2013 Arts Digest; Call to Artists, Artisans and Advertisers!

For 2013 the Hants County Arts Council is once again pairing up with our community paper “What’s Going On?” to promote artists, artisans and local businesses with the latest edition of our arts digest.

We were very pleased with the success of our 2012 publication, a compact folded 17”x22” newspaper style format, which allowed us to include not only a detailed catalogue of our members but also a labelled map of studio and gallery locations, samples of artwork, a HCAC Newsletter, a Calendar of Events and a list of other Nova Scotian Art Societies,  while leaving plenty of room for additional advertising.

This year’s edition of the HCAC Arts Digest will once again be delivered directly to 14, 000 homes in Hants County with an additional 1000 being distributed locally at art centres, studios, galleries, boutiques, small businesses, bed and breakfasts, tourist bureaus and the Stanfield Airport. Each member and advertiser will receive a sizable number of copies to distribute as they wish.  Additional copies will be also made available for those who are willing to distribute at their place of businesses and at craft and trade shows.

We are again seeking additional local artists, artisans, designers, musicians, galleries, studios and culture related business who want to be included or to advertise.  With such a broad reach, our digest is a very affordable way to show your support for our local arts community and at the same time promote your business.

Inclusion is free for HCAC members and $20 for non-members. Each listing includes your name, address, phone/email and website address. 

Also included is a space for a 40 word write-up to describe your artistic practice or business. The Hants County Arts Council is open to all and is not exclusive to artists residing in Hants County. 

If you know of someone who you think would benefit by becoming a member then please feel free to forward this information. Membership forms and details on the perks of being a member are available on our website hantscountyartscouncil.ca

Each member may include a l.75” x 1” full color logo or photograph of their work for an additional $15!

If you have an event planned for 2013 that you would like included in the Calendar of Events please send along all relevant information and we will include it at no extra cost. This is a great opportunity to help spread the word about your event, performance or festival.

You may also choose to increase your visibility by purchasing an advertisement. Please contact us for rates.

We are also putting a call out to artists for images to be included on the cover of the digest. If you are interested in having your work seen by 15,000 people, then please send two or three high-resolution photographs of your work to us for consideration at hcacartsdigest@gmail.com

Please mail any payments to Hants County Arts Council Box 905 Winsdor, NS, B0N 2T0 

Up to date contact information, biographies and any artwork, ads or event listings may be emailed to hcacartsdigest@gmail.com  

Deadline for inclusion is Monday February 11th.

Thank you,

Hants County Arts Council Board of Directors

Welcome Winter!

 As we welcome in winter, the HCAC looks back fondly on the year that has just passed. 

The fall is always busy time for us here at the HCAC as we put together our biggest group show of the year, the Harvest Festival of Art. This past October 14th-16th we once again took over the Vaughan Shand Centre in Windsor for a weekend of art appreciation. 

 

Dr Avery Vaughan receiving his "Hall of Fame" award

Twenty of our members displayed over 150 unique art pieces and we were pleased that several members were able to provide artist demonstrations throughout the event. 

This year's event was very well attended thanks to the crowds from the Pumpkin Festival and sales were at an all time high, leaving everyone who participated eagerly anticipating next years event!
 

Even though today is just the first day of winter we are already looking ahead to the spring and our next group show. This will be a more intimate affair, taking place at the Bread Gallery in Brooklyn next March. 

If you are a member who has yet to participate in a group show, but would like to, then please contact us and reserve your space. There is limited space for this particular showcase so I encourage you to act quickly to ensure inclusion.
Another big project that will be taking up our time over the next few months is the publication of our 2013 Arts Digest. Inclusion in the digest is free for all members and includes a 40 word biography. With 15 000 copies printed, 14 000 of which are delivered directly to homes in Hants County, the Arts Digests has proven itself to be a very valuable promotional tool. 

Additional advertising space is also available at very a reasonable price allowing you to increase the visibility of your work and show your support of the arts and culture of our local community. Look for full details on our next edition of the Arts Digest coming this January.

 

With the holidays now here, we at the HCAC wish you all a lovely season filled with warmth, comfort and good cheer and we look forward to your continuing support in 2013!

HCAC Fall Newsletter

Since fall is now upon us it seems like the perfect time to reflect on some of the happenings over the past year and look ahead to what is next for the HCAC.

We kicked off the year by delivering our revamped Arts Digest directly to 17 000 homes in Hants County. Expanding the distribution of our arts digest proved to be a risk well worth taking and we quickly saw the results through our continually growing membership and increased community support.

Last spring we were approached by Joan Mckenzie of the Bread Gallery in Brooklyn, and this past March we hosted our first of hopefully many annual spring group shows. Joan truly appreciates the creative talent that resides here in Hants County and we are looking forward to working with her as we continue to promote and support our local artists.

