THE CAN FOUNDATION
2022 CAN FESTIVAL AT ASSEMBLY
The CAN Foundation announced the 2022 CAN Festival at Assembly. The festival will took place September 10th through October 8th and included a series of curated events celebrating the contemporary arts. In an effort to further the CAN Foundation’s mission of providing a nexus of interconnectivity and development for a strong, enduring, harmonious arts community within the global art market, the month-long program series was designed to spark opportunities for collaborations and network building in the Hampton Roads creative, public, and private sectors.
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Canaan: when I read your letter, I feel your voice
Nastassja Swift
Old Hampton Courthouse
June 5-26, 2021
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Canaan: when I read your letter, I feel your voice was a multi-layered installation and collaborative performance that intimately displayed the exchange between Nastassja Swift and her brother, who is currently incarcerated within the Virginia Department of Corrections. Articulating feelings of absence, erasure, and the personal and communal impact of mass incarceration, Nastassja’s culminating body of work explored her personal experience navigating, as his sister, the past few years of Canaan’s incarceration.
In conjunction with the exhibition, a series of programming and public initiatives explored personal narratives of those incarcerated, and the conversation of collateral consequences that accrue for imprisoned people and their support systems.
CANTEMPORARIES WORKSHOP AND EXHIBITION
‘Echo around corners and move through walls’
The CANTemporaries Collaborative Exhibition Opening
Austin Miles, Nalan Smartt, Mark Wilson, Andrew Harrison, Caitlin Blomstrom, Alliannah Hamilton, Nadd Harvin, Raekwon sunley, Chrystal Kelly, Lynette Hulse, Arcader, Jakiyah McCants
CAN HQ
The CANTemporaries workshop was a 6-week experimental artist “think tank” where artists of all disciplines were encouraged to work together towards a culminating exhibition and programming series. The first group of CANTemporaries was an eclectic mix of 12 talented artists. Over 5 weeks, the artists worked both collaboratively and independently toward a shared vision.
On June 19,2021 they presented Conducted Transmission, a multi-sensory collaborative installation that spans ⅔ of the first floor of the CAN HQ. The exhibition explored themes of perception vs. reality. The viewer journeyed through various constructed environments reflecting on the pivotal events of 2020, questions of reality, and the human condition. These environments were brought to life through the use of text, performance, surrealistic imagery, light, and sound.
ADEWALE ALLI, THE SPECTRUM OF BEING
Join us tonight from 7-10 pm for the opening of “Spectrum of Being”: a solo exhibition by First Patron artist in residence Adewale Alli with accompanying sounds by Travis Sykes. “Spectrum of Being” is a multi-series body of work. The first series, entitled “The Veil”, will be on view at Eleanor and Hopps Gallery through June 5. The works in the series are an exploration of the human condition and the masks we wear to conceal the restlessness within. Further, the series is a dissection of the artist’s personality; an expression of his emotional angst represented through the language of color and form. The accompanying auditory track engages an additional sense, taking the viewer deeper into their experience with the work.
BLACK SPIRITUALS
IMMERSIVE EXHIBITION, THEATRICAL, AND CONCEPT ALBUM PREVIEW
FOR THE PEOPLE
For the People at the Contemporary Arts Network Headquarters was an art installation and programming series commissioned by VA For the People, A SOMETHING IN THE WATER CALL TO ACTION, that ran September 28, 2020- November 3rd, 2020.
For the People was a collaborative installation completed by the CAN Foundation’s First Patron Artists in residence, Mahari Chabwera, Nastassja Swift, Asa Jackson, and Hampton Boyer in addition to CAN artists Travis Sykes, Alex Michael, Dathan Kane, and the CAN TV Team. The exhibit was a multisensory combination of indoor murals and installations covering the history of voting (with an emphasis on Virginia), voter suppression, and down ballot topics.
The exhibit was accompanied by CAN programming “for the people”. On Saturday, October 10th, the CAN Foundation hosted a discussion moderated by Park Myers, curator of 1708 Gallery, at the CAN HQ including the foundation’s First Patron Initiative artists in residence Mahari Chabwera, Nastassja Swift, Hampton Boyer, Asa Jackson, and Adewale Alli.
