Join artist Jaymie Johnson to create sculptural works evoking bumblebee nests to be installed on Kelowna’s Public Art Pollinator Pasture. Starting on Tuesday, August 29 at 6 PM and continuing for a series of short workshops over the week, you, family and friends can learn the ancient practices of making rope and coiled forms out of pine needles, nettles and grasses.

There are six free, drop-in events at the Pollinator Pasture at the Brent’s Grist Mill Heritage Park. Come and go as you please. Picnic dinners are encouraged. These outdoor events are open-air and weather dependent. If in doubt, call 778-840-8911. Bring sunhats, sunscreen, and water as required. This is family-friendly event.

The August 29th session is held in conjunction with a Parks Alive event, so music and displays from the Kelowna Museum society will be on site. The other events will have guest artists and artisans as well as musicians. You can also learn about the Border Free Bees research project that links art with wild bee conservation.

This project is inspired by Jaymie’s work with mentoring artist Sharon Kallis at the Richmond Pollinator Pasture in 2016. Jaymie is an interdisciplinary artist who uses a variety of media to explore the connection between art, ecology, and community. In 2016 she apprenticed with eco-artist Sharon Kallis in blackberry fibre use, cordage processing, and community engagement methods. Jaymie is from the West Kootenays and is currently based in Vancouver, BC.

In collaboration with the Border Free Bees research project and EartHand Gleaners Society, this event series is presented by the University of British Columbia Okanagan, in partnership with Emily Carr University of Art + Design, as well as the Kelowna Museum Society and Parks Alive at the City of Kelowna.

Everyone is welcome to attend the following free events. Be prepared for uneven ground and exposure to sun and heat. There is no water access or washroom on site. Please bring drinking water and appropriate sun protection. A shade tent will be provided.

Location: Brent’s Grist Mill Heritage Park, 2136 Leckie Pl, Kelowna, BC. For more information, contact Nancy Holmes at nancy.holmes@ubc.ca or Jaymie Johnson at beedeckingkelowna@gmail.com

Brent’s Grist Mill Events August 29 – September 4:

WorkBee 2 – Pine Needle: Coil
Tuesday, Aug 29 · 6:00–8:00pm
Learn to coil pine needles using stinging nettle fibre as thread.
Special displays and live music with Kelowna Museum Society and Parks Alive.

WorkBee 3 – Wild Grasses: Material Inquiry and Technique
Wednesday, Aug 30 · 6:00–8:00pm
Harvest, process, and learn about wild grasses.
Guest: Sharon Kallis

WorkBee 4 – Nettle: Harvest and Process
Thursday, Aug 31 · 6:00–8:00pm
Harvest, process, and create cordage out of stinging nettle.

WorkBee 5 – Weekend Intensive: Playful Discovery
Saturday, Sept 2 · 9:30am–12:30pm
Playfully create coiled bumblebee ‘pots’.
Guest: artist and natural sculptor Annabel Stanley

WorkBee 6 – Weekend Intensive: Playful Discovery
Sundday, Sept 3 · 9:30am–12:30pm
Playfully create coiled bumblebee ‘pots.’
Guest: singer/songwriter Leila Neverland

Final Celebration!
Monday, Sept 4 · 10:00am–12:30pm
Join us in celebrating the installation of this community project!
Local refreshments will be served.
Guest: singer/songwriter Maiya Robbie.

What: Wilden Ideas: 2017 Wilden Creativity Day
When: Sunday, August 13, 2017, 2:00 – 5:00 p.m.
Where: Wilden Presentation Centre, 1454 Rocky Point Drive, Kelowna

Wilden is hosting the 2017 Wilden Creativity Day to celebrate wild ideas in art, music, food, and home design. Festivities will be held in their brand new Presentation Centre at 1454 Rocky Point Drive. This is a complimentary event to support young artists and the cultural life in Kelowna.

