Everyday textiles are a rich source of data about the past but are rarely what is on display to the public or featured in documentaries or popular texts. They are, however, a rich source of data concerning everyday dress in places like the north coast of Peru and the closest analogue type of textiles we use in modern society in our daily lives.

This online talk will explore the materials and methods of archaeological textile analysis and speak to our current relationship with textile production, use and consumption.

You can register at Eventbrite here!

Dr. Flannery Surette joined Okanagan College in Fall 2019 where she teaches introductory archaeology, biological anthropology, and cultural anthropology along with specialty courses focusing on women cross-culturally, culture and the environment, the anthropology of art and archaeology of the Americas. She specializes in the archaeology of the Peruvian Andes where she studies the development of weaving and spinning and other fibre technologies, the formation of identities in early Andean states, and the transmission of this knowledge over time. She is also interested in the anthropology of art, contemporary fibre artisans, experimental archaeology and the development of pedagogical materials for anthropology. In her free time, she is a weaver and spinner and a member of the Ponderosa Spinners, Weavers and Fibre Artists Guild of Kelowna, B.C.

This Alternator Chat is part of Weaving Together: Sustainability, a partner project between the Cool Arts Society, Alternator Centre for Contemporary Art, Kelowna Art Gallery, and Ponderosa Fibre Arts Guild in Kelowna, BC.

This is the second annual Weaving Together series, which brings to the forefront sustainable fibre art practices. Engaging the community to demonstrate accountability to the environment, show a coming-together through a variety of activities: online chats, essays, videos, in person workshops, and hands on community weaving opportunities. For more information on Weaving Together, visit Cool Arts Society.

This Alternator Chat will be recorded and archived on our website.

Everett Wong is an artist and maker with a speciality in textiles and sculpture. His predominate skill set lie within the realms of knitting and garment design, print, painting and soft sculpture. He is a BFA graduate from the University of Victoria in 2011. He majored in painting, costume design and screen-printing, culminating in a multimedia textile based practice. Everett has a bold passion for combining colour and textures in vibrant and unorthodox methodology.

Everett is also a recent graduate from the Royal College of Art in London U.K, with a Masters in Fashion Menswear- Knitwear design. He has worked along side prestigious collaborations with costume designer Sandy Powell, academic Emmanuelle Dirix and esteemed fashion designers such as Sarah Dallas, Erika Knight and Sid Bryan. His master's thesis was a suffusion of knitwear, exuberant craftsmanship and a dose of political and cultural satire. He currently resides in Victoria, British Columbia.

You can register at Eventbrite here!

This Alternator Chat is part of Weaving Together: Sustainability, a partner project between the Cool Arts Society, Alternator Centre for Contemporary Art, Kelowna Art Gallery, and Ponderosa Fibre Arts Guild in Kelowna, BC.

This is the second annual Weaving Together series, which brings to the forefront sustainable fibre art practices. Engaging the community to demonstrate accountability to the environment, show a coming-together through a variety of activities: online chats, essays, videos, in person workshops, and hands on community weaving opportunities. For more information on Weaving Together, visit Cool Arts Society.

This Alternator Chat will be recorded and archived on our website.

Come and join Britta Fluevog, the radical weaver, in her chat at the Alternator as she leads a discussion on how we survive/escape/tear down the oppressive system of capitalism that we live in. We as a society are unable to address pressing issues: climate change; equitable world vaccination; the migrant crisis; terrible working conditions in international companies in third world countries; our reliance on oil - capitalism is the root cause of all of these problems. Without Neo-liberal capitalism blocking these issues, they might be a challenge, but not next to impossible. How can companies have so much power? How is it possible that corporations have more rights than humans? What can we do to change this system?

It is hard to get people to change a system in which they are used to and comfortable with - especially when they have bought into the lie that capitalism has always been like this - that it is not something that is ever evolving and becoming ever more entrenched into our lives. How can we open people's eyes?

