Southern Kings Arts Council 2011 Memberships Are Now Due....

Hello to all of our Southern Kings Arts Council blog readers,

This post is both an invitation and a reminder.

1st, the invitation: We would like to let everyone know that this is a great time to become a member of the Southern Kings Arts Council. The new membership year began on April 01, 2011 and continues to March 31, 2012. As a member of the SKAC you are fully entitled to all of the rights and privileges that comes with membership. Of course the cost is a benefit as $5.00 is the total cost of a full years membership 

Just two other benefits are: As a council we receive funds to provide funding grants for artistic projects within our geographic coverage area and  we host guest speakers and presenters each month at our regular monthly meetings.

The SKAC can act as a networking venue within the community as well as a supporter of education and awareness events to promote arts and artists within the community.

2 nd, the reminder: We would like to remind all 2010 - 2011 members that the 2011 - 2012 memberships were due on April 01, 2011 and can now be paid.

Memberships can be paid to treasurer Gene Murphy. This can be done at the next regular meeting on April 19th in the Active Communities board room in Montague, or by contacting Gene at geno500@eastlink.ca

We would like to thank everyone for becoming a "Friend" of Southern Kings Arts Council on Facebook. We invite you to join the conversation and post items that you think might interest everyone.

Also, we invite you to become a follower of our blog. You can do that by adding your name to our "Followers" link or by copying the URL address at the top and posting it into your RSS reader like "Google Reader". Thanks!

Note:  Don't forget the writers workshop this weekend in Montague.

Southern Kings Arts Council

Award-Winning Singer Songwriter Ashley Condon Guest At SKAC April Meeting

Ashley Condon

pic - (Photo Credit Mat Dunlap)  Former Murray Harbour North native Ashley Condon has returned to the Island, and now lives in Sturgeon.  The award-winning singer, songwriter and raconteur is guest speaker at the Southern Kings Arts Council meeting at 7:30 pm  Tuesday April 19, 2011  Admission is free.

Article Submission – ECMA Nominee Chats and Performs in Montague

Southern Kings Arts Council  

Tom.rath@yahoo.ca  583-2888

Fans of multi-talented Ashley Condon get a rare opportunity next week for a folksy evening of songs and stories at the 19 April meeting of Southern Kings Arts Council, in Montague.

This 29-year-old actress, songstress and storyteller grew up in Murray Harbour North , and displayed great potential during her years at Montague Regional High School.   Since then, she has released a demo EP of three songs, and the full-length CD “Come in From the Cold”, which won her a nomination for Nova Scotia’s Country Album of the Year last summer.  Her album, which contains a tribute to her mother, the late Betty Stuart, was nominated in the same category for this month’s East Coast Music Awards.

“The album was such a unique project” Ashley explained, “and couldn’t have been produced without the financial and moral support of dozens of investors and other friends here in Eastern Prince Edward Island’.  A second CD is in the works, and will reflect Ashley’s strength as a talented raconteur with a love for Island life.

“I moved back to the Island earlier this year”, she continued, “after several years in Ontario and Nova Scotia.  While I am grateful for the Fine Arts degree I earned in Toronto and the opportunity to live in Guelph and Halifax, another benefit was the appreciation this gave me for Island life when I returned to my roots.”

Ashley has just returned from a multi-week Ontario tour, and is an ECMA Showcase

Performer this week (1:30 pm, 14 April - Murphy Community Centre; 9:00 pm, 15 April - Fishbones; 5:30 pm, 16 April - Baba's Lounge; 10:45 pm, 16 April - The Alibi Lounge). Starting in June, she appears alongside Patrick Ledwell, Caroline Bernard, John Connolly and Mark Haines onstage at the MacKenzie Theatre six nights a week as part of the Charlottetown Festival program “Come All Ye”. 

 Southern Kings Arts Council is one of seven regional organizations supporting artists with Professional Development grants and working to promote awareness and appreciation of the arts on Prince Edward Island.  The public is invited to “meet our artists” at evening meetings held on the third Tuesday of each month, commencing at 7:30 pm in the main floor boardroom of Active Communities, Inc., Main Street, Montague. Admission is free.  For more information, contact SKAC President Fran Feher at 583-2888.

