The Edge Gallery

Apr/May Newsletter May/June Newsletter July Newsletter April 2010 Newsletter June 2010 Newsletter

Edge Village street view

Looking for a place for your own cultural expression? The Edge is a community-driven non-profit organization for the arts located in the centre of Winnipeg. The Edge offers affordable living/work spaces, pottery studio memberships, gallery event rentals, and community workshop facilities.

The Edge relies on the generous time contributions of its volunteers. Please contact us to inquire about how you can help.

There is a place for everyone at The Edge!

The Edge Vision

The Edge exists to increase public interest in the arts and improve the economic status of artists to ensure that Winnipeg thrives as a centre for artistic and cultural excellence.

The arts connect people to their community. When people make art, they tackle the issues that confront them in their daily lives. It educates and enlightens their peers, their community and the wider public about their life and experiences. People recognize their own struggles and joys reflected in the art of others.

Concert Review - Nathan Rogers at The Edge

Nathan Rogers played to a full and extremely enthusiastic house. He worked his magic on the crowd, with a presence almost too large for the stage.
The music was thrilling, the sound was excellent, the venue was wonderful and the excitement spilled out into the street. I'm sure everyone driving by on Main Street wished they could stop and be part of the scene. We were all swept away by the energy of the evening. There were lots of Point folks in the audience, some of whom (including me) were discovering The Edge for the first time. Will definitely be back for more.

Arts and culture are an economic development tool; cultural and creative expression is a means to affecting deep and lasting social change.

We believe that a healthy arts presence is a vital part of community infrastructure. When artists occupy live/work spaces, they have a 24-hr/day connection to the neighbourhood and add a degree of security and stability to the community.

The Edge Gallery - an Urban Art Centre
611 Main Street
Winnipeg, Manitoba
R3B 1E1
204-947-2992
serena@edgevillage.com

We are excited to welcome Noreen Mian to the Edge Gallery as our Volunteer Coordinator. Working at Volunteer Manitoba, Noreen has picked up a thing or two and is excited to combine her passion for volunteerism with her love of community art. If you're interested in volunteering with the Edge, you can find information at www.mb.volunteer.ca or email Noreen at edgevolunteers@gmail.com. Maybe youll even read about it this Monday in the Free Press All sorts of ways to get on at the Edge!

If you haven’t already heard, six of the young performers from our youth open mic will be showcased at the West End Cultural Centre July 6! (Check out the latest skinny on the grand reopening of the West End at www.wecc.ca for a list of their upcoming line-ups -- Hawksley Workman is already sold out!!) All performers of the youth open mic are entered into a draw for the showcase opportunity and yep, there’s still time! Draw will be held June 9 at the end of the night.

Each EDGE-YA! Tuesday features a special guest performer. Recent mystery guests include JD Edwards and Don Amero - thanks so much for coming down and wooing and inspiring!

Downtown Coffee Ground
Next one May 4^th (7pm) @ Red Road Lodge 631 Main Street

All ages open mic and community collaborative art making (as per usual at this fine event where everyone is welcome!!) Great food, hot organic coffee and tea!! This months feature artist are the Mudhands and Elton "little wolf" Plett. A little roots and little blues! Brought to you by CKUW 95.9 FM community radio!!!

This month JUST Community Market Co-operative will be selling bedding plants at the Downtown Coffee Ground so "city folk" can start their gardens early. Container planting is in!!! Pots, planters, and rooftops!!! All of their seedlings are grown from certified organic or heirloom seeds (rare varieties that have been passed from generation to generation). If you'd like more info, please contact brad@JUSTcommunitymarket.com.

Concert Featuring: Andrea Ramolo MISS UNCENSORED
May 2/09 - 8:30 doors 9:00 show time

www.myspace.com/andrearamolomusic

Concert Featuring: Coco Love Alcorn (We just had to have her back!!)
May 3/09
7:30 doors 8:00 show time
$10.00

Upcoming Exhibit
Transcending Boundaries, metaphors for the schizophrenic experience

by Kelvin Free
Opening night May 8th at 7pm
Exhibit runs until May 21st noon - 5pm

Upcoming Exhibits, Concerts, Open House events, Workshops and Youth News… all in this edition of the Edge!

