Festival 2012 Itinerary!

It’s all coming together! We’ve been busy working out all the details, and are overjoyed to report on all of the fabulous and talented people who’ve come together to offer their time, energy, spirit and skill to our first annual festival!

Here’s what we’ve got planned:

Friday June 22^nd  – Panel Discussion & Show It! Exhibit Opening Party
Join us for a panel discussion on “Working in the Field.” Doors open at 6pm & Panel will be from 7-8:30pm.  Stick around afterwards for our Show It! Exhibit opening party to see beautiful handmade art and craft from talented local artisans.  Admission by suggested donation of $5.

Our Panel includes:
Ben Borley
Matt Jenkins
Chantel Mierau
Alison Norberg
Andee Penner

Show It artists include:
Kami Goertz
Matt Jenkins
Chandra Mayor
Susana Meza
Crystal Nykoluk
Nandita Selvanathan
Jolanta Sokalska
Melanie Wesley
Beth Wolchock-Brown

Saturday June 23^rd  – Teach It!
Join us for a day filled with sharking knowledge through workshops and lectures pertaining to craft.  Please email circleandsquare.mb@gmail.com to reserve a spot.  Workshop admission is $30 + $10 for supplies.  Lecture admission by suggested donation of $5.

10am-12pm – Sock Creature Workshop (Shosana Funk)
In this beginner class Shosana will help you create your very own sock creature!  Make a cat, an owl or a creature of your choosing.  All supplies included.

12:15-1:15pm – The History of Knitting in Manitoba Lecture (Jennifer Smith)

1:30-3:30pm – Embroidery 101: From Sampler to Smartass (Chandra Mayor)
In this hands-on beginner embroidery class needleworker Chandra Mayor will teach you the basics of embroidery (stitches and materials) with an emphasis on how to employ embroidery in non-traditional ways.  All supplies included.

3:45-4:45pm – Making Art in South Africa Lecture (PJ Anderson)

5-7pm – Pastie Making Workshop (Liz Garlicki)  ** This workshop has been cancelled due to unforeseen circumstances **
Burlesque performer and handmade artist Liz Garlicki will introduce you to the fun and flirty world of pasties by helping you make your own!  All supplies included.

Sunday June 24^th – Sell It! Handmade Marketplace
Join us from 12-5pm for a craft sale filled with amazing local makers selling their creations and giving demonstrations.

All events will take place at the Atomic Centre (167 Logan Avenue, Winnipeg).

Please stay tuned for profiles on our amazing collaborators.

We Heart Handmade. Do You?

 

 

Yep, that’s right, we love craft and handmade.  We love the act of creating something with our own hands.  We love the inspiration, creativity and skill that handmade artists bring to their work.  We love that craft brings people together and creates community.  We could go on, but what we really want is to hear from you!  What do you love about craft and handmade? Tell us in your own words or send us quotes from others that inspire and motivate you!  We’re planning an ongoing art project based on your words.

2012 Festival – 3 Calls For Submission

Circle & Square: Manitoba Festival of Craft is a festival created and run by craftspeople that will be taking place June 22, 23 and 24, 2012 at the Atomic Centre (167 Logan Avenue, Winnipeg, Mantioba). Our vision is to expand and cultivate  Manitoba craft and handmade by celebrating its diversity, raising awareness and learning from each other.

Circle & Square has three call for submissions for the festival:
* Teach It! – General call for Ideas
* Show It! – Craft Exhibit and Sale
* Sell It! – Alternative Craft Sale

Teach It! – General Call for Ideas

On Saturday June 23, 2012 Circle & Square: Manitoba Festival of Craft will be holding a day of learning including but not limited to workshops and lectures.

Payment to instructors for educational programming will be dependent on the attendance of the program, and will be negotiated on a case-by-case basis, determined by length of the program and cost to the public.

If you are interested in being involved in teaching a workshop, giving a lecture, or have another educational idea, please submit a one page letter of intent, a CV and 3-5 images of your work by April 30, 2012 to circleandsqaure.mb@gmail.com.  Please include Teach It! In the email heading.

Show It! – Craft Exhibit and Sale

Between June 22 and 24, 2012 Circle & Square: Manitoba Festival of Craft will be holding a Craft Exhibit and Sale.  This is an opportunity to display and sell your work in a gallery seting.  The pieces will be on display throughout a weekend of the Festival of Craft, and the public will have the opportunity to view and purchase your work.  We are accepting all types of craft and handmade work for this gallery exhibit.

Circle & Square will split profits with the artist, with 90% of the profit going to the artist and 10% going to Circle & Square.

