{"id":39830,"date":"2022-11-11T01:59:17","date_gmt":"2022-11-11T09:59:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/?p=39830"},"modified":"2022-11-09T10:01:20","modified_gmt":"2022-11-09T18:01:20","slug":"culture-crawl-set-to-return","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/2022\/11\/11\/culture-crawl-set-to-return\/","title":{"rendered":"Culture Crawl set to return"},"content":{"rendered":"

Suzy Birstein amid her work, some of which visitors to her studio will see during the East Side Culture Crawl. (photo by Britt Kwasney)<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cI am most looking forward to healthily connecting with fellow artists and art lovers in real time, real space. Art is always more powerful in person,\u201d artist Suzy Birstein told the Jewish Independent<\/em> about the East Side Culture Crawl Visual Arts, Design & Craft Festival, which returns to its traditional format Nov. 17-20. Some 400+ artists will open their studios to the public.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe sense of community, commitment, excitement, inspiration, appreciation \u2013 all that brought me to Parker Street [Studios] and East Side Culture Crawl originally is happening again,\u201d she said. \u201cIt feels like a renaissance.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"photo<\/a>
Photographer Esther Rausenberg, artistic and executive director of the East Side Culture Crawl. (photo by Adam P.W. Smith)<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cAfter the two-year pandemic rollercoaster ride, I am thrilled we are back to a \u2018new normal,\u2019\u201d said Esther Rausenberg, artistic and executive director of the Crawl, as well as a participating artist. \u201cI do say \u2018new normal,\u2019 as we don\u2019t have a crystal ball and I can\u2019t really speculate how this year\u2019s Crawl will play out. Personally, I am excited to get out and see all of the new and amazing art that has been created and to catch up with the artists. It\u2019s also a real pleasure for me to meet members of the public as they share their enthusiasm for the event, the art and the connections they will be making with the artists.\u201d<\/p>\n

Birstein (clay, painting, sculpture) and Rausenberg (photography, Georgia Art Studios) are only two of many Jewish community members who will open their creative space to the public over the four days of the festival, which also features gallery displays, and artist demonstrations and talks. Other community members include, from Parker Street Studios, Shevy Levy (painting), Olga Campbell (clay, mixed media, new media), Mia Weinberg (painting) and penny eisenberg (drawing, painting); from Eastside Atelier, Lauren Morris (mixed media, painting), Ideet Sharon (assemblage, mixed media, painting), Stacy Lederman (mixed media, painting) and Karly Leipsic (mixed media); and, from the Arc, Lynna Goldhar Smith (installation, painting). Overall, festival-goers can explore about 68 buildings and studios in the Eastside Arts District, the area bounded by Columbia Street, 1st Avenue, Victoria Drive and the waterfront.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis year\u2019s event has a distinctly celebratory tone,\u201d said Levy. \u201cIt is a reunion for Vancouver\u2019s established art community, a chance to reconnect, to have meaningful discussions around art, not just with artists, students and educators, but with those who display art, like galleries and art management, and everyone who is excited to work together again.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"photo<\/a>
During the pandemic restrictions, painter Shevy Levy started a new direction with her abstract work. (photo from Chutzpah!)<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Thinking of the last couple of years, she noted, \u201cWhat was fascinating about the immediate impact of COVID-19 was the sudden loss of collective connection \u2013 both human (face-to-face) and the collective understanding of what the future might bring\u2026. When we were forced to isolate, I appreciated the introduction of art to the digital and virtual world, and how it helped the art world, in many aspects, to find new ways to connect with society. However, now I understand how much I, like so many of my colleagues, urgently need constant interactions with the community \u2013 2022 Crawl is here to fill some gaps.\u201d<\/p>\n

Goldhar Smith \u2013 a multi-disciplinary artist who has spent more than 30 years in theatre performance with painting very much in the background \u2013 is excited about the chance to show her visual art to a lot of different people. \u201cI especially love the opportunity to see their responses to the work and engage in lively conversation when it\u2019s possible,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\"photo<\/a>
Lynna Goldhar Smith (photo from Chutzpah!)<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Interested in integrating her visual art practice with her performance practice, Goldhar Smith said, \u201cI have been building installations in my studio to that end and so, among my paintings and prints, visitors will see the beginnings of more conceptual ideas in some of the physical objects and paper sculptures in the studio.\u201d<\/p>\n

Whether abstract or figurative, Goldhar Smith seeks to express the intangible qualities of human experience in her work. \u201cIf I paint a landscape, it is as much an emotional or psychological landscape as a place,\u201d she said. \u201cYet, at the same time, if I paint an urban crow or a heron, it is more an expression of honouring the urban wildlife, and reminding myself that I am in their domain. I hope that makes sense. Whatever I paint, I am like an improvisational actor, responding to the moment, with one brushstroke informing the next. The meaning emerges after the fact. It is not so much I make my art, as my art makes me.\u201d<\/p>\n

