hello community!

thank you for joining us in celebrating our new show, Bad Walls Good Art, and for coming out for our final party– it was lovely to see you all and we hope you all had a wonderful time!

here are our plans for the final weeks:

1. we are open for drop in* for two more weeks:

• mon: 430-10 pm
• tue: 430-7pm
• wed: 430-7 pm
• thur: 430-10 pm

Full Circle!

We are thrilled to announce that Windsor House School (WHS) will be the new project to run the current Thistle space!  Windsor House, a publicly-funded democratic school for K-12 children and youth, is located in North Vancouver at this time. The Thistle space will be a second home that will house all kinds of rad art programs — kind of like a hacker/maker space for WHS teens. Stay tuned to hear about this incredible teen program and all about the WHS move to East Van!

This part of their story is a meaningful end to our story, and here’s why: back in 2000, before the Thistle was even an idea, Matt Hern (founder of the Thistle) worked at WHS where he had been working closely with a small group of teens. This crew of kids and Matt lived in East Van and were looking to create something more local, something in their neighbourhood. So Matt and that group gathered weekly at his house for about 6 months or so, and during those meetings and hangouts dreamed up the Purple Thistle together. This group of 7 friends started the Thistle, and a bunch of them were from WHS!

To have a bunch of youth from the same place where the Thistle grew out of move in to our space is incredibly meaningful to us and we look forward to seeing what will emerge out of this project in their new home!

BAD WALLS GOOD ART!

When: Saturday, March 14th 7 pm
this will be our FINAL event in the space.

Artists will also have their art for sale + Stay Solid A Radical Handbook for Youth books will be available!
there will be snax!

performances by Khari McClelland, Jess Hill, Zach Bergman and many others!

come early and stay late!

we are excited to see you!

PS: there will be lots of photography and some footage being filmed for the film.

access info

Refusing to Jump the Shark, OR: the Thistle was never meant to be an institution.

dear friends, community and supporters,

As many of you may have heard, the Thistle has hit some hard funding cuts this past year. It’s been pretty rough and it has required an administrative dance-to-end-all-dances just to keep us afloat. It hasn’t been all bad though; we’ve managed to do some cool stuff anyhow, like Solidarity Camp during the teachers strike, an amazing public art show at Heartwood Cafe and another run of  FARMcamp (to name just a few).  But energy and funding at the Thistle has been dwindling, and it means that we are going to close the space at the end of April.

Before we all jump to the front lines and try and save the space, please have a read about how this transition and change isn’t about saving the Thistle space, but about celebrating the Thistle and the ongoing work of youth liberation, friendship, and community.

This is a letter to say thanks to a lot of folks and hey, let’s keep in touch!  

The Thistle has been around for 14 and half years, and that’s something to be really proud of. Not one person is the Thistle, so be sure to talk to folks who have been involved with the project, their individual or collective stories will be worth hearing!

The Thistle was never meant to be an institution, but rather a space where folks could come together meet and dream about doing something collaboratively and then do it! And overall, that’s what has happened.

Youth liberation is at the Thistle’s core- an alternative to school. A place to reimagine how young folks can organize and co-create. What blossomed from almost 15 years in this environment, are solid friendships and a community that lives, and will survive, outside the walls of the centre.

A bunch of us at the Thistle think we have had an impact on the discourse of youth liberation and youth engagement in their communities and we feel pretty great about that, too. But more than all of that, what has happened at the Thistle over the almost 15 years has been about the creation of solid friendships and community.

At the Thistle we learn to trust — to trust that kids and youth have the capacity to solve their own problems and to author their own lives, and to trust ourselves as adults and mentors — to learn to work together in a way that lives so comfortably outside institutions.  So right now, we also need to trust that this is the time to end this experiment, and that new projects will flourish.  The signs are lining up (low participation, funding issues, slowing of momentum), it’s time to be responsive to that and trust ourselves.

