Surel's Place

Workshop: Writing from the Bottom of the Mind
2025-06-14 11:00 - 18:00 (America/Boise) | Surel’s Place, 212 E. 33rd Street, Garden City, 83714, United States
In this full-day generative writing workshop, Artist-in-Residence Ivy Raff guides participants to learn or hone the Zen approach to writing as instructed by Natalie Goldberg. With the primary objective of clearing mental clutter and writing from “the bottom of the mind,” students will first learn the simple and effective concepts of Zen writing practice. We intersperse guided sitting and walking meditations with timed, prompted writings in pairs. We reconvene the full group to read and listen uncritically to each other’s work.

Open to all levels of writers and aspiring writers. Newly-published or prolific, casual, or committed, those who write only in private journals or carefully-crafted work emails…this workshop is perfect for anyone curious about expressing themself with the written word.

Materials. Minimal. Bring a notebook and fast-writing pen. A cushion for sitting meditation is optional and recommended. Select a boxed lunch from Roots as an add-on or bring your own.

Workshop Schedule:

11:00-11:30 AM – Welcome and introductions. How did you come to be here?

11:30-11:45 AM – Explanation of Zen writing practice concepts

11:45 AM-12:15 PM – Guided seated meditation

12:15-1:15 PM – Break into pairs for a series of short timed writings

1:15-1:45 PM – Lunch (Add-on available for a box lunch from Roots Zero Waste Market)

1:45-2:45 PM – Full group reading/listening to each other’s work

2:45-3:00 PM – Remarks and closing

Optional Extension (available in add-ons for $20 after you register)

3:00-4:00PM – Guided walking meditation on Boise River Greenbelt

4:00-4:45 PM – Break into pairs for short timed writings

4:45-5:45 PM – Full group reading/listening to each other’s work

5:45-6:00 PM – Closing meditation and remarks

Partial Scholarships available upon request to info@surelsplace.org

REGISTER HERE

This programming is supported in part by Creative West and the National Endowment for the Arts.

READING: Poetry and Pints
2025-06-10 18:30 - 20:00 | Idaho
READINGPOETRY AND PINTSTuesday, June 10th | 6:30pm

at Oldspeak: 3640 W Chinden Blvd in Garden City

21+

Donate to attend

Special Event: Poetry and Pints

Surel’s Place is partnering with The Lit Room and gaining special access to Oldspeak on Tuesday, June 10th at 6:30pm for a private poetry reading from our next artist-in-residence Ivy Raff. Cozy up with a pint of Alliteration Beer (or other NA offerings) and absorb Ivy’s readings from both published and unpublished work in English and Spanish.

Ivy will be reading from her book Rooted and Reduced to Dust published just last year from Finish Line Press. The book is included in some of the donation levels and Ivy will be available to sign them at the reading. She will also read from What Remains / Que queda, a bilingual English/Spanish collection that won the Alberola International Poetry Prize with publication pending. The reading will be followed by a discussion led by The Lit Room’s Cristina Houston.

Heaven and earth conspire that everything which has been, be rooted and reduced to dust.

-Isaac Bashevis Singer

So begins Ivy Raff‘s debut poetry chapbook, which plumbs the depths of movement, of growth: from one generation to the next, from Eastern Europe across America, from sickness to health. With braided fearlessness and vulnerability, Raff bridges the past with the heartbreaking tenderness of today.

Observant, challenging, sensuous, glowing with an undercarriage of mystique, Raff’s poems are torsos that twist to embrace the universe. Every muscled line is taut, knowing its desire and how to hold what it loves in its arms.

–Jimmy Santiago Baca, American Book Award-winning author of Martin and Meditations on the South Valley

This programming is supported in part by Creative West and the National Endowment for the Arts.

First Friday Art and Studio Stroll: PROUD
2025-06-06 17:30 - 20:30 | Surel Mitchell Live-Work-Create District, 212 E. 33rd Street, Garden City, Idaho, 83714
Garden City’s Surel L. Mitchell Live-Work-Create District is bustling with artists, artisans, and creative, artisanal businesses. Come to our neighborhood on the river as much as you can, but especially during our First Friday Art & Studio Stroll. You’ll find many locations open during the event, including artist studios, restaurants, and businesses featuring art events. In addition, there will be special events at many locations, including exhibits, readings, and performances.

More information about the next First Friday, is available at The LWC District First Friday Event Page on Facebook.

See below to view an interactive Google map of the First Friday participating venues.

