Friday June 8, 2012, from 8 pm, James North Art Crawl. Music in the bar, tip jar. Jazz with The Robert Chapman Trio (with Robert Chapman – guitar, Mark Ballyk – drums, Jon Stemmler – bass), plus special guests Ruthie Pytka-Jones – voice, and Matt Woroshyl – sax.
Friday May 11, 2012 (James North Art Crawl). In the bar, tip jar.
From 8 pm to 10:30: A Touch of Klez, Hamilton’s own Klezmer band, playing the high-energy sounds of Eastern European music, gypsy, Jewish, swing. 
Featuring Jordan Abraham on accordion.
From 11 pm to 12:30 am, a late set showcase: singer-songwriter Crissi Cochrane and 3-piece folk band Dear Sister (Bri Salmena – vocals, guitar; Raven Shields – vocals, guitar; Aaron Comeau – banjo, piano, guitar, double bass, etc.)
Friday April 13 (James North Art Crawl), from 7 pm-9:15: “Behind the Kiln” multi-media dance, music, video collaborations in real-time. Dancers include: Olga Barrios, Liz Bates, Laura Reid, Victoria Slager, Grace Loney, Tanis MacArthur. Musicians include: Brier Pomfret, Ronald Weihs. Video vee-jaying by Judith Sandiford.
9:30 – midnight (tip jar): Jazz with Emily Kemp vocals, Scott MacIntosh guitar, Jordan Snider drums, Tom Altobelli bass, and Chris Bruder piano.
Friday April 13, 2012 (James North Art Crawl). Leah Boyd exhibits sculpture, drawings, prints and collage. The exhibit is a collection of Leah’s work from her last two years as a student until now. Leah meticulously pieces together fragments of sculpture, drawing, printmaking, textile and found objects in order to replicate her own personal feelings of tension and anxiety. Leah is a recent graduate of McMaster Fine Arts and Art History program. The exhibit is up for the month of April. Artist present 7-10 pm during James North Art Crawl
Friday March 9, 2012 from 8 pm on…(James North Art Crawl). Jazz trio “Beg To Differ” playing blues / jazz / funk. Featuring Tim Ninehouse on piano, keyboards, vocals; Doug Sikma – guitar; Steve Foster – drums. “Beg To Differ” performs unique renditions of blues, jazz and funk songs, drawing from a large musical repertoire from early blues roots to jazzified contemporary songs. Photo from their concert last year.
Friday, February 10, 2012, from 8 pm onwards… (James North Art Crawl). Music, dance, video, and all of the above. Opening guest set: Rob Willett, guitar and voice. Second set, “Behind the Kiln” part one, dance and music improvised before your eyes, featuring Tanis MacArthur, with the improvising orchestra (Trio Arjento plus friends). Third set, a more formal concert set by Trio Arjento , Jennifer Lockman piano, Tom Shea guitar, Orange McFarland stand-up bass, (minus Marcy Hull who is not able to join in). Last set, “Behind the Kiln” part two, more real-time collaborations and live video-mix by Judith Sandiford, with guest musicians (including Angela Macaroni on flute) and dancer/movers including Jenny Rae on a visit from Thailand
Art exhibit for February 2012, artists present Friday February 10, James North Art Crawl from 7 to 10:30 pm. Gallery hours: when Artword Artbar is open.
Ellen Irving has incorporate childhood loves of maps, hardware , painting and wood to her most recent works. Taking the scale bar from maps used to measure distance, she is using sculpture, drawings and paintings to explore the distance she has travelled in her personal life…
Martin Peckham will be showing his illuminated glass sculptures in the installation room. Having spent years collecting beach glass from the shores of Lake Erie he has now found a brilliant way to display them.
Friday January 13, 2012 at 8 pm, tip jar. Motown and funk with vocalist Christina di Franco and her band, Phunktown5. Christina DiFranco (voice), Scott McIntosh (guitar), Chris Bruder (piano), Tom Altobelli (bass) & Jordan Snider (drums) are all graduates from Mohawk College’s Music Program. Covering hits from legends like Stevie Wonder, Aretha Franklin, James Brown, Jackson5, Marvin Gaye and many others, this talented group of young musicians love to entertain. Visit Christina’s website: www.wix.com/christinadifranco09/homepage
Wednesday to Saturday, December 7 to 10 and 14 to 17, 2011, all shows 8 pm (except Friday December 9 show at 10 pm).
Have a Cu’Fu Christmas with Charly Chiarelli. Calogero (Charly) Chiarelli is coming back to Hamilton with a Christmas cabaret production of his international theatrical hit, Cu’Fu (So Who Did It?), about growing up Sicilian in Hamilton’s North End. You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, you’ll love it.