Pieces inspired by love… and are for sale for your home-love-tool kits! For a spying on their respective stylings, check out their sites

This Sunday the Edge is hosting an open house. Bring your creative kits and selves (including instruments if you like) for a laid back environment of friends inspiring friends! Don’t be shy, it’s not the final destination, it’s the journey that holds the Awe!

MSCC is currently offering studio memberships! Memberships are available for $125.00/month with a one year commitment. Included in this rate is 24/7 access to the shared, full service studio space; wheels; kiln; clay mixer; storage and Edge gallery membership. For more information, please contact Mike at 227-7070.

Next Youth Open Mic – June 9… the draw for the showcase spots for the July 6 WECC concert is creeping up… get out, plug in, play… let’s hear it!

Special thanks to Matt Sveinson for sharing his visual magic! The ‘cooler’ has been home to some of Matt’s pieces since the last youth open mic and every single guest that has stopped in has left here hugely inspired and moved! Thank you Matt, for sharing your spirit and your insight through your creative expression!!! We hope that more and more people are able to experience your gifts J

Come celebrate big ideas in small works. A charming exhibit of playfulness from sculptures, puppets, drawings and quilts.

Opening night June 12, 6-9pm
Exhibit June 12 - 18, 2009 * Saturday 11-4pm * Monday - Friday 5 - 8pm

Songs of hope, compassion and inspiration – this gypsy wanderer shares her journey with laughter and melody.

$5.00 admission two super great local singers / songwriters / storytellers / beard wearers and possibly the most charming personalities to these parts…

Looking for a volunteer opportunity? – please contact our volunteer coordinator, Noreen @ edgevolunteers@gmail.com

We are so excited, so proud, so so counting down to our Youth Showcase and Fund Raising event at the West End Cultural Centre July 6th, Sponsored by Mothers Music!

Advance tickets are available at The Edge Gallery Monday to Friday this next week from noon to 5. For those eager to secure their ticket, we happen to have a mobile ticket outlet (give us a call if you'd like your tickets delivered!) 947-2992

We are so proud to feature the following six youth artists from this year's open mic series:

This past Tuesday was our last regularly scheduled youth open mic and we couldn't have asked for magic! Not only did we have our featured special guest, Pat LePoidevin (New Brunswick) who had all of us up dancing, clapping and singing along, but stars aligned and David Simard (Montreal) who played the night before was still in the City and came to play with the group Jaws in Knees. Leaning forward, we all soaked in the incredible amazing-ness of this young man! Winnipeg's own the Sweet Alibis stopped in as well (you can hear them this year on the Young Performers Stage at the Winnipeg Folk Fest and, no doubt, more and more throughout the City!)

Summer Unplugged Youth Jams!
We've heard from a few of our young participants that they are bummed that we're taking a break over the summer holidays. Well, we can't let you down now, can we!!! We're currently organizing a few unplugged youth jams here at the gallery (we'll let you know the dates very soon!)

THANK YOU to Sean McManus of Manitoba Music and Mike Petkau, who recently treated our participants to a professional development workshop... we've had great feedback from the group, who are all looking forward to your return in the next season!!

TO MAKE A DONATION
If you are interested in supporting this fund raising event, to see this program continue and develop for the 2009/10 season, we are still gratefully accepting prizes for the silent auction. Please call Serena for more information @ 947-2992.

In this edition you will find April 2010 information for concert listings, exhibit details, special events calendar and Clay Centre membership information…

Exhibits – Hours Saturday 1 – 4, Sunday Closed, Monday - Thursday noon – 4:30pm

THE MAIN STREET COMMUNITY CLAY CENTER - "MC3"
Is accepting memberships and is excited to welcome you! MC3 is a place for the emerging ceramic artists to create, work, exhibit and to teach. They’ve got plenty of space for members to share including all wheels, tables, kilns, clay mixer, extruder, sink. Memberships are available for $80 a month with a minimum of 4 month contract. For more information, to sign up or take a tour of MC3 at the Edge, please contact Elise Nadeau via email @ elisenadeau@hotmail.com or phone (204) 880-0771

Bacca makes their debut here this evening with a jazz and Romani influenced sound.

