Phone: [905] 641-1983
Fax: [905] 684-6016
A Mano Libera
Gallery Address
150 Ontario St
St. Catharines On
L2R 5K5

Mailing Address
A Mano Libera c/o
201-20 Corporate Park Dr
St. Catharines ON
L2S 3W2

Nicole Arnt is an emerging photographer and visual artist. She aims not only to see and capture the beauty that is in everyone and everything, but to see beyond this and capture the underlying story and emotions. Not wishing to be limited to still images, she experiments with incorporating video clips and voiceovers into her work where appropriate. Nicole is convinced that everyone has a story to tell. Her role, she believes, is to enable people to make their stories known. That’s why she is putting together media workshops for children, to offer them the tools to give their stories and ideas a voice in today’s media environment.

Nicole Arnt is based in St Catharines, Ontario.

Art Under Glass is ready for 2007. We have just joined the St.
Catharines & Area Arts Council. With two strong locations ready, we anticipate lots of exposure for artists in our community in a way that is easy, accessible, and we believe, truly unique.

Art Under Glass works as a gallery for artists who would like to see their work out in the public field of view. Rather than hang pictures on a wall once a month and fix the holes every time, founder Laurie Boese realized how simple it would be to place drawings and photos and watercolours “under the glass” tabletops in various cafes in town. The artist would be freed from the expenses of framing the work for a show, and the cafe owners would benefit from the new traffic generated by visitors coming to see the art. In Toronto many restaurants are booked for months and years with artists willing to put their work where people will go to see it. Maybe they’ll be catching up to our innovations once they catch a whiff.

The project started 2 years ago when Kelly Gillard asked Laurie to see if he could arrange artists to show their work at the Strega Cafe and Market on King Street. Laurie had no interest in damaging the murals on the walls, nor in re-mixing various colours of paint to cover the holes in the murals every time an artist moved their work.
Having coffee one day, he noticed a menu tucked under the glass table top and the concept was born.

A call went out for a group show. At least 2 artists requested a month for a solo show and the journey began. Several artists have been welcomed back, and have been very happy with both sales and publicity. The Brock Press, The Pelham News and the Niagara Pulse have been very helpful in alerting the community about the shows.

For more information, please contact:

Laurie Boese
Artist Extraordinaire
www.niagara.com/~elbows
elbows@niagara.com
artistsagainstacronyms@hotmail.com
h 905 641 0451
c 905 246 2787

Trained in France and Canada, Renee is a bilingual professional performing artist, director, choreographer and playwright who has worked across Canada from performing Persephone with the Victoria Symphony and Kaleidoscope Theatre in BC to directing The Madwoman of Chaillot at SWGC Memorial University Newfoundland. Locally she has worked with Theatre Beyond Words, The Shaw Festival, Showboat, The Albright-Knox Gallery, Spiritsong Productions,Theatre Arts Niagara, Lundy’s Lane cemetery tours, SCAAC, Soundtrack Performance, The Essential Collective, The Folk Arts Council, Haunted Hamilton and Casino Niagara. A professional bilingual Sears and Theatre Ontario adjudicator for over 20 years, she has also taught various aspects of theatre at SWGC Memorial Nfld., McMaster, Brock, Windsor, Moncton and Sheridan. American credits include Dance Theatre Workshop and The Clown Review in New York City and current position as an adjunct professor at Niagara University. Her past work in the DOMS salon series and as a director with “First Draft” in Toronto reiterates her continued support and commitment to new play development.

Gail has been active with arts organizations all her life- whether as an art student or a singer with chamber choirs. She has long been involved in the local heritage scene (The St. Catharines Historical Society and as former trustee of the Ontario Heritage Foundation). She has written for the St. Catharines Standard (Niagara Voices), other Ontario newspapers, local magazines and genealogical society publications in Canada and Britain. As a professional librarian, she reviews for library journals. In the 1990s she created two directories- “Who’s Who in Heritage in Niagara.”
Gail and her husband were the first donors of local art to the City of St. Catharines. They have also donated other art works to the St. Catharines Museum. Gail and other arts activists developed a popular exhibition at Rodman Hall in 1996- “St. Catharines Art- Celebrating 200 Years.”