ArtwordBlog

Today we learned of the death on December 30, 2009, of our dear friend and colleague Barbara Caruso. Barbara’s life-long passion, rigour and commitment to her painting and drawing was a constant source of amazement and inspiration to me. [posted by Judith Sandiford]

Below is the obituary that will appear in the Brantford Expositor on Saturday.   “Barbara Caruso of Paris, Ontario died of cancer in Brantford General Hospital on December 30th, 2009 after a two and a half month illness. She was born in Kincardine, Ontario in 1937. Survived by Nelson Ball, her husband of 44 years, her sisters Joan Caruso and Rosemary Eckert of Toronto and by nieces and nephews, she was predeceased by her parents Tom and Rose Caruso and her sister Thomasina Merritt of Kincardine. Barbara Caruso was a visual artist who dedicated her life to painting, drawing and print making. She was a writer on art and the author of two volumes of memoirs. Barbara is missed by her family, friends in Paris, and by friends in the visual arts and writing communities across Canada and abroad. Cremation has taken place. Memorial donations may be made to a charity of your choice through the Wm. Kipp Funeral Home, Paris (519) 442-3061 or www.wmkippfuneralhome.com”

Artword’s new project, Artword Artbar and Artword Gallery, at 15 Colbourne Street, Hamilton, will have its doors open during the James North Arts Crawl Friday Aug 14, for a preview peek. There will be music, dance, projections, inside and out on the street.
Things are moving along. Our baby grand piano is coming from Toronto on Monday Aug 17. Watch for our official opening coming soon.
Check the website for event updates: www.artword.net/artbar

On April 15, two members of the audience for the first preview of Tobacco Troubadour turned out to be undercover by-law enforcement officers, out to bust Gary Santucci and Barbara Milne for running a theatre and an art gallery!This nefarious enterprise, by the way, is located in a neighbourhood notorious throughout Hamilton for crack houses and prostitution.Well, I guess you have to start somewhere!

I must say that I feel rather sick to my stomach, thinking of how Judith welcomed them to our play, performed by local actors, based on songs written and played by Hamilton musicians, telling the story of farmers in Ontario’s tobacco belt.

For some information on what The Pearl is doing for Hamilton, check out the video Hamilton Arts and Heritage, made for the Hamilton Economic Summit held last week. More »

For over thirteen years, Artword has been proudly not not-for-profit.
On January 11, we received our letters patent for a Federal not-for-profit corporation called “Artword Cultural Projects”.

All this took a little longer than expected. There were hiccups. One was that our request to use the name”Artword” was initially rejected, even though we have been operating as Artword Theatre for over thirteen years. There is a graphic design studio called “Artwords” that has been a neighbour for years, first on Wellington and now at 525 Adelaide Street West. The owner kindly wrote a letter on our behalf, saying that he did not object to our use of the name. More »