The venue will be holding an official opening, and two full days of events that will have craftspeople ad craft enthusiasts frequenting the space.

We are accepting up to three submissions per artist.  If you are interested in submitting to the exhibit please send an artist statement and 2-5 images of your work to circleandsqaure.mb@gmail.com by May 15, 2012, and include Show It! in the email heading.

Sell It! – Alternative Craft Sale

On Sunday June 24, 2012 Circle & Square: Manitoba Festival of Craft will be holding an alternative craft sale. Each vendor will move one booth over and sell another craftsperson’s work.  This gives you the opportunity to learn about another artist’s work and promote it in a fresh and enthusiastic way.  In turn, another artist will do the same for you!  This alternative craft sale is an effort to build community while promoting handmade work in a new way as it is often easier to talk highly of other people than of yourself.

You will be expected to give a description of your work by June 10, 2012 to Circle & Square to distribute to the person running your booth, and you will be given an education sheet on the person’s booth you will be running by June 15, 2012.

Tables will cost $25 each, the sale will run from 12pm-5pm and the artists are expected to remain at the sale for the duration of the sale.

Please submit 5 images of your work, a link to your website (if possible) and a short artist statement.  Submissions are due by May 15, 2012.  Please send submissions to circleandsquare.mb@gmail.com and include Sell It! in the email heading.

 *            *            *            *            *            *

The Circle & Square Programming Committee, consisting of local Craftspeople and Arts Professionals, will make submission decisions.

We can’t wait to hear from you!
– The Circle & Square Team

 

June 22-24, 2012!

With our first annual festival only 3 1/2 months away we wanted to give you more information about this year’s events.

Our vision behind the festival is to celebrate craft and handmade in our province through an inclusive festival created and run by craftspeople.  We’re currently being run by a small collective, and our upcoming festival in June will be our first of this annual weekend of programming.  Our vision is much larger than we can viably partake in during this first year, so we are planning a modest start with hopes of expanding with each year.  Simply, we’d like to celebrate craft and handmade, raise awareness and learn from each other, while including aspects of all types of craft and handmade.  Our weekend of events will include:

* Friday (June 22, 2012) evening we will open the festival with a panel discussion with several handmade artists under the topic “working in the field”.  This will be followed by an opening party and gallery show featuring pieces by local handmade and craft artists.  The gallery will be open all weekend.

* Saturday (June 23, 2012) we will have several workshops and lectures throughout the day.

* Sunday (June 24, 2012) we will have an alternative handmade marketplace.

Please stay tuned for more details on event specifics as we get closer to the festival!  And, please check out our calls for submission, HERE!

A million thank-yous!

Now that we’ve had a couple days to relax after the big night, we wanted to send out a whole darn lot of thanks!  Our fundraising party evening was a wonderful night full of new and old friends, fun crafty activities, spectacular musical entertainment and an amazing raffle full of handmade wonders.  We couldn’t be happier and are so grateful to all who joined us for the evening and who helped us make it such a success.

We’d like to give a special thanks to a few special people!  To the Atomic Centre for sharing your space with us and being such great hosts.  To Ruth Schultz Smith and the Make It Team for a table full of handmade goodness.  To Terry Corrigan for his creative design work.  To Melanie Wesley and Kami Goertz for creating the one of a kind Lumpy and sharing him with us for the evening.  To Susana Johnston for her embroidery demonstration.  To Rob Waddell and Lake Shape for their dazzling tunes.  To Chantel Mierau for her video of performance art.  To Janessa Brunet for her super photography skills.  To Villekula for all of their support.  And finally to Cake-ology for sponsoring us as we begin this journey to the festival in June!

We’d also like to thank all of the talented artists and businesses for showering us with such amazing prizes for our raffle.  We can’t thank you enough!

Allison Crilly
Amanda Harding
CMMK Designs
Cherished Beadwork
Cindy Titus
Dzama Art
Fort Whyte Alive
Hempyrean
Inspyred Creations
Jenny Made This
Jordan Miller
Lady.T Tee’s
Leather & Lace
Lisa Kuhn
Manitoba Craft Council
Manitoba Craft Museum & Library
Manitoba Museum
Marathon 1981
Melanie Wesley
Midkid
Nancy Blockland
Neighbourhood Café
Moksha Yoga Kildonan
Sew Dandee
Shakti
Tara Davis
Ten Thousand Villages
Winnipeg Film Group
Winnipeg Folk Festival

Please take a moment to visit the links above to show our friends some love.  Stay tuned for photos of the event!

Stitching Superstar!

