Calgary artist shortlisted, E. coli is back in Edmonton, Saskatoon’s Egg Money, and Winnipeg community club wants controversial fire hall
Jason De Haan at the 2010 Alberta Biennial
Jason De Haan, a multidisciplinary artist from Calgary, had found it difficult to lock down studio space to hone his craft, even if he is one of five artists shortlisted for the 2013 Sobey Art Award. The Sobey Award is akin to the Turner Prize in the United Kingdom. It is quite a great honour and includes a $50,000 prize to the winner.
While De Haan’s roots have been in Calgary for the past 10 years, the graduate of Alberta College of Art and Design has been bouncing back and forth to New York (where he has been completing his masters at Bard College), Toronto (where he is a part of a show featuring the Sobey Award shortlisted artists), and Norway where he was one of 22 artists on an expedition on a cruise to the edge of the North Pole in October.
After one of his temporary 50 studios was shut down in August, he was able to snag another one. He says it’s a cool building next to St. Stephen’s Church that was built in the 1920s. A bunch of plywood divides the space on the inside of this old and junky building and will be the home for this Calgary creator, at least for a while.
“I was kind of resigned to the fact that I’d end up in somebody’s garage, or something like that, so this is nice and serendipitous,” says De Haan.
Source:http://www.calgaryherald.com/entertainment/Calgary+artist+earns+spot+among+Canadians+Jason+Haan/7548816/story.html
E. coli in Edmonton
Holy cow! Another case of E. coli has been confirmed in Edmonton that shares the same genetic strain of 17 previous illnesses related to beef products stemming from XL Foods. Health authorities are currently investigating.
More than 2,000 products from XL Foods were pulled from store shelves in September and October as a result of the biggest meat recall in Canadian history. This new case was confirmed on Wednesday by the Public Health Agency of Canada. It is the eighth to occur in Alberta since E. coli was discovered in products from the Edmonton-based company. There have also been six cases in Quebec, three in British Columbia and one in Newfoundland and Labrador.
The most recent case involves someone in Edmonton, who became ill on or about Oct. 15 after eating beef that had been purchased earlier and stored in the freezer, says John Muir a spokesman for Alberta Health Minister Fred Horne. Six people have required hospitalization, 10 of the people afflicted have been men and victims range from the age of five to 63.
Source: http://www.edmontonjournal.com/health/Another+coli+case+confirmed+Edmonton/7549628/story.html
Saskatoon’s Egg Money sculpture
Many of the sculptures that stand in your city have a great story behind them, and Egg Money is no exception. It depicts a bronze boy and girl, and what one can assume to be their mother feeding five chickens. Around these figures are names engraved in granite blocks.
The names on these granite blocks belong to 24 real Saskatchewan pioneer women, who came to our province in the late 1800s and early 1900s from Europe and North America. They represent a number of ethnic backgrounds such as Russian, Ukrainian, Swedish, Scottish, Norwegian, Hungarian, American, British, French, and German.
To compliment this statue a group of four women from the German Days Committee put together a book also called Egg Money. The lives of these ordinary, yet extraordinary women are recalled by their families and celebrated in this book along with a settlement map for each story. The Egg Money book can be purchased in bookstores across the province or ordered from the publishers, DriverWorks Ink. Regina
Grosvenor fire hall
There has been a lot of controversy about what will be done with the Grosvenor fire hall, which was one of three buildings involved in a land swap before the city’s deal with Shindico went sour. Now the Corydon Community Club wants a piece of the action.
Sir John Franklin Community Centre, which belongs to the Corydon Community Club, is located directly south of the former station. They could use the land to expand their home soccer field to regulation size, says community club president Pat O’Connor.
“Smaller kids can play on smaller fields, but as you get the older ages, you need to have security and the safety zones around the fields,” O’Connor said.
If the community club’s wish was granted, the bus loop that currently runs around the fire hall around would have to be relocated.
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Chadd Cawson is an intern at Spectator Tribune. Follow him at: @ChaddCawson
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