Artword is the creative team of Ronald Weihs and Judith Sandiford.

Ronald Weihs has been writing and directing for theatre since university days, as well as playing his fiddle in theatre shows and in bands.
Judith Sandiford has been a visual artist since her art-school days. She also been, among other things, a typesetter, a journalist, a magazine editor, an art gallery administrator, and, since she met Ron, a theatre designer.

We have been in Hamilton for fourteen years (since 2007). We came driven by necessity, but we have come to love Hamilton, its creative community, its history and the generous spirit of the people here.

Artword in Toronto

We came to Toronto in 1982, having both lived in British Columbia for about seven years. Ron wrote plays and Judith exhibited paintings. We also produced our art magazine, Artword Artists Forum.

In Toronto, in 1999, we did a very ambitious thing. Without any institutional funding, we decided to build a theatre similar in scale and ambition to Theatre Passe Muraille or Tarragon Theatre. We built it with great assistance from our landlords, three brothers from Pakistan. One brother told us that they wanted to help us because he knew that we worked to benefit others, not just ourselves. These were Muslim principles. And “we worked as hard as they did.”

We built a 150-seat theatre and a 60-seat alternative space. The Main Space had soft comfortable seats, rescued from a cinema that was being torn down, and a sprung stage beloved of dancers. The 70′ x 15′ lobby had sixteen-foot ceilings, and we turned it into a magnificent gallery space.

Judith was on site during the renovation, functioning as the General Contractor, and supervising the construction. When it was all finished, she was the Managing Director. We had two wonderful Technical Directors, Leyla Tshongo and Jason Golinski. They were always able to get excellent technicians, because Judith insisted on paying them the going rate before they went home.

To pay our bills, we relied on renting our spaces to theatre companies, who had difficulty finding theatre space in Toronto. Independent contemporary dancers and dance companies loved our space. In particular, the vibrant Black Dance scene found a home at Artword.

Our programming was what is now called “diverse”, but which we considered “normal”. In addition to the dance companies, we hosted Jean and Dinah from Trinidad, the Indian drama Umrao, Mogwana from Botswana, M’bemba Bangoura from Guinea. Native Earth Theatre brought Tales of an Urban Indian and Paul Thompson directed The Artshow, a play about Daphne Odjig. There were seven plays by the AfriCan Theatre Ensemble at Artword Theatre. Ron was the resident director of that company for four years, directing four African plays, culminating in a collective creation, Market of Tales.

We always knew, however, that our landlords intended to sell the property. We had about seven good years, but in 2006 our building was sold.

Artword in Hamilton

Real estate in Toronto had gone through the roof. We looked all over Toronto, in ever-widening circles. Finally, in Mimico, we looked at a ghastly place. Judith said “There’s an interesting building in Hamilton that Ron saw in the listings.” We figured we were halfway there. “How do we get to Hamilton?”

We didn’t end up buying that building, though we tried. We did, however, see the house of our dreams, at a price we could actually afford. So we moved to Hamilton.

Like typical Torontonians, we thought we would be bringing culture to Hamilton. We soon learned differently. The lessons started with our first Art Crawl, when we visited Bryce Kanbara’s You Me Gallery, and heard the Hill Brothers playing bluegrass like nobody’s business at the Blue Angel Gallery. We took Barbara Milne’s Art Bus tour, ending at the Pearl Company. We realized right away that Gary Santucci and Barbara Milne were kindred spirits.

We very quickly became aware of the vibrant cultural life of our new home. We were humbled. Particularly, because there was a quality in the cultural scene in Hamilton that we had not found in Toronto– a generosity of spirit, a sense that we were all working together, not competing with each other.

Gary and Barbara asked us if we would like to help program the Pearl Company, and do some plays there. They both had a lot on their minds at that point, and needed someone to pick up the slack.

We did four plays in the 1908-09 season. We held auditions, and found a company of actors to work with. We called them the “Artword Ensemble”, and they formed the nucleus of the acting company that we have used ever since. We also got to know some of the dancers, musicians and visual artists in Hamilton.

After a year at the Pearl, we decided to find a space of our own. Two art centres were better then one, after all. We continued to think of ourselves as kindred spirits with The Pearl, and we’ve been friends and collaborators ever since.

When we came to Hamilton, our original plan was to build a theatre space similar to the one we created in Toronto. However, we started to think that this was not the right answer. Hamilton has a thriving Community Theatre scene, in their own theatre spaces. There was The Staircase, McMaster, and  Theatre Aquarius with two spaces,.

We found a little sports bar, Three Amigos, just off James Street, and made a classic paradigm shift. How about an Artbar? An art space that could accommodate Hamilton’s musicians? We could make our money from selling beer and wine. They would set the admission price, and get it all.

Artword Artbar

We took possession of the building that became Artword Artbar on July 31, 2009, and worked hard with Tanis Macarthur and Jon-Gordon Odegaard to be ready for September Art Crawl.

Our downstairs room we turned into a studio, and used it as a gallery space. Judith curated art shows, on roughly a monthly basis. We were happy to be part of the Art Crawl, when people would come to see the art, and then stay to hear the music.

