Owens Free Space
Owens Free Space is an unfolding community resource and creative production space. Inspired by the spirit of infoshops—non-hierarchical, informal centres for art, activism, and information exchange found around the world—Owens Free Space serves as an alternative, open site of learning and making.
Discover a zine library of nearly 450 zines, adhesive vinyl for hand cutting, and a photocopier for zine making. Contribute to an ongoing collaborative mural or give a record a spin. Make a zine to provoke and inform. Leave something you create behind for someone else to explore. Visit briefly, or as often as you want. This is your space for putting ideas into action.
This space was developed by Tara Bursey, Lassonde Artist-in-Residence at Mount Allison University in collaboration with Lucy MacDonald, Curator of Education and Community Outreach, Rachel Thornton, Curator of Digital Engagement, and fine arts students Daisy Graham, Chloe Lundrigan, Kaya Panthier, and Shivanya Ra.
Tara Bursey is an interdisciplinary artist, self publisher and arts worker from Hamilton, Ontario. Her artwork has been exhibited across Canada as well as in Copenhagen, Berlin, and Eye, Suffolk, UK, and she has presented her research in the areas of textiles and contemporary art at Symposia in Los Angeles, Sackville, and Savannah. Most recently, she has worked rigorously in the areas of programming and education, bringing arts education to first and second graders at her neighbourhood school, and curating exhibitions about zines, trade union banners, and professional wrestling. www.tara-bursey.com
Through Owens Free Space, Tara brings together interests and experience in art production, print, exhibition design, programming, zine libraries, and community collaboration to create an authentic, accessible public space where radical art and ideas can emerge.