Spring Yard Day
2025-05-27 10:00 - 14:00 | Surel’s Place, 212 E. 33rd Street, Garden City, 83714, United States
VOLUNTEERSPRING YARD DAY

Tuesday, May 27th | 10:00am – 2:00pm

You can be a part of this incredible community of artists and art lovers. Volunteers are crucial to the work we do together to support the arts in Idaho.

We will be hosting a volunteer gardening day on Tuesday, May 27th. Snacks and drinks will be provided. Surel’s Place has an assortment of garden tools, but feel free to bring garden gloves and any tools you think might be helpful. See you there!

If you are interested in gardening or other volunteer opportunities please fill out our Volunteer Interest Form.

Metamorphilia: Open Studio and Art Talk
2025-05-22 19:00 - 20:30 | Surel’s Place, 212 E. 33rd Street, Garden City, 83714, United States
Metamorphilia is a conceptual framework that embraces change. Hybridizing scientific research and creative process, Nina Elder imagines a future where planetary dynamics act as scores for human behavior and we become adept in the flux between life and death, grief and joy, creativity and mourning. Inspired by the story of biologic extinctions and resilience compressed into Boise’s metamorphic rock, Metamorphilia investigates personal and environmental potentiality.

During her residency, Nina asked the land how we can learn from cycles of fracture and transformation. Erosion was her teacher. Granite revealed what endures after disintegration. Explored and expressed through performance, drawing, and writing, Metamorphilia invigorates the mind and body towards the future, imagines a planet that is dynamic and beyond human control, yet fosters deep connection and stewardship. As Nina works towards the culmination of this project, she will share both collections and creations from her residency: photos, videos, sculptural props and pseudo-scientific tools.

BFF Block Party for Idaho Gives
2025-04-29 16:00 - 20:00 | Idaho
IDAHO GIVES EVENT

BFF BLOCK PARTY

Tuesday, April 29th | 4:00pm – 8:00pm

at Lost Grove Brewing: 1026 S. La Pointe St. in Boise

Come to Lost Grove Brewing in the Lusk District for the 7th Annual BFF Block Party for Idaho Gives. Surel’s Place will be there along with dozens of other Treasure Valley nonprofits. Lost Grove Brewing is donating the money from all beer sales to the Idaho Nonprofit Center, helping fund future scholarships. Boise Rock School will be showcasing their talents on the stage all evening long. Come have a pint while celebrating community and the good work nonprofits are doing.

Flash Show: Body and Devotion
2025-04-27 12:00 - 16:00, 2025-04-26 12:00 - 16:00 | Surel’s Place, 212 E. 33rd Street, Garden City, 83714, United States
Featuring Maiyan Linane, Ashley Larson, Kamryn Rose, and Michael Candelaria.

This Flash Show is in collaboration with Backyard Artists. Backyard Artists empowers emerging artists in Idaho’s Treasure Valley by providing professional opportunities through community-driven exhibitions, literary events, project grants, and strategic partnerships.

Schedule:Friday, April 25, Opening Reception, 6pm – 8:30pmSaturday, April 26, Gallery Hours, 12pm – 4pmSunday, April 27, Gallery Hours, 12pm – 4pm

Flash Show: Body and Devotion
2025-04-25 18:00 - 20:30 | Surel’s Place, 212 E. 33rd Street, Garden City, 83714, United States
Featuring Maiyan Linane, Ashley Larson, Kamryn Rose, and Michael Candelaria.This Flash Show is in collaboration with Backyard Artists. Backyard Artists empowers emerging artists in Idaho’s Treasure Valley by providing professional opportunities through community-driven exhibitions, literary events, project grants, and strategic partnerships.

Schedule:Friday, April 25, Opening Reception, 6pm – 8:30pmSaturday, April 26, Gallery Hours, 12pm – 4pmSunday, April 27, Gallery Hours, 12pm – 4pm

Reading: Lineages of Non Consent and Lineages of Pleasure
2025-04-23 19:00 - 20:30 | Surel’s Place, 212 E. 33rd Street, Garden City, 83714, United States
AIR Amanda Machado will read excerpts from essays and a book project that explore how sexuality and desire connects her to the women of her lineage. In this project, she explores both the lineage of non consent in her family, as well as lineages of pleasure, and the queer elements of all immigrant woman narratives when we think of queerness as an act of bodily autonomy, rather than only a sexual orientation.

These essays meditate on the question: How do you create a life you’ve never seen before, and how do you trust that it honors those before you?

This programming is supported in part by Creative West and the National Endowment for the Arts.