In June we participated in the first annual Avondale Art Fair which drew an incredibly large crowd to the normally quiet historic seaside hamlet. Our board of directors were very impressed with the organization put into the event by Kathy Munroe and we look forward to taking part again next year!

Over the summer we have been busy planning our own annual arts festival which we have rescheduled to coincide with the annual Pumpkin Festival. Now in it’s 6th year the Harvest Festival of Art opens with a reception running from 7-9pm this Friday, October the 12th at the Vaughan Shand Centre in Windsor .

Taking over both the upper and lower floor of the centre, there will be approximately 150 original pieces on display. Throughout the weekend several artists will be on hand providing demonstrations in oils, acrylics, pastels as well as rug hooking and felt work.

We will even have a little something special for the kids on Sunday in the form of face painting and balloon animals!

We are still accepting nominations for this year's Hall of Fame
recipient. We ask that you all take a few minutes to fill out our
brief survey and nominate one person who stands out as a
representative of our local arts community by either their work as an
artist or their commitment to the growth and support of our local arts
and culture http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/B2SNKLB

We are really happy to be back at the Vaughan Shand Centre again this year and we are overwhelmed by the support we have received from local businesses to help make the event truly special. We send a huge thank you to Tan Coffee, The Spitfire Arms Pub, Blossom Shop, Daniels Flower Shop, The Bread Gallery, Flying Cloud Boutique, Sobeys, Gaspereau Winery, What’s Going On and Platypus Medical Exercise Therapy for all of their generous donations.

 

I’m sure this years event is going to be one to remember!

Even though fall has only just begun we are already looking towards 2013 and the continual growth of the HCAC. Recently our president Tacha Reed met with Susan Jeffries and Meghan Hallet from the Department of Communities, Culture and Heritage to discuss future plans for the HCAC and the other arts councils and associations across the province. They are very interested in providing as much support as possible to help us in taking that next step towards becoming an even stronger support system that truly represents the creative community here in Hants County. Over the next few months they plan to develop a series of workshops aimed towards our particular needs so that over time we will be able to see all of our dreams for the HCAC come through to fruition.

For the HCAC our year started with the publication of our most recent Arts Digest and it will end with the production of the next edition! We are now actively looking for support from members and advertisers alike to help make this a reality. With such a large distribution our arts digest is a very affordable form of advertising that boldly states your dedication to strengthening our local arts community. Your ongoing support continually propels us forward, and for that we are thankful!

We look forward to seeing you all this Friday evening as we celebrate our fellow artists.

Call to Artists: Harvest Festival of Art

We are thrilled to announce that this year's Harvest Festival of Art will once again be held in the upper level of the Vaughan Shand Centre, 69 Cedar Street in Windsor, Nova Scotia.

Last year we fell in love with the space with it’s high ceilings, natural light and weathered brick walls and wooden beams. Together these elements proved to be the perfect compliment to the work of our 20 presenting artists, creating a comfortable and  authentic gallery experience for all of  those in attendance.

This year’s event is our first to coincide with the Pumpkin Festival and in particular the Pumpkin Regatta. We are confident that by paring our event with this popular festival our attendance numbers are sure to reach an all time high.

With this in mind our Harvest Festival of Art committee is working diligently to ensure that as many local artistic genres as possible are represented including painters, sculptors, print makers, photographers, carvers, weavers, hookers and other various crafters, musicians and performers. 
   


Artist Jaki Durocher providing a
demonstration at last year's event

In an attempt to grow the festival we are inviting members to provide demonstrations, performances and/or workshops throughout the weekend portion of the event. In return, you will have your entry fee for the show refunded(*). Please contact Tacha (tacha.reed@gmail.com) if you have a particular idea and are interested in sharing and promoting your talents. We currently have 12 three-hour spots available; three each on Saturday morning, Saturday afternoon, Sunday morning and Sunday afternoon.

We are also looking for volunteers to be on hand throughout the weekend to greet patrons and answer general questions.

Exhibiting artists must be members of the HCAC; memberships may be purchased at the time of entry at a cost of $15.00.

The entry fee is $45.00, payable to the Hants County Arts Council and each participating member may show up to 8 pieces. If you would like to display more pieces (or less) you can do so at $10 per piece.  For example, if you would like to show 12 pieces the cost would be $95, if you just wanted to show 2 pieces the cost would be $20.

Since this is a fundraising event for the Hants County Arts Council a commission of 25% will be deducted from the retail price of the works for sale - please keep this in mind when pricing your work.

If you have any questions our would like to volunteer your time please contact us at hcacfestivalofart@gmail.com

We look forward to having your support as we celebrate our local creative talents!

　
Artist registration and drop-off is Thursday October 11th from 4pm-7pm

Show opens Friday October 12th at 7pm and runs Saturday & Sunday from 10am - 5pm

Artist pick-up is Sunday October 14th from 5pm-7pm

Deadline for entry is September 1st  2012.

