AHA MEDIA films at DTES CAN ( DTES Community Arts Network ) NEW Art Space at 57 East Hastings in the LUX Hotel for ArtWalk Vancouver 2010 in Vancouver

http://www.DTESCAN.wordpress.com

Lani Russwurm, Coordinator of DTES CAN and April Smith of AHA MEDIA look through the new Art space to provide Downtown Eastside (DTES) artists a chance to participate in Artwalk Vancouver 2010. http://www.ArtWalkVancouver.ca/

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Below is a photo of Lani Russwurm, Coordinator of DTES CAN at the NEW Art Space at 57 East Hastings in the LUX Hotel in Vancouver Downtown Eastside ( DTES)

DTES CAN (DTES Community Arts Network)

http://www.DTESCAN.wordpress.com

Founded in 2003, DTES Community Arts Network brings together artists, residents, community agencies, and arts organizations to cultivate a vibrant and viable arts scene in the Downtown Eastside of Vancouver.

Few neighbourhoods make as much noise as Vancouvers Downtown Eastside (DTES). Although much of the attention it attracts focuses on drug addiction, mental health, and poverty, it is also one of the most creatively-inclined areas of the city, as seen in its street art, numerous art galleries, scores of artists, demonstrations, and even the unruly culture animating its streets and alleyways. While other neighbourhoods struggle to define themselves in a rapidly changing city, the DTES boasts a community that knows who it is and isnt afraid to express it. DTES Community Arts Network strives to channel this creative power to make positive change in the neighbourhood by cultivating a viable and vibrant community arts sector.

DTES Community Arts Network emerged out of the 2003 celebrations commemorating the 100th anniversary of the Carnegie Centre and the historic role of the DTES as the Heart of the City. It is a network of individuals and community and professional arts organizations working through the arts to contribute to the economic, social, and cultural renewal of the DTES. As intense redevelopment transforms the area, DTES CAN aims to strengthen the DTES as a healthy, artistically vibrant, and culturally rich community where people with predominantly low incomes and from diverse lifestyles, abilities, and financial means feel at home.

DTES CAN is committed to providing opportunities for Downtown Eastside residents to experience the arts as aspiring and practicing artists, audience members, as a means of personal and collective expression, and to advocate on issues affecting the community. Using a cluster organizational model to bring artists and residents together, DTES CAN encourages participation, builds capacity, and supports, renews, and builds arts and related projects in the community to foster cultural redevelopment.
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In this photo and video is Lani Russwurm of DTES CAN speaking with David Duprey and Rachel of Artwalk Vancouver 2010

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Below are photos of the spacious 2,000 sq feet NEW Art Space for DTES CAN artists to have their art displayed during Artwalk Vancouver 2010

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Below is a photo and video of Lani Russwurm, Coordinator of DTES CAN showing the New DTES CAN ( DTES Community Arts Network ) Art space’s big Garage Door Access in the back

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Below is a photo and video of Lani Russwurm seeing the New DTES CAN ( DTES Community Arts Network ) Art space from the back going towards the front of the space by the entrance door

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Below is a photo of Alvin Clayton of AHA MEDIA and one of his art pieces that will be in the displayed in New DTES CAN ( DTES Community Arts Network ) Art space for Artwalk Vancouver 2010

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Below is a photo of  New DTES CAN ( DTES Community Arts Network ) Art space for Artwalk Vancouver 2010 from the back with the lights off. (Please notice the shadows in the window from the street level)

Clustering in action

Robert Matas

Vancouver — From Saturday’s Globe and Mail Published on Friday, Dec. 18, 2009 10:13PM EST

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/clustering-in-action/article1406276/

AHA Media is a struggling new company incubated in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside by a government-funded agency that turned to theories of a Harvard University professor more often associated with Silicon Valley and Hollywood than with revitalization of urban slums.

April Smith, one of the company’s founders, drifted into the Downtown Eastside after a serious car accident left her with severe memory loss and other injuries. With no money, she ended up living in temporary shelters and hotels dominated by predator pimps and drug addicts, she said recently in an interview.

Her life changed after she began cartooning to tell the stories of people she met at the hotel and on the street. A local community group inspired her to think about reporting activities in her neighbourhood without going through traditional media. She became part of an apprenticeship program developed by a cluster of local companies. After completing the program, she worked with others to open a new business in the area, AHA Media.

Prof. Michael Porter has written extensively about the advantages of clustering as an approach to economic development. Concentrating interconnected companies, specialized suppliers and associated educational institutions in the same geographic area fosters increased employment, productivity and innovation, he said. The clusters become a catalyst for innovation that feeds economic growth.

Building Opportunities with Business, a government-funded agency, dedicated to revival of the local economy, embraced clustering at the suggestion of an ex-board member who had studied at Harvard.

Ms. Smith was part of a training program developed by a cluster that included Bell Canada, the FireHall Arts Centre, a local digital filmmaking program that works with youth at risk called Intersections Media, a B.C. government employment program called BladeRunners and a non-profit group working in social media called W2: Community Media Arts.

The training program “gave me a big, big start,” she said. “It gave me a sense of direction.”

Ms. Smith is now on Twitter, Facebook, Youtube and Flickr. She describes herself as a mobile new-media videographer and social media content-producer. She shoots camera-phone videos and live-streams events onto the Internet.

To speak with April Smith more personally

http://www.facebook.com/AprilFilms
http://www.twitter.com/AprilFilms
http://www.twitter.com/April

To see more of AHA MEDIA:

http://www.facebook.com/AHAMEDIA

http://www.twitter.com/AHAMEDIA

http://www.youtube.com/AHAFilm

http://www.flickr.com/photos/AHAMEDIA/sets

Clustering pushes local businesses to think how they can work together, BOB’s chief executive officer, Shirley Chan, said. But, unlike Silicon Valley, the Downtown Eastside businesses do not have resources to carry out many of their ideas.

