Grounds for Goodness is a mobile project with a Toronto home-base, venturing out to different locations (real and virtual) to collaborate, generate new material and share what has already been created.
Lead Artist: Ruth Howard
Rails End Curator & Artist: Laurie Jones
Other Artists: Scott Duggan, Bethany Houghton, Fay Wilkinson, Wendy Lingard
Media Artist: Áine Schryer-O'Gorman
Click here for artist bios.
May 8 - June 20, 2024
Grounds for Goodness is in residence at Haliburton’s Rails End Gallery and Arts Centre from May 9th to June 15th, 2024, with an evolving installation, workshops, rehearsals and culminating event, including local artists and community members.
Project intro: May 10th, 6:30-8:00pm
Online intro: May 14th, 6:30-8:00pm (for link contact ruth@jumbliestheatre.org)
Evolving gallery. drop-in art-making & pop-up workshops: 12-4pm May 10th to June 16th
Presentation: June 14th, 6:30-8:30pm
April 12th to 16th, 2024
Baggage Building Arts Centre 2200 Sleeping Giant Pkwy, Thunder Bay, ON
Public Schedule
Fri, Sat, Sun April 12-14, 1:30-4:30:
Drop-in artmaking
Fri April 12, 6:30-8:30: Artist Talk
Tues April 16, 6:30-8:30: Presentation
Lead Artist: Ruth Howard
Thunder Bay Lead Artist: Betty Carpick
Other Artists: Betty Carpick, Tuija Hansen, Eleanor Albanese, Andrew Bell, Paul. Rodermond, Julie Cosgrove, Shelby Gagnon.
Composer: Robert Fleitz (from Helsinki)
Media Artist: Áine Schryer-O'Gorman
Click here for artist bios.
March 19th - 24th, 2024
Grounds for Goodness will be at
Gallery 101, 280 Catherine St, Ottawa, ON.
Tues-Sat March 19-23, 1-5pm: Drop-in artmaking
Thurs March 21, 6:30-8:30pm: Artist talk
Sun March 24, 4-6pm: Final presentation
Partners: No Borders Arts Festival, Propeller Dance, Gallery 101
Ottawa Artists: Beverley McKiver, Kathryn Patricia Cobbler, Magdalena Jennings, No Borders Drummers, No Borders Community Voices, From Propeller: Shara Weaver, Bella Bowes, Robert Chartier. Click here for artist bios.
from Toronto: Martin van de Ven (composer), Áine Schryer-O'Gorman (media designer)
Thanks to: Patricia Reynolds and Carmel Whittle of No Borders Arts & Laura Margita. and Kristina Corre of Gallery 101.
NOVEMBER 2023: The first stop of a new Grounds for Goodness tour, in partnership with Wonder'neath, with lead artist: Ruth Howard, local artists: Lou Sheppard, Jackson Fairfax-Perry, Norman Adams, Jeighk Koyote and Lily Falk; plus remote contributions from composer Robert Fleitz (in Finland), and media artist Áine Schryer-O'Gorman (in Toronto). Thanks to Heather Wilkinson & the Wonder'neath team! Click here for artist bios.
Summer/Fall 2024 (exact dates TBD)
The last stop in the current Grounds for Goodness tour will be Stratford, in partnership with SpringWorks Festival. This episode will take place in Fall 2024, in collaboration with local artists and community members.
Stay tuned for more info coming soon!
From 2019 to 2022 we developed Grounds for Goodness from our Toronto home base with a variety of artists, participants and partners: Toronto Creative Music Lab, Artfare Essentials, Bernard Betel Centre, Gather Round Singers, Weston-King Neighborhood Center Senior Art Group, MABELLEarts, Arab Community Centre of Toronto, CultureLink, Arts4All and Community Arts Guild. A culminating 2-week event too place in February 2022 at the Small Arms Inspection Building in Mississauga.
