2010 City of Kitchener Artist In Residence Announced
Press Release originally from City of Kitchener web site
November 18, 2009

Landscape and the Grand River will be the main feature in Stefan Rose’s work as the City of Kitchener artist-in-residence for 2010.

Rose, a Waterloo artist, was recently appointed by city council.

He has designed a program of photography, poetry and video to explore the effects of landscape and geography on people’s community-building experiences.

The year-long program, entitled “Grand River: Grand Conversations,” will be showcased in a number of locations, including the Rotunda Gallery, and inside Grand River Transit buses in conjunction with Earth Day. The photographs and poems, including the bus exhibits and other text, will be interpreted as a booklet for distribution at library branches, and as a PDF file for distribution through the internet later in the year.

"The Grand River is as important to the lives of 21st century residents as it was to the original settlers of Berlin," said Cheryl York, arts and culture co-ordinator for the City of Kitchener. "It will be exciting to see how this project develops a relationship between art and environment."

In addition, a video of the Grand River will be created for exhibition on the Cube, on the Berlin Tower at city hall. Throughout the program, Rose will organize artist talks, engage in conversation with residents about their experiences with the river, and conduct two photo critique sessions for the public.

“I am interested in the way that landscape and geography inform a community’s identity,” said Rose. “How do sometimes inaccessible waterways connect to the Grand River and the nearby inhabitants?”

“I'm interested in hearing from Kitchener residents why the Grand River is significant to them; e-mail can be sent to GrandConversations [at] live [dot] ca,” Rose explains. “I hope to initiate conversations that will be reflected in the creation of photographic images, poetry and video, that can be placed in various settings within the community.”

Rose, who was born in Leeds, England, and immigrated to Canada in 1977, is interested in creative and documentary forms, using photography, videography, and poetry. He uses a large-format banquet camera, among others, for his creative work.

Fourteen artists responded to the call for applications for the 2010 program. On October 15, the Public Art Working Group met to review the submissions and select an artist. Criteria for selection were:

Demonstrated artistic excellence in the artist’s practice;

Strength/professionalism of the submission;

Relationship of the artist’s proposed workshops and programming to this diverse community; and

Proposed program’s potential to build meaningful exchange between artists and citizens.

The Public Art Working Group selected two artists whose proposals were equally compelling. The group accommodated both artists, assigning appointments in successive years.

Sean Puckett’s “A Portrait of Kitchener” will be accommodated in the 2011 artist-in-residence program.

More information about activities and events is available at the Grand River: Grand Conversations blog (opens in new window).

Some images of the bus panels and photographs are on this site.

You can download a copy of the full Grand River: Grand Conversations catalogue in Adobe .PDF format on this site. It's high-quality, 14Mb in size, and opens in a new window (or right-click and select Save Target As, to save it to your computer).