Four Lands of Thunder Bay

with Community Arts Heritage and Education Project (CAHEP)
at the Baggage Building Arts Centre, Victoriaville Centre, and March of Dimes Warehouse Project.
Other participating groups: Roots & Branches Forest School, Aboriginal Youth Rehab. Programme.

Jumblies Artists: Ruth Howard, Adrienne Marcus Raja, Nikki Shaffeeullah, Sam Egan

Thunder Bay Artists & Contributors: Alana Forslund, Eleanor Albanese, Zoe Gordon, Lorrina Belluz, Betty Carpick, Jayal Chung, Pam Cain, Kathleen Baleja, Pierre Schryer, Michelle Richmond-Saravia, Morris Shapwaykeesic, Cole Breiland, and Clay Breiland.

Public Activities

Monday April 11th
Project Launch, 5-8 pm Baggage Building Arts Centre at Prince Arthur’s Landing

Tuesday April 12th
Artmaking Drop-in, 5-8 pm Baggage Building Arts Centre

Wednesday April 13th
Artist Workshop, Part 1, 5-8 pm Baggage Building Arts Centre

Thursday April 14th
Artmaking Drop-in, 1-3:30 pm Baggage Building Arts Centre
Artist Workshop, Part 2, 5-8 pm Baggage Building Arts Centre

Friday April 15th
Artmaking Drop-in, 2:30-5 pm Victoriaville Mall (East Entrance near the Bargain Shop)
Artmaking Drop-in, 5:30-8 pm Minnesota Park (820 Minnesota Street)

Saturday April 16th
Artmaking Drop-in, 11-1 pm Victoriaville Mall (East Entrance near the Bargain Shop)
Artmaking Drop-in & performance explorations, 3-5 pm Baggage Building Arts Centre

Sunday April 17th
Grand Finale with Installation, performance, & celebration, Noon-4 pm Baggage Building Arts Centre (indoors & out)

Media Coverage

TB News Watch, April 12th
TB News Watch, April 17th

Artist Profiles

	Ruth Howard Ruth Howard is the founding Artistic Director of Jumblies Theatre. She and Jumblies have created multi-year residencies resulting in large scale performances, in a series of Toronto neighbourhoods, resulting in large-scale productions and lasting Offshoot organizations. She has worked across Canada and in England as a theatre designer, has taught at many universities, colleges and schools, amentored many emerging artists and organizations, and won many awards for her work. In 2015 Ruth and Jumblies produced the west-to-east-coast Train of Thought tour with partners across the country. Her most recent projects with Jumblies include the May/June 2017 Touching Ground Festival of new works in Toronto and the Four Lands tour.
	Adrienne Marcus Raja Adrienne explores a range of practices which blends in painting, puppetry, audio, installation, moving images, and photography. As a Malaysian with a Kelabit and Hainan ancestory, she is a multi-disciplinary artist currently living in Toronto. Her works has been presented nationally and internationally. She is an MFA graduate of Ryerson University in Documentary Media. She also holds a BA degree in Mass Communication and Television Production from Curtin University. She is the first recipient of Jumblies’ Al Levitt Memorial Award. She enjoys travelling as well as learning alongside people from different backgrounds and communities. She is currently the Tour Coordinator for Jumblies’ most recent collaborative touring project, The Four Lands. She is also Jumblies’ Arts Management Intern (thanks to an Ontario Arts Council Compass grant).
	Nikki Shaffeeullah Nikki Shaffeeullah is a Toronto-based facilitator, director, performer and community-engaged artist who supports people in telling their own stories and facilitates the development of creative communities. Her current roles include serving as artistic director of The AMY Project, a theatre devising and arts mentorship program for young women and non-binary youth; assistant artistic director of the community arts company Jumblies Theatre, and half of the community-engaged puppetry and music duo Sea Lettuce. Nikki founded the Edmonton-based artist-activist collective Undercurrent Theatre, which produced community-engaged performance projects such as Escape Velocity and Other Works, a week-long arts festival that explored how gender-based violence intersects with race, culture, and media. She is an accomplished improviser who has been a cast member with companies across Canada, including Edmonton’s Canadian Comedy Award-winning troupe Rapid Fire Theatre. For four years she was editor-in-chief of alt.theatre magazine, Canada’s only professional journal dedicated to the intersections of politics, cultural plurality, social activism, and the stage. Nikki holds an MFA in Community-Engaged Theatre from the University of Alberta and her thesis Staging Diversity: A Decolonial Praxis of Intercultural Feminist Theatre Creation won the 2013 Canadian Association for Theatre Research in Intercultural Theatre. She trained in puppetry at Humber College, and has studied various politically-engaged theatre creation forms with the Belarus Free Theatre, the Makhampom Foundation in Thailand, and Teatro Yuyachkani in Peru. Nikki believes art should disrupt the status quo; centre the margins; engage with the ancient; dream of the future; and be for everyone. Her artistic and facilitation work is informed by 15+ years of anti-racist organizing, 10+ years of feminist and queer organizing; a family who loves music, food, and justice; and an inherited love of puns.
	Sam Egan SAM FIRST ENCOUNTERED JUMBLIES IN SCARBOROUGH DURING THE DEVELOPMENT OF LIKE AN OLD TALE IN 2010, HE THEN DISAPPEARED TO ENGLAND FOR FOUR YEARS TO STUDY AT THE UNIVERSITY OF BRISTOL FOR A MASTER’S DEGREE IN CHEMISTRY. IN 2014, SAM RETURNED TO TORONTO AND HAS WORKED WITH JUMBLIES IN A RANGE OF OPERATIONAL ROLES, CURRENTLY AS OPERATIONS MANAGER. SAM IS FASCINATED BY THE POLITICAL CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES IN COMMUNITY-ENGAGED ARTS AS WELL AS THE HISTORY AND ARCHITECTURE OF THE BUILT ENVIRONMENT IN TORONTO AND OTHER CITIES AND LOCATIONS. ASIDE FOR HIS TALENT AND ENTHUSIASM FOR SPREADSHEETS, SAM HAS A FLAIR FOR HAND LETTERING AND CURATING AND INSTALLING INSTALLATIONS AND EXHIBITIONS – SKILLS WHICH HE HAS BESTOWED ON SEVERAL FOUR LANDS ITERATIONS..