November 2020: Vancouver and Toronto artists and Downtown Eastside community members created a Vancouver chapter of Grounds for Goodness, co-produced with Vancouver Moving Theatre, as part of the Downtown Eastside Heart of the City Festival.
Grounds for Goodness Downtown Eastside: Adventures in digital community art making
FALL 2020 & 2019: In November 2020 Jumblies artists Ruth and Adrienne visited Big Medicine Studio, Nipissing First Nation, for some COVID-mindful creative explorations with Aanmitaagzi artists: Penny Couchie, Sid Bobb, Animikiikwe Couchie, Michaela Washburn, Sherry Guppy, Tasheena Sarazin, and some of their community members.
The very first Grounds for Goodness creative explorations in 2019 were also held at Big Medicine Studio, with a similar artistic team, also including Martin van de Ven, Adrienne Marcus Raja and Dan Watson.
August 2020: Grounds for Goodness connected with two partners in the Algoma region of Ontario: Thinking Rock Community Arts and AlgomaTrad through virtual workshops for all ages, zoom performances and a short video. Artists included: Ruth Howard, Shifra Cooper, Adrienne Marcus Raja, Martin van de Ven, Arie Verheul van de Ven, Michelle Silagy, Rakefet Arieli, Catherine Moeller, Miranda Bouchard, Áine Schryer-O’Gorman and Alicia Hunt.
AUGUST 2020 & AUGUST 2021: We brought Grounds for Goodness to Camp Naivelt, Brampton for a week each summer of outdoor art-making drop-ins, workshops, performances and installations. The artistic team included: Ruth Howard, Shifra Cooper, Adrienne Marcus Raja, Jesse Wabegijig, Catherine Moeller, Rakefet Arieli, Arie Verheul van de Ven, Martin van de Ven, Marianne Alas, Michelle Silagy, Christina Volpini, Shlomit Segal, Leah Gold and creative members of the community.
AUGUST 2020: Ruth travelled to the Ottawa Valley, and worked with 8 local artists on a Grounds for Goodness iteration. This included 3 days at a wonderful venue in Killaloe (The Reading Room), and a final live-streamed installation and performance at Studio Dreamshare in Pembroke. The creative team included: Ruth Howard, Andy Trull, Jon Park- Wheeler, Cameron Montgomery, Dorian Pearce, Roberta Della-Picca, Anya Gansterer, Emma Pinto, Matt Lenzo, with special thanks to Ann Pohl and Jackie Goodheart.
March 2021: Grounds for Goodness went on virtual tour to Kingston, Ontario, engaging two of Julie Salverson's theatre classes at Queens University. As well as Ruth, Julie and the students, artists included composers/musicians: Beverley McKiver and Arie Verheul van de Ven; and choreographers/dancers: Animiikikwe Couchie, Jillia Cato and Michael Mortley.
In June 2021, Grounds for Goodness went on virtual tour to Kenora, via a series of online workshops, in partnership with the Arts Hub of Kenora Association for Community Living (KACL). Artists included Ruth Howard, Martin van de Ven, Reilly Scott. Thanks to Lee Ann Hawkins of KACL!
SPRING 2022: Jumblies and Femmes du Feu Creations devised a project called 'Belongings', inspired by Grounds for Goodness, for Welland, Ontario. Partners and locations included the Oak Centre, TOES, the Welland Museum, the Welland Market, Grand Canal Retirement Residence , and Princess Elizabeth Primary School. Artists included Holly Treddenick, Ruth Howard, Deanna Jones, Kitsuné Soleil and Sara Lou Routley.
The Belongings project continued as a separate multi-year project in Welland, produced by Femmes du Feu and combining circus and community arts, adding more partners, participants and artists along the way and heading to a July 2025 culminating event.
Join in!
In 2024, Grounds for Goodness is still travelling to different places, virtual and real. Contact info@jumbliestheatre.org to find out about upcoming episodes or if you're interested in bringing the project to your location.