Each year, the Craft Department offers a series of high-calibre programmes supporting the professional development of its artists-in-residence, as well as craft + design students and the greater community. Programme content reflects current, national and international ideas and directions relevant to contemporary craft + design practice. The series includes lectures, exhibitions, master-classes and seminars.
Photo: Mike Nauss
Artists: Labrona & Jesse Jacobs.
Photos: Mike Nauss
Craft Exhibitions:
Homegrown Skateboards
November 14, 2009 – January 3, 2010
Jesse Watson is the founder of a remarkable Canadian company Homegrown Skateboards, and will exhibit a survey exhibition of unique skateboard decks and present a lecture. Homegrown Skateboards is located above LaHave's famous bakery in an old outfitter's building on the south shore of Nova Scotia. Bucking the urban skateboarding clichés and stereotypes of bigger, higher, louder, badder, Watson's values and ideas are strongly aligned with craft.
Homegrown Skateboards is the culmination of Waton's lifestyle and values that are rooted in Crousetown, LaHave and the LaHave Bakery — home to the Homegrown workshop, print shop, retail outlet and "Church of Skaten". It's a crossroads for the local alternative scene.
"As a teenager, my passion for skateboarding led me to investigate how boards were made," Watson says. "I made prototypes and added my artwork. There are no handbooks on how to make skateboards. Trial, error and help from local experts in a variety of fields led me to produce the quality decks I was looking for. Today, 13 years later, each of our laminated decks is separately pressed, hand-shaped and silkscreened one at a time. This is roots manufacturing in times of mass production."
HG decks are built with 100% East Coast hard rock maple. Homegrown is about skateboarding, building a quality Canadian deck from Canadian wood, and promoting the honest and genuine elements of skateboard culture. Graphic images are integral to HG decks. Most of the guest artists are also skaters. This is real street art, soon scraped away via the process of skating.
"I am driven to take skateboarding as far as it will go, physically and culturally. It is a scene that is about youth, the freedom of the streets, sport, music and art."
— Jesse Watson, Founder, Homegrown Skateboards
Lecture:
Roots Manufacturing in Times of Mass Production
Saturday, November 14, 7pm
Harbourfront Centre, 235 Queens Quay West
FREE!
