News

New Dramatic Arts Program for Youth in Kingston Starting this October!

David Sherwin Leave a comment

Starting October 21st, Faith and Arts Ottawa, in partnership with Sydenham Street United Church – The Spire, will be launching a new dramatic arts program for youth (ages 14 to 18) in the Kingston (Ontario) area called “Sharing Stories”.

This 8-week, dramatic theatre workshop program, centers on the experiences of youth and their questions of identity, spirituality and community.

At each Sunday evening workshop, there will be a shared meal (for the first hour) followed by a two (2) hour theatrical workshop.

Cost: It’s FREE!

When: Sunday evenings, starting October 21st, from 5:00 to 8:00 p.m.

Where: Sydenham Street United Church, at 82 Sydenham Street (at Sydenham and William).

Want to register? Need more information? Email the Administrator of Faith and Arts Ottawa, Ashley, at faithandartsottawa@gmail.com OR email the Director of the Program, Rosemary Nolan, at rosemary.margaret.nolan@gmail.com

Register before October 17th! Spaces are limited.

Sharing Stories v2 (2)

Faith and Arts Ottawa presents “Hope?” this April

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This month, Faith and Arts Ottawa presents their 5th documentary theatre production called “Hope?”.

Beginning with chapters 5 and 6 of Tom Sherwood’s book, Listening to The Echo, as their springboard, the diverse members of the company interacted with the source material and each other to create a new 35-minute piece called “Hope?” which will be followed by a moderated audience-cast talk back session.

Through a variety of voices, “Hope?” explores how hope is found in moments of despair, and how faith helps or hinders us in this journey.

Join us at one of our three presentations of this show:

Join us and explore, what gives you hope?

Spirit Talks Starts in January 2018!

David Sherwin Leave a comment

Faith and Arts Ottawa is launching its fifth documentary theatre workshop series for young adults and adults in January 2018. This workshop series will be led by award-winning actor, playwright and director Eleanor Crowder.

Spirit Talks is an amateur theatre project related to spirituality, religion and young adults. Working with the real words of young adults from Tom Sherwood’s book, Listening to The Echo, interested participants will reflect alone, in pairs and in larger groups to develop monologues, dialogues, skits and choruses that wrestle with the questions and issues that interest them.

Workshop dates: Sunday evenings in January 2018, from 6-9 p.m. (6-7 p.m. dinner and community building; 7-9 p.m. theatre workshop)

January 7th, 14th, 21st, 28th,
February 4th, 11th, 18th, 25th,
March 4th, 11th, 18th and 25th

How can I join? Register for Spirit Talks online or email faithandartsottawa@gmail.com. Sign-up by January 5, 2018!

Got a question? Contact Ashley, our administrator, at faithandartsottawa@gmail.com.

2nd Annual Artistic Expressions Studio Art Show

David Sherwin Leave a comment

The amazing artists of the Artistic Expressions Studio are holding their second annual show and exhibit, with special concerts and panel discussion to complement the art they have prepared.

Here are the details:

The Artistic Expressions Studio is holding its 2nd annual ART EXHIBIT. The public is invited to view the work of these artists and attend events presented by Special Guests of the Studio on Nov. 13 and 14, evenings, and Sat. afternoon, Nov. 16. The Special Guests include:

  • Nov. 13, 7-8 pm, in the sanctuary, The Centretown Brass Quintet, featuring Peter Crouch and Cameron Walker, trumpet, Michel Levasseur, french horn, Trevor Argue, trombone and Corey Rempel, tuba, performing a program of some jazz and blues standards and some original works for brass;
  • Nov. 14, 7 pm-9 pm, pianist William Blais of Ambient Melodies playing in the gallery;
  • Nov. 16, 1-3 p.m., in the sanctuary, a panel discussion, “Living the Dream – A Healthy Society for All” sponsored by the Douglas Coldwell Foundation. The panel will feature authors and physicians, Vincent Lam and Ryan Meili, and former MP and journalist Dennis Gruending.

    The Artistic Expressions Studio is a joint project of Centre 507 and Centretown United church. It’s purpose is to provide an equipped studio space to artists of our community living with a variety of serious challenges. These artists may frequent drop-ins, live in rooming houses, shelters or on the street. Despite these circumstances they are talented and serious artists and their work deserves to be exhibited, admired and collected. Following the events on Nov. 13th and 16th the audience is invited to view The Art Exhibit in the gallery. The Exhibit and all events and will be held at Centretown United Church, 507 Bank St. at Argyle. All events are free but donations to the Studio are welcome. For more information see centretownunited.org or centre507.org. Free parking is available at Glashan public school, 28 Arlington Ave.

Last year’s show was a huge success, this year it will be even better. Hope to see you there.

 

Partnerships: the name of the game

David Sherwin Leave a comment

Here’s how we define our Mission at Faith&Arts Ottawa:

“to engage people in deepening their spiritual lives by offering arts-based spiritual growth programs to the Ottawa community, and by creating a faith community of people committed to sharing their lives with one another. “

We have employed many art forms in pursuit of this mission: journaling, poetry, creative writing, music, sculpting, drama and more.  As we have grown our programs we have met a lot of wonderful people who share the vision and have offered their own gifts in partnership.

Like the amazing congregation of All Saints’ Anglican Church in Sandy Hill who have turned their former chapel into a fully equipped art studio and are partnering with Faith&Arts Ottawa to create the SpiritArt studio and SpiritArt program (www.spiritartprogram.ca).

Like Eleanor Crowder and Anna Lewis, two of the principals at the Bear & Company Theatre company (www.bearandcompany.org) who led our ‘god Monologues’ verbatim theatre project back in the spring of 2013.

And now, like Jonathan Harris and the good folk of the 9th Hour Theatre company (www.9th-hour.ca) who are partnering with us to create a remarkable piece of original theatre called “Grain of Salt.”  More about that later, but for now we are delighted to find kindred souls at 9th Hour, who define their mission this way:

“9th Hour Theatre Company exists to creatively engage the art of storytelling in order to explore, examine and express themes and questions of faith and spirituality, including the person and characteristics of God.”

With a Mission so closely aligned with Faith&Arts Ottawa’s, the only surprise is that it took over a year for us to seek one another out and begin collaborating.  Now that we have, and we are, you can look forward to lots of engaging, spiritually challenging theatre in the years to come.

New information on the site, and lots more on the way.

David Sherwin Leave a comment

As we roll out all our programs and events for the rest of 2013 and 2014 we will be adding new pages to this site.

You’ll find information about our new art studio and all the programs we’ll be offering there – created in partnership with All Saints’ Anglican church in Sandy Hill – under the “SpirtArt Program” tab.

You will be able to follow the development of our multi-year, multi-discipline, verbatim theate project under the “god Monologues” tab.

And we’ll be announcing more partnerships and more creative news in the weeks to come.

After months of low profile work, we are rolling out a truly unique and exciting palette of programs and events in the months ahead.  Let’s get creative!