NEWS IN BRIEF
 

>>Le Swimming Closes

Famous Montreal Pool Hall hot spot “Le Swimming” closed in October, 2005 after a decade of business. In the early 90’s, entrepreneurs Maurice, Paul and Richard Holder commissioned architect and Prix de Rome winner Jacques Rousseau to design the hall and Montreal’s art collective La Raza Group to create thirty panels for the walls. Le Swimming was the first of its kind in Montreal, a pool (hall) where men and women could shoot stick and drink together. In the last few years it became known as a premiere show bar featuring some of Montreal’s best bands. It will be missed.

www.hour.ca/news/news.aspx?iIDArticle=7516

>>La Raza Group East Member G. Scott MacLeod Receives Conseil des arts et de letter A Grant for his project the Sacred Feminine and Masculine

Work produced from this grant was exhibited at the St-Thomas/Elgin Public Arts Centre, in St.Thomas, Ontario and at the Société des Arts Technologiques in Montreal.

>>La Raza Group West member Richard Tetrault  releases new
book of his work.

>>Painted Lives & Shifting Landscapes: The Paintings, Prints & Murals of Richard Tetrault

Painted Lives & Shifting Landscapes showcases the artwork of Vancouver painter, printmaker and muralist Richard Tetrault. Tetrault's work explores universal themes of the figure and the urban landscape. From Berlin to Bangkok to Vancouver, his artwork revisits these themes over thirty years. His imagery is at its most direct in street drawings and paintings, more symbolic in monoprints and studio work, and most iconic in woodcuts and linocuts. While Tetrault's studio work reflects the urban setting, his murals are a direct attempt to influence the physical texture of the street. Numerous mural projects and collaborations bring the artist face-to-face with the edginess and the creative spirit of Vancouver's downtown eastside.

Welcome to La Raza Group’s first Newsletter!

We want to keep you updated on our future exhibitions and outreach projects. The group recently decided to ‘regroup’ after a 7 year hiatus and in 2003 we decided to continue our “Commitment to Community” by working on the Honduran Medical Aid project with our doctor friend Paula Donahue. Through the sales of our art work at The Jens Thielsen Gallery, we donated all of the proceeds totaling $8000 CDN to the Honduran Medical Aid team to help pay for medical supplies and building material for a hospital in a Honduran mountain village. It was this Medical Aid project that gave us the impetus to do the ‘good work’ again. This initiative was familiar to us as it was in the spirit of the work we did in the 80’s and 90’s for food banks, AIDS hospices, orphanages, hospitals, Amnesty International, and National Association of Japanese Canadians. So it is with a renewed enthusiasm and optimism that we reach out to you with this newsletter to give you the “good news”! We are looking forward to 2006 as we are organizing mural projects in Argentina and South Africa. Also La Raza Group has recently returned from projects in Newfoundland and Mexico. Newfoundland will be covered in this issue and Mexico in the following one
in the New Year. We look forward to hearing from you no matter what part of the globe you belong to. Together we can make a difference.

Act locally and make an impact globally.

NEXT ISSUE FEATURES

La Raza Reunion in MEXICO CITY August 6 to 8, 2005.

La Raza Group recently returned to Mexico City for a reunion, meeting one of our original La Raza Group counterparts, Alberto Cerritos. La Raza Group was originally founded from an experience in 1987 at La Sociedad Mexicana de Artes Plasticas, in Mexico City. What ensued from this experience was a series of exchange exhibitions and residencies between El Salvadorian artist Alberto Ceritos and Mexican artist Roberto Ferryra. In Mexico City Alberto and Roberto exposed La Raza Group to murals by The Three Greats Siquieros, Orozco, and Rivera. During their time in the big city they produced a mural and paintings for exhibition at the artist cooperative La Sociedad Mexicana de Artes Plasticas (S.O.M.A.R.T.) These exhibitions were attended by cultural attaches from Delegation de Quebec and the Canadian Embassy.

TLAXCALA World Conference of Public Art and Muralism August 9 to 10, 2005

After La Raza toured the old spots in the Mexico City, they met up with Raza West artist Alberto Cerritos and the COMAV people at Bella Artes to depart for Tlaxcala. La Raza was invited to participate in an ecology and public art conference in Tlaxcala. There were approximately 80 artists from Latin and North America, Europe, Africa and Asia invited to participate in this outdoor mural event.