Towards Braiding: Dreaming of Anti-colonial Futures in the Forest City is presented in partnership with Indigenous Initiatives at Western University, Western's Department of Visual Arts and School for Advanced Studies in the Arts & Humanities, and our virtual programs are generously facilitated by Public Humanities at Western.

In partnership with the Forest City Gallery, the Art Now Series is pleased to present an artist talk by Leith Mahkewa, Indigenous Artist-in-Residence in the Department of Visual Arts at Western University.

Master beadwork artist Leith Mahkewa is currently based in Kanien’kehá:ka (Mohawk) Territory of Kahnawake (Quebec), where she lives with her husband and four children. Mahkewa’s roots are through the Oneida Nation of the Thames. She has been creating beadwork for over 16 years. She tends to create pieces mainly in the Iroquois raised beadwork style and is moving towards incorporating more Hopi imagery into her creation to honour her father's family.

As the incoming Indigenous Artist-in-Residence at Western, Mahkewa will talk about her art practice, which often juxtaposes the geometric shapes found in her Hopi family pottery patterns and Haudenosaunee inspired floral designs. The complexity of both cultures and design styles, when combined, create a one-of-a-kind form of beadwork. Her talk will also offer an opportunity to talk about her vision for her tenure as the Artist-in-Residence.

Register to join us online!

Event Facebook page, via Public Humanities at Western

The Art Now Speakers’ Series is free and open to the public. This talk is generously supported by The Faculty of Arts and Humanities, Indigenous Initiatives at Western, and the Public Humanities at Western.

FCG is pleased to announce the donation of a 24” iMac computer to the gallery by Michael Gibson Gallery. Michael Gibson Gallery is a longstanding feature of London’s arts and cultural community, and a promoter of both emerging and established London and national artists. In conversation with the gallery, Michael personally articulated his desire to contribute something that would have a meaningful and immediate impact on both FCG and the local arts community. This donation marks a significant moment of artistic sponsorship that will have a huge impact on our capacity to support local artists in their professional practices. Michael Gibson Gallery’s support of London’s only artist-run centre also constitutes a meaningful new partnership between two longstanding London art spaces. 
 
FCG’s new (green!) iMac will form the basis of our new flex media space. This bookable space will offer a range of analogue and digital tools and technologies to both members and nonmembers for production and documentation. 
 
In the late summer of 2023, FCG carried out an Artists and Art Professionals Survey to gather feedback from our community about the resources and opportunities that would best serve community need. We’ve shared an overview of that feedback in this newsletter (see below) and on our website. When asked how likely they would be to use a flex space at FCG, 70% of respondents reported that this was either very likely or extremely likely. 31% of respondents identify themselves as digitally focused artists, and 45% identify digital tools as being what they use most frequently in their work. 
 
FCG’s iMac will be outfitted with Adobe Suite and a range of open-source software valuable for art and music production, post-production, and documentation. FCG will also be offering a series of accessible workshops geared toward artistic professionalization. The first of these is an upcoming grant-writing workshop with Carolyn Bell Farrell (see below). Stay tuned for a schedule of events and the formal launch of FCG’s flex work space later this fall!
 
On behalf of our community, FCG offers a warm thank you to Michael Gibson and Michael Gibson Gallery’s Associate Director Jennie Kraehling.   

Feeling overwhelmed by the grant-writing process? Can you apply for grants if you're still a student? Should you contact the grants officer before you apply for a grant? How do you create a realistic budget? Can you apply for support for a project already underway? How do you address the shortfall if a funder doesn't meet your full funding request? 

A senior arts professional, Carolyn Bell Farrell has worked in public art galleries, arts service organizations and artist-run centres in Ontario, holding positions of director, curator, program coordinator and education officer. From 2007 to 2020, she was the Executive Director of the MacLaren Art Centre, the regional public art gallery serving Barrie and Simcoe County. While in Barrie, she chaired the city's Public Art Committee and Georgian College’s Fine Arts Advisory Committee. She also taught museum management at Georgian College for seven years. As a curator for both the Koffler Gallery and Oakville Galleries between 1990 and 2007, Carolyn organized over sixty exhibitions of contemporary art, and contributed as many essays for exhibition publications. In late 2021, she relocated to London, Ontario, where is writing a book on senior Canadian artist Tim Whiten to be published by the Art Canada Institute next year.

During this session on grant writing, Carolyn will share the benefits of what she has learned from forty years of experience writing grant applications and sitting on juries. This evening’s session will look at what goes into writing a successful project grant application from an individual or a collective and how applications are reviewed and evaluated, followed by a Q & A on applications in progress.

Do you have specific questions to ask Carolyn as you prepare (or think about preparing) your grant applications? Send them our way in advance of the workshop using this form!