Ruth Howard

Ruth Howard is the founding Artistic Director of Jumblies Theatre. She and Jumblies have created multi-year residencies resulting in large scale performances, in a series of Toronto neighbourhoods, resulting in large-scale productions and lasting Offshoot organizations. She has worked across Canada and in England as a theatre designer, has taught at many universities, colleges and schools, amentored many emerging artists and organizations, and won many awards for her work. In 2015 Ruth and Jumblies produced the west-to-east-coast Train of Thought tour with partners across the country. Her most recent projects with Jumblies include the May/June 2017 Touching Ground Festival of new works in Toronto and the Four Lands tour.

Adrienne Marcus Raja

Adrienne explores a range of practices which blends in painting, puppetry, audio, installation, moving images, and photography. As a Malaysian with a Kelabit and Hainan ancestory, she is a multi-disciplinary artist currently living in Toronto. Her works has been presented nationally and internationally. She is an MFA graduate of Ryerson University in Documentary Media. She also holds a BA degree in Mass Communication and Television Production from Curtin University. She is the first recipient of Jumblies’ Al Levitt Memorial Award. She enjoys travelling as well as learning alongside people from different backgrounds and communities. She is currently the Tour Coordinator for Jumblies’ most recent collaborative touring project, The Four Lands. She is also Jumblies’ Arts Management Intern (thanks to an Ontario Arts Council Compass grant).

Nikki Shaffeeullah

Nikki Shaffeeullah is a Toronto-based facilitator, director, performer and community-engaged artist who supports people in telling their own stories and facilitates the development of creative communities. Her current roles include serving as artistic director of The AMY Project, a theatre devising and arts mentorship program for young women and non-binary youth; assistant artistic director of the community arts company Jumblies Theatre, and half of the community-engaged puppetry and music duo Sea Lettuce. Nikki founded the Edmonton-based artist-activist collective Undercurrent Theatre, which produced community-engaged performance projects such as Escape Velocity and Other Works, a week-long arts festival that explored how gender-based violence intersects with race, culture, and media. She is an accomplished improviser who has been a cast member with companies across Canada, including Edmonton’s Canadian Comedy Award-winning troupe Rapid Fire Theatre. For four years she was editor-in-chief of alt.theatre magazine, Canada’s only professional journal dedicated to the intersections of politics, cultural plurality, social activism, and the stage. Nikki holds an MFA in Community-Engaged Theatre from the University of Alberta and her thesis Staging Diversity: A Decolonial Praxis of Intercultural Feminist Theatre Creation won the 2013 Canadian Association for Theatre Research in Intercultural Theatre. She trained in puppetry at Humber College, and has studied various politically-engaged theatre creation forms with the Belarus Free Theatre, the Makhampom Foundation in Thailand, and Teatro Yuyachkani in Peru. Nikki believes art should disrupt the status quo; centre the margins; engage with the ancient; dream of the future; and be for everyone. Her artistic and facilitation work is informed by 15+ years of anti-racist organizing, 10+ years of feminist and queer organizing; a family who loves music, food, and justice; and an inherited love of puns.

Sam Egan

SAM FIRST ENCOUNTERED JUMBLIES IN SCARBOROUGH DURING THE DEVELOPMENT OF LIKE AN OLD TALE IN 2010, HE THEN DISAPPEARED TO ENGLAND FOR FOUR YEARS TO STUDY AT THE UNIVERSITY OF BRISTOL FOR A MASTER’S DEGREE IN CHEMISTRY. IN 2014, SAM RETURNED TO TORONTO AND HAS WORKED WITH JUMBLIES IN A RANGE OF OPERATIONAL ROLES, CURRENTLY AS OPERATIONS MANAGER. SAM IS FASCINATED BY THE POLITICAL CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES IN COMMUNITY-ENGAGED ARTS AS WELL AS THE HISTORY AND ARCHITECTURE OF THE BUILT ENVIRONMENT IN TORONTO AND OTHER CITIES AND LOCATIONS. ASIDE FOR HIS TALENT AND ENTHUSIASM FOR SPREADSHEETS, SAM HAS A FLAIR FOR HAND LETTERING AND CURATING AND INSTALLING INSTALLATIONS AND EXHIBITIONS – SKILLS WHICH HE HAS BESTOWED ON SEVERAL FOUR LANDS ITERATIONS..

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