A bit more about why we are closing:

Over the past year and half, we have witnessed a wellspring of youth projects starting up: from youth-run collectives, to cooperatives and art projects and it’s been inspiring to see.  At the same time, and partly as a result of this, we have seen the general involvement at the Thistle really lessen, which really makes a lot of sense to us.  There are less youth at drop-ins, fewer active Thistle pods, and folks are feeling pulled among all kinds of rad projects.  In other words, there’s lots going on, and a bunch of it isn’t happening at the Thistle.

This has shown us that perhaps we are no longer needed in the way we were in the past, and have pretty much done our time — after all, everything does end!  And to be honest, we wish more places would end when it’s time — but unfortunately we live in a system that values longevity over thriving; and that aint us.   Our society puts us in competition with other rad, youth-run projects for grants and funding, and we want to celebrate those other projects by closing up and supporting these rad new initiatives.  Youth projects are still flourishing, and doing a bunch of the things that the Thistle has done well in the past.  And some of the new initiatives may very well come out of the Thistle and some of the current collective…

We could also “jump the shark” by turning the Thistle into an institution, or partnering with a few institutions to make us stay open.  In doing so, we could have enough money to keep it going, at least for a while, but we think that’s not right either and that doing that would ultimately undermine the core of what the Thistle was/is: a space run by youth.

To borrow on a Quakers ethos, sometimes you gotta just “lay it down.” That is, to get out of the way so other, more timely projects can sprout.  We are excited to see what will grow in the Thistle’s place when the space closes its doors — and there are a bunch of us who are excited to be part of those conversations!

The facts:

The space is closing April 30th, but a few of the pods will still be going: Lovable, Thistle Institute and one of the the garden projects.  Carla Bergman, with the support of Arts In Action will still be wearing an administrator hat to support youth run projects like DIT (Daughters in Tandem) and ArtQuake, to gain funding and connect to community and so on.

and now for some BIG THANKS!

A tremendously big thank you to Morley Faber, who put up with us in the Mergartroid building for all these years — we sincerely couldn’t have done half of what we accomplished without his support and guidance. Thank you to all our neighbours: in the building, and around the area — it was amazing to share space with you all.  Thank you to Arts In Action, and especially, Selena Couture, Verity Rolfe and Claudine Pommier, for always being open to our far-fetched ideas and for signing a lot of paperwork!  And of course, thank you to the funders who also let us have a lot of autonomy along the way and supported youth liberation– thank you all!

But mostly, we want say thank you to all the youth who trusted this project and jumped in with all your fierce passions and radical dreams– you all should feel incredibly proud!  There are too many to name, but you are all remembered! And a special thank you to all the adults who came in and hung out, offered mentorship, learned more than they gave and were anchors.

Lastly,  for a bunch of us we really got to send the biggest shout out and say the biggest thank you to that first crew of youth: Gen, Cole, Jesse, Keith, Leni, Dan, Maggie, and Lauriel, and of course thank you Matt Hern, for having the vision, the imagination and the courage to create the Thistle.

much gratitude to you all.

Keep in touch:

It’s time to move on, but we will be open for a couple more months and there will be lots to do! so come hang out, make some art, help pack and clean the place! And, before we close the doors to that space, let’s celebrate almost 15 years of a project that created a lot of cool things, most of all community!  We will be in touch soon about the party.

Final words:

The Thistle project was created by a group of friends, and it’ll be amazing to see what a new group of friends will create in its place.  And so, the space may close, but the relationships and the small projects that grew out of the Thistle project will go on. Let’s not have the walls of a space say who we are and let’s not fall into that institutional trap –almost everyone who has been involved in the project is still around; we have us and all the connections we’ve made, all the projects that have blossomed and all the seeds we’ve collectively planted. And that’s a lot.

see you all in the streets and in our homes.

in friendship and liberation,

The Thistle Community

co-signers:

alex, aly, Marly, Savanna, Sylvia, LeyAnn, Niko, Aliza, Durga, Maneo, Manisha, Corin, Zach, Dani and carla

contact: Carla Bergman- director carla@purplethistle.ca

thistlers!