“Many employers here are marginal, they do not have a lot of money. That is why they are here. The rent is cheap,” she said. “ Without finding sources of funding, there is not a lot that can be created.”

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AHA MEDIA wishes to thank the following

Robert Matas, Reporter for Globe and Mail http://www.theglobeandmail.com

Shirley Chan of BOB ( Building Opportunities with Business ) http://www.buildingopportunities.org

Irwin Oostindie of W2 Community Media Arts http://www.creativetechnology.org

Lani Russwurm of DTES CAN ( Downtown Eastside Community Arts Network ) http://tinyurl.com/yaqw5mz

Lorraine Murphy of Raincoaster Media http://RaincoasterMedia.com

Dialogue

ROLE OF THE ARTS IN THE DTES

Thursday November 5, 5pm-7:30pm

W2 Perel Gallery, 112 W. Hastings (note: change of venue)

With new asphalt, renovated heritage buildings, and hundreds of new condo units, the Downtown Eastside is changing. In other ways, it stays the same. W2 Community Media Arts,  The DTES Community Arts Network and Heart of the City Festival invite you to participate in a conversation on the role of the arts in the neighbourhood. What does development mean for existing artists? Are artists the unwitting “shock troops of gentrification,” or are the arts an integral component of the community?

With guests David Duprey, business man and entrepreneur; Irwin Oostindie, Executive Director – W2 Community Media Arts Society; Wendy Pedersen, community advocate for low-income housing; and Anne Marie Slater, independent photographer and media artist; moderator Ethel Whitty, Director—Carnegie Community Centre.

Reception at 5pm, Dialogue begins at 5:30pm. Free

http://www.heartofthecityfestival.com/festival-09/november-5/

http://www.artspeak.ca/exhibitions/event_detail.html?event_id=234

Althea Thauberger

September 30th, 2009

AHA MEDIA went on an exclusive tour of W2 Community Media Arts Centre with the Sennheiser Sound Tour as they visited Vancouver!

AHA MEDIA is very proud to be the first mobile new media and social media company from Vancouver to see the very beginning of the W2 Community Media Arts Centre from the ground up!

Sennheiser Sound Tour http://www.sennheisersoundtour.com

While you may not have heard about Sennheiser, you soon will. Sennheiser is a famous amongst music professionals for providing the most authentic sound and this summer, the Sennheiser Sound Tour will be spreading the sound about their incredible headphones across North America. With a team of 6 guys and a team of 6 Girls – there is goingto be some fun!

What Sennheiser stands for

We create the greatest and most exciting sound experience for people worldwide – whether at home or out and about; on stage or behind the DJ console; in a museum or in a concert hall. It is our ambition to enable people all around the world to enjoy a unique sound experience. Approximately 2000 Sennheiser employees in 90 countries around the globe work as a team in a constant effort to fulfil this promise.

For more than 60 years the name Sennheiser has stood for the highest quality products and customised solutions across all areas of sound recording, transmission and reproduction. As one of the world’s leading providers of integrated solutions for electro-acoustic products, systems and services we constantly set ourselves the challenge of developing creative answers which satisfy the requests and requirements of our customers.

Below is ( Left to Right)

Adrian of Sennheiser Sound Tour, April Smith of AHA MEDIA/W2, Irwin Oostindie, Executive Director of W2 Community Media Arts, Po of Sennheiser Sound Tour, Sid Tan of ICTV/W2

 The following videos are  by April Smith of AHA MEDIA on a Nokia N95 mobile cameraphone generously provided by W2 Community Media Arts. April is passionate and skilled in making Nokia films by exploring mobile media production through the camera lens of a cellphone. For a better quality version of this video, please DM April Smith @AprilFilms on Twitter.

Below is ( Left to Right)

Back: Sid Tan of ICTV/W2, Adrian of Sennheiser Sound Tour, Irwin Oostindie, Executive Director of W2, Po of Sennheiser Sound Tour

Front: Lani Russwurm of DTES CAN/W2 and April Smith of AHA MEDIA/W2

Below is Po and Adrian of Sennheiser Sound Tour http://www.SennheiserSoundTour.com

Below is Adrian of Sennheiser Sound Tour, Irwin Oostindie of W2 Community Media Arts and Po of Sennheiser Sound Tour chatting together.

Below is Po and Adrian of Sennheiser Sound Tour walking through the beginning of W2 Community Media Arts Centre

We thank Po and Adrian of Sennheiser Sound Tour for touring W2 Community Media Arts Centre

Sennheiser Sound Tour http://www.sennheisersoundtour.com

W2 Community Media Arts http://www.creativetechnology.com

Thanks to Po of Sennheiser Sound Tour http://www.sennheisersoundtour.com

Thanks to Adrian of Sennheiser Sound Tour http://www.sennheisersoundtour.com

Please see all 211 photos of Sennheiser Sound Tour visiting W2 on both our Flickr sets

First set has 163 photos

http://www.flickr.com/photos/ahamedia/sets/72157621993006603/

Second set has 48 photos

http://www.flickr.com/photos/ahamedia/sets/72157622116660280/

Thanks to Sennheiser Sound Tour  http://www.sennheisersoundtour.com and W2 Community Media Arts http://www.creativetechnology.org

AHA MEDIA is pleased to produce mobile media of  6 videos on Youtube and 211 photos on Flickr for you!