WRITING THE LANDSCAPE EAST Deirdre Kessler, Facilitator

        WRITING THE LANDSCAPE EAST                                         

 

Writing workshop facilitator: Deirdre Kessler
PEI Writers’ Guild 2011 Workshop Series
In cooperation with Montague Library Writers’ Guild
& Southern Kings Arts Council


WHEN & WHERE
Saturday, April 16, 2011: Active Communities INC.540 Main Street, Main Floor Boardroom, Montague, PE
Time: 1:00 to 4:00 p.m.
(starting promptly, please enter by the side door, refreshments served)

 FOR WHOM
The workshop is open to writers at all levels of development who are interested in life writing, poetry, short fiction, creative nonfiction, or children’s stories.

WORKSHOP DESCRIPTION
The natural world will be the touchstone for a number of timed writing exercises presented during the workshop. We will explore memory and experience, sudden insights and slow intuitive knowings.  We will experiment with making the shift from representing to responding to the natural world, from external to internal, from surface to essence.

How much can we abstract or distill or simplify what we see and still evoke both the place and our response to it? Explorations of style, structure, and content will be enhanced by exemplary texts, which will be provided to each workshop participant.

Deirdre Kessler is author of over two dozen books, including a recent collection of poetry, AFTERNOON HORSES, and award-winning children's books, LOBSTER IN MY POCKET and BRUPP RIDES AGAIN. She spent this past autumn in Tasmania, where she was artist in residence in the Cataract Gorge, Launceston. Acorn Press will publish her new book for very young children, DREAMTIME, in fall 2011. She teaches creative writing and children's literature at UPEI. 

WORKSHOP FEES
PEI Writers’ Guild members $20.00, Non-members: $30.00, Students $15.00

CONTACT TO REGISTER or for more information
peiwritersguild@gmail.com
Please put in subject line (Attention: PEIWG Workshop Enrollment)
IF you have to contact someone by phone, call Yvette at 902-892-9788.

This workshop was made possible with funding from the PEI Department of Tourism and Culture.

 
Write to Surprise Yourself—in Poetry or Prose, Journal or Play
Dianne Hicks Morrow: Writing Workshop FacilitatorPEI Writers’ Guild 2011 Workshop Series
In cooperation with Montague Library Writers’ Guild
& Southern Kings Arts Council
 
WHEN & WHERE
Saturday, May 28, 2011: Active Communities INC.540 Main Street, Main Floor Boardroom, Montague PE
Time: 1:00 to 4:00 p.m.
(starting promptly, please enter by the side door, refreshments served)

FOR WHOM
This workshop is open to writers at all levels of development. Especially for those feeling kind of stuck!

WORKSHOP DESCRIPTION
If you have times when your inspiration has evaporated, this workshop is for you.  The tools you practise today will bring the juice back into your writing. You can continue to use these tools long afterward, to write 'til you surprise yourself.
Through guided writing exercises you'll explore your own wonder and wanderings, both inner and outer.  Your resulting writing will surprise you.  And who knows where it will lead you—into writing a journal, a memoir, story, poem or play—it's your choice.  A desire to explore your world through writing is all that's required. You'll have the opportunity to receive useful feedback on your new writing in a supportive environment.

Dianne Hicks Morrow is an award-winning poet, writing workshop facilitator, past president of
 the PEI Writers’ Guild, and recipient of the 2008 Award for Distinguished
 Contribution to the Literary Arts on PEI. Acorn Press Canada has published
 her book of poetry, Long Reach Home, and her non-fiction book of 27 
interviews, Kindred Spirits: Relationships that Spark the Soul. She has a new book of poetry being published this year. 

This workshop was made possible with funding from the PEI Department of Tourism and Culture.

Special Guest For SKAC March Meeting

Our special guest at tomorrow night's meeting is Amy Swallow, Community Development Officer, Rural Action Centre. Come on out and learn about Federal and Provincial funding sources. We are meeting at 7:30 pm in the Active Communities Boardroom, Main Street, Montague. Please use the side entrance

Area Singer is Guest Speaker

Emma Gallant

Pic – (credit Wayne Crause) Emma Gallant, recently selected as one of three National Artists Program representatives for P.E.I. at next month’s Canada Games in Halifax, is guest speaker at the 18 January meeting of Southern Kings Arts Council.  Admission to her presentation is free.