Dear community and friends,

we need some support!
like many spaces/projects, we too have been hit pretty hard with cuts to funding (especially this past year), and so we are now looking for ideas and any support you can think of…

please contact carla with your awesome ideas: carla@purplethistle.ca

OR, if you have any extra money, or know folks who can help out, even 25$, anything, really, will help — you can donate via our paypal /get-involved/donations/

please pass this on, retweet/blog etc.

AND! we are still open for drop in and for folks to use the space and thanks to Opus, we have lots of materials and supplies!!

many thanks!

in liberation and friendship

hangin at an art show.

Bodies of Knowledge: Establishing Moments of Radical Accessibility and Embodied Learning
Carmen Papalia

This free workshop will unfold over 6 weekly sessions this fall!

When: Starts Tuesday, November 4th 2014 (7:00PM – 9:30PM)
Where: TBD venue in East Vancouver*
Who is it for: Youth! ages 15-30–  other than that, it’s open to everyone/anyone!
there are 10 spots

*We are waiting to confirm the venue
because we hope to meet the access needs of the group. Therefore, those that are interested in participating should be in touch with Carmen Papalia, the workshop facilitator, as soon as possible and before the first meeting to discuss individual access needs and preferences.

**Please be in touch by October, 21st**
You can reach Carmen by phone or email:
Phone: 778.886.0150
Carmen.papalia@gmail.com

Proposal:

This workshop (for youth ages 15 – 30), will establish an open working
space dedicated to the consideration of our agency in public and
institutional settings, and what actions we must take in order to
explode normalcy and realize our potential as embodied learners.
Through a combination of group work and independent studio time,
participants will develop an intentional practice around living and
learning that is informed by their body. With approaches such as:
writing, drawing, performance, sculpture, installation and public
intervention, participants will define a system of access for
themselves that is based in their very subjective perceptions
regarding what is accessible. As an open-sourcing of their own access,
participants will highlight the opportunities for learning and knowing
that come available through the fact of their body. Meetings will
culminate in a series of actions that will address, claim, interrupt,
antagonize and heal the space between ourselves and the systems that
we choose to participate in—a gesture that will contribute to a
productive understanding of accessibility.

Statement:

Imagine, for a moment, that you are a visual learner and that all the
Instagram photos on your feed are soundscapes. You try to view one of
them but it seems murky and unknowable as you listen. You think to ask
one of your illustrator friends to translate it into an engaging visualization and you hope they will oblige. You probably want to ask an artist whose aesthetic is in line with your own artistic sensibility and who can make the content come alive with their craft.
You probably don’t want to ask an artist who will abstract the content
even further from the original, because then you’d have to negotiate
the space between the original and the abstracted translation—when all
you wanted to do was know what the heck your friend posted on
FaceBook! Such an abstraction might be suitable as a creative response
to your friend’s post but it would not provide you with the same ease
of access that your friends are so lucky to have. But then again it
would be different an the same thing at once. It would be a hybrid in
terms of genre and meaning—something that uniquely reflects the way
you learn.
Although we don’t often acknowledge it, our FaceBook communities are
full of all sorts of different kinds of learners—as are the
non-virtual communities that we are part of. As are the communities
that organize in cities, as are the communities that organize in
schools, as are the communities that organize in museums. We are
surrounded, at any given moment, with others that don’t learn the way
we do. But how do we nurture the ways in which we learn and how can we
make sure that the bodies of knowledge that we have access to from our
unique position are not subjugated by the dominant and oppressive
systems within which we participate? We define our access needs and
preferences so accessibility can be realized as an open cultural
practice through which we can claim the support that will empower us
to thrive!

Thank you and I look forward to working with you.