On October 17th the community was invited to a “Break Bread Pop-Up and Podcast” and food drive for the Virginia Peninsula Food Bank at the Daily Bread Boutique. Visitors shopped Daily Bread Boutique at the CAN HQ and learned about the creatives behind the brands while they were interviewed on the Bread Break Podcast..
Programming also included a moderated discussion in conjunction with community catalysts from VA for the People, A SOMETHING IN THE WATER initiative.
The CAN Festival 2020 consisted of The CAN Opener, The CAN Headquarters Grand Opening and a month long (COVID friendly) CAN Festival, a celebration of the Contemporary Arts. The CAN HQ's inaugural weekend and month-long festival included a series of ticketed events every Thursday through Saturday during the month of August, with 50 tickets and two to three time slots per event.
CAN FESTIVAL 2020
The CAN Opener consisted of:
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The opening of Daily Bread Boutique featuring clothing brands from Hampton Roads based designers, prints, handcrafted jewelry, and more
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A group exhibition entitled “Benediction”, at Eleanor and Hopps exhibiting the first class of the CAN Foundation’s artist in residence program, First Patron. The 2020-2021 Class of FPI artists in residence included Asa Jackson, Hampton Boyer, Mahari Chabwera, Nastassja Swift, and Adewale Seye-Alli
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“Real Magic”, a group exhibition in 670 Gallery, featured the work of premiere artists based in Hampton Roads. The exhibit will include the work of: Carl Medley, Nikki Leone, Alex Michael, Dathan Kane, Alyssa Channell,Wade Mickley, Chris Revels, and Thomas O’Casey.
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A number of multi-genre performances in Commonality.
The festival also included Next Up at the CAN, a performance based music competition, artist talks, a collector's association meeting, and an exhibition at 1708 Gallery in Richmond, Virginia that included the work of the FPI class of 2020.
JUNETEENTH: A FREEDOM DAY CELEBRATION
On June 19th the CAN presented, Juneteenth: A Freedom Day Celebration from 4-8 p.m. It was an invitation for the community to come together for a day of artistic expression and catharsis in response to the events of 2020.
The day consisted of outdoor music, DJ sets, “Doodlefest”, the “Buy Black” pop-up, ‘Catharsis’, an interactive art exhibition at Eleanor and Hopps where the community was invited to paint a word, phrase, or image on the walls of the gallery at the CAN HQ as an expressive release of feeling. In the evening, a meditation walk took place from the CAN Headquarters to Huntington Beach the culminated in a performance art piece on the beach.
THE NORFOLK STREET MUSEUM
In 2019, The City of Norfolk and Visit Norfolk joined forces with the Railroad District and The CAN to create the Norfolk Street Museum. The CAN curated a street museum consisting of 9 artists, including 2 visiting blue-chip artists from California who created murals that vibrantly cover a number of walls throughout Norfolk’s Railroad District (Park Place).
CAN FESTIVAL 2016
The 2016 second annual CAN Festival was an immersive, collaborative array of art events including theatrical musical and dance performances, exhibitions, auctions, seminars, and community workshops, aimed at engaging our local community. The festival included 9 events over a 2 week period, exhibiting the work of over 75 contemporaries from the Hampton Roads Regions, as well as work from international artists. Partners for the 2016 Festival included: The Hermitage Museum and Gardens, Peninsula Fine Arts Center, Studio 17, California Locos, Chouinard Foundation, Work|Release, 670 Gallery, and Thank You Gallery.
One notable event that took place during the festival included a collaboration with Studio 17 and Juice Magazine on a group exhibition by five native Los Angelenos whose works span the last half century of the Los Angeles art scene; The California Locos. Chaz Bojórquez, Dave Tourjé, John Van Hamersveld, Norton Wisdom, and Gary Wong—The California Locos —represent 50 years of Los Angeles art, each having been influenced and inspired by the surf, skate, music and barrio culture, as well as formal art practice, that has combined and morphed in Los Angeles from the '60s through today. The art they innovated—combining Graffiti, Surf/Skate, Pop Art and Punk—has gone global, and the Contemporary Arts Network secured and collaborated with them on their only East Coast show.
CAN FESTIVAL 2015
In 2015, The First Annual CAN Festival was held in Millpoint Park and included local food and merchandise vendors, musical performances, live mural painting, hands-on educational workshops, and art displays.