On Friday night ARCCO, in partnership with The Pearl Company, will be offering a tour of Hamilton & area’s art scene with an Art Bus Tour, featuring some of Hamilton’s diverse galleries & arts centres.

The tour will begin at The Pearl Company, an arts and performance facility in the heart of the Landsdale neighbourhood of downtown Hamilton. Following this, the Art Bus will head to Dundas to Carnegie Gallery, currently featuring Escarpment, by textile artist Lorraine Roy and From the Inside Out - Ceramics by Jeff Christie. Traveling back into Hamilton, the Art Bus will visit Transit Gallery featuring Recent Paintings and Monoprints by Don Jean-Louis, then to You Me Gallery and Show & Tell Gallery, galleries owned by founding members of artist-run centres.

Finally, the bus will take us to James street to visit The Print Studio: Hamilton Printmakers Arts Association, view their facilities and see Warriors and Other Works; lithography, photography and woodcuts by Shelley Niro. We’ll then walk to The Factory.

Following the Art Bus Tour, ARCCO Members are invited to The Factory for a catered reception sponsored by The Factory and Ontario Arts Council. The main gallery will feature Les Poupées Russes (Russian Dolls), installation by Jenn E. Norton.

Jenn E. Norton is an artist working with video, installation, sound and kinetic sculpture producing performative, humorous, critically engaged work. Les Poupées Russes is a two channel video installation that utilises a mise en abyme structure. On opposing sides of the gallery space are video projections of a film set. One side is the image of the subject from the point of view of the camera; the other projection is the equipment used on film set.

This installation was premiered at the Factory for one night only in March 2009 and received rave responses. The Factory is happy to bring it back specifically for the ARCCO AGM with same curator Nora Hutchinson.

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Meeting with the Funders Forum, ARCCO AGM & Members’ Forum

Saturday, April 18, 9:30 am – 3:00 pm
The Factory, 126 James Street North, Hamilton, (905) 577-9191

Meeting with the Funders:
ARCCO has invited funders from both federal and provincial agencies to participate in a morning of dialogue with our members from across the province. We are pleased to have visual and media arts representatives from The Canada Council for the Arts, and the Ontario Arts Council. This important forum enables funders to present new program initiatives and program criteria, to review their mandates with the membership and provide direct feedback to members' questions. This session also provides a unique opportunity for the membership to address their concerns collectively, and learn about new programs, as well as changes to programs and budgets which affect artist-run centres.

ARCCO AGM:
Following the Funders Forum, ARCCO will have its Annual Generals Meeting, Chaired with President Paul Walty. See the Agenda below.

ARCCO Members’ Forum:
The Members’ Forum is designed for you. Whether you are a new or permanent director, or a board member, this forum is an excellent opportunity to speak with your peers about your concerns, as well as share your successes with your centre. Please join us and come prepared to share openly and candidly with ARCCO and your peers, to speak about what really matters to you!

Saturday, April 18, 2009
Location: The Factory: Hamilton Media Arts Centre, 126 James Street North, Hamilton, Ontario

Chair
Paul Walty, ARCCO President

Agenda
1.0 Welcome and Call to Order (President)
1.1 Approval of the Agenda (President)
1.2 Approval of Minutes from January 20, 2008 (President)
1.3 Treasurer's Report (Treasurer)
1.4 Appointment of the Auditor (Treasurer)
1.5 Election of Directors (President)
1.6 Adjournment

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Report from Nominations Committee
Chair and ARCCO President Paul Walty

The mandate of this year's committee was to acknowledge ARCCO's priorities, and consider the skills and representation required to best fill the vacancies and to build a well-balanced and effective board. We consulted with our full members to determine their interest in serving on the board and came up with our recommendation.

The Nominations Committee presented their recommendations to the board and the following proposal was accepted by the board to present to the membership at the AGM.