Carmen

**
attached is a photo by Sylvia from our program at the VAG and the
description is:
A person wearing a denim vest with an image of Frida Kahlo on it sits
on a hardwood surface in a museum as they describe a contemporary
photograph to a young person who is crouching and holding a white
mobility cane. Both the describer and the listener hold the stanchion
barrier that is meant to distance the viewer from the art work while
the young person’s caregiver watches from a distance.

photo by Sylvia Bo Bilvia

Our First Collective Meeting for Fall 2014 will be Monday, September 22nd at 7 pm! youth (15-25) welcome! come join the collective, or just hang out.

and!

Youngunz!!! 2014/15 session

The Purple Thistle Centre will be holding space for their infamous
Youngunz Program between September 28th to May 31st, 2014.

If you are between the ages of 10 – 14 (ish) or know anyone who is in
that age group who would like to hang out once a week for a couple
hours to make, break, learn, forget and create a smattering of arty
projects, this may be right up your alley!

Youngunz is a weekly 2 hour workshop (some may be longer, ie full
days*) aiming to match the groups interests with clever mentors from
the art world who are excited to share their passion and skills with
us. This is not a drop in program and due to space limitations a
maximum of 12 people will be admitted…however, a waitlist can be
created if need be.

The Nuts and Bolts

The Time: Sunday afternoons 2 – 4
btw Sept. 28th – May 31st

The Place: The Purple Thistle (although we may venture out on occasion
but will always keep you informed)

The Cost: Sliding scale between 40 – 60 $/mo (covers the once a week 2
hour sessions*, mentors, food and supplies)

How to pay?

1) at the beginning of each month (cash or cheque)
2) one cheque for the entire duration
3) post dated cheques

cheques payable to The Purple Thistle Centre

Contacts: Anita Olson; anita.olson@gmail.com

* costs may be added on for full day workshops

WE ARE FULL!!

The Thistle collective is thrilled to announce the solidarity* camp for folks needing a place to be during the Teacher Strike.

*we stand in full solidarity with the teachers, kids and families

PLEASE EMAIL US TO REGISTER!!

Free and for kids ages 5-13**

Due to our capacity (space and other resources) we have limited space so please do email: info@purplethistle.ca to secure a spot!

Below is our schedule for now (more days will be added next week).

Contact us at any time for further information.

Schedule:
each day we will offer open space/hangout time and lots of art supplies, plus specific workshops held by stellar facilitators.

• Wednesday, September 3: 9am-3 pm

Fibre Arts (felting, etc)

• Thursday, September 4: 9am-3pm

Screen printing
garden work
and other visual art mediums

• Friday, September 5: 9am-3pm

Animation
Zine making

• Monday, September 8: 9am-3pm

 crafting and art making (details to come)

screen printing.

Please bring lunch and a snack

Location: 260-975 Vernon Drive (corner of Parker and Vernon). Check out our website for further information about the Thistle and access info. http://www.purplethistle.ca

** Age is negotiable — please check in with us if you are over 13 and want to attend.

Come to our open house on Tuesday, September 16th form 4 to 6 pm. All welcome. there will be food, art making stations and a tours.

Our First Collective Meeting for Fall 2014 will be Monday, September 22nd at 7 pm! youth (15-25) welcome! come join the collective, or just hang out.

Hey folks!

We’re super excited to tell you about a project we’ve been cooking up!

Here’s some background: We published Stay Solid! back in April 2013, and in the winter of 2014 a couple of us from the editing crew held a youth reading group about the book. Pretty much the first thing we noticed during the discussions was that a huuuuge part of our daily lives was completely missed: we didn’t do a chapter on Food!

Food ties into every aspect of our lives. We’re kinda glad we missed it, because now we — some of the reading group crew — get to go into more depth about it and put a book together on the topic!

Here is an early table of contents so you can see what we are thinking. We have brainstormed tons more, but this is to just give you a taste of what we are up to!