Workshop: Writing Immigrant Queerness
2025-04-19 13:00 - 16:00 | Surel’s Place, 212 E. 33rd Street, Garden City, 83714, United States
WORKSHOPWRITING IMMIGRANT QUEERNESSSaturday, April 19th | 1:00pm – 4:00pm

$25 : Surel’s Place Sustaining Members$35 : General Workshop RegistrationPartial scholarships available on request to info@surelplace.org.

People of color encouraged to attend, but writers of all backgrounds and levels welcome.

Max participants: 20

Ages 15 & up

REGISTER HERE

DESCRIPTION

How do you create a life you’ve never seen before, and how do you trust that it honors those before you? In this workshop, writer-in-residence Amanda Machado explores how queer writers and writers of color have used writing as a tool to define the future they desired but could not yet create. In particular, the class will focus on writing from queer people of color from immigrant families. Through the inspiration of work from Audre Lorde, Daisy Hernandez, Ocean Vuong and others, together we’ll write on prompts that help unearth stories about how queerness and the immigrant experience help us think differently about desire, respectability, “the American Dream,” and family legacy.

BIOGRAPHY

In nearly a decade of their work, Amanda Machado (CA) has focused on writing stories about travel, outdoor adventure, and sexuality that center the experiences of queer people and women of color. Recognizing the common erasure of those stories, she has aimed to use her work, as writer Matthew Salesses wrote, to “take responsibility for absence.”

As a queer daughter of immigrants from Mexico and Ecuador, Amanda has always felt split between many places. “I write stories that show how those of us — children of immigrants and displaced people, queers, gender-expansive folks — who grow up with our first experiences of home and desire and identity expanding past binaries, ultimately become the kind of people who want to take in the world intimately, who view travel as something we naturally must do.” In this next chapter of their work, she also wants to write more directly about the link between ancestry, colonization and travel, how women have used travel to gain agency over their own bodies, escape violence, create refuge for themselves, and redefine who they are.

Amanda has a BA in English Literature/Nonfiction from Brown University. Their work has been published in The Atlantic, Guernica, The Washington Post, Adroit Journal, Slate, The Guardian, Sierra Magazine, among many others outlets. In addition to their essay writing, Amanda also is a public speaker and workshop facilitator on issues of justice and anti-oppression for organizations around the world. She is also the founder of Reclaiming Nature Writing, a multi-week online workshop that centers the experiences of people of color in how we tell stories about the outdoors.

This programming is supported in part by Creative West and the National Endowment for the Arts.

Reading: Amanda Machado
2025-04-17 19:00 - 20:30 | Oldspeak Bar, 3640 W Chinden Blvd, Garden City, Idaho, 83714, United States
READINGAMANDA MACHADOThursday, April 17th | 7:00pm

free | venue is ages 21+rsvp at surelsplace.ludus.com

at Oldspeak Bar: 3640 W. Chinden Boulevard in Garden City

Come join us for an intimate evening with the current writer-in-residence at Surel’s Place – the talented author Amanda Machado at Oldspeak Bar. Amanda will be reading from one of their acclaimed essays followed by a discussion led by Cristina Houston. Amanda’s work has been published in The Atlantic, Guernica, The Washington Post, Adroit Journal, Slate, The Guardian, Sierra Magazine, among many others outlets. In addition to their essay writing, Amanda also is a public speaker and workshop facilitator on issues of justice and anti-oppression for organizations around the world. This is a unique opportunity to meet the author in person! Don’t miss out on this special event – mark your calendars now!BIOGRAPHY

In nearly a decade of their work, Amanda Machado (CA) has focused on writing stories about travel, outdoor adventure, and sexuality that center the experiences of queer people and women of color. Recognizing the common erasure of those stories, she has aimed to use her work, as writer Matthew Salesses wrote, to “take responsibility for absence.”

As a queer daughter of immigrants from Mexico and Ecuador, Amanda has always felt split between many places. “I write stories that show how those of us — children of immigrants and displaced people, queers, gender-expansive folks — who grow up with our first experiences of home and desire and identity expanding past binaries, ultimately become the kind of people who want to take in the world intimately, who view travel as something we naturally must do.”

Amanda has a BA in English Literature/Nonfiction from Brown University. In addition to their essay writing, Amanda also is a public speaker and workshop facilitator on issues of justice and anti-oppression for organizations around the world. She is also the founder of Reclaiming Nature Writing, a multi-week online workshop that centers the experiences of people of color in how we tell stories about the outdoors.

This programming is supported in part by Creative West and the National Endowment for the Arts.