Has the pandemic changed how people view capitalism? Can we use this to our advantage?

Britta Fluevog will give a short introduction to her art practice and asks participants to do the same. Please bring along one image or short clip of either your own artwork or other's work to help introduce yourself. And bring yourself - your ideas, passions, questions, problems. The conversation will evolve and grow with the participants. Join us as we tackle capitalism.

You can register at Eventbrite here!

This Alternator Chat is part of Weaving Together: Sustainability, a partner project between the Cool Arts Society, Alternator Centre for Contemporary Art, Kelowna Art Gallery, and Ponderosa Fibre Arts Guild in Kelowna, BC.

This is the second annual Weaving Together series, which brings to the forefront sustainable fibre art practices. Engaging the community to demonstrate accountability to the environment, show a coming-together through a variety of activities: online chats, essays, videos, in person workshops, and hands on community weaving opportunities. For more information on Weaving Together, visit Cool Arts Society.

This Alternator Chat will be recorded and archived on our website.

What does end-of-life look like for our once-precious but quickly abandoned electronic companions? Where do our phones, computers, tablets, satellites and hard-drives go when we part with them? What happens to them when they enter the waste stream? What if they were given an opportunity to sprout, spawn, and spread?

As a person who collects unwanted technologies through misguided empathy justified with the practice of artmaking, I continually ask myself and others these questions. These tangible objects once enabled our access to the intangible expanse of the Internet, connectivity to friends and family, and provided a gateway to the data that comprises our memories, observations and research. Are these moments, connections, and memories still somehow stored inside the wires and circuits that comprise our devices? How do these unseeable and unknowable histories contribute meaning to the materials that are left behind? How can the significance of their service be recognized and remembered through the process of art making? What potential does electronic waste hold as a material for artistic production?

Explore all of these topics and more with Twyla Exner. You can register at Eventbrite here!

This Alternator Chat is part of Weaving Together: Sustainability, a partner project between the Cool Arts Society, Alternator Centre for Contemporary Art, Kelowna Art Gallery, and Ponderosa Fibre Arts Guild in Kelowna, BC.

This is the second annual Weaving Together series, which brings to the forefront sustainable fibre art practices. Engaging the community to demonstrate accountability to the environment, show a coming-together through a variety of activities: online chats, essays, videos, in person workshops, and hands on community weaving opportunities. For more information on Weaving Together, visit Cool Arts Society.

Twyla Exner is a Canadian artist inspired by the wonders of nature and the idea of electronic technologies gone awry. She uses the materials and imagery of discarded electronic technologies as a departure towards wonderous and worrisome installations, sculptures and drawings that propose hybrids of technological structures and living organisms. Twyla currently resides as a visitor on the unceded traditional territory of the Lheidli T'enneh in the forest of north-central British Columbia.

Twyla holds a BFA from the University of Regina (Regina, SK) and a MFA from Concordia University (Montreal, QC). She is a part-time faculty member at Sheridan College (Oakville, ON) and Emily Carr University (Vancouver, BC). She has held artist residencies with Herschel Supply Co. Gastown (Vancouver, BC) and Omineca Arts Center (Prince George, BC). She is the recipient of numerous grants from Canada Council for the Arts, BC Arts Council, Alberta Foundation for the Arts and Saskatchewan Arts. Her works have been exhibited in Canada and the USA including at the Appalachian Center for Craft (Tennessee, USA), Dunlop Art Gallery (Regina, SK), Art Mûr (Montreal, QC), and VIVO (Vancouver, BC). Twyla’s artworks are in numerous public collections including the Royal BC Museum (Victoria, BC), Saskatchewan Arts (Regina, SK) and the Kamloops Art Gallery (Kamloops, BC).

This Alternator Chat will be recorded and archived on our website.