* the fine print: entry fees are to be paid in advance. Fee for artists volunteering their time to provide demonstrations, performances and/or workshops to be refunded at the rate of $45 per 3 hour demonstration, performance and/or workshop completed.

$15 membership fee is non-refundable and must be paid in advance of the festival.

Save the date!

Greeting fellow artists and members of the HCAC!

There are many wonderful art related events happening over the next few months and we wanted to make sure that you were all aware.


First on our list is the Avondale Art Fair held on June 16th in Newport Landing. As you all know the HCAC will have a booth at this event and will be displaying a limited amount of work from our members.


If any one would like to have their business cards or any other promotional material on display during the event, then please drop off said material by Friday June 15th to Tacha Reed at Flying Cloud Boutique, 6075 Highway #1 in Ellershouse.



For more info on the Avondale Art Fair please visit: www.avondaleartfair.com








The Method in Selma

The next item of interest on our list is a Fine Art and Craft Workshop led by the department of Communities, Culture and Heritage, scheduled for June 28. The location is ‘The Method’ which is a repurposed church that is now offered to the community as a space to host and hold events. The address is: 8096 Hwy 215, Selma Nova Scotia.





Overall the workshop will present on program development and resources and product trends and areas of market development for producers in the region.

Is has been suggested for participants to bring samples of their work, portfolios, packaging, promotional materials, price lists, etc. for a table top trade show. That way, during the break, and lunch, presenters can take a look and give suggestions and specific answers to questions.

There will be 5 presenters:

Bernard Burton
Executive Director, Craft Alliance
President, Nova Scotia Designer Crafts Council

Susan Hanrahan
Executive Director, Nova Scotia Designer Crafts Council

Peter Kirby
NS Communities, Culture, & Heritage

Karen Williams
NS Communities, Culture and Heritage

Jennifer Dunbar
Nova Scotia Business Inc

There will be refreshments and lunch provided. The registration fee for this workshop is $15 which can be paid during registration in the morning.

If you have any other questions please don’t hesitate to contact  Katherine Wadden at the Hants RDA: kwadden@hantscounty.com

Anyone interested in carpooling can contact Tacha at tacha.reed@gmail.com





The next item on our list is a workshop and demonstration by Andrea Warren of Golden Paints being held July 14th at Flying Cloud Boutique from 12-2pm.

Andrea Warren is a painter and mixed media artist based out of Ottawa, Ontario, and is a Working Artist for Golden Artist Colors, a professional quality acrylic paint company based out of New Berlin, New York.    She has shown her work in BC's lower mainland and the nation's capital, and has given lectures and hands-on workshops on acrylic materials and technique for university and college art programs and art associations across Central and Eastern Canada. She is also an instructor with Artswell, an Ottawa-based charity which provides community therapeutic art programs. Andrea studied visual art and philosophy at Trinity Western University in Langley, British Columbia, and trained with Golden Artist Colors Greenville, South Carolina and upstate New York.  Andrea lives in Ottawa with her husband Andy, a fellow painter, and their chubby kitty Howard.  



Calooh Callay
by Andrea Warren

The Golden lecture demo is a free, information-packed two hour presentation that gives an overview of Golden products and acrylics in general - we  will be looking at the different kinds of paint, pigments, gels and mediums, pastes, varnishing, the new OPEN acrylics and Digital Mixed Media line, etc.  

Andrea will hand around wet and dry samples, and each attendee goes home with a product literature pack and a little goodie bag of samples. 

A sandwich lunch will be provided by the HCAC. Please contact Tacha ahead of time to reserve a space tacha.reed@gmail.com








We hope to see you all out enjoying all of these wonderful events this summer!

Until then, happy creating!







Bread Gallery May & June Exhibit: Opening Friday May 18th

The most recent show at the Bread Gallery celebrates it's opening this Friday from 6-8 pm.


Running until June 24th, this show features work by a few members of Lushes with Brushes; including paintings by Pauline Sullivan, June Brown and Audrey Goucher Millet.


Also on display, the whimsical folk art carvings of Jim Tracey.

A Look Back at the 14th Annual Great Little Art Show

On Friday April 27th the Avon River Heritage Museum played host to the 14th Annual Great Little Art Show.  24 local artist's work was on display for this annual fundraiser. Here is a selection of images from opening night.

Patrons admiring a painting by Kelly Mitchelmore

Sculptures by Alison MacNeil

Sculpture by Carmen Dalrymple

Chief by Jim Tracey

Various works by Mira MacNeil, June Brown, Tacha Reed and Linda Barkhouse

Metal work by Al Simm

Pottery by Elspeth MacKenzie

Rug hooking by Rose Marie MacDonald

Various works by Greg Dickie

Boat Builders by Jim Tracey