• Animal Rights and Food

• Food Solidarity

• Land and Food

• Body Politics and Food

• Class and Food

• Youth Oppression/Liberation and Food

• Care and Food

• Food as Medicine/Illnesses and Food

• Access to Food

We will be doing a call-out soon for contributors to this book — especially to youth.

stay tuned!
~ sylvia and carla and some other cool kidz

Common Notions: Handbook Not Required –The Story of the Purple Thistle.

A new documentary is being made by radical educator carla bergman and community engaged filmmaker Corin Browne! The film will be exploring common notions of youth liberation, education & grassroots social movements, through the story of the The Purple Thistle Centre!

More about the Film

The Purple Thistle has become a project that inspires folks from all over the world to try and create similar projects with youth in their communities. The Thistle is very unique and truly run by the people who use it, so as community engaged artists we draw from almost 20 interviews with youth, Thistle alumni, adult directors and radical education theorists. The film weaves together interviews with theorists Matt Hern,  Astra Taylor ,Gustavo Esteva, Khelsilem Rivers, carla bergman and Madhu Prakash and with Thistle founders, and as well as current collective members, Genevieve Robertson, Sylvia Mcfadden, Keith Lennig, Maya Motoi, aly dela Cruz, Savanna Todd and Sadie Couture.  The film will include visuals of Thistle events like collective meetings, art openings and an educational trip to Mexico, to craft a lively and critical narrative.

The documentary explores themes of the disappearance of communityspace, social isolation and hyper individualism that results in the exclusion of youth from the world. Our interview subjects point to the crucial role that counter-institutions play in addressing these problems. We’ll explore why is it important to have spaces to practice the world we want to create and the need for free spaces (free to use the space, free to be yourself). To do this, we’ll look closely at the elements that make the Thistle work such as the ideas of meeting youth where they are at; trust; the process of Deschooling, or learning how to learn outside of institutions; collective and horizontal organizing; and the nuts and bolts of running a collective – the “rules” of the “de-institution”.

Through telling the story of the Thistle we begin to explore larger ideas of capitalism, education, radical generosity and the gift economy.

two things we are fundraising for are:

• mentoring youth pod projects. when we set out to the film we wanted to ensure youth were telling the story with us so we included a space for shorter “pod” films to be made! we have an animation made by Thistle youth on Horizontality and how it applies to the Thistle and a Youth will be making one on Deschooling.

• accessibility: we will strive to make our film accessible for many different learners! For example, we will include closed caption and audio described video.

​

**To see the trailer and to help out with the fundraising campaign visit here:https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1717888917/common-notions-handbook-not-required **

friends! The Purple Thistle Centre will be holding down the “Thistle Street” at Car Free Day Commercial Drive this sunday! june 15, 12-5 pm
                  we are on Napier Street at commercial.

We’ll have free food, mint and lemon water, a couch and other seats, and lots of art supplies! we will have Stay Solid books for sale too!
from 1-4 pm Suzan will be on site to offer three one-hour bookbinding workshops (free): Pamphlet stitch is a simple binding that is easy to learn (see photo below). it’s great for zines.
Come visit the .Guerrilla Gardeners of the Purple Thistle. too and see what they are up to this summer and how you can get involved.

But, mostly just come say hey. (and get a rad button!)

*most every thing is free-of-charge!
*in one area of the Thistle Street, some of the rad and incredible artists from the thistle will be selling their activist beautiful art!

a note by Khelsilem:

HI ALL!

The “Streets of Sḵwx̱wú7mesh” shirts are ready!

The Streets of Sḵwx̱wú7mesh Series is a look at the original places and their names in the Sḵwx̱wú7mesh homelands. You might know of places like Deman, Granville, Davie, Commercial Drive, Hastings.
But do you know where Xwmélts’tn or Átsnach is?

Place is a hallmark of identity. In order for Vancouver to exist, it involved an erasue of Sḵwx̱wú7mesh place, and thus identity.

Reclaim. Rename. Reoccupy.