We are excited to announce that we will be resuming the Alternator Chats in the new year with a series dedicated to professional artistic development. The 2021 winter series are all about helping you reach your 2021 art-related new year’s resolutions and goals!

Artists and creatives from all disciplines and stages of their careers are invited to participate in ZOOM sessions taking place on Thursdays from 5-6 p.m. from January 7 - February 25, 2021. This eight-part series will provide an opportunity to connect with artists and professionals around topics such as grant and proposal writing, ways to maintain an art-life balance, selling your artwork, and tax tips for artists.

These free, informal sessions are ideal for those who are interested in learning more about logistic and practical matters involved in being an artist -- the things they don’t necessarily teach you in school, and provide an opportunity to learn how your peers are coping, and to share techniques and frustrations of being a working artist. 

Its tax season, and the Alternator’s Treasurer, Kathy Chin (MTax) will provide tax tips for artists to consider when filling out taxes, and answer any tax-related questions.*

This session is ideal for working artists or arts organizations filing file taxes related to their artistic practice(s). For instance, What kinds of income and expenses should be included? When do you need a GST number? Are there any tax considerations in 2020 that artists should be aware of due to COVID 19?

*Please note, due to privacy and legal considerations, specific questions and information regarding an individual or organizations’ specific filing will not be addressed in this session.

Facilitated by Kathy Chin

Not able to make it to this event? Don't worry, this Alternator Chat will be recorded and archived for Alternator Members.

You can register at Eventbrite here!

We are excited to announce that we will be resuming the Alternator Chats in the new year with a series dedicated to professional artistic development. The 2021 winter series are all about helping you reach your 2021 art-related new year’s resolutions and goals!

Artists and creatives from all disciplines and stages of their careers are invited to participate in ZOOM sessions taking place on Thursdays from 5-6 p.m. from January 7 - February 25, 2021. This eight-part series will provide an opportunity to connect with artists and professionals around topics such as grant and proposal writing, ways to maintain an art-life balance, selling your artwork, and tax tips for artists.

These free, informal sessions are ideal for those who are interested in learning more about logistic and practical matters involved in being an artist -- the things they don’t necessarily teach you in school, and provide an opportunity to learn how your peers are coping, and to share techniques and frustrations of being a working artist. 

Join us for an artist talk with Aileen Bahmanipour, Godfre Leung and Yasmine Haiboub in a discussion about her practice and exhibition Wasting Techniques, exhibiting at the Alternator Centre for Contemporary Art from January 29 - March 13, 2021.

This Alternator Chat will be recorded and archived on our website.

This Alternator Chat will be recorded and made available on our website.

You can register at Eventbrite here!

We are excited to announce that we will be resuming the Alternator Chats in the new year with a series dedicated to professional artistic development. The 2021 winter series are all about helping you reach your 2021 art-related new year’s resolutions and goals!

Artists and creatives from all disciplines and stages of their careers are invited to participate in ZOOM sessions taking place on Thursdays from 5-6 p.m. from January 7 - February 25, 2021. This eight-part series will provide an opportunity to connect with artists and professionals around topics such as grant and proposal writing, ways to maintain an art-life balance, selling your artwork, and tax tips for artists.

These free, informal sessions are ideal for those who are interested in learning more about logistic and practical matters involved in being an artist -- the things they don’t necessarily teach you in school, and provide an opportunity to learn how your peers are coping, and to share techniques and frustrations of being a working artist. 

CARFAC is a Canadian non-profit organization established in 1968 “to promote the visual arts in Canada, to promote a socio-economic climate that is conducive to the production of visual arts in Canada, and to conduct research and engage in public education for these purposes”. As the national voice of Canada’s professional visual artists, CARFAC defends artists’ economic and legal rights and educates the public on fair dealing with artists.

This session is ideal for artists with emerging practices who are interested in learning about CARFAC and the tools and resources they have available to support your rights as artists and navigate topics such as artist fees, legal rights, issues of copyright and appropriation.

