grunt gallery is preparing for the opening reception of Mounira Al Solh’s exhibition, “The Sea Is A Stereo” on Thursday October 11th, 2012. Due to travel complications, the artist will not be in attendance for the opening. Her work will be shown in the front main space of the gallery and in the gruntKitchen Media Lab. To read more about her exhibition, please check out our post under “Programming”. A number of our new and existing board members will be in attendance,  we look forward to seeing you there!

This weekend, grunt will be at the Institutions By Artists (IBA) conference happening from Oct 12-14th at Simon Fraser University’s downtown campus. The conference is entirely sold out; however, if you were unable to obtain tickets there is another viable option for your participation… The ARC website will be live-streaming the event, you can view it here: http://arcpost.ca/conference. The live-stream service is free and provides an option for those watching remotely to communicate via a live-chat option. Or, get yourself on twitter and utilize the hash-tag #IBA2012 so you can share your carefully constructed, 140-character length ideas with other locally and interntionally-based artist-run centres, organization and artists.

On Friday October 12th at 2:00-4:30 pm, IBA has an afternoon session titled, “Intimate Institutions”. grunt gallery’s Program Director, Glenn Alteen, and the chair of grunt’s Board of Directors, Laiwan, will be involved in this session as moderator and panel participant. Whether you’re at the conference or watching the live-stream we hope you have a chance to check it out.

Learn more about this session by downloading the IBA program HERE.

(cross-posted from the PuSh Festival blog)

How do you identify? What makes you passionate about who you are?
How do express your identity? Asexual, Anarchist, Atheist?
Do you want to talk about it?
Put your book in our library and share your story! 

As part of the 2013 PuSh International Performing Arts Festival in partnership withgrunt gallery, Vancouver will be hosting a Human Library. We are currently looking for people who self-identify as being parts of communities that are often met with prejudice, misunderstanding, stereotype or hatred.

The Human Library is an international phenomenon, having appeared in sixty-five countries over the past twelve years. Originating in Denmark, the project was introduced to fight hate in communities through an innovative method designed to promote dialogue, reduce prejudices and encourage understanding. The Library enables groups to break stereotypes by challenging the most common prejudices in a positive/humorous manner.

Our Human Library project allows audience members to “check out” a human book for 20 minutes for an informal one-on-one conversation. This gives the human books a platform to tell their story and converse with a single audience member at a time.

Where: Vancouver Public Library Central Branch
When: 12 pm-4 pm, January 18-20, January 25-27, February 1-3 
Minimum requirement: one day/weekend

Additionally, the Human Library Curator will be hosting 2 workshops leading up to the festival to help prepare the books for the experience and help them all shape their stories.

In total, being a Human Book represents a 20-hour time commitment. It is important to note that as part of the stipulations of the Human Library Organization this is avolunteer opportunity.

Interested?
– Send us your Human Library title(s).
– Share with us what kinds of stories, challenges, anecdotes and/or stereotypes you might interface with as your Human Library title.
– Can you engage an audience member in a 20-minute conversation?
– What makes you passionate about this project and about who you are and what title you may represent?

Applicants must be available for the 20-hour time commitment including workshops. Please send your materials to Human Library Curator Dave Deveau:davedeveau@gmail.com.
Deadline for applications is October 27, 2012 

Please be advised that the Annual General Meeting of the Visible Art Society (dba grunt gallery) will be held on Sunday, September 30, 2012 at 5:00pm to 7:00pm at grunt gallery.

Members will be meeting for the following purposes:

1. To receive the 2012 Audited Financial Statements
2. To review the Annual Report
3. Existing Members may pay their membership dues at the AGM.

All members of the Visible Art Society are invited to attend. Only those members with paid membership dues will be eligible to vote. Thinking of becoming a member prior to the AGM? To vote at the AGM you must become a member by Friday, September 21st.

Not a member but interested in attending?

Non-members are welcome to attend the AGM to gain a better understanding of the society, although they may not participate in the business of the meeting (such as, voting). We are always looking to increase our membership and involvement of interested community members who wish to become a part of the Visible Art Society (dba grunt gallery). If you are interested in signing up to become a member at the AGM please note that your membership will be processed so that you will receive voting privileges for the 2013 AGM.

Food and drinks will be provided. We look forward to you joining us!

Sunday, September 30, 2012 @ 5:00pm.
#116 – 350 East 2nd Avenue, Vancouver, BC, V5T 4R8

Read the Annual Report here:
 

Vancouver’s grunt gallery is marking the end of its year-long “Activating the Archive” project with the launch of six educational guides for secondary school instructors and students, centered around projects initiated or supported by the artist-run centre since its establishment in 1984.

Each educational guide provides a lesson plan for one of the following senior-level courses: BC First Nations, Communications, English, English First Peoples, Media Arts, and Studio Arts. The lesson plans offer instructors guidelines by which to introduce students to a variety of topics, including colonialism, stereotypes, social responsibility, national languages, and local activist, artistic, and new media practices. Provided resources include texts (articles, essays, and short stories), images, worksheets, essay and discussion questions, and outlines for group activities. The guides are available for download for free in PDF format:

Activating the Archive Study Guides
1. BC First Nations 12
2. Communications 11 & 12
3. English 12
4. English First Peoples 12
5. Media Arts 11 & 12
6. Visual Arts 11 & 12
 

Grunt’s educational guides combine the BC Ministry of Education curriculum with content from grunt’s archive that was recently made available to the public as a result of the “Activating the Archive” project. “Activating the Archive” resulted in a searchable online database and six curated websites that focus respectively on text-based artworks; sculpture; queer performance practices; socially-engaged art practices; the work of Cree/French Métis artist Ahasiw Maskegon-Iskwew; and “INDIANacts: Aboriginal Performance Art,” a conference presented by grunt gallery in 2002.

THE CONVENTION

October 12 – 14, 2012
Goldcorp Centre for the Arts
Simon Fraser University
Vancouver, Canada

Institutions by Artists is a three day, international event that evaluates and activates the performance and promise of contemporary artist-run centres and initiatives.

http://arcpost.ca/conference