About the artist:

David Mceachern’s career spans over a period of 25 years. He obtained his degree in Visual Arts with Honours from the Ontario College of Art. David has displayed his image making skills and vision at many galleries and venues such as The Art Gallery of Brant, Queen’s Park, the Scarborough Civic Centre and the John B. Aird Gallery, to name a few. More recently, he took part in Nuit Blanche 2009.

David is also the recipient of several awards and prizes such as the Josephine M. Harper and the Dora de Pedery-Hunt awards, the Canadian Children’s Association and the Hamilton Port Authority Prizes. He has also received Exhibition grants from the Ontario Art Council and has been commissioned by many, notably the Ontario College of Art Alumni Association (A.J. Casson Award), the City of Toronto, and a major political party.

Over the last ten years, his focus has been on photography and he specializes in Event Coverage.

The Shake Rattle and Roll photo exhibit will be on at The Freeway Coffee House for all or July and August. Come and meet the artist on Friday July 9th, 7pm-9pm.

More details soon…

The art exhibit at the coffee house for May & June is featuring the work of Nancy Benoy.

Art Opening: Friday, May 7 at 7pm.

Nancy was born and lived in Port Credit, until attending University of Guelph where she received an honours degree for Sociology & Anthropology. A study abroad program through the university allowed Nancy to live and work in London, England where her passion for art and design was rekindled. No longer content as an onlooker, she pursued her passion at some of Toronto’s art institutions including Ryerson, OCAD and George Brown College upon returning home, although she is primarily a self-taught artist. Nancy now divides her time between painting and raising a family in Hamilton. Nancy completed the Community Artist Educator Training Program at the Art Gallery of Hamilton in the summer of 2009 and holds monthly art workshops for kids at her studio. Contact her for more information.

Our art exhibition for March & April has been produced by The Salvation Army Lawson Ministries (SALM). It features 29 selected works, created by ten artistically gifted individuals with an intellectual disability. The exhibition was designed to showcase the artistic skills of the participants, and is intended to be a fundraiser with generated proceeds being used to help enrich the existing SALM programs. The displayed pieces within the exhibition were created through the participation in the art program, which is partly run in the basement of our coffee house. This program was developed in 2008 as a pilot project and has since grown to be a regular curriculum of Lawson Ministries. The program exposes the clients to a wide range of media and a multitude of techniques which assist in enhancing the artistic expression of the participants. Each piece portrayed in the exhibition is uniquely representative of its maker, and may stand to tell as story, express an emotion, capture a thought, or represents a series of actions carried out in time.

About The Art Instructor:

Kamila Miszelska has been a forerunner in the development and implementation of the art program at Lawson Ministries. Kamila has always been passionate about art and has been producing various forms of art works ever since she could remember. Kamila’s artistic drive lead her to pursue undergraduate studies in Fine Arts and Psychology at McMaster University. After graduating with honours in 2007, Kamila has upheld successful employment at various eminent organizations including BIS, Good Shepherd and The Salvation Army Lawson Ministries, where she facilities the art program twice a week. Besides her busy schedule, Kamila actively produces abstract/non-representational works which employ a wide range of media and draw upon the sub-consciousness, subjectivity and the intuitive impulses. Kamila’s artistic production has facilitated her personal growth and has lead her to experience the healing qualities of art firsthand.

The Freeway literally has the best volunteers in the world. We have so many dedicated and amazing people who make things happen for the coffee house and the church community throughout the year. Well, on Monday, April 19th at 5:30pm we are hosting a volunteer appreciation event at the coffee house in order to celebrate all the fine folks that make up our volunteer community. This event is for all the people who have volunteered regularly with The Freeway in 2009.

We will have a potluck dinner, some presentations, and a really good time. Please drop Natasha Tilley (our volunteer coordinator) a line if you are interested in coming: natasha@frwy.ca

You can catch Joe hanging out at The Freeway next Saturday and presenting a piece on storytelling at Cultivate. If you’re interested, drop us a line.

