Come join your fellow OCC members, families and friends for a pot-luck dinner and maybe a little raku! Kindly hosted by Colette Beardall at “Green Briar Gate”, her property in Metcalfe. It’ll be a great opportunity to catch up with friends old and new while enjoying the Ottawa region’s fall splendour.
More details to come, watch your inboxes!
Any questions, concerns or if you would like to lend a hand, please contact Caitlin Plewes, cplewes@craft.on.ca, 416-925-4222 x222.
Job Posting
OCC Northern Regional Coordinator
The OCC currently has two (2) part-time 20 hour/wk position openings. Both positions will be 13 month contracts acting as OCC Northern Regional Coordinators. Working collectively, the Northern Regional Coordinators will act as liaisons to Ontario’s vast northern region, reporting directly to the OCC Executive Director for all programming and network development related to the position.
These positions have been made possible through the tremendous support of the Ontario Trillium Foundation, the Henry White Kinnear Foundation and the McLean Foundation, who responded to our initiation of a three-year project, entitled Growing Ontario's Craft Community (GOCC). In 2008, the OCC developed this regional outreach initiative to provide essential professional development programming and networking opportunities to craftspeople that live and work in regions outside of Toronto. The initiative aims to improve the cultural and economic capacity of makers in Ontario’s regional communities. Regional staff will work to improve service delivery, online programming and communications, strengthen networks and partnerships, and develop new markets for craftspeople across Ontario. To find out more about the position download the following pdf document:
Until September 19th, 2010 OCC Gallery, 990 Queen St W.
The OCC still has plenty of books that need to go to good homes...
Come by and take a look - if you see anything you like you can give a donation and it's yours. The books are available at the OCC Gallery on 990 Queen St. W. during our regular office hours.
The 2010 Ontario Crafts Council Annual General Meeting will be held on Wednesday, June 2, 2010 at the Gladstone Hotel (1214 Queen Street West, Toronto). The meeting will start at 4:30 pm with reports from the OCC President, Mark Lewis; the Executive Director, Emma Quin; and Treasurer, Jay Richardson. The election of new Board members will follow, and the presentation of the 2010 Awards & Scholarships, including the Mather Award, will commence immediately after the meeting. As an OCC member, please join us to give your invaluable input, as well as to help celebrate Ontario's talented craftspeople!
If you can not make the AGM in person, please download the following Ballot Proxy form in order to vote on the Board elections and proposed revision to the OCC By-Laws:
John Mather was the founding treasurer of the Crafts Council and, in 1972, was President of the Ontario Crafts Foundation. Prior to the Foundation’s amalgamation with the Canadian Guild of Crafts (Ontario), he foresaw the need for a common voice for crafts in the province and stated, “A single organization acting on behalf of the craftspeople could exert considerable influence”. As president of Indusmin Limited, John Mather established that company’s unique collection of crafts. After his death in 1977, Indusmin honoured John Mather through the establishment of the John Mather Fund, which is administered by the Executive Committee of the Crafts Council.
The designer of the John Mather Medal is Jim Wies. The metal is cast in bronze in high relief. One side incorporates a symbolic hand with the Ontario Crafts Council logo above it. The reverse side has the inscription: “The Ontario Crafts Council awards this medal in appreciation of your contribution to craft in Ontario”. The Mather family commissions the casting of the medals and the presentation piece for the medal designed by Joel Robson. Since 1980, this honour has been awarded for service to crafts over an extended period. The recipient also receives a life membership with the Ontario Crafts Council.
This year, the OCC is honored to recognize one truly outstanding individual for her contribution to the crafts community with this year’s John Mather Award:
Barbara Mather, Emma Quin, Lily Yung
Lily Yung Nominated by *new* gallery
Originally from Hong Kong, Lily Yung now lives and works in Toronto. While completing her Ph. D. in Immunology at the University of Alberta, she also studied printmaking. She began making jewellery in 1986, specializing in non-precious materials, but it wasn’t until 2004, through an Artist in Residence for Research project grant (supported jointly by the Canada Council for the Arts and the National Research Council of Canada), that her exploration into the design and fabrication of objects and jewellery through Computer Aided Design and Computer Aided
Manufacturing (CAD/CAM) began. Her main focus has been the creation of unique and limited edition jewellery using Rapid Prototyping (RP) systems. The aim is to integrate the skills of the craft artist and the technologies of manufacturing to fabricate unique jewellery while maintaining a relatively high level of output.
Beside RP systems, other CAD/CAM technologies utilized in Yung’s designs include die cutting, laser cutting, CNC milled molds for casting and water jet cutting. Her work has been shown nationally and internationally.
Lily Yung is a leading figure and key player in the fine craft, art, and design communities in Toronto and Canada. She ignores borders and boundaries that limit creativity but finds interest and stimulation in all areas of the arts and beyond.
Her involvement in the crafts community has been wide ranging. She held a seat in the Artists Health Centre Steering Committee, was one of the founding members of *new* gallery, was one of two partners in the production of the new vIews Talk Craft lecture series and a contributor to Craft + Ideas + New vIews, volumes I & II.
Yung has also given back to the community through her work in mentoring the next generation of practitioners. Her interaction with emerging designers has included giving workshops and lectures on her own work as well as taking on student interns and assistants. Her high standards, endless energy and quest for perfection set an example for all to emulate.
To learn more about the history of the John Mather Award please click here
Growing Ontario’s Craft Community
We are incredibly proud to be a recipient of an Ontario Trillium Foundation (OTF) grant in the amount of $215,000 for thirty-six months. This grant will fund our Growing Ontario’s Craft Community initiative, designed to enhance our operational capacity by hiring regional staff to improve service delivery, online programming and communications, as well as strengthen networks, partnerships and develop new markets for craftspeople across Ontario’s communities. In addition to the support of the OTF, we have received further supported from the McLean Foundation and the Henry White Kinnear Foundation. By the end of September 2008 we’ll have a full-time employee working in Ontario’s Eastern region for a 13-month contract. This will be followed with a coordinator hired in South-Western Ontario in year two and Northern Ontario in year three. To further support our Eastern regional activities through 2008/09 we’re taking the Goblet Grab to Ottawa. One of the first regional members’ activities will be the delivery of our Building Your Successful Craft Career conference in Ottawa on March 1st. We’re hitting the ground running – and thrilled to be doing so.
The Guild Shop Receives Niche Award
The Guild Shop, was named this year’s Best Guild Store winner by NICHE magazine in the annual Top Retailer Awards program,
which recognizes craft retailers who are committed to fair business practices and to growing and strengthening the North American craft community. The award was presented during a ceremony held on August 3 at the Buyers Market of American Craft in Philadelphia, PA.
Since 1932, The Guild Shop has been the premiere destination in Ontario for high-quality, handmade objects by Canada’s leading craft artists. Proceeds from The Guild Shop’s sales support OCC programs and the careers of individual artists—in 2007 alone The Guild Shop provided $665,000 in revenue for craftspeople across the country. Recently, The Guild Shop underwent a major renovation at its retail location at 118 Cumberland Street in Yorkville that gave the shop a fresh contemporary look and increased its exhibition space.
The Guild Shop is also Toronto’s oldest retail venue specializing in Inuit and Native art, and one of the few authorized dealers of the annual collections of Nunavut’s Pangnirtung and Cape Dorset communities. Currently, the Inuit and Native gallery is featuring a show titled Arnait Sanaugangit: Works by Inuit Women, running from August 7 to September 15, 2008, which features works by female artists in the mediums of carving, weaving, and basketry.