$30 T-Shirts in men’s and women’s sizes. All proceed goes towards the Skwomesh Language Academy and the upcoming language immersion house starting in September.

you can contact Khelsilem Rivers or purchase them here from the Thistle paypal!

<—(it’s on the left there, it says donate, but don’t worry just say you want to buy a shirt and perhaps email Khelsilem too)!

**

the Thistle is thrilled to support Khelsilem by printing the shirts!

*special thanks to aly and sam

The Purple Thistle’s book and zine library had been culled, reorganized, and restocked with new radical books. We received generous donations from a bunch of rad presses including South End Press, PM Press, City Lights Books, Minor Compostions, Semiotext(e), Arsenal Pulp, RE/Search Publications, Fernwood Publishing, Microcosm, and more! We have also received some wonderful donations from collections of individuals in Vancouver. We are really excited about some of the new titles and old gems we have dug up. Materials can be signed out using our very straightforward sign-out system. Look for the clipboard in the library if you want to borrow anything.

Contact us if you are interested in donating books we are looking for books, zines, and comix about deschooling/unschooling, anarchism, DIY culture, decolonization/indigenous struggle, youth liberation, radical ecology, anti-racism, gender justice, weird fringe culture, and more! In particular we would like to grow our collection of rad kids and young adult books. In the cull we have pulled out a bunch of books for giveaway. If you want some free books they are located in the entryway to the Thistle.

The Thistle Library Crew is meeting every Monday at 5:30 pm if you want to stop by and get involved!

Trust Children. Nothing could be more simple — or more difficult. Difficult, because to trust children we must trust ourselves — and most of us were taught as children that we could not be trusted. – John Holt

I trust kids. I am not being trivial here; it’s true. I trust how much they unabashedly trust, especially the adults in their lives.  And we (us adults) gotta step up to that trust from kids around us and not only give trust back, but keep their trust in us by not fucking with it! The innate trust from kids gradually gets sucked out of them in all corners of society, including home. Why? Because of the largely accepted notion that kids are not to be trusted. I think this is one of the most damaging and brutal forms of discrimination against kids/youth.

But how do we trust each other, up front and in real concrete ways?  Like Holt says, it’s both simple and difficult. In a practical sense, and how this works in my day-to-day life is I believe that if you give over trust to someone in a social setting like the Purple Thistle, then most people will rise to the occasion and do well by each other and themselves. Think about yourself for a second: what does it feel like when someone thinks super well of you, and trusts you to do your best and all of that happens up front, without you having to “earn it” or “prove it”?  It can feel strange and scary for sure, but it can and does feel incredibly freeing, and make you feel capable, too.

Giving folks, and especially young folks that trust up front is a terrific and important place to start. In fact, I think it’s the most important foundation for a strong and caring community. I am not talking about the kind of trust you would build over time in your long-term core relationships, but something more in line with care and respect, like friendship. I think without a starting place of trust, our foundations are weak, and then all kinds of problems can grow from that lack of trust in each other.  In contrast, when I’m trusted, I do better: I’m going to step up and do well by that trust.  So, I think starting with something simple like: “I trust that the folks who I am working with will do their best” is a terrific place to begin to rethink our practices and the ways we treat each other.

 But what does that look like? It happens in all kinds of subtle ways, and it’s relational.  A concrete example that separates the Thistle from many other youth projects is that each youth on the collective has keys to the space and are free to use them anytime. The youth don’t have to go through some big formal interview process, or sign over their life to have a set.  A lot of bureaucratic procedures like this are really based in distrust, I think. We just ask that if you’re new to the space, to just hang out a bit and get to know us first — and sometimes, you get the keys on your first night there. This little practice—along with others based on trusting people up front—help create wonderful environment of shared trust and kindness, a space filled with friendship where people are supporting each other.