However, occasionally we do host our own events at the coffee house as well. One of those events that I get excited about is a learning party that we’ve been doing basically twice a year since 2005: Cultivate Gathering. It’s for those who are interested in creating and developing new and evolving forms of missional church in Canada.

We already have a pretty full house for the upcoming Cultivate Gathering on Saturday, March 20th, 2010 but if you sweet-talk us, we may be able to fit in a few more people. Check out the website for more details: www.cultivategathering.com

We will be “live blogging” the event here in this space with some guest bloggers, so be sure and tune-in on March 20th. And in case you miss it, we will be videotaping the presentations at the event as well and posting highlights here eventually.

Larry Strung is the Hamilton based photographer that created the much talked about art exhibit last year entitled Hamilton 365. For those of you who didn’t see our blog post about this project, the premise was that the artist would create a photo portrait of a different Hamiltonian for every day of an entire year.

After the 365 project was completed I remember running into Larry at a downtown street festival, we inevitably started talking about what was next for the artist who had dedicated a whole year to one subject. Larry had a couple different ideas but he was still looking for the right subject matter that he could immerse himself in.

Well it appears Larry Strung has found himself a new Hamilton based muse. The new project is called the: Stinson School Journal

A number of schools in Hamilton have been closed and put up for sale. Sadly many of these schools have not found new uses and remain empty and derelict. Because of this I am always happy to hear of any building being re-purposed and integrated back into the surrounding community (The Freeway Coffee House was originally a bank).

Developer, Harry Stinson (nicknamed the “Toronto Condo King”) purchased the Stinson School to turn the building into (you guessed it) condos. Larry Strung will be documenting the history of the school as well as the process of turning a collection of empty class rooms into homes. Pictures will be posted daily on the website: www.stinsonschooljournal.ca

Viewing some of the photos I can see why Larry Strung took on this project. There is so much Hamilton history and texture within the Stinson School Building. It will also be exciting to see the evolution of Harry Stinson’s vision for this historic Hamilton space.

As all change is in some way controversial, we would love to hear your comments about the Stinson School or any other re-purposed building.

“Neither our experience of God nor our experience of church seems to have adequately prepared us for creative engagement with the world. Not only has the comfortability of the church mediated our experience of God, it has also blunted our participation in the world. The church tends to make God predictable and the world enjoyable. This has much to do with the church’s social location. In the First World, the church is the product of the suburbs where men and women live anesthetized lives. God can therefore be seen as Comforter rather than Liberator, and the good things of the world can be enjoyed while we avoid its problems and pain. Consequently, our experience of God is mediocre and our involvement in the world is for personal benefit not social transformation. As a result, we are not at the forefront of anything. Because we don’t have an adequate vision for God, we can hardly have a great concern for the world. Because God is deeply concerned about our world, our worship of Him should always lead us back into the ideas of our time.”

Jacques Ellul

1. “Stories & Song” – Celebrating God’s active presence in our city. (This takes place at Philpott Memorial Church on Friday evening.)
2. “Prayer” – A time to connect with God’s heart for our city through prayer. (This takes place at Philpott Memorial Church on Saturday morning.)
3. “In Concert Coffee House” – Great music and art and conversation. (This takes place at The Freeway on Saturday evening.)

In addition, there will be a 24/7 prayer room established at Philpott for one week: February 19 to 26. If you are interested in registering (or volunteering) for any of the events of the conference, please drop me a line: pernell@frwy.ca

“Silence”
February 2010 Art Exhibit
Featuring the work of: Scott Ireland

Opening Reception
Friday, February 5th, 2010, 7pm – 9pm
@ The Freeway Coffee House
Cost: Free admission (A “pay what you can” concert will follow at 9pm, featuring the music of Eric Hiedemen & Simon Fallon)

Scott Ireland’s Artist Statement:
The inspiration of my work initially came from urban telephone poles, used as advertisement for various reasons. These non-hierarchal examples allow my ‘posting’, the Bible, to intermesh into the fabric of life and society, infusing my thoughts and beliefs into my secular urban environment.

