AWE at Night - July 2024

Save the date! Join us on July 18th for AWE at Night. Art Windsor-Essex and the Chimczuk Museum are open late for an evening of art activities, community conversations, guided tours, and good vibes.

Sculpted Symbols with Catherine Hois⎮ 5pm – 9pm,  2nd floor Education Studio

Inspired by Jaime Angelopoulos’ plaster sculptures in Love Languages, curated by Julie Rae Tucker, create your own sculpted symbol of love! Local artist Catherine Hois will be in the studio to guide you. Choose from clay, salt dough, plasticine or paper! This is open to all, no artistic experience needed!

Performance: Dialogue no. 8 by Ed Janzen and Collette Broeders ⎮ 4pm – 6pm,  2nd floor galleries 

The performances and installation of Dialogue no. 8 respond to over 500 ‘letters of love’ submitted by participants. The artists directly engage with these texts through rhythmic, interactive performances that transform and expand the gallery space throughout the duration of this exhibit. The performances follow 3 rules: 1) Perform letters of love submissions, 2) Connect with the textures of the space, and 3) Embody the sense of touch.

Ed Janzen and Collette Broeders have been collaborating since 2020. Their work consists of performative large-scale drawings and video installations expressed through drawing and rhythmic movement. Written text, surroundings of place, and tactile sensory experience influence their work. Their individual practices share an interest in mark-making, walking, and the use of text.

Artist Talk: Bev Pike with Emily McKibbon⎮5:30pm-6pm, 3rd floor galleries

Join us for an artist talk with Bev Pike, where she will delve into her monumental paintings inspired by four hundred year-old underground grottos in England. Pike’s work, complemented by comparative miniatures from several women artists, creates a theatrical experience that invites viewers to explore symbolic imagery and ancient designs, evoking a sense of transcendence and awe. Bev Pike is a Winnipeg artist known for gigantic immersive paintings of architectural utopias. She bases her current series on eccentric three hundred year-old subterranean grottos in England. The artist talk will be led by Emily McKibbon.

Artist Talk: Jennifer Fisher and Jim Drobnick with Nadja Pelkey⎮ 6pm – 6:30pm,  3rd floor galleries

Jennifer Fisher and Jim Drobnick comprise DisplayCult, a curatorial collaborative devoted to rethinking aesthetics and practices of display from sensory, affective and paracuratorial standpoints. The DisplayCult collaborative has invited professional mediums to undertake psychic readings of often-overlooked portraits by “unknown artists” in public art collections since 2018. During the sessions, mediums are asked to look through the eyes of the portrait’s subject to receive impressions about the unknown artist. The portrait thus becomes a portal through which the psychic channels resonant details about the artist’s life, their manner of working, their personal and social relationships, and their position within the artistic milieu of the period. Learn more.

Community Conversation: Queer Love⎮ 6:30pm – 7pm,  3rd floor galleries 

As we open our summer exhibition season with our hearts and exhibtions set on exploring the topic of love, this month for AWE at Night we are diving straight into the topic with our Community Conversation; Queer Love. Navigating love in modern times is already difficult enough, between dating apps, binaries, love languages and ultimatums, relationships and how we connect pose both difficulties and pleasures for people from all walks of life. Now, add in queer identity, and its unique set of challenges and triumphs and you’re in for a whirl-wind romance, otherwise known as a u-haul, booked two-weeks into dating…Come get comfortable with AWE, and a group of community panelists who bring their lived experience to this classic, contemporary conversation.

With speakers Anold Mulaisho, Ostoro Petahtegoose, and Victoria Von Snaps and Dan MacDonald. 

Curator and Artist Talk: Jaime Angelopoulos and Julie Rae Tucker⎮ 7pm – 7:30pm,  2nd floor galleries

“The playful nature of my work strives for community integration while imbuing optimism into poignant narratives. Through daily writing, I am able to distill complex emotions and experiences into powerful testaments of human will and potentiality. I seek inspiration and alignment from phenomena of the natural world. I am also invested in methods of storytelling gleaned from mythology, as Greek goddesses often serve as beacons of resilience and divine feminine embodiment. My new sculptures are spirited-like amulets and are “activated” when placed on or near the human chest, while my drawings envision possibilities of a heartfelt consciousness. My smallest drawings are intimate and contain camouflaged text evoking adaptive growth and transformation. I am also interested in mythic stories and often personify feminine spirits and archetypes through my work. Through my practice, I hope to cultivate a sense of resilience through bold feminine/femme embodiment.” – Jaime Angelopoulos.

Jaime’s work is currently on display in Love Languages, curated by Julie Rae Tucker.

Drag Performance by Venom Von Snaps!⎮ 7:30pm-8:00pm,  3rd floor galleries

Join AWE  for two performances by drag queen Venom Von Snaps, that respond to and reflect upon our community conversation, and the topic on everybody’s lips: love!

Guided Tour: Beyond the Barrel: Windsor’s Whisky History with Nicole Chittle⎮ 7:30pm – 8pm,  main floor, Chimczuk Museum

Join curator Nicole Chittle for a tour of Beyond the Barrel. This new exhibition showcases the history of whisky and its connection to the Windsor-Essex area. Themes include farming, early whisky production, the founding of local distilleries, the Prohibition Era in Windsor-Detroit, and the post-Prohibition whisky market. Through a collection of artifacts and photographs, visitors will travel through the history of whisky-making and leave with a newfound appreciation for the golden elixir.

Music, food, and drink ⎮ 7pm – 9pm, 3rd floor

Let’s celebrate! Head up to the third floor to join us for music, food and drinks by Windsor Eats, and good vibes.