Struts welcomes artist-in-residence

Struts Gallery and Faucet Media Arts Centre is welcoming Calgary artist Scott Rogers this week as the next open studio artist-in-residence.

Rogers will work on a variety of projects within the gallery from March 15 to April 17. The residency is supported by the New Brunswick Arts Board.

Rogers will be initiating an experimental collaborative residency and exhibition project entitled Instructions for a Members' Show. Stemming from current forms of social art practice and the legacy of conceptual art, the artist's residency investigates the structures and systems of artist-run culture, and the possibilities for collaboration and critique that develop out of these systems.

As part of the project, Rogers has solicited instructions for artworks from members of Struts Gallery that he will then produce through consultation with each artist over the course of the residency. These artworks need not be traditional works of art in any sense, and can encompass any form of creative activity no matter how ephemeral. In this way, Rogers will become a mediator for other artists' projects (somewhere between a curator and a fabricator), while simultaneously participating directly with the Sackville community.

Rogers will present an introductory artist talk at the gallery on Wednesday, March 17 at 5 p.m. Alongside the artworks that he is developing, he will also be facilitating film screenings, studio visits, a workshop, and a reading group that will run throughout the course of the residency.

Each of these events are intended to foster further dialogue around collaborative art, and help encourage an exchange of ideas regarding professional and personal development for artists. The entire project will culminate in a brief members exhibition taking place at Struts during the middle of April.

Information regarding the residency schedule will be available at the gallery. Please feel free to come and visit Rogers at any time and get involved with one or more of his residency projects.

Rogers is a Canadian visual artist who also writes about art and curates. He has exhibited his work nationally and internationally and has participated in artist residencies in the Yukon, Iceland, Berlin, Saskatoon, the Crowsnest Pass and at the Banff Centre. Additionally, he is a founding member of the collaborative suburban art project the Arbour Lake School and co-curates Pocket Projects (an artist multiples commissioning project) with Jason de Haan.

Rogers is also the recipient of grants from the Canada Council for the Arts and the Alberta Foundation for the Arts. Find out more about him at: www.scottrogersprojects.com.

For more information on Struts visit: www.strutsgallery.ca. You can contact the gallery at 536-1211 or email: info@strutsgallery.ca.