Earlybird tickets are available at $10 until November 30. Advance tickets, from December 1 to 6 are $12. Reservations after Dec 6 and tickets at the door are $15. NEW! Website for Charly’s Cu’Fu? 2011 where you can RESERVE ON LINE with PayPal.
Friday, December 9 is Artcrawl on James Street North. Instead of the regular start time, there will be a post-crawl performance at 10:00 p.m., no reserve tickets, all tickets $10 at the door.
Artword Artbar, at 15 Colbourne Street, is two blocks from where Charly grew up. Ron and Judith, who run the Artbar, produced and directed the first productions of Cu’Fu in their Toronto theatre, where it was filmed for Bravo Television. Charly has performed Cu’Fu across Canada, from Halifax to Vancouver, from his home town Hamilton to Yellowknife, Northwest Territories — and in Italy, in Italian. The Edmonton Journal called him “the Sicilian Spalding Gray, or the Hamilton Mark Twain”.
December Exhibits and performances for the whole family. A display of published illustration pieces from comics, toys and children’s books from the Hamilton Toy Museum, coordinated by Chris and Shannon Weston. http://www.thtm.ca/
The exhibits run from December 1 to 17, Tuesday to Sat from 6 pm, and Sunday Dec 4 and 11 from 2 pm. The artists/coordinators will be present during the James North Art Crawl Friday Dec 9 from 7 to 10 pm. and during the Studio Babette puppet performances on Sunday afternoons. Read more…
Friday November 11 at 8 pm (James North Art Crawl), all evening, tip jar. A chance to hear the stunning soul singer-songwriter Joni NehRita, back with her band: Adam Bowman on drums, Attila Toth on bass and Joni on vocals and piano. They’ll be performing songs from her two independent releases as well as new songs from the upcoming album, plus a few covers from artists that influence them most. It will be an eclectic blend of pop, soul, and reggae. Joni NehRita was named in “Guelph 40 Under 40″ this year. AND her song, “Are You Ready” reached #6 on the UK Soulchart! http://www.joninehrita.com/
Friday October 14 at 8 pm, during James North Art Crawl, tip jar. Back by popular demand, A Touch of Klez, bringing you wild and wonderful Eastern European gypsy jewish jazz music. Hamilton’s own Klezmer band features Jordan Abraham on accordion, with bass, drums, saxophone, piano, guitar, violin…
Sunday September 18, we’ll be open and on the street (from 11 am to 4 pm) for the Open Streets Festival. James Street will be closed (10 am to 5 pm) to cars and open to bicyclists, walkers, rollers, boarders, cartwheelers… http://openstreetshamilton.ca/
Ron the Fiddler hosts Artword Artbar’s Open Mic for Open Streets stage at Colbourne and James. Roll on by and sing a song, play a tune, join a jam.
Also a special installation on the street (you can walk on it) by Bruce Parsons, our artist of the month at Artword Gallery.
September in Artword Gallery: Bruce Parsons and his PLAN B [PARADISE HOMES]. Bruce will be present Friday Sept 9 for James North Art Crawl from 7 to 10 pm and Sunday Sept 18 for Open Streets Festival for the afternoon (watch for a special street installation for this one).
#1: An installation, WORKING PLAN B FOR PALESTINE / ISRAEL with large painted floor and wall maps and panoptic shield constructions.
#2: in the large studio, LABYRINTH MAP PAINTINGS on canvas and bamboo constructions. The images are from satellite cameras. These city planner designs of gated communities are exclusive developments in Ontario and Palestine/ Israel , Vaughan and Ma’ale Adumim.
View Bruce’s work with longer explanations is on his new web site www.bruceparsons.ca
and at the Center for Contemporary Canadian Art www.ccca.ca
Friday September 9 at 8 pm, at Artword Artbar 15 Colbourne St. during James North Art Crawl. A special CCMA showcase — East Coast country star Tonya Kennedy and her band. Tonya received two East Coast Music Awards nominations in 2011, for Country Recording of the Year , and Rising Star Recording of the Year.
Tonya: “The artist who got me singing professionally is Alanis Morrisette… so that’s why I started in the pop/rock genre. I always loved cross over singers Shania Twain, Faith Hill, The Corrs’s etc… ” There was a singing contest in a country bar. “That is where my musical journey in the world of country music began…..” http://www.tonyakennedy.com/ http://www.myspace.com/tonyakennedymusic
Friday August 12, James North Art Crawl all evening long!!
Music in the bar from 8 pm with jazz vocalist Ruthie Pytka-Jones and her quartet: Ruthie Pytka-Jones – vocals; Rob Chapman – guitar; Jon Stemmler – bass; Jeff Plumley – trumpet/flugelhorn. Tip Jar ($5 suggested).
In the Gallery: Art from Mozambique in the Gallery, curated by Filimone Mabjaia.
