Festival Announcements
Raising Rooms, Leah Garnett (2021) | Photo by Dustin AxworthyCharlottetown, PEI (Epekwitk) Tuesday August 23, 2022 - Today is the official launch of the Art in the Open (AITO) website. Charlottetown’s contemporary art festival will be held this Saturday August 27th from 4:00 p.m. to midnight!
With over 30 projects to discover, you can read about the biographies and project descriptions of the participating artists who are from Prince Edward Island (PEI) and across Canada. As you walk around downtown Charlottetown, you’ll be immersed in different art forms, visual, interactive or performance.
Some of the themes of this year’s AITO edition are climate change, sustainability and renewed treaty relations.
Here are some of the projects:
Aaron Comeau is an artist and musician living and working in Charlottetown, PEI. His project Moses’ Wake re-contextualizes the wake environment as an absurd theatrical installation, inviting participants to engage with their own grief through the act of mourning obsolete media.
Angie Arsenault, from the deindustrializing island of Unama'ki (Cape Breton), is an artist and researcher whose practice harnesses acts of deep noticing and a sensual engagement with the natural world, utilizing Ann Laura Stoler’s concept of “imperial debris” as a broad spectrum lens through which to view ruination in the urban and rural built environment. Her project Little library of foraged inks was created to highlight the potency of the botanical lives that exist on the periphery of our everyday experiences.
Kemi Craig is a film and dance artist living and working in the Lekwungen and W̱SÁNEĆ territories also known as Victoria, BC. Her project Bearing Witness is a multi-sensory live performance/performed installation which uses dance, sound and light to explore what it is to see and to be seen. Led by Kemi Craig the project questions the boundaries of performer and audience, subject and spectator. It will proceed as a series of three workshops leading into performance on the evening of Art in the Open.
Onya Hogan-Finlay (born 1977, Fredericton, NB) is an interdisciplinary artist of settler ancestry. Her project Apple Obscura is an interactive sculpture that features a giant inflatable apple-shaped camera obscura suspended from a handmade 18' tapered apple ladder that offers an upside-down view of our surroundings.
To find out more about the artists and their projects, make sure to visit our website at artintheopenpei.org!
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This project is funded in part by Innovation PEI, Tourism industry association of PEI, the City of Charlottetown, and the government of Canada through the Department of Canadian Heritage and the Canada Council of the arts.
The Canada Council for the Arts contributes to the vibrancy of a creative and diverse arts and literary scene and supports its presence across Canada and around the world. The Council is Canada’s public arts funder, with a mandate to “foster and promote the study and enjoyment of, and the production of works in, the arts.”
Contact :
Hannah Bridger
Art In The Open, Social Media & Communications
+1 (902) -316-1437
Launch of Art in the Open Website
Art in the Open Pre-Festival Events
Charlottetown, PEI (Epekwitk) Monday August 22, 2022 - Charlottetown’s contemporary art festival, Art in the Open (AITO), will be held this Saturday August 27th from 4:00 p.m. to midnight!
If you’re looking forward to AITO and excited to discover local and national art, don’t miss out on some amazing pre-festival events this coming week.
Indigo Griot
Led by Valérie d. Walker, the Indigo Griot at Northumberland strait, is a series of indigo making and dying workshops leading to a large scale installation of indigo works and a performance for Art in The Open.
Registration needed.
PEI Crafts Council August 22 until August 26
Bearing Witness
Kemi Craig will lead an exploration of improvisational dance and responsive technologies ending in a performance at Art in the Open. Bearing Witness is a series of three workshops of two hours. Participants must commit to attend all sessions. Black dance/performance students are strongly encouraged. Registration needed.
The Mack
Wednesday August 24 from 6 to 8 p.m.
Thursday August 25 from 6 to 8 p.m.
Friday August 26 from 6 to 8 p.m.
Crow Costume Workshop
If you want to walk in the March of the Crows on Saturday, come start the creation of a memorable costume with us!
Old Library space, Confederation Centre of the Arts
Wednesday August 24 from 6 to 8 p.m.
Panel Discussion: Caring for Where We Live: The Role of Artists in Building Creative, Resilient Communities
Aislinn Thomas, Serina Tarkhanian, Onya Hogan-Finlay and Ithandi Munro are artists whose work revolves around "practices of care" for different kinds of communities and places. They will discuss how art can intervene in society in order to strengthen bonds between individuals and groups and our relationships with the ecosystems and organisms that share our urban and rural landscapes.
