Phone: [905] 641-1983
Fax: [905] 684-6016
A Mano Libera
Gallery Address
150 Ontario St
St. Catharines On
L2R 5K5

Mailing Address
A Mano Libera c/o
201-20 Corporate Park Dr
St. Catharines ON
L2S 3W2

Nicole Arnt is an emerging photographer and visual artist. She aims not only to see and capture the beauty that is in everyone and everything, but to see beyond this and capture the underlying story and emotions. Not wishing to be limited to still images, she experiments with incorporating video clips and voiceovers into her work where appropriate. Nicole is convinced that everyone has a story to tell. Her role, she believes, is to enable people to make their stories known. That’s why she is putting together media workshops for children, to offer them the tools to give their stories and ideas a voice in today’s media environment.

Nicole Arnt is based in St Catharines, Ontario.

Art Under Glass is ready for 2007. We have just joined the St.
Catharines & Area Arts Council. With two strong locations ready, we anticipate lots of exposure for artists in our community in a way that is easy, accessible, and we believe, truly unique.

Art Under Glass works as a gallery for artists who would like to see their work out in the public field of view. Rather than hang pictures on a wall once a month and fix the holes every time, founder Laurie Boese realized how simple it would be to place drawings and photos and watercolours “under the glass” tabletops in various cafes in town. The artist would be freed from the expenses of framing the work for a show, and the cafe owners would benefit from the new traffic generated by visitors coming to see the art. In Toronto many restaurants are booked for months and years with artists willing to put their work where people will go to see it. Maybe they’ll be catching up to our innovations once they catch a whiff.

The project started 2 years ago when Kelly Gillard asked Laurie to see if he could arrange artists to show their work at the Strega Cafe and Market on King Street. Laurie had no interest in damaging the murals on the walls, nor in re-mixing various colours of paint to cover the holes in the murals every time an artist moved their work.
Having coffee one day, he noticed a menu tucked under the glass table top and the concept was born.

A call went out for a group show. At least 2 artists requested a month for a solo show and the journey began. Several artists have been welcomed back, and have been very happy with both sales and publicity. The Brock Press, The Pelham News and the Niagara Pulse have been very helpful in alerting the community about the shows.

For more information, please contact:

Laurie Boese
Artist Extraordinaire
www.niagara.com/~elbows
elbows@niagara.com
artistsagainstacronyms@hotmail.com
h 905 641 0451
c 905 246 2787

Colour and paper are June-Etta Chenard’s art and healing practice. She teaches in Toronto, the Niagara area, and at Quaker gatherings. In 2004 she received an FWCC Elizabeth Ann Bogert Memorial Fund grant for art. Her work is exhibited internationally, including at the University of Wisconsin “Women in the Middle: Borders, Barriers, Intersections” exhibit (2004; and a sell-out solo exhibit at Pendle Hill.

Collard Creations

CRAM is St. Catharines’ newest, smallest and hottest contemporary art gallery and artist collective. CRAM is the brain child of Tobey C. Anderson, the collective’s self-proclaimed “benevolent dictator”, a former NAC Director, Inaugural Chair of the St. Catharines Culture Committee, and recipient of the Mayor’s Trillium Award for Artistic Excellence in 2005.

All of the artists who form the interdisciplinary group have a strong connection to St. Catharines and the Niagara Artists’ Company, including NAC Founding Members John B. Boyle, NAC’s first President, Alice Crawley, John Moffat, and Sandy Fairbairn. Dennis Tourbin, one of St. Catharines most prominent contemporary artists nationally, died in 1998 and he participates in the CRAM group through the active involvement of his wife Nadia Laham. Virtually all CRAM artists have a history with NAC, having served on the boards of directors and/or exhibiting and performing in the various spaces NAC has occupied in The Garden City since its inception in 1969 and including the present generation of artists.

CRAM can be accurately described as a “hybrid” gallery in the contemporary art world. Not not-for-profit, not publicly funded, and not a traditional commercial gallery, CRAM is a collective of artists presenting their work to encourage community investment in contemporary art in general and local artists in particular. It is our belief that when artists take control over their own destinies and business concerns, as well as engage the community through their studios and art practices, that their work becomes more understandable and accessible to the public.

Do you own a nice sofa – one that will last for a few years? Most folks understand the value of their home, furnishings, clothing, and vehicles, and they tend to make wise investments. CRAM encourages a similar investment in local, contemporary art and offers access to established and emerging artists from St. Catharines and Region and affordable purchase plans that offer studio discount prices to CRAM sponsors and subscribers.