October 3, Judith hung the first art show in the downstairs gallery: Steven McCabe, followed in November by Maureen Paxton and in December by Ellen Irving. There were 37 monthly art shows, until October 2014 (Dave Gould showing musical instrument sculptures made of bones). In 2014, Learie Mc Nicolls turned the downstairs space into a dance studio, and became Artword’s Choreographer in Residence.

Programming events at Artword Artbar has always been the work of Judith Sandiford. It’s a huge job selecting and scheduling performers, creating promotional materials for the website and calendar, and coordinating the performances. In ten years, there have been 1,454 separate events, including music, theatre, dance, poetry, spoken word, comedy and public meetings.

However, we still thought of theatre as something that had to happen in a theatre. In 2012, when Patrick Brennan told us that he was renovating the old CHCH building into the Lyric Theatre, we were very excited. We gave him some of our equipment, and committed ourselves to four productions in the first season.

The productions went well, but it turned out that the building was really beyond repair. There was no second season.

Then we thought: do we really need a theatre? How about doing theatre productions at Artword Artbar? We expanded the stage, built a lighting grid out of black gas pipe, and pretty soon we had a nifty little theatre. Best of all, unlike most theatres, the audience could drink beer and wine while they watched. 

Our personal tastes in music are very wide, so we had all kinds of music: country, bluegrass, singer-songwriter, classical and jazz. Not very much rock music, because Lou Molinari was doing a good job of that up the street at This Ain’t Hollywood.

Jazz really came to Artword thanks to students from the Mohawk music program, who needed a place to show what they could do. Although students, they were good musicians, and the jazz nights became popular. After a while, their teachers discovered us, and we had musicians of national and international stature. However, the students always remained an essential component, and it was our pleasure to watch them mature artistically and launch professional careers.

In Artword Artbar we produced 10 Artword Theatre plays: James Street, MacBush: The Musical, Scroogissimo, Langston Hughes vs Joe McCarthy, The Man in the Vault, The Decision, Charly’s Piano, Cu’Fu, Transformation, and Trumpet Romance.

We are proud also that we provided a home for other theatre companies: Swingin’ in St. John’s (Chasing Shadows Productions), Drinking, Fighting and Fishing (Julian Nicholson), The Rise of the Prickly Pear (Red Betty Theatre), The Lost Years (Peter Gruner), In the Belly and Know Your Enemy (Insurgent Theatre), The Keith Richards One Woman Show (Suitcase in Point Theatre), See Bob Run (Laura Ellis), Romeo and Juliet: An Escapist Comedy (Make Art Theatre), 23:30 (Mikey Henley), Draft Dodger (Ray Rivers).

Sky Gilbert (founder of Buddies in Bad Times Theatre in Toronto) found a home for his Hammer Theatre productions, producing seven plays at Artword Artbar: Cheri, Princess, Toller, Bungalow, Naked Hamilton, An Evening with Lucky Jim Lacroix and Hamilton Bus Stop.

With the theatre companies we followed the same policy as with musicians: we did not charge them rent, and they kept all of the box office. We covered our costs with bar sales. We participated in the Fringe Festival as a Bring Your Own Venue from 2015 to 2019. In 2014 we were the Fringe Club House.

We’ve always had a fondness for dance. We hosted 15 evenings of improvised dance and music called Behind the Kiln, organized by Tanis Macarthur, and 12 Big Dance Little Stage events, organized by Learie Mc Nichols. Features of these events were Judith Sandiford’s improvised multimedia projections.

In 2014, Learie Mc Nichols became Artword Theatre’s Resident Choreographer. His dance productions included Transformation (directed by Ronald Weihs), Once I Lived in the Box, The Parrot of Paradise, Seven Duets, Night Journey, and Fairy Tale. He choreographed productions of James Street and MacBush: The Musical. Learie also contributed jerk chicken dinners and Trinidad-style patties to the Artword Artbar menu.

After Artword Artbar

In 2019, Artword Artbar was in its tenth year. We were ready for new challenges. We started to consider selling.

Just then, in June, an agent phoned with an ideal offer. A Hamilton architectural design company, SMPL, wanted our very building for its home office. They knew exactly what they would do and how much they wanted to pay. In September, we announced that Artword would close in November.

On November 15, we had an evening devoted to our theatre productions. On November 16 and 17, The Hill Brothers played two farewell concerts (the first sold out in a couple of hours).

David and Marlaise Dawson, of Gallery on the Bay asked us if we wanted to collaborate on producing theatre. We had already co-produced two of David’s plays, MacBush: The Musical and The Decision. We agreed.

We started with a script of David’s, Walter: My Name is Walter James Cross and I Have Schizophrenia. We found a promising space, Saint Andrew’s Hall at Saint Peter’s Presbyterian Church. We brought in lighting and sound equipment, and banners to reduce the echo.

The show, in March 2020, had to close a day early, due to Covid-19. Fortunately, Gabe Etele had done an excellent video and soundrecording of one performance, and we were able to turn this into an excellent feature-length video.

