021

Press Contact: Natasha Smith, education@oxygenartcentre.org

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info@oxygenartcentre.org

www.oxygenartcentre.org

#3 – 320 Vernon St. Alley Entrance

Nelson, British Columbia , V1L 4E4

Tel: 250 551 6329

Oxygen Art Centre acknowledges with gratitude that we are located on the tum xula7xw/ traditional territory of the sn̓ʕay̓ckstx/the Sinixt People. As uninvited guests we honour their ongoing presence on this land. We recognize that the Sinixt Arrow Lakes, Sylix, Ktuxana, and Yaqan Nukij Lower Kootenay Band peoples are also connected with this land, as are Métis and many diverse Indigenous persons.