The process of my work includes the deconstruction and reconfiguration of the Bible. As I pull apart an antique book and staple it to the plywood, I restrict myself within the pattern of Renaissance wallpaper. Using this pattern, I feel alludes to past Renaissance artists who embedded Christianity into their neo-pagan art. By combining the wealthy Renaissance wallpaper pattern, with the message and physicality of the biblical text, allows me to comment on current changes and differences in culture and society.

The shiny staples relate to many aspects of the work; the words in the text, the sacrificial ideas behind its message as well as the ever pervading redemption story. In using the Bible, I am merely changing its package, still allowing for personal engagement and interpretation.

A few BIG THANK-YOU’S:

• To all the musicians and our amazing DJ who shared their talent with us. Your music was inspiring and beautiful. Thank you for giving your time and energy to help support the coffee house. Can’t wait to see you perform again soon.
• To all the folks who helped clean the coffee house, prepare for the festival, and then clean again, thank you so much. I am always amazed at what amazing volunteers we have at The Freeway.
• To all our fine baristas and other coffee house leaders who worked so hard before, during, and after the event, thank you so much for all your work. We definitely have the best baristas anywhere in the world… and people notice.
• To the sound technicians who made the job of the musicians so much easier, thank you. And to the DWL Group, thank you for providing the sound gear for our lower level stage.
• To everyone who came to support The Freeway and local music, thank you, thank you, thank you.

I really can’t wait until next year… and I hope to see you all at the coffee house supporting local artists and our community commons soon.

On Sunday I had the privilege of talking about The Freeway being geographically “planted” in the Beasley Neighbourhood. As part of the evening I wanted to have a slide show of local  photos to help us think about the area that surrounds the coffee house.

I sent out a general call to The Freeway community to send me their neighbourhood photos and I got an email from  Maja Hipkin (who also contributes to this blog) with a link to her Flickr page. I am always excited to discover that somebody has a creative gift, and I would just like to thank Maja for sharing her beautiful and artistic photographs with us.

If you would like to check out more of Maja’s amazing photographic tour of Hamilton click here.

All photographs (c) Maja Hipkin

My response will instead be one of prayer and giving. And I hope you’ll join thousands of others who are also praying and donating – we can all afford to be generous.

If you’re wondering how to help, The Globe & Mail recently posted this list of groups accepting donations toward work in Haiti:

• Médecins sans frontières (Doctors Without Borders) is taking online donations here or by phone.
• World Vision Canada is taking online donations here or by phone at 1‑800‑817‑7790.
• The Canadian Red Cross is accepting online donations here, by phone, or at any Red Cross office.
• Save the Children is accepting online donations here.
• The Mennonite Central Committee is accepting donations, click here to donate or by phone.
• The Salvation Army in Canada is accepting donations here, by phone, by texting the word HAITI to 45678 from any Rogers Wireless or Bell Mobility phone, or in person at any of its locations.
• Unicef Canada is accepting online donations here or by phone.
• The Humanitarian Coalition, which is a joint effort between Save the Children Canada, CARE, Oxfam Canada and Oxfam Quebec, is accepting online donations here.
• The Center for International Studies and Cooperation (CECI) is accepting online donations here or by phone.
• Development and Peace accepts donations here or by phone.
• Plan Canada has been active in Haiti for 40 years. Donations can be made here or by phone.
• The United Jewish Appeal is accepting online donations here or by phone.
• Mission Aviation Fellowship of Canada, which has operated in Haiti since 1986, is taking online donations here.
• Ve’ahavta: The Canadian Jewish Humanitarian and Relief Committee is accepting online donations here.

The Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade has compiled a guide designed to help the public avoid scams and ensure their donations are of maximum value.  The Canadian government will match monetary donations to support relief efforts in Haiti, to a total of $50-million. This means that donating $50 will result in a $100 contribution.  Read more information about the program here.

Please, be generous.

And beyond today, continue to pray and donate and work for Haiti.  There is long-term work to be done in response to not only the current destruction, but decades of injustice in Haiti. 

Pray for swift and effective relief.  Pray for healing.  Pray for safety.  Pray for justice.