Nominated for election at the AGM:
New Board Members
Iga Janik, Artspace, Peterborough
Leanne L’Hirondelle, Gallery 101, Ottawa

Current Board Members, continuing their terms for 2008-2009
Paul Walty, Board President, GNO, Sudbury
Josefa Radman, The Factory, Hamilton
Derek Liddington, Xpace, Toronto
Philip Anderson, Gallery 1313, Toronto

Retiring Board Member
Penny McCann, SAW Video, Ottawa

Saying goodbye at this upcoming AGM will be board member Penny McCann. Director of SAW Video (Ottawa) and member of ARCCO's board since 2005, Penny is stepping down to focus more fully on her media art practice. Penny would like to thank Jewell and the board members over the years for their dedication and commitment to artist-run culture in Ontario!

On behalf of ARCCO, Executive Director, Jewell Goodwyn thanks Penny McCann for her contribution to ARCCO. As a fellow champion of the arts, Penny has brought a wealth of knowledge of the media arts sector, a great sense of history of the evolution of IMAA National, and a deep commitment to artist- run culture! Penny you will be missed -- We wish you abundant success in your media art practice, as well as all future projects and endeavours.

BIOS OF THE CANDIDATES
Iga Janik
Iga Janik is an artist, curator, and Artistic Director of Artspace in Peterborough, Ontario. Iga has been involved with artist-run centres since completing her BFA at Concordia University in 2000. Her administrative roles extend to her position as a member of Arts, Culture and Heritage, and Cultural Planning Committees for the city of Peterborough.

Leanne L’Hirondelle
Leanne L’Hirondelle completed a BFA Honours from the University of Manitoba, her MFA from the University of Saskatchewan and a Post Graduate Certificate in art theory and criticism at The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. She has been the Director/Curator at Gallery 101 since May 2007. Previously, she worked under fellowship, Martin Mullins at the Chicago Field Museum, Department of Anthropology. Prior to this, she was Collections Curator at the Saskatchewan Indian Cultural Centre; Director of Urban Shaman Inc., Artist Run Centre (Winnipeg) and taught at the First Nations University of Canada as well as the University of Saskatchewan.

Saturday afternoon, ARCCO Members are invited to gather at Hamilton Artists Inc. for a talk: Municipal Civic Involvement in Artist-Run Culture by Donna Macdonald, Administrative Director of Hamilton Artists Inc. and to learn more about Hamilton Artists Inc.’ building project, which include renovations that began in the summer of 2008:

The Board of Directors of Hamilton Artists Inc. are pleased to announce that the organization has secured the building at the north west corner of James and Cannon Streets (Jerry's Man Shop) for its future home and location for its Building Project. The building has been purchased and held in trust for the organization by an anonymous Arts Patron who believes strongly in the building's ability to act as a gateway to the arts district of James Street North. Hamilton Artists Inc. looks forward to working with the City of Hamilton, the Ontario Trillium Foundation, The Hamilton Community Foundation, The Threshold School of Building and Canadian Heritage to delivering the full extent of the Building Project. Following the tour, there will be a reception featuring work by Elizabeth Chitty.

Elizabeth Chitty, Installation at Hamilton Artists Inc.

Elizabeth Chitty is an interdisciplinary artist born and residing in St. Catharines, Ontario. Since 1975, she has created performance, video, instillation and photo works. Her performance work has had 4 phases: works influenced by conceptual art and the multidisciplinary climate of the 70s in Canadian artist-run centres (1975-82); epic spectacles with multiple slide projections (1983-90); landscape-based, in which the audiences followed walks and trails (1992-97); and the current phase of voice, movement and visuals. Her single-channel video works were exhibited widely in the late 70s and 80s including the 11e Biennale de Paris (1980), in the opening of the National Gallery of Canada (1988) and in 2006-09 were included in the touring National Gallery of Canada exhibition, Art Metropole: Top 100. Her instillations have been exhibited in Niagara. She has work in the collections of Canada Council Art Bank, National Gallery of Canada, Art Gallery of Hamilton and Musée d’art contemporain.