Emma Gallant's Faceook Page

Area Singer is Guest Speaker 

Tom.rath@yahoo.ca

Emma Gallant, one of P.E.I.’s three National Artists Program representatives at the February 2011 Canada Games, will perform and speak at the 18 January public meeting of Southern Kings Arts Council, in Montague.

Ms. Gallant, a Grade XII student at Morell, is an active member of the Island’s musical community, having launched her first CD, This Moment with You, two years ago.  She performs regularly at concerts such as the Peake’s Quay Wharf’s Summer Concert Series, as well as numerous ceilidhs and benefits throughout the summer months.  During the rest of the year, she tries to squeeze in opportunities to satisfy her fans between a full schedule of teaching both guitar and catechism, working at Atlantic Fitness East (Morell), and maintaining her academic studies as an Honour Roll student.

During her presentation at Southern Kings Arts Council, she will talk about her development as an artist, perform a few of her original songs, and respond to questions from fans and other Council members.

 

Southern Kings Arts Council is one of seven regional organizations supporting artists with Professional Development grants and working to promote awareness and appreciation of the arts on Prince Edward Island.  The public is invited to “meet our artists” at evening meetings held on the third Tuesday of each month, commencing at 7:30 pm in the main floor boardroom of Active Communities, Inc., Main Street, Montague. Admission is free.  For more information, contact SKAC President Fran Feher at 583-2888.

Article – Gary Gray Speaks

Gary Gray

 (photo credit – Tom Rath)

Gary Gray of Montague was guest speaker at this month’s meeting of the Southern Kings Arts Council.  His presentation included a reading from Prince Edward Island Tales, published by the Montague Library Writers Guild,.

Gary Gray's Facebook Page

Southern Kings Arts Council – October 2010
Tom.rath@yahoo.ca 583-2888

Writing is more than just an art form, a way to exercise one’s creativity, guest speaker Gary Gray of Montague explained at this month’s meeting of the Southern Kings Arts Council,  “For me, as a stroke survivor, it as both a form of escape, and a way to help me discover and develop what I call my new normal’.

“The stories of my childhood that you read in Prince Edward Island Tales are not just my latest writings.  They are my first writings, too.  I joined the Montague Library Writers Group because I found writing was good therapy for me.”

Always an active participant in community affairs, Gary suffered a major stroke eight years ago while stopping for coffee at the local Tim Horton’s.  After a blurred three weeks of CAT scans and semi-consciousness, he awoke to the realization that his entire world had changed.  He faced major challenges in learning once again how to walk, talk and dress under conditions of fatigue, depression and anxiety.  Even sitting up in order to eat took effort.  A left-handed man with a paralyzed left side has much to learn.

“It’s more than just regaining physical strength”, Gary told his audience.  “After all, much of what we do doesn’t happen in the hands, but in the brain itself.  I had to battle memory loss and fuzzy thinking, and somehow teach my brain how to survive and succeed under these new conditions”.

Part of his progress stemmed from involvement in a new writing group formed at the Montague Library.  “By putting words down on paper, I helped clear my thoughts and my thinking patterns.  That, plus my involvement with the Heart and Stroke Foundation, gave me new accomplishments – skills, strengths and reassurance that while I’m not necessarily the old Gary Gray, I am the new Gary Gray.  I am surviving and succeeding in my new normal”.

The Southern Kings Arts Council exists to support the arts community, and to enhance public awareness and appreciation of the arts inj this region of Prince Edward island.  Guest speaker meetings are held in the Boardroom of Active Communities, Main Street, Montague, at 7:30 pm on the third Tuesday of most months, and are open to the public.  Admission is free.  For more information on our meetings, or on how to apply for financial support for artistic projects, please contact SKAC President Fran Feher at franflakes@yahoo.

Meeting Postponed and A Reminder For Grant Proposals

Hello everybody,

Well, the weather is certainly making things a little difficult in the travelling department. Given today's weather conditions, I have decided to postpone this evening's meeting to tomorrow, Wed Feb 16. It will, of course, still take place at the Active Communities Boardroom in Montague at 7:30 pm.

Also a reminder that the deadline for grant proposals is close of business today Feb 15, 2011.

Your Chairperson,...
Fran