The New Gallery has moved to a new gallery. “We had been looking to get out of Art Central for a while” says programming co-ordinator Steven Cottingham. “Finding out that it was going down was the final impetus to get us out of there.”
The gallery found a storefront location in Chinatown and renovated it to serve as a gallery space. Cottingham says it will be nice to be at street level and the space has a large window looking out on Centre Street. “Even though the square footage is less I think we have more usable space” he adds. “It’s nice to be right on the street.”
The first exhibition in the new space is Sam Blanchard’s …this used to be easier… (pictured) which examines the trials and tribulations of daily life for the everyman from getting a haircut to going for a jog.
The New Gallery is a not-for-profit centre for contemporary art. The new location is at 208 Centre Street S.E. and the gallery has a new website to go along with it: thenewgallery.org .
The ’80s will arrive at the Glenbow Museum with a launch party on Saturday September 14 as part of Beakerhead. The newest instalment of a series focusing on the history of art and artists in this city is Made In Calgary: The 1980s and the party promises “an awesome 80s/ Weird Science vibe.” The party will also mark the opening of Transformations — A.Y. Jackson and Otto Dix which you can read more about in this issue. The party is free but you have to RSVP by September 13 ( glenbow.org ).
The 2013-14 theatre season is in full swing. Two new shows opened this week in conjunction with Beakerhead: Theatre Junction is presenting Diespace 3.0 an interactive performance blending art and technology from Amsterdam’s PIPS:lab and Swallow-a-Bicycle Theatre presents a new version of i-Robot Theatre which takes the audience into the future and a world where robots and machines have developed personalities. You can read about both of those shows in our Beakerhead coverage.
When Beakerhead is over Lunchbox Theatre ( lunchboxtheatre.com ) invites you to go shopping. The third show in the popular Shopaholic series by Glenda Stirling who is also the new artistic director at Lunchbox is Shopaholic Wedding Bells which runs from September 16 to October 12. Yes your favourite shopper is getting married and the show brings back original cast members Esther Purves-Smith Karen Johnson-Diamond and Ryan Luhning.
The Calgary Distinguished Writers Program ( calgarywritersprogram.com ) will welcome its new writer-in-residence Newfoundland novelist playwright and poet Sara Tilley and bid farewell to its outgoing resident Deborah Willis at its annual Hello/Goodbye event on September 13 at 7:30 p.m. at the Arrata Opera Centre. The event will also celebrate the programs’s 20th anniversary with the launch of a commemorative publication with a straightforward title Celebrating 20 Years of the Calgary Distinguished Writers Program featuring works by 11 former distinguished visiting writers and writers-in-residence including Art Spiegelman Marcello Di Cintio and Natalee Caple.