First Friday Art and Studio Stroll
2025-04-04 17:30 - 20:30 | Surel’s Place, 212 E. 33rd Street, Garden City, 83714, United States

THE SPACE BETWEEN
2025-03-23 13:00 - 16:00 | Surel’s Place, 212 E. 33rd Street, Garden City, 83714, United States
THE SPACE BETWEEN

Tyler Crabb

Friday, March 21, Opening, 7pm – 8:30pm

Saturday, March 22, Gallery Hours, 1pm – 4pm

Sunday, March 23, Gallery Hours, 1pm – 4pm

Tyler Crabb works as an abstract artist not just to serve his own creativity, but because he finds it to be a powerful vehicle for others to unleash their imagination. His show “The Space Between Body & Mind” offers viewers an immersive abstract experience that reflects the beauty and mystery of being human.

THE SPACE BETWEEN
2025-03-22 13:00 - 16:00 | Surel’s Place, 212 E. 33rd Street, Garden City, Idaho, 83714, United States

Opening Reception: THE SPACE BETWEEN
2025-03-21 17:30 - 20:30 | Surel’s Place, 212 E. 33rd Street, Garden City, 83714, United States
THE SPACE BETWEEN

Tyler Crabb

Friday, March 21, Opening, 5:30pm – 8:30pm

Saturday, March 22, Gallery Hours, 1pm – 4pm

Sunday, March 23, Gallery Hours, 1pm – 4pm

Tyler Crabb works as an abstract artist not just to serve his own creativity, but because he finds it to be a powerful vehicle for others to unleash their imagination. His show “The Space Between” offers viewers an immersive abstract experience that reflects the beauty and mystery of being human.

Surel's Place Pie Day Pop-Up Party!
2025-03-14 18:00 - 19:30 | Surel’s Place, 212 E. 33rd Street, Garden City, 83714, United States
RSVP here!

Are you feeling ins-PIE-red? Good. Join Surel’s Place for a Pie Day Pop-Up Party where a selection of delectable pies made specially with love for Pie Day will be admired and auctioned – and eaten. If a pie catches your eye, you can bid on it. The winners of the pies can take them home, or better yet, share them at the end of the evening with all who gather. It’s a pie celebration, and we hope you’ll join us. In addition, we will have slices of art coming together to form artful pies. See you on 3.14, π Day!

PARTICIPATING PIE MAKERS:Barb CochraneJan JohnsJordyn MarcroftBeth MasonKarla MillerMonica RhodesJocelyn RobertsonDorothy Shue

Featured in the gallery will be a portfolio organized by Wingtip Press titled A Piece of the Pie. This portfolio of prints by 9 Idaho artists was organized in response to the theme of “sustenance” as part of an exhibition organized by the Treasure Valley Food Coalition and Kirsten Furlong at the Visual Arts Center in 2012.

PARTICIPATING ARTISTS:Mare BlockerMatt BodettLisa CheneyKatarzyna CepekTerra FeastTara KennedyAmy NackJosh OlsonCassandra Schiffler

Additionally, brand new slice shaped artworks will be exhibited by local artists. These artworks will be available for purchase, and a portion of the proceeds goes to support Surel’s Place.

PARTICIPATING ARTISTS:Adie BartronEve-Marie BergrenHillary BilinskiTilley BubbEvalee CampbellHillary ColtonErin CunninghamAnne ElmoreMarne ElmoreJessica EvettNellie FrizzellJulia GreenAndrew GrothElizabeth HiltonAva HoneyDeborah MartellApril VanDeGrift

Art Exhibition: In a Frame Whose Moment... / در قابی که گاهش…
2025-03-04 19:00 - 20:30 | Surel’s Place, 212 E. 33rd Street, Garden City, 83714, United States
Artist in residence Ainaz Alipour created textile pieces depicting scenes of beauty, prayer, pleasure, and unconditional self-love. Inspired by archival photos, traditional Iranian sewing patterns, and painting, this project offers a tender and intimate portrayal of Iranian women, countering their historically misunderstood depictions in Western media.

At the core of Ainaz’s studio practice is the exploration of the relationship between digital and tangible forms and their role in creating hyperreality. Over the years, she has collected an archive of Iranian families’ home videos that capture the everyday lives of Iranian women. She used still images from these videos to create textile panels using embroidery, fabric collage, and appliqué techniques. The artwork is installed at a high elevation, with the fabrics extending down to the ground, among other pieces.

