This year we're excited to be presenting two fantastic exhibits: Voices from Outside: Artists Against the Prison Industrial Complex by renowned artists & activists Justseeds Artist Cooperative and The Beehive Collective.(And thanks to Jannicke Ask for marathon-sewing our beautiful banners!)

Both exhibits run Oct. 16 - 31 in the Edmonton Room at the Stanley A. Milner Library, and are available for viewing most days between 12 - 9pm, with some notable exceptions (Edmonton Room closed for private functions).See a list of 'best days' to attend exhibits HERE.

Please note that we also have several film screenings taking place in the Edmonton Room, so if at all possible (and if you are not already planning on coming in to see a specific film), please try to come during times films aren't screening.

The full schedule will be available here by Oct. 16, with 'best days & times' for viewing posted.

ALSO NOTE: We're thrilled to also be presenting the Beehive Collective in person!

Fri, Oct. 30 @ 7:45pm: Artist Reception with the Bees!

Join us for a warm reception of the Bees after the 'bee-related' film programming, and pick their brains about their beautiful banners & patches, prior to their much-anticipated workshop the following day...

* For afternoon/evening ENVIRO FILMS on Oct. 30 (before the Beehive Reception), please see the MEDIA DEMOCRACY page (scroll down to Oct. 30)!

Sat, Oct. 31 @ 1pm: The Beehive Collective Presents: Dismantling Monoculture:

The Bees will delight workshop participants with their astonishingly enormous FTAA & Plan Colombia banners, and present a PowerPoint 'Picture Lecture', taking you on an interactive visual tour of the connections between COLONIZATION, MILITARIZATION, and RESOURCE EXTRACTION in the Americas. Join in as they deconstruct the complex and overwhelming issues that are shaping our world using metaphors and bio-regionally accurate depictions of animals and insects. It's a storytelling picture-lecture to be understood by anyone, not just the experts and political analysts!

EXHIBITS DETAILS:

Voices from Outside: Artists Against the Prison Industrial Complex by Justseeds Artist Cooperative

In honor of Critical Resistance's 10 Year Anniversary, Justseeds created a limited edition portfolio of original prints that either critiqued the prison industrial complex or addressed alternatives to incarceration.

Twenty one artists from the US, Canada, and Mexico contributed prints: Amor y Resistencia Collective, Andalusia Knoll, Bec Young, Brandon Bauer, Claude Moller, Colin Matthes, Erik Ruin, Etta Cetera, Favianna Rodriguez, Icky A., Jesse Purcell, Jesus Barraza, Josh MacPhee, Kevin Caplicki, Lydia Crumbley, Mary Tremonte, Meredith Stern, Melanie Cervantes, Nicolas Lampert, Pete Yahnke, Santiago Armengod.

Justseeds donated over 50 portfolios to anti-prison movements groups including Critical Resistance, Books to Prisoners, the TAMMS Year Ten Campaign, The National Public Service Council to Abolish Private Prisons, and numerous other groups.

Content & Format: 21 prints (19 screenprints and 2 linocuts)/2 color silkscreen and handcut cover. Sizes vary (either 12"x12" or 12"x24"). Paper types vary for each print. The majority (but not all) of prints are signed/portfolio printed in an edition of 100.

The Beehive Collective

See their full bio below for more info about their Trilogy: Plan Colombia, Free Trade Area of the Americas, and MesoAmerica Resiste, which are represented through our exhibit.

ARTIST BIOS:

Justseeds Artist Cooperative:

Justseeds Artists' Cooperative is a decentralized community of artists who have banded together to both sell their work online in a central location and to collaborate with and support each other and social movements. Their website is not just a place to shop, but also a destination to find out about current events in radical art and culture. Their blog covers political printmaking, socially engaged street art, and culture related to social movements. They believe in the power of personal expression in concert with collective action to transform society.

Justseeds was originally started in 1998 by artist Josh MacPhee as a way to distribute his art and the Celebrate People's History poster series. He slowly expanded Justseeds to include the work of like-minded artists. In 2006, MacPhee reached out to a dozen like-minded artists and previous collaborators as well as the political street art blog Visual Resistance in order to re-envision Justseeds as a cooperative effort. Justseeds was transformed into Justseeds Artists' Cooperative, an artist/worker owned and run cooperative and blog, that launched in the summer of 2007. More info at http://www.justseeds.org

The Beehive Collective:

The Beehive Collective is an all-volunteer, art-activist workshop that has gained international attention and participation for its collaboratively produced graphics campaigns focused on globalization and militarization. Through collaborations with communities on the frontlines of globalization at home and abroad, the workerbees create collaborative, hand-illustrated posters of dizzying intricacy that result in patchwork "quilts" of personal narratives shared with them on their travels. Their copyleft graphics, which take years to produce, result in tools for broad popular analysis, education and organizing in an art-based, interactive format for anyone to use.

With banner reproductions of staggering size, the Bees use storytelling to take audiences on an exploration of their work to draw connections between colonial history and present day struggles against corporate globalization, violence, and racism. Their "picture lecture" presentations and workshops offer an accessible and interactive visual alternative for unpacking how resource extraction, militarization and industrial development are all part of the "big picture" of corporate globalization. With two giant illustrated portable murals (FREE TRADE AREA OF THE AMERICAS and PLAN COLOMBIA), a six foot tall fabric storybook, and an engaging narrative, the Bees have awed and inspired audiences across the hemispheres. The 2009 version will also include previews of scenes from MESOAMERICA RESISTE, the final epic chapter in their trilogy about globalization in the Americas, the most ambitious and elaborate illustration to date... 5 YEARS in the making and nearly hatched.

Since 2000, the Bees have been making anti-copyright, political graphics meant to be used for education and organizing. They are working to develop a widely accessible, art-based communication strategy. Volunteer Bees give 'picture-lecture' presentations and workshops at approximately 150 locations internationally each year. Over the last six years the Bees have distributed more than 60,000 posters through entirely grassroots, by-hand distribution. The all volunteer Beehive has grown to include a core swarm of eleven Bees, plus autonomous worker Bees in the U.S., Canada, Mexico, Colombia and Europe. More info at: http://www.beehivecollective.org