The Blenk family have been hosting the Wilden Creativity Day since 2015, when Wilden first announced the Wilden Creativity Award, given to a graduating student—Bachelor of Fine Arts or Master of Fine Arts—in UBC Okanagan’s Faculty of Creative and Critical Studies (FCCS) Visual Arts program, and includes $2,500 and an exhibition at the Wilden Presentation Centre.

“The Wilden Creativity Award is our top prize for a graduating student. Preference is given to a body of work that reflects a powerful message as well as a high level of originality, passion and accomplishment.” Says Myron Campbell, visual arts instructor in FCCS.

This year’ award recipient was Rho Shaw, and nominees Pamela Turner and Jackie Deck, each artist will be exhibiting their work at the 2017 Creative Day. Click here to find out more about the artists and their work.

Farm Workers in Western Canada: Injustices and Activism is a new book that was edited by FCCS professor Shirley McDonald and Bob Bametson. The book is an in-depth look at social, political and economic conditions affecting farm works’ struggles for their rights. The book has received many accolades, including being shortlisted for the 2017 Alberta Book Publishing Awards in the Scholarly and Academic category. The winners will be announced announced at a gala reception at the Delta South in Edmonton on September 15, 2017.

In “Exposing the injustices that lie beneath the Canadian dinner table,” a book review in The Vancouver Sun, Tom Sandborn had this to say about Farm Workers in Western Canada: Injustices and Activism:

“The collection of essays gathered by Shirley A. McDonald of University of B.C. Okanagan and Athabasca University’s Bob Barnetson for this book illustrate that many of the deaths and injuries that occur on Canadian farms and in our meat packing plants could be avoided if the workers had a strong union or if safety regulations and inspections in the industry were improved.” Read more…

Farm Works in Western Canada book cover

To honour the many faceless and invisible farm workers, Dr. David Swann (MLA Liberal), book contributor Jennifer Koshan (Calgary), and editor Shirley McDonald, will host the annual Farmworkers’ Day in the Faculty of Law (Murray Fraser Hall) at the University of Calgary. There will be a moment of silence for farm workers, who have lost their lives in the performance of their jobs in farming, one of the most dangerous occupations in Canada.

The event will also honour former farm workers now- turned-activists, Eric Musekamp and Darlene Dunlop, whose 15 years of lobbying encouraged the Alberta government to pass Bill 6: The Enhanced Protection of Farm and Ranch Workers Act. The event will host a gathering and contributors to Farm Workers in Western Canada: Injustices and Activism, who will talk briefly about the focus of their respective chapters in the book.

Several labour leaders and members of the media will be on hand to join in a luncheon and book launch on August 21 in University of Calgary’s Law Faculty between 1 and 4 PM.

Shirley A. McDonald teaches at UBC Okanagan. Her research interests combine literature, Canadian history, and life writing. Bob Barnetson is a professor of labour relations at Athabasca University. His research centres on the political economy of employment regulations.

Mariel Belanger, The Earth Reclaimed her

MFA student, Mariel Belanger is the next Artist-in-Residence in Studio 111 from June 26th to July 8th, working on a project entitled The Earth Reclaimed Her.

During her residency, Mariel will work with a hide tanning frame, tuli reed mats, and her wedding dress collection, onto which images will be projected. As creative research, the intent of the project is to create a constructed projection space that is both aesthetically pleasing and will be documented for later installation work. Working with digital photography, Mariel is digitizing and constructing various parts to “They Connect” a story about a young Sylix woman on the cusp of a rite of passage.

Mariel Belanger is of the Nkmaplqs–Okanagan Indian band, a part of the Syilx–Okanagan Nation, in the interior of BC. She is currently a MFA Interdisciplinary Performance candidate at UBCO where here research is focused on Performance Theory, Indigenous Epistemologies, and Indigenous ways of knowing and being.

Mariel will also be working with Dr. Shawn Brigman on tukʷtniɬxʷ – tule mat house: Indigenizing the Built Environment on the UBC Okanagan campus from July 11-14, in conjunction with the FCCS Summer Indigenous Intensive.

Studio 111 supported by the University of British Columbia Okanagan Faculty of Creative & Critical Studies and co-organized by the Alternator Centre for Contemporary Art.

