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A documentary by Laura Sky
Executive Producer: Cathy Crow

Presented by Workers Arts & Heritage Centre and SkyWorks Charitabe Foundation.

HOME SAFE TORONTO is the second in the SkyWorks series of documentaries that deals with how Canadian families live with the threat and the experience of homelessness. It shows how the housing crisis in Canada is an expression of the increasing economic and job insecurity that has devastated the manufacturing sector in the Greater Toronto Area and throughout southern Ontario. The film reveals the consequences of this "new economy," where families surviving on low wages with no benefits, or on dwindling social assistance, are faced with the terrible choice between keeping a roof over their heads or putting food on the table.

Friday January 29th 2010
Doors at 7pm - Film at 7:30
Free Admission

905 522 3003 x25 or
wahc@wahc-museum.ca for more information.


Chinese Fever: Liki-Liki
by Karen Tam

January 8 to May 8, 2010

karentam.ca

"Chinese Fever is an installation made up of gold paper-cutouts that would take over the gallery walls. Inspired by hand-painted export Chinese wallpaper, which was popular throughout Europe and North America in the 1700s, I hope to subvert some of these chinoiserie images with an undertone of indignation and violence, and to comment on current events and attitudes."

  - Karen Tam


Labour Lounge



The Labour Lounge will return in February 2010 with exciting new programming!


AGM 14 - NOV. 14th 2009



Ever thought about becoming more than just a member of WAHC? The Workers Arts & Heritage Centre Annual General Meeting takes place November 14th, 2009. We are currently seeking nomination for a number of vacant board positions. Three for one year terms and two for two years terms.

Completed nomination forms must be received by noon on Thursday October 14, 2009.  There will be no nominations from the floor. Nominees, their nominators and seconders must be member of the Workers Arts and Heritage Centre when the nomination is submitted.  Nominations must be accompanied by a 50 word (maximum) biography of the nominee.

Return all forms to:

Workers Arts and Heritage Centre
51 Stuart Street
Hamilton ON  L8L 1B5

Attention: Elizabeth McLuhan, Executive Director, 905-522-3003 x. 23
executivedirector@wahc-museum.ca


Harvest Pilgrim: Migrant Farm Workers in Canada

Photographs by Vincenzo Pietropaolo
September 11 to December 30, 2009

This collection of images of migrant farm labour in Canada by Vincent Pietropaolo is part of a long tradition of socially useful photographic documentation. In the past the credibility of camera images – their capacity to suggest real space and capture human expression – led to their acceptance as truthful witnesses of reality. As such, they have played a continuing role in efforts to alter disturbing aspects of society, particularly in the United States.

“Vincent Pietropaolo’s genius in these photographs is to suggest whole histories and whole worlds in the simplest of images. He takes a phenomenon most of us are hardly aware of and makes us see in it the story of a continent.” Nino Ricci, author


Labour Arts Needs You!

Next Deadline for Applications to Ontario Arts Council's Artists in the Community Workplace Program - March 25th, 2010

Labour Arts Wants You!

Are you an artist, community group, union or professional organization seeking creative ways to engage your audience or membership with regards to issues related to work, the workplace, employment or social justice? WAHC's Labour Arts programme wants to hear from you!

Through our Labour Arts Coordinator, Andrew Lochhead, WAHC can offer you assistance in facilitating collaborative endeavours between artists, working communities, youth and working peoples organizations, through the Ontario Arts Council's Community Arts granting opportunities.

For more information on types of projects you or your organization can become involved in, or to learn more about Labour Arts please contact Andrew at andrew [at] wahc-museum.ca

Download our brochure; Labour Arts: Promise and Practice
  page 1
  page 2


...and still I rise

WAHC is pleased to announce that the Virtual Museum of Canada exhibit of …and still I rise, A History of African Canadian Workers in Ontario: 1900 to Present has gone live and is available to use and enjoy!  

Read more at virtualmuseum.ca 

…and still I rise is a joint project of the African Canadian Workers Advisory Committee and the Workers Arts and Heritage Centre. …and still I rise tells the story of African Canadian workers in Ontario from 1900 to the present. 


The Workers Arts and Heritage Centre in Hamilton, ON is pleased to welcome Andrew Lochhead to the staff team in the position of Labour Arts Coordinator as of January 2009.

As WAHC's Labour Arts Coordinator, Andrew will animate labour arts projects; continue to develop the official Canadian online Labour Arts Portal - www.labourarts.ca; coordinate the delivery of labour arts curriculum in community, education and workplace based environments; and make linkages between unions, worker organizations, artists and arts organizations across Canada.



Main Gallery:

Chinese Fever: Liki-Liki
by Karen Tam

[view photos]

Entrance:
Custom House History & The Hall of Hamilton Labour
[view photos]

In our West Gallery:
Punching the Clock: Working in Canadian Factories from the 1840s to the 1980s
[view photos]

In our East Gallery:
Gateway to the Workers City & Made in Hamilton Industrial Trail
[view photos]

In our Second Floor Gallery:
Nine to Five: A History of Office Work
[view photos]

In our Community Gallery:
Broken City Lab
Hamilton Youth Arts Network
[view photos]