This Alternator Chat will be recorded and made available on our website.

You can register at Eventbrite here!

We are excited to announce that we will be resuming the Alternator Chats in the new year with a series dedicated to professional artistic development. The 2021 winter series are all about helping you reach your 2021 art-related new year’s resolutions and goals!

Artists and creatives from all disciplines and stages of their careers are invited to participate in ZOOM sessions taking place on Thursdays from 5-6 p.m. from January 7 - February 25, 2021. This eight-part series will provide an opportunity to connect with artists and professionals around topics such as grant and proposal writing, ways to maintain an art-life balance, selling your artwork, and tax tips for artists.

These free, informal sessions are ideal for those who are interested in learning more about logistic and practical matters involved in being an artist -- the things they don’t necessarily teach you in school, and provide an opportunity to learn how your peers are coping, and to share techniques and frustrations of being a working artist. 

There is no one way to be an artist or to make a living as an artist. This Alternator Chat features discussion and Q&A with Alternator Members who have diverse practices, and are making a living by selling their artwork, including Sheldon Pierre Louis, Jolene Mackie and Anetta Sidorowicz (Turiya the Fourth).

Please note: Participation is limited to 20 people.

You can register at Eventbrite here!

We are excited to announce that we will be resuming the Alternator Chats in the new year with a series dedicated to professional artistic development. The 2021 winter series are all about helping you reach your 2021 art-related new year’s resolutions and goals!

Artists and creatives from all disciplines and stages of their careers are invited to participate in ZOOM sessions taking place on Thursdays from 5-6 p.m. from January 7 - February 25, 2021. This eight-part series will provide an opportunity to connect with artists and professionals around topics such as grant and proposal writing, ways to maintain an art-life balance, selling your artwork, and tax tips for artists.

These free, informal sessions are ideal for those who are interested in learning more about logistic and practical matters involved in being an artist -- the things they don’t necessarily teach you in school, and provide an opportunity to learn how your peers are coping, and to share techniques and frustrations of being a working artist. 

How do you balance making money to survive and artistic endeavours?

This Alternator Chat aims to provide some insight into this age-old question for artists and provide an opportunity for artists to share techniques, frustrations and experiences. It is ideal for artists of all disciplines and stages in their careers.

Please note: Due to the conversational manner of this Alternator Chat, participation is limited to eight people. Participants are expected to be active participants in the discussion, and bring experiences, ideas and questions to share!

This Alternator Chat will not be recorded.

You can register at Eventbrite here!

We are excited to announce that we will be resuming the Alternator Chats in the new year with a series dedicated to professional artistic development. The 2021 winter series are all about helping you reach your 2021 art-related new year’s resolutions and goals!

Artists and creatives from all disciplines and stages of their careers are invited to participate in ZOOM sessions taking place on Thursdays from 5-6 p.m. from January 7 - February 25, 2021. This eight-part series will provide an opportunity to connect with artists and professionals around topics such as grant and proposal writing, ways to maintain an art-life balance, selling your artwork, and tax tips for artists.

These free, informal sessions are ideal for those who are interested in learning more about logistic and practical matters involved in being an artist -- the things they don’t necessarily teach you in school, and provide an opportunity to learn how your peers are coping, and to share techniques and frustrations of being a working artist. 

How do you balance making money to survive and artistic endeavours?

This Alternator Chat aims to provide some insight into this age-old question for artists and provide an opportunity for artists to share techniques, frustrations and experiences. It is ideal for artists of all disciplines and stages in their careers.

Please note: Due to the conversational manner of this Alternator Chat, participation is limited to eight people. Participants are expected to be active participants in the discussion, and bring experiences, ideas and questions to share!

This Alternator Chat will not be recorded.

You can register at Eventbrite here!

We are excited to announce that we will be resuming the Alternator Chats in the new year with a series dedicated to professional artistic development. The 2021 winter series are all about helping you reach your 2021 art-related new year’s resolutions and goals!