Confederation Centre of the Arts Friday August 26 from 3 to 4:30 p.m.
Art in the Open Meet and Greet
Festival artists, partners and funders will get to mingle and discover each other's work. This event is open to local artists that are interested in networking or learning more about the festival. Registration needed for local artists.
Trailside Music Hall
Friday August 26 from 6 to 8 p.m.
Small Screen: Perspectives (SOLD OUT)
this town is small (artist-run centre on PEI) will be hosting an experimental video/media arts screening.
City Cinema Friday August 26 from 8:30 to 9:30 p.m.
For more information: www.thistownissmall.com
For more information, visit AITO’s website www.artintheopenpei.com to find out more about the artists and their projects.
This project is funded in part by Innovation PEI, Tourism industry association of PEI, the City of Charlottetown, and the government of Canada through the Department of Canadian Heritage and the Canada Council of the arts.The Canada Council for the Arts contributes to the vibrancy of a creative and diverse arts and literary scene and supports its presence across Canada and around the world. The Council is Canada’s public arts funder, with a mandate to “foster and promote the study and enjoyment of, and the production of works in, the arts.” Charlottetown, PEI (Epekwitk) Tuesday August 2, 2022 - Art in the Open (AITO) is back for its 12th annual festival, which will be held on Saturday August 27th from 4:00 p.m. to midnight! Charlottetown’s contemporary art festival highlights the vibrant art scene of the city by turning it into an open air art gallery.
This year, you’ll be able to discover over 30 projects from artists from Prince Edward Island (PEI) and across Canada. As you walk around Charlottetown through Victoria Park, Rochford Square, Connaught Square, Beaconsfield House and Confederation Centre of the Arts, you’ll be immersed in different art forms, visual, interactive or performance.
Toronto-based curator, educator, writer and editor Amish Morrell is the guest curator for AITO this year with additional projects curated by Charles Campbell in collaboration with Black Cultural Society of PEI (presented by the Confederation Centre Art Gallery) and local curator Kirstie McCallum.
"Art in the Open includes artworks by more than a dozen contemporary artists from across Canada and the Atlantic Region. The festival offers audiences an opportunity to engage with forms of art that are experimental and non-traditional, such as performance art, sculpture, installation, video art and social practice,” says Amish. “These projects explore issues such as climate change, sustainability, and renewed treaty relations, addressing some of the most urgent issues of our time. They challenge us to expand our ideas of community and care to include other non-human animals, soil and ecosystems (along with the people in our neighbourhoods) and invite us to come together in new relations, and imagine different possible futures in a post-pandemic era."
This year, Island based artist Gerald Beaulieu will present a kinetic sculptural work titled Extinction. The hand-carved skeletal remains of a dinosaur appears to drink from a barrel of "oil". The sculpture was previously exhibited at the Bonavista Biennale in Newfoundland and Labrador and will be installed in Victoria Park this summer.
Karine Gallant joined the AITO team as the Executive Director of this current edition. She has a background in music and years of experience in project and event planning. Her goals this summer are to meet the many partners of the festival and to start building on new ideas to grow the event into the future.
AITO is an arts festival hosted annually in the scenic downtown core of Charlottetown, PEI. This outdoor art exhibit encourages Islanders and visitors to explore Charlottetown’s public and green spaces to discover creative, innovative, and inspirational art installations. The program is created with curated projects, juried projects, partner projects and community projects.
The AITO team is excited to welcome Islanders and visitors to discover and enjoy our vibrant art festival on August 27th! Stay tuned for our website launch on Friday August 5th to find out more about the artists and their projects.
This project is funded in part by Innovation PEI, Tourism industry association of PEI, the City of Charlottetown, and the government of Canada through the Department of Canadian Heritage and the Canada Council of the arts.The Canada Council for the Arts contributes to the vibrancy of a creative and diverse arts and literary scene and supports its presence across Canada and around the world. The Council is Canada’s public arts funder, with a mandate to “foster and promote the study and enjoyment of, and the production of works in, the arts.” Contact :
Hannah Bridger
Art In The Open, Social Media & Communications
+1 (902) -316-1437