As we get ready for the final week before our fundraising party we’d like to announce another talented addition to the evening – Susana Johnston!  Susana is a painter and embroidery artist who approaches her work with a sense of whimsy, but also looks to culture and tradition for inspiration.  She will be giving demonstrations on her new series of work inspired by the tapestries Wayuu people of Columbia and Venezuela.

Thanks for joining us Susana! We are so inspired by your work and absolutely can’t wait to see your techniques and what you’ve been working on.

Cake-ology!

We want to take a moment this evening to send out a huge THANK YOU to our first official sponsor, Cake-ology.

Our city was made much tastier when Pamela Kirkpatrick opened up Cake-ology in the heart of the exchange district in 2009.  Not only does the Cake-ology team create amazing, creative, delicious baked goods, but Pamela is a sewer and knitter who has supported the handmade community through her shop since opening.  Check out these crafty themed cupcakes!

We are so grateful for their support, especially because their cakettes are one of our most favorite treats ever.

And here are some of their amazing cake creations:

Thanks again Pamela and Cake-ology!

 

 

Make It!

We’ve not only been busy putting the fundraiser party together, but making up a storm of handmade goodies to fill up the space.  Storm actually might not be the right word… how about rainbow?  Much happier.  That’s it, we’ve been making up a rainbow of handmade! Here’s proof, the beginnings of some tote bags:

 

Ruth and the Make It Team have a two Making Days planned this week and it would be great to have you there!  These are meetings to craft together.  Specifically, we’ll be making some crafty items to sell as a fundraiser during the evening on March 16th.  If you have scissors, glue sticks, glue guns, needles and thread please bring them along.  Also if you have any extra scraps of lace, felt, cotton fabric, buttons, ribbon or yarn, and don’t mind sharing these with us, please bring them along as well!

Make It Meetings are scheduled for:
Thursday, March 8, 7-9pm.  Please contact Ruth at periwinkledzyns@yahoo.ca for the location.
Saturday, March 10, 1-3pm at the Manitoba Craft Museum and Library at 1B – 183 Kennedy Street, Winnipeg.

We hope to see you there!

Two weeks away!

March 16th is quickly approaching and we’re getting more and more excited about the fundraiser!

In addition to fun and crafty instillations and opportunities to make things, we’re overjoyed to have two amazing bands performing during the evening.  Rob Waddell will dazzle us with some folk country tunes and Lake Shape will rock your socks off with some indie rock.  Please take a moment to check out their music.

Sponsor or Donate!

Dear Businesses, Makers & Artists,

Re:  Sponsorship Opportunity / Request for Donations

Circle & Square: Manitoba Festival of Craft is an annual festival celebrating Manitoba craft and handmade.  Developed by a collective of local craftspeople, the Circle & Square team is in the midst of planning for our first festival, to take place in June 2012. As members of the craft community, individually and collectively we share a vision to expand and cultivate craft in Manitoba by celebrating it’s diversity, increasing awareness, and learning from each other.

We are contacting you both to introduce Circle & Square, and to ask for your help and involvement.  As valuable contributors to the handmade community in Manitoba, we would welcome your involvement in our festival and would like to offer the opportunity for you to sponsor our event.

• For a donation of $500, we will: promote your organization on social media websites (Facebook, Twitter, and our blog); advertise on all festival advertising and promotional material; advertise and recognize during all Circle & Square events in 2012 (fundraiser in March 2012 and festival in June 2012).

• For a donation of $300, we will: promote your organization on social media websites (Facebook, Twitter, and our blog); advertise on all festival advertising and promotional material; advertise and recognize during the Circle & Square fundraiser in March 2012.

• For a donation of $100, we will: promote your organization on social media websites (Facebook, Twitter, and our blog).

• For a donation between $50 and $100, you can fund a specific aspect of the event such as marketing, promotional material or artist honorarium and will receive recognition during the event you helped fund.

You can also support our festival by offering a donation for our fundraiser, taking place on March 16, 2012.  We are throwing this fundraising party in an effort to create an inclusive festival that values the contributions of all involved.  A donation of shop merchandise (such as craft and handmade related books), a gift certificate or an item of your choosing for our raffle would be greatly appreciated.  All funds raised during the evening will go directly to festival programming.

Donations can be dropped off at Villekulla (formerly The Stitchery) at 962 Westminster Avenue, Wednesday through Saturday between 12 and 6pm, or you can contact us to arrange a pick up.  If you would be interested in sponsoring our festival or making a donation, please contact us at circleandsquare.mb@gmail.com or 284-6242.

Sincerely,

Shosana Funk & Jennifer Smith