At the Thistle, what I have noticed is that this kind of trust gives us an ability to be brave, to try new things, to take a chance and to be vulnerable.  This kind of trust in each other doesn’t mean we don’t mess up, no, in fact, it actually means we fail sometimes, but that failing happens with a lot of support and care!  With a foundation of trust, we are free to learn, to grow and to do the best we can.  And at the Thistle, that sometimes means causing some good, decent trouble.

with friendship! carla

youngunz!

Savanna Todd is our first Featured Artists and we are thrilled to show you all her work.

Teen Daydream: works from the sketchbooks and bedroom of Savanna Todd

The opening and coffee house will be Saturday, March 29th, 7 pm- 9 pm

• everyone welcome and it’s free!
• there will be snax, good music, inspiring art, and rad folks — oh, and some special signature gluten free cup cakes!

about the show, by Savanna:

“This collection of line drawings, paintings and textile pieces include parts of a body of work that I’ve been working on over the past two years. The installation piece was made specifically for this show.

I am super grateful to be part of the Thistle and to be able to hone my skills there, to meet rad folks, learn from each other and do this show! Thanks to Kristin, the Thistle collective, my family and friends for supporting me to do this fucking rad and complicated work!

I really loved choosing the layout of the exhibition in conjunction with the message I am hoping to convey. Art is weird. I hope you enjoy this show, feel a bit challenged by it and leave with some questions!”

– savanna

The LOVABLE Photography Project: The Story!

I’m Sylvia and I am the founder of the Lovable photography project. Before I talk about that I thought I would share the story of how i got into photography!

My history with photography starts at The Purple Thistle Centre. I was part of the Thistle’s first-run skills link program, Dream Seeds back in 2006. At the time, I was 16. I managed to save up enough money to buy my first camera — A Canon XTi with a 17-55mm kit lens, both cost me just over $1000 dollars. Quickly after I purchased that camera, I started getting gigs shooting concerts, helping friends with headshots, etc. I found that everyone needed a photographer for something.  I also found that my time and photographs were becoming in higher and higher demand, which was exciting!

(photo by Carla Bergman)

Throughout 2007, I started taking a few informal photography classes at the Purple Thistle — I learned to develop film, and shoot with a variety of non-digital and digital cameras.

Soon after that, I started mentoring photography to youth both at the Purple Thistle and at Windsor House School.  Mentoring and skill sharing at both these spaces allowed me to really hone in on my love for photography and my skills.

(Spinnerette photo by Sylvia)

I was also one of the founders of the zine project, RAIN (radical art in nature), and my photographs are in every issue to date.  I also took photos of the musicians and artists that we interviewed and wrote for the RAIN blog, including being a photographer at the Folk Festival as part of the press.

Other notable gigs for me have been shooting some of my favourite musicians, Queens of the Stone Age, Spinnerette, as well as shooting various fashion events, athletes, actors headshots & much much more.

(Emily Haines photo by Sylvia McFadden 2009)

I’ve also spent a lot of time over the last little while doing work in the fibre arts, mostly as a knitwear designer. Through that work, I started photographing my knitwear designs, and the designs of others, and have been widely published in both print and online media. Most recently I was published in Pom Pom Quarterly’s Spring Edition 2014.

(The Lonely Tree Shawl & Late August by Sylvia McFadden 2013)

This journey has been filled with incredible folks and a ton of learning.

In 2013 I decided to take a couple of photography courses through Langara, thinking I would take away some of the skills that I might have missed being primarily self-taught. Hah, that didn’t happen, what it did do was help me realize how far i’ve come as a photographer — could have easily have taught those classes and that realization was well worth the cost!

Alongside all the photography I’ve done I’ve always had an interest in smashing patriarchy, and reimaging beauty ideals. LOVABLE was just a natural progression of all these trains of thought. A class for young women (like me), where we talk about patriarchy and beauty but also just learn really concrete photography skills in the process.

(photo by Kristin Lantz)

I’m happy to say that LOVABLE did all that and more!