For Goldhar Smith, the pandemic was a dramatic reminder \u201cthat we need to behave more responsibly, more cohesively, with more compassion and care for each other \u2013 with more understanding of our connection to each other \u2013 and to view ourselves as part of nature and part of one planet all together. Yet, we are so divided. If there was ever a time for artists to get focused, this would be it.<\/p>\n

\"photo<\/a>
\u201cGloria\u201d by Lynna Goldhar Smith (image from Chutzpah!)<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cArtists, and art, have the privilege and responsibility of their voices,\u201d she continued. \u201cWe need to use our voices to contribute to the global change that is necessary. We need to speak up with courage and make brave art.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need to be endowed with the respect that what we do is of great importance and we need to be valued, supported and encouraged because artists bring meaning and perspective and also disruption and confrontation with the status quo. We need to see how our art fits, not so much into the art marketplace, but as a central driver of change that can address the pressing needs of our time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Levy expressed a similar view.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo many artists, myself included, produce artwork with an outcome in mind, such as an exhibition or career step,\u201d said Levy. \u201cThe challenges of the past few years forced me to take the time to reflect on my own art practice, taking it to the next level by exploring new avenues and fresh approaches. I had to remove and free myself from that outcome. I was able to experiment and create work that connects me better to the meaning of being a better human and better artist, as opposed to a \u2018professional artist\u2019 operating within the structures of a commercial art world.\u201d<\/p>\n

Birstein also used the pandemic period for self-reflection. \u201cThe enforced isolation of the pandemic,\u201d she said, \u201cgave me the gift of time: time to create, experiment, reflect, all day, every day. This is a first in my art practice and I was very productive.\u201d<\/p>\n

Birstein created two bodies of work for two solo exhibits in 2021 and 2022.<\/p>\n

\u201cTsipora: A Place to Land was exhibited at the Zack Gallery,\u201d she said. \u201cTsipora<\/em> is my Hebrew name, meaning Bird. Pre-COVID, the bird symbolized a freedom of spirit while taking flight. With COVID, it was a time to nest, to find a place to land.<\/p>\n

\u201cFrida: When I Have Wings to Fly was exhibited at POMOArts. Frida is a continuation of my art historical portraits, Ladies-Not-Waiting, inspired by Velasquez\u2019 masterpiece \u2018Las Meninas.\u2019 This series speaks to Frida Kahlo as a symbol of feminine strength and empowerment: a person who transcended tragedy and transformed it into beauty. My sculptures and paintings invite the viewer to converse in intertwined stories of myself, my mother, Frida and other historic figures that embody resourcefulness, resilience and beauty.<\/p>\n

\u201cMaterially, both bodies of work involved much experimentation with structural techniques, surfacing with fired and cold materials, addition of repurposed objects.\u201d<\/p>\n

For Levy, the last couple of years allowed her to start a new direction with her abstract work. \u201cSlowly, I developed large-scale canvases that were marked by bold and expressive brushstrokes,\u201d she said. \u201cI am excited to share with the public my new collection, A Portrait of a Flower. My work demonstrates the flowers as a source of lines, shapes, negative space, gesture, colour and value, or another source of abstraction.\u201d<\/p>\n

The pandemic period also gave Levy the chance to explore more remote art communities. \u201cPre-COVID,\u201d she said, \u201cI used to share and exhibit my art within my immediate community. In the last two-plus years, I had more time to develop my social media presence and expertise. As an outcome, 2021 was the best year ever of showing and selling my work.\u201d<\/p>\n

Birstein also pointed to the technological silver lining of COVID. \u201cWith the necessity of communicating virtually while globally isolated,\u201d she said, \u201cI see the world of art opening in terms of compassion, imagination, inclusion, respect \u2013 all of this so apparent at this year\u2019s Venice Bienale, from which I have just returned.\u201d<\/p>\n

In addition to the open studios Nov. 17-20, the East Side Culture Crawl features a multi-venue, salon-style curated exhibition called NEXT, which \u201cexplores the after-effects of living through a pandemic as we long for and ponder about what\u2019s next.\u201d There are also several other events. For more information, visit culturecrawl.ca<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Suzy Birstein amid her work, some of which visitors to her studio will see during the East Side Culture Crawl. (photo by Britt Kwasney) \u201cI am most looking forward to healthily connecting with fellow artists and art lovers in real time, real space. Art is always more powerful in person,\u201d artist Suzy Birstein told the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":39831,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[989],"tags":[2466,21879,21880,1492,8704,6691,9017,4865,1633],"class_list":["post-39830","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-visual-arts","tag-art","tag-east-side-culture-crawl","tag-esther-rausenberg","tag-lynna-goldhar-smith","tag-multimedia","tag-painting","tag-sculpture","tag-shevy-levy","tag-suzy-birstein"],"blocksy_meta":{"styles_descriptor":{"styles":{"desktop":"","tablet":"","mobile":""},"google_fonts":[],"version":8}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39830","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39830"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39830\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/39831"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39830"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39830"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.jewishindependent.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39830"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}