Getting Started
We took possession of the building that became Artword Artbar on July 31, 2009, and worked hard with Tanis Macarthur and Jon-Gordon Odegaard to be ready for September Art Crawl.
Our downstairs room we turned into a studio, and used it as a gallery space. Judith curated art shows, on roughly a monthly basis. We were happy to be part of the Art Crawl, when people would come to see the art, and then stay to hear the music.
October 3, Judith hung the first art show in the downstairs gallery: Steven McCabe, followed in November by Maureen Paxton and in December by Ellen Irving. There were 37 monthly art shows, until October 2014 (Dave Gould showing musical instrument sculptures made of bones). In 2014, Learie Mc Nicolls turned the downstairs space into a dance studio, and became Artword’s Choreographer in Residence.
Programming events at Artword Artbar has always been the work of Judith Sandiford. It’s a huge job selecting and scheduling performers, creating promotional materials for the website and calendar, and coordinating the performances. In ten years, there have been 1,454 separate events, including music, theatre, dance, poetry, spoken word, comedy and public meetings.
Theatre at the Lyric
However, we still thought of theatre as something that had to happen in a theatre. In 2012, when Patrick Brennan told us that he was renovating the old CHCH building into the Lyric Theatre, we were very excited. We gave him some of our equipment, and committed ourselves to four productions in the first season.
The productions went well, but it turned out that the building was really beyond repair. There was no second season.
Music
We expanded the stage, built a lighting grid out of black gas pipe, and pretty soon we had a nifty little theatre. Best of all, unlike most theatres, the audience could drink beer and wine while they watched.
Our personal tastes in music are very wide, so we had all kinds of music: country, bluegrass, singer-songwriter, classical and jazz. Not very much rock music, because Lou Molinari was doing a good job of that up the street at This Ain’t Hollywood.
Jazz really came to Artword thanks to students from the Mohawk music program, who needed a place to show what they could do. Although students, they were good musicians, and the jazz nights became popular. After a while, their teachers discovered us, and we had musicians of national and international stature. However, the students always remained an essential component, and it was our pleasure to watch them mature artistically and launch professional careers.
Artword Theatre Plays
Then we thought: do we really need a theatre? How about doing theatre productions at Artword Artbar?
In Artword Artbar we produced 10 Artword Theatre plays: James Street, MacBush: The Musical, Scroogissimo, Langston Hughes vs Joe McCarthy, The Man in the Vault, The Decision, Charly’s Piano, Cu’Fu, Transformation, and Trumpet Romance.
Guest Companies
We are proud also that we provided a home for other theatre companies: Swingin’ in St. John’s (Chasing Shadows Productions), Drinking, Fighting and Fishing (Julian Nicholson), The Rise of the Prickly Pear (Red Betty Theatre), The Lost Years (Peter Gruner), In the Belly and Know Your Enemy (Insurgent Theatre), The Keith Richards One Woman Show (Suitcase in Point Theatre), See Bob Run (Laura Ellis), Romeo and Juliet: An Escapist Comedy (Make Art Theatre), 23:30 (Mikey Henley), Draft Dodger (Ray Rivers).
With the theatre companies we followed the same policy as with musicians: we did not charge them rent, and they kept all of the box office. We covered our costs with bar sales. We participated in the Fringe Festival as a Bring Your Own Venue from 2015 to 2019. In 2014 we were the Fringe Club House.
Sky Gilbert
Sky Gilbert (founder of Buddies in Bad Times Theatre in Toronto) found a home for his Hammer Theatre productions, producing seven plays at Artword Artbar: Cheri, Princess, Toller, Bungalow, Naked Hamilton, An Evening with Lucky Jim Lacroix and Hamilton Bus Stop.
Dance
We’ve always had a fondness for dance. We hosted 15 evenings of improvised dance and music called Behind the Kiln, organized by Tanis Macarthur, and 12 Big Dance Little Stage events, organized by Learie Mc Nichols. Features of these events were Judith Sandiford’s improvised multimedia projections.
In 2014, Learie Mc Nichols became Artword Theatre’s Resident Choreographer. His dance productions included Transformation (directed by Ronald Weihs), Once I Lived in the Box, The Parrot of Paradise, Seven Duets, Night Journey, and Fairy Tale. He choreographed productions of James Street and MacBush: The Musical. Learie also contributed jerk chicken dinners and Trinidad-style patties to the Artword Artbar menu.