Artists and creatives from all disciplines and stages of their careers are invited to participate in ZOOM sessions taking place on Thursdays from 5-6 p.m. from January 7 - February 25, 2021. This eight-part series will provide an opportunity to connect with artists and professionals around topics such as grant and proposal writing, ways to maintain an art-life balance, selling your artwork, and tax tips for artists.

These free, informal sessions are ideal for those who are interested in learning more about logistic and practical matters involved in being an artist -- the things they don’t necessarily teach you in school, and provide an opportunity to learn how your peers are coping, and to share techniques and frustrations of being a working artist. 

As an artist-run centre, the Alternator provides a community for artists who are interested in taking their first steps to exhibit their artwork and connecting with other artists and getting feedback from peers and professionals. Learn about opportunities for our members to develop their practices and connect with other artists, including the Members’ Gallery, Studio 111, the Alternator ArtMart, and partnering with the Alternator on projects and events.

Facilitated by Moozhan Ahmadzadegan

This Alternator Chat will be recorded and made available on our website.

You can register at Eventbrite here!

We are excited to announce that we will be resuming the Alternator Chats in the new year with a series dedicated to professional artistic development. The 2021 winter series are all about helping you reach your 2021 art-related new year’s resolutions and goals!

Artists and creatives from all disciplines and stages of their careers are invited to participate in ZOOM sessions taking place on Thursdays from 5-6 p.m. from January 7 - February 25, 2021. This eight-part series will provide an opportunity to connect with artists and professionals around topics such as grant and proposal writing, ways to maintain an art-life balance, selling your artwork, and tax tips for artists.

These free, informal sessions are ideal for those who are interested in learning more about logistic and practical matters involved in being an artist -- the things they don’t necessarily teach you in school, and provide an opportunity to learn how your peers are coping, and to share techniques and frustrations of being a working artist. 

The Alternator’s Artistic & Administrative Director Lorna McParland will provide an overview of the Alternator’s professional programming spaces, application materials, and answer questions about the application process.

This session is ideal for artists who are interested in submitting proposals to be considered as part of the Alternator’s 2022 professional programming schedule.

Facilitated by Lorna McParland

This Alternator Chat will be recorded and made available on our website.

You can register at Eventbrite here!

We are excited to announce that we will be resuming the Alternator Chats in the new year with a series dedicated to professional artistic development. The 2021 winter series are all about helping you reach your 2021 art-related new year’s resolutions and goals!

Artists and creatives from all disciplines and stages of their careers are invited to participate in ZOOM sessions taking place on Thursdays from 5-6 p.m. from January 7 - February 25, 2021. This eight-part series will provide an opportunity to connect with artists and professionals around topics such as grant and proposal writing, ways to maintain an art-life balance, selling your artwork, and tax tips for artists.

These free, informal sessions are ideal for those who are interested in learning more about logistic and practical matters involved in being an artist -- the things they don’t necessarily teach you in school, and provide an opportunity to learn how your peers are coping, and to share techniques and frustrations of being a working artist. 

Our first Alternator Chat of 2021 will be a Grant & Proposal Writing Q&A which will provide an overview of types of grants and project funding available to artists, including from the BC Arts Council, Canada Council, other public calls and residencies. This Chat is ideal for emerging artists who are interested in the logistic considerations of writing a proposal, including creating a budget, and timeline, and how to practice writing about your work. Alternator Chat: Grant & Proposal Writing Q&A will take place Thursday, January 8th and will be moderated by Gallery staff member Melany Nugent-Noble.

Please note: Due to the conversational manner of this Alternator Chat, participation is limited to eight people. Participants are expected to be active participants in the discussion, and bring experiences, ideas and questions to share! 

Not able to make it to this event? Don't worry, this Alternator Chat will be recorded and archived for Alternator Members.

You can register at Eventbrite here!