We are in the middle of the week, the lead-up to our Thanksgiving weekend and I am stoked. The Genealogist and I have turned the 3-day weekend that we normally get for Thanksgiving, into a 4-day weekend by taking the following Tuesday off as well. What prompted this? Well, partly he was told to use up all his vacation by the end of the calendar year or risk losing it. So there’s that. Plus I do enjoy me a 3-day work week, and since I haven’t really had any time off since late June/early July, it seemed to come at a good time. Plans? No, nothing comes to mind just yet. But the thought of hanging around drinking coffee while the boys get themselves off to school is a delicious one, let me tell you.
But before all that happens, we have Supercrawl to attend! I know! It really is going to be as amazing as it sounds!
So the city of Hamilton has, for decades upon decades, been known as Steel Town. This does of course make perfect sense, since it is home to two of the largest steel manufacturers in Canada, as well as a few smaller ones. This too makes perfect sense, since Hamilton is located on a natural harbour, making shipping raw materials relatively easy. And when you unload those materials, doesn’t it make sense to just, you know, use them right there? As opposed to say sending them across the province? Of course it does, and thus Steel Town was born, and thrived. At least it did.
Now, some of the smaller factories are gone and the larger ones partly (or mostly) sit idle. It’s strange to see the once bustling waterfront so silent and still. It’s hard on a city to lose such a vast part of itself, but fortunately Hamilton is pretty good at picking itself up and dusting itself off, and if not completely starting all over again, at least branching out to find some good in what could become a pretty desperate situation.
Which brings us to art. Unbeknownst to the rest of the world, Hamilton has undergone a bit of a renaissance when it comes to art. We have always had a stellar large gallery, the Art Gallery of Hamilton, as well as several galleries scattered here and there throughout the city, but over the past several years one area of the city in particular has become a sort of gathering place for artists, and the movement has just taken off. James St. North has become the place to be for art in the city, and the second Friday night of every month is Art Crawl. Galleries and shops open their doors to visitors, there is music and hors d’oeuvres and mingling and, of course, art viewing and appreciating. I have yet to be able to attend an Art Crawl, so I am super excited to be going this Friday evening. Supercrawl is a bigger and more involved Art Crawl – they are closing the street to vehicles, there will be lots more bands and just a whole lot more stuff going on.
I love that this sort of thing goes on in my city. I love that we can be known as a hardcore steel city and an art community. I love that the music scene in Hamilton kicks ass. I love when people from other places say “wow, I didn’t know Hamilton had ____”.
Stuff goes wrong in this city, but lots of stuff goes very, very right too. I think Art Crawl is one of those things that is spot on. And I can’t wait to tell you all about it.
The Urban Info Girl 