lowertown

Lowertown Summer Festival: Bringing the community together since 2010

Written

on Thursday, August 26, 2010

Photo courtesy of fieldtripp on Flickr.

Jan-François Grabowiecki is one of those Ottawans that left town to go to school but eventually came back. He’s been living in Lowertown for the last couple of years and has seen the place neighborhood go through some interesting changes. “The area between St. Patrick and St. Andrew’s has been gentrifying - with both good and negative consequences, that’s true - but I really love that many cool businesses have settled here, things with style and culture, and thought we should celebrate our neighborhood.”

And thus, he began a quest to put together the first Lowertown Summer Festival. His goal at first was to organize a street sale that would involve closing down part of Dalhousie St. While the local businesses and the Lowertown Community Association were supportive of the project, bigger businesses in the Market weren’t so keen on the idea of having one of the major arteries blocked off for a day. In addition, the construction on Sussex Drive made the city’s Transportation and Safety Committee cautious about the project and eventually suggested to start with something smaller.

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in Ottawa Tourism, lowertown, meet up, music, personalities and visual art

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Out of Site, Out of Mind asks big questions about Canada’s portraits

Written

saxby

on Monday, June 21, 2010

Photo courtesy of Farfando on Flickr.

We may not have a permanent home for Canada’s national collection of portraits, but we do still have some fans of portraiture in Ottawa. Out of Site, Out of Mind brings together student curators from the University of Ottawa with artists advocating for a permanent home for the Portrait Gallery of Canada for an exhibit intended to get us all thinking about portraits and the place they have in our culture.

The work in Out of Site, Out of Mind comes from the “current” batch of portrait artists in Canada, which organizers argue creates an important bridge to the work in the National Portrait Gallery. “While the PGC holds the material evidence of the people who built this country, Out of Site, Out of Mind bridges the past and future through an exploration of the Canadian portraits being produced in the 21st century” states the project’s press release.

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Time to kick it: Your official Apt613 guide to the World Cup

Written

trevor

on Friday, June 11, 2010

Photo courtesy tcp909

If you’re an Ottawa soccer fan, today probably feels a bit like Christmas. After all, we’re only a few hours away from the kickoff to the 2010 World Cup, that extravaganza of athletic brilliance which arrives once every four years and poses trying questions that only the most stalwart and dedicated among us can answer. Will Italy defend its 2006 title, or shall another nation emerge victorious? Which countries will see their hopes dashed by an injury-time penalty kick or a disastrous own goal? Is a nuclear-endowed North Korea going to hold the world ransom for one miiiillllllllllllion dollars when if they bow out in the first round?

Admittedly, we might not have the necessary amount of dedication (or, um, stalwartness?) to come up with those answers ourselves. But if the question is instead “Where are the best Ottawa locales to catch the games over the next few weeks?”, well that, our corner kick-loving friends, is more up our alley.

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in centretown, glebe, hintonburg, local, lowertown, sandy hill, sport, touch and west wellington

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Calling all photographers! Canteen wants your homeless 4×6 photos

Written

saxby

on Saturday, January 9, 2010

Courtesy of ian murchison on Flickr

Craving the fame that comes from being displayed on the walls of one of Ottawa’s favourite galleries? Looking to turn your flickr habit into cold hard cash (in this case likely coins)? Canteen is offering you the chance to sell your homeless 4×6 photos on February 2nd. They will handle selling the photos for one dollar each and you can drop by, chat, have a drink and watch the coins roll in. They are calling it “Canteen’s spicy winter no-theme photo fiasco.”

Drop your photos off with your name and contact on the back before February 1st. The fun runs from 7-10pm on February 2. More info is online at the Canteen blog. If you’re in our Flickr pool and contributing your stuff, let us know and we’ll keep an eye out for you.

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Bring home your own ugly plush beast

Written

saxby

on Tuesday, January 5, 2010

monster!

Anyone who watched our 100 mile gift guide video from Workshop will likely remember the fun homemade toys that kept popping up. If you didn’t manage to rope a loved one into getting you all the stuffed toy fun you wanted for Christmas - make it your new year resolution to take things into your own hands.

Canteen is offering a plush monster workshop on January 20th from 6-9pm. For only 25 bucks you can make (under close supervision) your very own plush monster. You don’t need to come prepared with any skills, but you should arrive with a vision for your monster or a sketch of how you envision it looking. Register early by calling (613) 216-0083.

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The Apartment613 100 Mile (last-minute) Gift Guide

Written

apartment613

on Monday, December 21, 2009

http://www.vimeo.com/8303602

Apartment613 editors dropped by Workshop on Dalhousie to find out what local crafts and treats they are stocking for the holidays. Any of you still looking for gift ideas would be well-advised to take a look!

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ALCHEMY Tonight at Ottawa School of Art

Written

Ren

on Thursday, June 25, 2009

Art by Kaylen McConnell

Tonight, June 25th, from 7 to 9pm, the Ottawa School of Art will hold a vernissage for their student showcase, ALCHEMY, at the school’s downtown campus. This long-awaited exhibit is not only a visual feast for the spectator, but marks a rite of passage for one awesomely creative group of art students.

ALCHEMY features selected works from OSA’s 2009 graduating class in Fine Arts, including Katie Argyle, Zeynep Ergincan, Myra Dingley, Kaylen McConnell, Géraldine Petit-Gras, Edith Trejo and Shirley Yik. It also showcases fibre art creations by Antonia Reiner, OSA’s very first graduate in Fine Crafts.

The exhibit’s name – a nod to the legendary art of transforming raw materials into gold – is perfect for the unveiling of a new contingent of creativity. Working in a wide variety of media including collage, ceramics, acrylics, fibre, screenprinting and ink, OSA’s graduating artists proudly show off the best of their accomplishments.

ALCHEMY will be on display at OSA’s downtown campus (35 George Street) until July 25th. Can’t get enough? More pieces from this massively talented group will be shown at IPO Gallery starting on July 2nd, and Blink Gallery starting on July 9th.

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Get Caught in Ottawa before February 15th!

Written

margaret

on Monday, February 2, 2009

Photo courtesy of blueberries on Flickr

The interactive exhibit, Caught in the Act, at the National Art Gallery is leaving on February 15th. If you haven’t had a chance to get Caught yet, go check it out before it’s too late. Like a trip to a Science Museum in Wonderland, it encourages viewer participation by reacting to noises you make, asking you to push on doors attached to disco balls, and literally removing the boundaries of traditional art exhibits by having you enter the actual installations. Unlike normal exhibits the security guard here encourages you to touch and get inside exhibits. It’s the perfect place to introduce kids and engineers to art who may not be patient enough for the Bernini special exhibit going on until March 8th.

Visit on Thursday February 5, or 12 after 5pm for free to check out the exhibit and meet the artist, Massimo Guerrera. He’ll be interacting with his installation A Hyphen between the Visible and the Invisible (Darboral). Registration and information: 613-990-1985.

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