Trevor Friesen is best known for his place in local dance-pop outfit Code Name: The Sharks! but here he displays a more nuanced and introspective side with his solo material. One may hear echoes of Conor Oberst and Elliott Smith in the lyrical and musical intricacy of his songs.
Dawson Blaine remains entranced by legends such as Tom Waits, Bob Dylan, and Bruce Springstreen; it is due to these artists that he is able to utilize both gritty storytelling and vivid imagery in his song writing. Sparse arrangements of the Northern Skies will be appearing. http://www.myspace.com/dawsonblaine
Callandra Mayhart has spent time in the wonderful Manitoba Folk Orchestra, but here she allows her voice take centre stage, accompanied by local banjo player Ben Hadaller. Drawing influence from folk and jazz stylings, her voice is colourful yet retains a warm simplicity.
http://www.myspace.com/callandramayhart

The Edge is dancing with excitement to welcome back Pat on April 24/10!!
Pat played a concert at the Gallery last year while touring his first release BLUE TORNADOS an album that remained on repeat pretty much until we received his current album Moonwolves!
Now we sure can be enthusiastic about much of what happens here at the Edge, but let me tell you, Pat returning with more music is something we are absolutely counting down to!!!
For an official bio and listening previews, check out the links below and we'll see you at the show!
http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/event.php?eid=112997502050937&ref=mf

There are a few more days to visit Night Tides Wake, an exploration of hypnagogic hallucinations, images inspired by the disembodied movement between waking and sleep. Alisa Be cultivates dramatic (e)motion, vibrant colour, and moonlit images, awaiting your interest, interpretation and enjoyment. Closes this Thursday at 4:30pm.

Fight or Flight & Okvar

Featuring Street Art, Wood carving, Shrunken Heads, and Sock Critters. This is an “ERRYTHANG SHOW”! Opening night will feature live entertainment by King Kobra and DJ Cookie Monstah.

“Ight” comes a place where the forest is thick with trees that are black and white, and the animals are also curiously the same...some say she grew up in a fairy mushroom ring dancing the days away while others say she was raised in a barn. She has a fetish for socks eyeing up any pair that may cross her path, followed by dismembering them with a smile.

Okvar is yet another mystery, a shadow in the night and awake like an owl. He roams the streets in search of a new canvas. Perhaps he ended up in Winnipeg after hitchhiking his way through Russia, then walking across the Bering Strait or maybe he is just a figment of our imagination. Whatever it may be his hand is highly skilled leaving characters faces imprinted in your mind or a sketch that is wild and full of style.

Rennie’s work is an autobiographical portrait of childhood memories. Revealing the truth of traumatic childhood experiences through the use of natural elements (medium) suggests childhood fragility, while industrial products are used to convey an unsafe environment. The fragility of nature paired with the manufactured is meant to reflect the power one can have over the vulnerable. “The opportunity to reflect on these memories, through visual art, has formed a greater understanding of how these experiences still shape my life.”

Roach pokes fun at the different aspects of himself in his sculptures. Countering hateful undertones with the use of wacky, funny, and weird materials, he blurs his message about himself my self, and instead the sculptures become more open ended abstractions dealing with play, facades, sexual promiscuity, shame, and awkwardness. “I want my work to look very awkward because I think this awkwardness is a direct reflection of myself and what I'm feeling when I'm creating a sculpture.”

Undress Your Fear is a participatory art show created by Danielle Fenn. Entrants were asked to examine the fear that results when a person or group of people try to address a socially constructed barrier. The artists have examined fears about changing environments, technology, personal, societal expectations.

Entry is by donation so leave your "Junk" (ie: old art supplies, knik knaks etc. OR stigmas, lables, burdens, etc.) at the door. All proceeds going towards the Urban Art Centre of the Edge Gallery and the Red Road Lodge.

Artists Justin Currie, Jessica Thompson, Kelly Diamond, Kristian Enright, Kristin Norman, Danielle Fenn

To book your special event, concert or exhibition, please contact the gallery at 947-2992 or send us a message to book an appointment at serena@edgevillage.com