City of Guelph Artists In Residence Grand Finale
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
GUELPH, ON, OCTOBER 6, 2023:
Artists selected to create engaging community art experiences as part of the City of Guelph’s Artist in Residence program are set for their grand finales.
Jude Akrey assembled local 2SLGBTQ2IA+ artists for a series of arts-based skills workshops to bring community together and celebrate the multiplicity of queer arts practices. Inspired by these gatherings, Akrey created a body of work reflecting and memorializing the impact of these events. From One Queer to Another will conclude with an exhibition of Akrey’s work and an artist talk at Guelph Civic Museum, Friday, October 6 from 5 to 9 pm.
For Miki Tamblyn’s Animal Forms, community members participated in facilitated “sit-spot” sessions, interacting with hand-made animal masks, and documenting their reflections through journaling and photography. The final gathering of this project is set for Saturday, October 14 from 1 to 3 pm at The Guelph Outdoor School. Tamblyn will deliver an artist talk about the process of mask-making, share gratitude around a fire, and provide an opportunity for all to ponder and express their connection to land and to other-than-human relations. Masks, photographs, and journals will be displayed.
James Gordon captured Guelph stories from local seniors of diverse backgrounds through facilitated workshops, which inspired 12 new songs rooted in the Guelph experience. The culminating performance of Rhyme Capsules: Guelph’s Tale told in Story and Song is set for Saturday, October 14 at 2 pm at River Run Centre.
These culminating presentations are presented as part of the So Guelph! Culture Days Festival.
For more information visit www.guelph.ca/artistinresidence
About the artists
Miki Tamblyn is a practicing artist and educator in Guelph who graduated from the University of Guelph’s Wildlife Biology and Conservation program, leading her to work far and wide with animals. Tamblyn uses her hands to create stories and to better understand her place in the world. Through this process she has become a printmaker, basket weaver, hide-tanner, costume designer, and community space-maker. She is constantly collaborating with nature and artists that inspire her. She loves working with children and teaching art lessons privately alongside her vocation as an outdoor schoolteacher.
James Gordon has had a remarkably diverse and resilient career in the Canadian cultural sector. As a solo singer-songwriter and a member of the ground-breaking trio Tamarack, he has recorded 40 albums and toured relentlessly around the world. He has written for symphony orchestras, musical theatre, dance works, and scored films. For more than ten years he was heard on CBC radio as songwriter-in-residence for the ’Basic Black’ and ‘Ontario Morning’ programs. Between tours, Gordon is a record producer, playwright, community activist, and theatre director.
Jude Akrey is an artist living and practicing on the Between the Lakes Treaty Territory No.3, whose work is entrenched in the ongoing exploration and perpetual re-definition of queer identity as something that is inherently transitory and ambiguous. This fluid, complex, illuminating identity informs their painting practice, allowing them to consider the complementary efficacies of personal narratives and shared aesthetic languages. Their colourful, graphic paintings on wood negotiate the beauty and excitement of living queerly, layered in the ongoing displacement and recalibration they face navigating the world as a trans person. They are dedicated to investigating the power of empowered queer communities through shared experience and artmaking. Jude recently graduated from the University of Guelph with a BA in Studio Art.
About the Artist in Residence program
The Artist in Residence program is offered by the City of Guelph to broaden the community’s experience of the arts. The annual program invites artists to engage with the public and showcase their creative practices while enlivening public spaces. The program is aligned with the vision of Guelph’s Community Plan by fostering innovation through creativity and curiosity. Through art, Guelph embraces the beauty of collaboration and expression.
For more information
Tammy Adkin, Manager, Museums and Culture
Culture and Recreation
City of Guelph
519-826-1221 extension 2775
