NEW VISIONS/OLD LAND: ON HOSPITALITY

Artists: Brad Brackenridge, Nick Ferrio, Rodney Fuentes, Mayelin Lovet, Kelly O’Neill, and Alice Williams

Curator: Leslie Menagh

Facilitator: Hilary Wear

The Electric City Culture Council is proud to present the Downtown Artists in Residence Project: On Hospitality. Six local artists have been selected to take part in the residency and have been invited to contemplate the theme of hospitality. A cross-cultural value, hospitality can be expressed, understood, and interpreted in diverse ways. The Indigenous, settler, and newcomer artists taking part will share their unique perspectives on the subject as well as their diverse artistic practices. An exhibition, performance works, and public engagement activities, created in response to these collective investigations will be delivered throughout Artsweek 2018. Featuring Brad Brackenridge, Kelly O’Neill, Nick Ferrio, Rodney Fuentes, Mayelin Lovet, and Alice Williams, the residency aims to give space and time to meaningful collaboration, community gatherings, and multidisciplinary expression.

 

The following film was created by Rodney Fuentes for New Visions / Old Land: On Hospitality

Artist Biographies

Brad Brackenridge

Brad Brackenridge has been a performer and designer in theatre and film for over 25 years, and is the creator of The Nervous System, a puppet-based theatre company responsible for creating and producing an enormous roster of theatre and participatory installation works for festival and theatre goers in Peterborough and beyond. An accomplished puppeteer and puppet-maker, and has studied with the Old Trout Puppet Company and with Puppetmongers Powell, taking courses in marionettes, and the construction and manipulation of jointed puppets. He has captivated audiences as an actor as well, appearing in both film and theatre, and was recently awarded Outstanding Mid-Career Artist by the Peterborough Arts Awards, 2018.

 

Nick Ferrio

Nick Ferrio is a prolific singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and producer. He can usually be found on the road performing with his band or on stage alongside Leanne Betasamosake Simpson. When not on tour, he’s in the studio, making recordings like Introducing His Feelings (2012), Half The Time (2013), Amongst the Coyotes and Birdsongs (2015), Soothsayer (2017), or Have a Nice Day (2018). Wherever you find him, you will find an open and dynamic songwriter, producer, and musician, breathing in the world around him and singingit back out again.

 

Rodney Fuentes

Rodney Fuentes is a nature explorer and enthusiast at heart, but also a filmmaker, photographer, musician, and story-teller. As a bird-watching tour guide in a previous phase of his life, Rodney travelled across Venezuela and he eventually migrated to Canada where he continued to explore the outdoors through canoeing, cycling, skiing, and hiking. Rodney’s outdoor explorations evolved when he started documenting his experiences through a DSLR camera. Today he attributes his story-telling and musical abilities to the many years of experience with travel, nature interpretation, musical collaboration, and cultural exchange.

 

 

Mayelin Lovet

Mayelin Lovet graduated from the National School of Sance in Havana, Cuba with the bachelor’s degree in Modern Dance and Folklore. Upon graduation she joined the Folklorico Nacional de Cuba in Havana for 7 years, dancing in most of the repertoire of the company. She has been teaching in Peterborough for 12 years, performing regularly on stages at Trent University including Red Woman Falls to the Earth, Spirits Beings and Life Forces, Orange, and Midewabo. Mayelin also performed at Emergency 20, Moving Cultures for Public Energy. She has been teaching for the community at Fleming College, Saint Peter’s Secondary School, the YMCA, Mapleridge Recreational Centre, Lakefield College, Studio 505, and for Canada Day festivities.

 

Kelly O’Neill

Upon completion of an Honors BA in Philosophy and English Literature at Trent University, Kelly O’Neill worked as a social worker before having a family and staying home to raise her 4 children. Having an art practice throughout her life that often came second to other responsibilities, Kelly returned to school full-time 4 years ago and has recently completed her BFA in the Sculpture and Installation Program at OCAD University.

 

Alice Williams

Alice Olsen Williams is a renowned textile artist, blending expressions of Anishinaabe beliefs and ideology with reflections on contemporary social issues. She completed her BA at Trent University, and with her discovery of the quilting process in 1980, went on to formulate the concepts that has become the basis for her distinctive style, and to master the traditional skills and beadwork techniques seen in her meticulous hand-quilted designs.

She has worked with community quilters to assemble the “Where Are the Children? Healing from the Legacy of Residential Schools” quilt made in Red Lake, Ontario, and the “Sisters in Spirit Quilt” for the Native Women’s Association of Canada.  Alice recently completed a project with the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, coordinating the construction of four quilted wall-hangings to acknowledge and recognize the pain and suffering inflicted on indigenous peoples by the residential school system. Her interest in exploring the capacity for healing in cultural work led her to co-creation of “Healthy Land, Healthy People” for the Assembly of First Nations at the November 2005 gathering of the First Ministers’ Meeting in Kelowna, B.C.  

Alice’s works have been exhibited at the National Museum of the American Indian (Smithsonian), Michigan State University, Thunder Bay Art Gallery, Wanuskewin Heritage Park, Art Gallery of Peterborough, and many other museums and art galleries. She is also well-versed in indigenous knowledge (IK) and shares her wisdom with others through workshops and presentations. She was the Trent University artist in residence in 2007 and was recently the Visiting Elder for the SAGE Indigenous Graduate Students Conference at UBC.

 

Leslie Menagh

Leslie is Curator and Coordinator of the Downtown Artists in Residence program, and is an interdisciplinary artist, craftsperson, occasional contributor to Fusion Magazine, dreamer and entrepreneur. She holds a BFA from NSCAD University, and brings many years of experience as an organizer and community-builder in the arts and cultural sectors. Her entrepreneurial spirit has moved her to build Madderhouse Textile Studios where she plans to offer workshops in surface design techniques for textiles, support the growth of the New Canadian Centre’s Sewing Collective, and carry on an art practice of her own. Leslie is also co-creator of the wildly successful Finer Things Show and Sale.