Toby Lawrence, a PhD student in FCCS, has been working over the last eight months to bring activities into this space that are not confined to the parameter of conventional art galleries.

The public is welcome to drop by the studio until July 8th to learn more about this project and Mariel’s work, and are invited to attend an opening reception on Friday, July 7th from 6 to 8 pm in the studio.

For more information, contact Toby Lawrence, curator/facilitator at ubcostudio111@gmail.com
Studio 111, Rotary Centre for the Arts, 111-421 Cawston Ave., Kelowna, BC

Lake Publishing Society and the Faculty of Creative and Critical Studies at UBC are pleased to present a Woodshed Reading with poet Emily Nilsen. Nilsen will be launching her new limited edition chapbook, Place, No Manual, and reading from her new book, Otolith, on Saturday, June 17th at UBC’s Woodhaven Eco Culture Centre, 969 Raymer Road, Kelowna at 7 p.m.

Lake Publishing produced 50 copies of Place, No Manual. These were hand-bound and printed on handmade paper created by Kelowna printmaker Laura Widmer. This lovely chapbook will be on sale for $20 at the reading.

Emily Nilsen

Emily Nilsen is a graduate of UBC Okanagan’s MFA program and lives in Nelson, BC. Her debut poetry collection, Otolith, was published this year and takes readers through the lush B.C. wilderness and scrutinizes the many fault lines between human beings and the natural world. Nilsen was a finalist for the CBC Poetry Prize in 2015 for her poem “Meanwhile,” which is featured in the book. The book, which also includes some of the poems in Place, No Manual, is the subject of a short interview on CBC radio.

Parking for the event is on Raymer Road though anyone with mobility issues is welcome to park on the property. There will be some refreshments, the event is free and open to the public. Note: there are no public washrooms onsite.

See Lake Publishing Society on Facebook or contact Nancy Holmes at 250-764-9666 for more information.

FCCS alumna Heather Leier will be the next Artist in Residence in Studio 111, located in the Rotary Centre for the Arts.

Heather Leier graduated with her BFA at UBCO’s FCCS in 2012, and went on to pursue her MFA in printmaking at the University of Alberta. She now resides in Corner Brook Newfoundland and continues to work on her art practice.

From May to August, Heather will travel by vehicle from Corner Brook, Newfoundland to Vancouver, BC and back with the purpose of conducting phenomenological research for her project On Being Young Woman. By wearing solely a uniform labeled “Young Women” as she exists with, travels through, and intervenes in a variety of Canadian cities and rural spaces, Heather will explore the ways she is labeled and how her age and gender affect her specific experiences and understandings of place.

Throughout June, Heather will occupy Studio 111 with her findings as she considers her Canadian travel experience through the organization of the Young Lady’s Archive of Canadian Experience.

Studio 111 is supported by the University of British Columbia Okanagan Faculty of Creative & Critical Studies and co-organized by the Alternator Centre for Contemporary Art. Toby Lawrence, a PhD student in FCCS, has been working over the last eight months to bring activities into this space that are not confined to the parameter of conventional art galleries.

“In Kelowna, exhibition and project space for emerging artists is very limited. Studio 111 provides an important public platform for exhibition, experimentation, and arts-based research.” Says Lawrence. “Throughout June and July, Studio 111 will be occupied by UBCO alumni and current graduate students: Heather Leier, Mariel Belanger, and a collaboration between Krista Arias, Lindsay Harris, and Juana Ochoa.”

Until June 24, the public will have the opportunity to speak directly to Leier about the latest developments in her project, On Being a Young Woman, and her experiences travelling across the country, framed by the project’s intentions. Leier welcomes ongoing dialogue, and will host Open Studio hours from 12-3pm, Tuesdays to Thursdays.

For more information, contact Toby Lawrence, curator/facilitator at ubcostudio111@gmail.com

Studio 111, Rotary Centre for the Arts, 111-421 Cawston Ave., Kelowna, BC