We can’t believe our good fortune in selling Artword Artbar just before the pandemic hit. A friend asked me to buy lottery tickets for him.

Nice Quotes from Reviews

Right now, there’s a delightful little show being performed by Artword Theatre. Happily, it provides a lusty connection with Hamilton’s past. It’s called James Street, and it pays homage to a neighbourhood that’s just evolved and evolved. It’s a love song to Hamilton… Gary Smith, Hamilton Spectator

Over its 10-year existence, the Artbar became a hub for artists to develop their skills and for audiences to experience a wide range of music, theatre and dance. Weihs and Sandiford did much to develop local talent and build audiences. Mark McNeil, Hamilton Spectator

“Scroogissimo!” doesn’t pretend to be anything more than a delightful evening of holiday entertainment. It works splendidly in the intimate space at the Artbar and you’d have to be a Scrooge yourself not to be captivated by its endearing charm. Gary Smith, Hamilton Spectator

This play [James Street] has the ability to tell our story and to entertain us mightily at the same time. I recommend it to anyone who cares about this city. Artword Artbar is a great place to see it. It’s an intimate venue, where every seat is a good one. The stage is a comfortable height, and the actors at times inhabit the audience part of the floor as well. The proprietors have an obvious love of their city and make an effort to present and celebrate it in their productions. Their respect for their patrons shows in every detail, from the LED-style stage lighting (to reduce excess heat build-up in the room) to the bright, clean washrooms, to the craft-style beer on tap at reasonable prices, plus a very welcoming vibe. Tony Kilgannon, Ontario Arts Review

[The Man in the Vault] …a play that had me on the edge of my seat, like an unproduced Twilight Zone episode scripted by a young John Le Carré. Mark Fenton, Raise the Hammer

[Whoever You Are] As Private Fromm, Pamela Gardner uses her aerial skills to great effect, tumbling and twisting to suggest the weightlessness of space. It was magnetic to watch her mimic movement in zero gravity while images of a space capsule floated gently behind her. When I heard that Whoever You Are would feature an aerialist, I was surprised. The Artbar is modestly sized with a relatively low, drop ceiling. But where there’s a will there’s a way, and the folks at Artbar have plenty of heart. Throughout, Artbar cofounder Judith Sandiford captains the sound, projection and lighting cues in quietly capable fashion. Allison Jones, View Magazine

Chronology

In 1979,Judith Sandiford and Ronald Weihs met in British Columbia when Ron was touring Highball!, a play about logging, to logging communities along the coast. Judith painted a 40-foot backdrop and came along to wrangle the actors.

In 1982, they moved back east to Toronto, where Ron’s play The Wobbly (about the Industrial Workers of the World) was being produced at Toronto Workshop Productions, directed by George Luscombe. Judith pursued an art career, co-founded a collective art gallery called WorkScene, and edited a quarterly art magazine. Ronald continued to write and direct plays.

In 1994, they created the first version of Artword Theatre, in a second floor studio in an old factory building on Portland Street in downtown Toronto. It was there that they began their unique blend of original theatre, music and dance concerts, spoken word and storytelling events.

In 1999, with the help of supportive landlords, and some visionary policies of the City of Toronto, they created a major art space: a 150-seat mainspace theatre, a 60-seat studio theatre and a beautiful art gallery with high white walls. There they developed their own original works of theatre, provided a home to many of the best independent theatre and dance companies in Toronto, and presented many art shows.

In 2006, the sale of the building to a condo developer forced the pair to wind down abruptly.

In 2007, Weihs and Sandiford moved to Hamilton. In 2007-2008 they prepared and presented If Cows Could Fly by Allan Merovitz at the Irving Greenberg Theatre Centre in Ottawa.

In 2008-2009 they became the resident theatre company at The Pearl Company. There they developed the 2nd floor performance space and created a season of four shows, based on Hamilton themes. You Are What You Do, Rascals & Numskulls, Sunamabeach, and Tobacco Troubadour.

In July 2009, they bought a cafe-bar at 15 Colbourne Street near James Street North, called it Artword Artbar, and began a listening room for live music and spoken word performance.

This is the original statement of purpose from 1993. We have maintained these principles ever since. The first core value is our way of affirming that everyone, regardless of ethnicity, religion or sexual orientation, will find support and encouragement.

Artword is based on the principle that the people who do the work should make the decisions. In the arts, this means that artists should create and control their own artistic environment and products. Artword was created by artists who believe in the importance of the arts to the rest of the human community.

Artword’s Mission:

To provide an environment for artists to create the best work of which they are capable and to share that work with the Canadian public.

Core values:

1. We treat everyone equitably and with respect.
2. We maintain a positive, humane and nurturing environment for artistic creation.
3. We treat our audience with respect, presenting work that is relevant and appealing to them.
4. As artists, we embrace the risks and the responsibilities for what we produce.
5. We respect and encourage a wide variety of artistic expression.
6. We strive to build a spirit of community among artists.
7. We believe that all the arts and creative processes should work with one another.
8. We present work that we believe in, that affirms the human spirit, that embodies artistic energy and commitment, and that strives to improve the human condition.