“Indian headdresses” and blackface on display at the Alternator

The Alternator Centre for Contemporary Art stirs controversy with their upcoming exhibition, What does it mean to be The Problem, opening at 7pm on Friday January 8th, 2016.

Exhibition: What does it mean to be The Problem?
Opening Reception: Friday, January 8, 7pm
Artists: Fern Helfand, Tannis Nielsen, and Samuel Roy-Bois
Exhibition dates: 8 January to 18 February, 2016

Copied from her family archive, Fern Helfand, professor of photography in FCCS,  presents a life-sized photograph of a group of children at a costume party taken in 1961. In the picture a young Caucasian boy’s cheeks are streaked with war paint as he proudly dons a feathered Indigenous war bonnet. The little girl’s face is colored black with chocolate Quik powder, and a black-skinned inflatable “Hug-a-Bug” doll dangles from her hand.

This image lies at the axis of the exhibition. Works by 2 other UBCO artists of mixed heritages Tannis Nielsen and Samuel Roy-Bois respond from their own perspectives.

Issues of cultural appropriation, stereotyping, racism and privilege aim to challenge the viewer and to prompt them to think about how they too might be implicated no matter how innocent their actions might be.

The Alternator will host an opening reception for What does it mean to be The Problem on January 8th at 7pm. The catered event is free and open to the public. In addition, there will be an AlterKnowlege public discussion forum on racism and privilege January 15th at 7pm.

The Okanagan arts community is also invited to creatively respond to the exhibition with their own artwork. An exhibition of these submissions will be mounted in the Alternator from February 5th to 20th. More information is available at www.bit.do/helfand.

The Alternator Centre for Contemporary Art is an artist-run centre located in Kelowna at the Rotary Centre for the Arts, 421 Cawston Avenue. The Alternator Centre for Contemporary Art is a registered non-profit charitable organization dedicated to the development of the creative community. Since 1989, the Alternator has shown the work of emerging Canadian artists, focused on innovative and non-traditional mediums engaged in social and cultural issues. alternatorcentre.com

The Pollinizing Sessions: A Series of Free Talks and Workshops to Learn about Pollinators in our Community

Tuesday, November 24th 2015, 7 – 8:30 PM
Downtown Kelowna Branch, Okanagan Regional Library
1380 Ellis St, Kelowna
Free admission, All welcome

Join Nancy Holmes of the Public Art Pollinator Pasture Project at UBC Okanagan to learn more about Kelowna’s Public Art Pollinator Pasture at the Brent’s Grist Mill Heritage Park.

This evening will launch a series of talks and workshops, The Pollinizing Sessions, which will begin in January 2016. “The Pollinizing Sessions” will consist of talks and workshops by experts who will help the community learn more about important species such as bumble bees and other native bees and insects, about which plants can best support them, and ways to build habitat for them. A special feature on November 24th will be from the Central Okanagan Heritage Society which will provide information about the Brent’s Grist Mill heritage values.

Please come if you are interested in volunteering for planting and site preparation, making art, making insect habitats, or participating in citizen science pollinator census projects next spring. You’re also welcome if you just want to learn more about the Brent’s Grist Mill, the park site, native bees, native and xeriscape planting, and making habitat for pollinators in your own backyard. Or maybe you’re just curious about the project!

The series is sponsored by the Okanagan Regional Library and The Public Art Pollinator Pasture Project and The Eco Art Incubator in the Faculty of Creative and Critical Studies at UBC Okanagan. The Public Art Pollinator Pasture is a project created through a partnership between UBC, The City of Kelowna, The City of Richmond and Emily Carr University of Art and Design.

For more information, contact Nancy Holmes at nancy.holmes@ubc.ca

Website: borderfreebees.com/

Facebook: www.facebook.com/pollinatorpasture/?fref=ts

Bee Central: UBC’s “Culture Days” Activity

What: Mason Bee Homes, free family community art event
Who: Eco Artist Lori Mairs
When: Saturday, September 26, 11 am – 3 pm
Where: Brent’s Grist Mill Heritage Park, Kelowna

UBC will have a presence in Kelowna at this year’s national Culture Days celebrations with the community art project, Bee Central. Artist Lori Mairs will be leading a series of fun, family projects to create homes for mason bees for people’s backyards this upcoming spring. Mason Bee Homes is the fourth community art event sponsored by Bee Central and it takes place Saturday, September 26 from 11 am to 3 pm. Admission is free and people can drop in at any time.

Lori Mairs

Mairs will help participants make their own home and children will be invited to create bee finger puppets. She will also display a mason bee tube sculpture to show mason bee development and the community can participate in creating a pollinator hotel to be installed on the site of a pollinator pasture next spring. Bee Central is a Community Art Project sponsored by UBC Okanagan and the City of Kelowna and takes place at the historic Brent’s Grist Mill Heritage Park at the corner of Dilworth Rd and Leckie Place. This event is being held in conjunction with the Central Okanagan Heritage Society who will provide information about the Grist Mill and Culture Days in Kelowna.

Lori Mairs is an ecological artist-researcher who lives in a companion-species relationship with the 22 acres that is the Woodhaven Nature Conservancy. Mairs is a sculptor, writer, and photographer, and she has an MFA degree in Visual Arts from UBC Okanagan.

Bee Central is part of a larger plan to introduce and stimulate a ‘buzz’ about bees and the Brent’s Grist Mill Heritage Park, particularly to attract a diverse community to help with the planting, building and maintaining of a Public Art Pollinator Pasture in Kelowna, explains UBC Assoc. Prof. Nancy Holmes. Bee Central is made possible by a Community Public Art Grant from the City of Kelowna and UBC’s Eco Art Incubator.

Culture Days is a national celebration organized by “a non-profit organization dedicated to building a national network of cultural connections devoted to providing Canadians with opportunities to participate in, and appreciate, all forms of arts and culture. Through an annual three-day national celebration each September, hundreds of thousands of artists and cultural organizations in hundreds of cities and towns come together and invite Canadians to participate in free interactive and ‘behind the scenes’ activities to discover their cultural spirit and passion.” culturedays.ca/en/about-culture-days.

For more information about UBC Okanagan Eco Art Incubator projects or to become a volunteer, please contact Holmes at nancy.holmes@ubc.ca, 250-764-9666. More information can be found at: blogs.ubc.ca/theecoartincubator/ .