Thanks everyone who was involved in this process, Carla Bergman, Vivienne McMaster, Krisztina Kun, Joi Arcand, Kristin Lantz and all the love(able) women artists!

check out the Lovable Photgraphy exhibition at the Heartwood Community Cafe from Jan 27- March 31st!

The opening party is on Thursday, February 13 at 7 pm.

thanks for reading!

Sylvia

(photo by Vivienne McMaster 2013)

Sylvia’s Flickr

**

More about LOVABLE:

The lead mentor and visionary behind Lovable is Sylvia McFadden, who worked with a crew of talented mentors that shared their skills and passion with the young women artist throughout the eight-week program. Thanks to Carla Bergman, Vivienne McMaster, Krisztina Kun, Kristin Lantz and Joi Arcand.
This Lovable show is from the first run of the project, which was held at the Purple Thistle Centre last fall and was curated by Sylvia, Kristin and Carla.

The young-women artists are: Joanna, Savanna, Charlotte, Ailish, Ady, Michelle, Sophia & Emma!

A special thanks to the Purple Thistle Collective, Arts In Action, Heartwood Community Cafe, Youth Philanthropy Council, BC Arts Council and Central City Foundation.

Saturday, Feb 15: 1-4 pm we will be running : Journal Making using Medieval Bookbinding Technique!
This three hour workshop will show you how to make a journal using one of many historical techniques and a few simple modern tools. This workshop is free. All materials are provided. Please RSVP to book a spot. There are only 5 spots! suzan@slhk.com
Instructor is Suzan Lee

A community restaurant, GRAZE! has offered to host a fundraising dinner for us at the Thistle! details below — thanks!

Dine at Graze Restaurant on February 18th, and we will donate 20% of all dinner sales to Purple Thistle Centre!*
All you have to do is make a reservation referencing the Purple Thistle and enjoy a fabulous meal!

*To make your reservation please call: 604-620-8822

Thank you so much for all of your support!

the facebook event page is here:https://www.facebook.com/events/578899965538280/?notif_t=plan_user_joined

(check out their website because they are always looking for community partners to do this with!)

Curation!

Did you know that on every Thursday during drop in hours, (430-7 pm) you can come in and visit our resident curator, Kristin? she is super friendly and rad and she will be there to talk and share skills about all things art and curation! it’s called “curation basics with Kristin” open to all! contact Kristin for more details!

              Youngunz…it’s back.

The Purple Thistle Centre will be holding space for their infamous Youngunz Program between January 26^th to June 22^th, 2014.

 If you are between the ages of 10 – 14 (ish) or know anyone who is in that age group who would like to hang out once a week for a couple hours to make, break, learn, forget and create a smattering of arty projects, this may be right up your alley!

 Youngunz is a weekly 2 hour workshop (some may be longer, ie full days*) aiming to match the groups interests with clever mentors from the art world who are excited to share their passion and skills with us. This is not a drop in program and due to space limitations a maximum of 12 people will be admitted…however, a waitlist can be created if need be.

We will host a coffee house to exhibit the amazing work these younguns produce (date TBA)

The Nuts and Bolts

 The Time:  Sunday afternoons 3 – 5, btw Jan. 26^th  – June 29^th

The Place: The Purple Thistle (although we may venture out on occasion but will always keep you informed)

 To Sign up:  easy, just contact Anita (details below) and let her know you are interested and your age!

 The Cost: Sliding scale between 40 – 60 $/mo* (covers the once a week 2 hour sessions**, mentors, food and supplies)

 How to pay?

1) at the beginning of each month (cash or cheque)

2) one cheque for the entire duration

3) post dated cheques

 cheques payable to The Purple Thistle Centre

Contacts:

Anita Olson; anita.olson@gmail.com

Savanna Todd; savannatodd99@yahoo.ca

*

** we won’t turn anyone away for lack of funds, so please contact us no matter what!

** costs may be added on for full day workshops

 All youngunz members can access other programs at the purple thistle. (see schedule for details, www.purplethistle.ca)

**

youngunz!