SAA Bulletin – December 2017 – Happy Holidays!

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December 2017

In this issue…

  • Happy Holidays!!
  • Annual Report
  • SAA Releases Discussion Paper on Arts Education
  • Art Works – Art Gallery of Swift Current
  • Things We’ve Been Reading…
  • Saskatchewan Fashion Week
  • SMPIA Admin Assistant Wanted
  • SAA Board of Directors

Happy Holidays

The SAA Staff and Board of Directors wish our members and friends a very happy holiday season and all good things in 2018.  The SAA offices will be closed on December 23 and reopen January 2.


Annual Report

The SAA Annual Report was mailed out to all members last week. Happy reading!


SAA Releases Discussion Paper on Arts Education

You can now access the discussion paper When Artists Go to School: Effective Teacher-Artist Partnerships in K-12 Schools on the SAA website. The focus of this paper, commissioned by the Saskatchewan Arts Alliance and written by Dianne Warren, is on co-designed teacher-artist partnership projects that take place primarily in classrooms. The working relationship between teachers and artists has been identified as a key factor in achieving long-term impact, but questions remain about what an effective partnership entails, and what can be built into such programs to encourage effective partnerships. This qualitative study also includes recommendations for arts, education and culture partners.


Art Works – Art Gallery of Swift Current

Last month SAA launched a new series promoting our members. Each month SAA will publish an article highlighting an arts organization making a positive impact in its community. For December, writer Carle Steel tells us about her visit to the Art Gallery of Swift Current last Canada Day. Enjoy!


Things We’ve Been Reading…

And yet more reading! Here at the SAA a lot of information crosses our desks. We think you might be interested in some of it, so we are providing you with a few suggestions.

  • For example, on the website Culturelab.net we read about Caring for Cultural Freedom: An ecological approach to supporting young people’s cultural learning written by Nick Wilson and Jonathan Gross and commissioned by A New Direction (A.N.D.) of London, England. This research explores how cultural learning happens and how it can best be supported. It focuses on young people (aged 25 and under) within the London Borough of Harrow. The findings show that young people place great value on freedom and creativity, yet we know that young people require support to flourish and systemic intervention to tackle inequality.
  • On The American Scholar website we found a review, and the original work it discusses, both worth checking out. Why We Need Art: Can evolutionary biology explain the human impulse to create? is an insightful review by Natalie Angier of Edward O. Wilson’s The Origins of Creativity. Angier calls this book by the two-time Pulitzer Prize winner, Wilson’s “latest plea for the grand unification of the sciences and the humanities.”  Wilson believes that artists should have a grasp of basic neuroscience and how the brain evolved, and scientists should appreciate the humanities for infusing human life with meaning.”

     

  • In the Arts & Culture section of the L.A. Times website, writer Deborah Vankin’s article Coca-Cola Bl?K? Apple's Newton? Six big flops at the Museum of Failure pop-up, now in L.A. is an amusing review of an equally entertaining international travelling pop-up exhibit. The Museum of Failure boasts over one hundred failed products and services from around the world and is currently showing at the A+D Architecture and Design Museum in Los Angeles until February 4, 2018. (No Canadian dates yet). Vankin offers a glimpse into this celebration of massive, corporate fails – Coca-Cola BlaK for example which dubiously combined diet Coke and coffee! It is ironically encouraging to know that even the big guys like Coca-Cola, Colgate and Apple sometimes get it epically wrong. This touring exhibition also gives attendees an opportunity to join the fun by admitting their own failings via an anonymous Failure Confession Booth.

Saskatchewan Fashion Week

May 10-12, 2018 |The Soundstage | Regina SK

Deadline for most applications is January 1, 2018

The reinvented Saskatchewan Fashion Week (SFW) showcases a combination of artists, fashion design, film and music. Not your typical fashion show, SFW is loud, colourful, unexpected and all about the artists. Applications are now available for designers, vendors, models, hairstylists, makeup artists and indigenous bursary recipients. Tickets launch online on February 1, 2018 at www.saskfashionweek.com.


SMPIA Admin Assistant Wanted

Deadline: December 20, 2017

To apply for this position, submit a cover letter and resume to SMPIA via email to apply@smpia.sk.ca with “Office Assistant Position” in the subject line.


SAA Board of Directors

Kathryn Ricketts – President

James Hodges – Vice President

Rob Bos – Secretary

Risa Payant – Treasurer

Kelley Jo Burke – Past President

Mary Blackstone – Member at Large

Daniel Parr – Member at Large

Karen Reynaud – Member at Large