Welcome to the County Arts Lab registration page for:
Age range - 18+
3 hour workshop, Sunday November 10th 2-5pm
Location - The County Arts Lab, Unit 2E, Picton Armoury Building
In Prince Edward County you don’t have to go far to connect with nature. The County’s rural south shore has more than 4,000 acres that provide a year-round home for many local bird species, and for many more species, it is a stopping point along their spring and fall migration route.
What many of us might not know is that in Canada alone we lose about 25 million birds each year to glass collisions. With more development planned for the County in the coming years, the possibility of bird collisions will rise. As we design our neighbourhoods with greenspaces— bringing nature home into our backyards and local parks – we need to make our County windows bird-safe for these fascinating, yet fragile creatures.
At first light, when daytime migrants are most active, birds will fly towards window glass that reflects the sky or nearby trees or shrubs. Mistaking these reflections for habitat, they collide with the glass, resulting in injury or death. These collisions contribute to bird biodiversity loss. How can you advocate to change the building code and municipal bylaws to ensure bird safe windows? How can you make a change at your very own residence?
In this workshop, taught by local landscape architect Victoria Taylor and international artist Iris Häussler, you will learn how to encourage birds into your backyard in ways other than a bird feeder. You will learn how to design and create beautiful, effective decorative patterns on glass that can prevent bird collisions with windows and glass railings.We will start with a walk to photograph/sketch in Picton’s Delhi Park, looking for exemplary bird-friendly habitats along the park’s Marsh Creek. For our bird - safe window decorations we will draw inspiration from our walk - the different leaf foliage and tree bark, ornamental and fractal patterns of light, other shapes in nature, Art Nouveau, etc. with a focus on visualizing your own ideas!What You Will Learn:● Learn how glass reflections of buildings in the urban-and rural environment pose a threat to migrating birds and what we can do to help hinder this. ● Learn more about areas of bird habitat in Delhi Park, Picton’s green heart and the County’s largest urban greenspace● Design and apply decorative, durable vinyl patterns for making windows bird-safe● Explore ways to treat windows temporarily using oil sharpies and wax-crayons● Learn about handwriting or calligraphy with oil sharpies on glass-surfaces● Learn about DIY designs using burlap-string or, fabrics applied to the outside of windows, and wax crayons
Please Note: The County Arts Lab has moved upstairs! Classes are now taking place in unit 2E of the Picton Armoury (Main Street level). The most convenient access is through the Main Street entrance, but you can also enter through the back/Mary St. entrance and use the interior stairs to reach the main floor (please note there is no elevator in the Armoury). There is an accessible parking spot on Main Street in front of the Armoury building (Crepe Escape/south side).
During registration below there is a field to include an optional donation to PEPtBO, more info about what they do here.
Iris is known internationally for her immersive narrative installations that she creates for her fictitious characters and constructs them in situ in collaboration with museums, art institutions and galleries. Iris studied at the Academy of fine Arts in Munich, Germany, and immigrated to Canada in 2001. The artist advocates with her artistic practice for bird-safety building measures and volunteers for FLAP.
Iris Häussler held a guest professorship at the Academy of Fine Art in Munich in 1999. She has given talks about her work in universities and art institutions in Canada, the USA, and Europe. Her work is found in international collections including the National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa; the Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto; the Städtische Sammlung im Lenbachhaus, Munich and the Goetz Collection, Munich, Germany.
Iris has received awards and grants including the Karl-Hofer Prize (Berlin), the Kunstfonds Fellowship (Bonn), the Toronto Arts Council, the Chalmers Arts Foundation, the Ontario Arts Council and the Canada Council for the Arts.
Iris Häussler’s work is represented by Daniel Faria Gallery, Toronto, and PSM Gallery, Berlin, Germany.
Find more information at the artist’s website: www.haeussler.ca
Victoria Taylor OALA, principal and founder of VTLA Studio, practices as an explorer, investigator, grower, builder, and experimenter; operating at the interface of built form and natural systems to make precise design moves. Combining artistic expression with functionality, public safety and infrastructural enhancement, and using the materials of the trade – stone, steel, soil, wood, plants, water, concrete, and light – her work dives deep to reveal new and hidden potentials to re-awaken and bring each site to life.
A leader in the profession, Victoria explores design as a tool to bring new meaning to the outdoor spaces we share. She is a volunteer member of the Natural Cover Working Group, a citizen group to advise the Prince Edward Environmental Advisory Committee in their recommendations to Council regarding the conservation, preservation, stewardship and restoration of natural cover, which includes plant and wildlife habitat in Prince Edward County.
Find more information on Victoria's website- www.vtla.ca/
Art supply fee - Please note that the cost of supplies is not included in the course fee; this amount depends on the course, and will be automatically added to your total. If this cost is prohibitive for you, please contact Stacey at [email protected] before registering to make alternative arrangements.
Offline registration - We prefer to take payment and registration through this form, but if you are not comfortable with this option and it is more than 2 weeks before the course begins, please check the "Offline" box in the Billing Information section below. We will contact you with alternative payment options. Payment must be received at least one week before the course begins.
Processing fee - This covers transaction and ticketing fees. We've decided to use Regfox, the most affordable ticketing platform we could find, which will collectively save our participants over $1000 in processing fees per year.
Policies and Waivers - We've included these as part of the registration process (thank you for your patience!) to save some paperwork on your end and get straight to creating when we are in person!
We encourage those who are able to pay a little more to choose this price ($20/hr). By doing so, you are helping build a community that prioritizes access to the arts for all, and allowing us to cover more of our operating costs, which include Artist Instructor fees, rent, and more.
This price ($15/hr) allows us to cover most of the costs of running the course.
This price ($10/hr) is available to those who find the other two options too high for their household.
PLEASE READ CAREFULLY: County Arts makes every effort to ensure that all community members, including those who (or have family members who) are more medically vulnerable feel that they can safely teach and learn at the County Arts Lab. We also want to ensure that those who are unable to wear masks have access to our programming.
We recently moved to masking on a class by class basis. Please select the option below that best describes your comfort level with regard to masking. (Please note, if anyone in the class selects the third option, we will ask that everyone who is able to do so wear a mask.) If you have any questions, please reach out to Programs Manager Stacey Sproule at [email protected].