Embroidering Traditional Techniques and 2D Animation
2025-02-15 13:00 - 16:00 | Surel’s Place, 212 E. 33rd Street, Garden City, 83714, United States
Artist in residence Ainaz Alipour will introduce you to her traditional Iranian embroidery techniques and how this can be integrated with 2D animation, emphasizing cultural representation and self-expression. You will receive hands-on practice with basic stitches and patterns from northern Khorasan. Using these skills, you will create a small textile panel. Then, the participants will work together to create a small collaborative animation project integrating your embroidered piece.

$45 guest

$35 sustaining member

Register Here

BIOGRAPHY

Ainaz Alipour (b. Iran) is an interdisciplinary artist whose practice explores the interplay between textile traditions and contemporary artistic expression, emphasizing cultural representation in art and its potential to challenge power structures. Drawing from Iranian cultural imagery, she creates installations that integrate soft sculptures, utilizing local sewing crafts and embroidery techniques from northern Khorasan. Alipour’s work focuses on the dynamics and politics of bodies, engaging viewers through tactile fabric-based forms that challenge colonial representations and assert the presence and agency of marginalized bodies. Her multimedia installations have been recognized and awarded, with curated screenings at the Rochester Contemporary Art Center and exhibitions at the Ringling Museum of Art and the Mattie Kelly Art Center.

Ainaz Alipour received her MFA in Studio Arts from the University of South Florida; her MA in Animation and Film from Trabiat Modares University in Tehran, Iran; and a BFA in Printmaking from the Tehran University of Art.

hum-ai-n
2025-02-03 19:00 - 20:30 | Surel’s Place, 212 E. 33rd Street, Garden City, 83714, United States
EXHIBITION AND ART TALK

Art talk at 7:30 pm

What happens when AI gives you more (or less) than you asked for?Song Lu spent her residency deepening her exploration into the connections between what’s generated by Artificial Intelligence (AI) and the bias that comes along with that. At Surel’s Place she began a third stage in this work. In all these stages, Song Lu utilizes AI-generated imagery that changes based on different prompts, highlighting embedded biases. The first stage, titled Snow Drawing, challenged the occupational segregation perpetuated by AI algorithms. When she prompted the AI program to generate an image of an artist, it tended to picture an older white man, which began Song Lu’s investigation into exposing the narrow, Western-centric perspective perpetuated within the design.

As a result of this first exploration, Song Lu found “It’s clear that there’s a need for more diversity in the art world, and this extends to the language we use to describe artists and their work.” The second stage, Working Women, explored individual experiences influenced by both Western and Eastern cultures. This stage seeked to underscore the significance of women’s agency and power in society.

Now, in this third stage, “Hum-ai-n,” Song Lu has delved deeper into AI technology, referencing official data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Song Lu focuses particularly on two major advancements in their database: the AI chatbot ChatGPT and the AI image generator MidJourney. She uses these tools to dissect and critique the underlying data structures that shape our world, exploring aspects such as occupation, race and ethnicity, place of birth, cultural background, educational background, gender and gender identity, age, interests, and hobbies. Her aim is to discuss what distinguishes “hum-ai-n” from humans and their potential relationship. She also explores how historical data about humans can become biased, leading to stereotypes, and how to revise these aspects to create a more diverse representation of human beings. Through visual formats, Song Lu examines the implications of these technologies on our lived experiences and societal structures.

Lunar New Year Celebration
2025-02-01 10:00 - 16:00 | Jump Boise, 1000 W Myrtle St, Boise, Idaho, 83702, United States
SCALES OF CODESaturday, February 1st | 10:00am – 4:00pm

free

at JUMP: 1000 W. Myrtle Street in Boise

The year of the snake is upon us! Artist-in-Residence Song Lu connected with the Idaho Chinese Organization and will be participating in their Lunar New Year Celebration at JUMP on Feb 1st. The Idaho Chinese Organization is a local nonprofit that promotes cultural experiences and community unity in the Treasure Valley. In addition to helping with a calligraphy writing activity, Song will be featuring her latest collaborative AI-generated video art piece, Scales of Code, created with her artist friend Fan Yu as part of their collaborative art practice, OHuo.

This collaborative video art piece uses over 30 materials to explore the theme of a “snake.” The dynamic changes in snake scales symbolize the interplay of natural order and geometric aesthetics. Combining Chinese folk arts, Western fine arts, and everyday elements with AI-generated animations, the work blurs the boundaries between the virtual and real, giving traditional art contemporary significance and technological vitality.

Walk with Artificial Intelligence: Envisioning a Collaborative Future in Our Community
2025-01-25 13:00 - 16:00 | Surel’s Place, 212 E. 33rd Street, Garden City, 83714, United States
Artist-in-Residence Song Lu delves into the fascinating history and development of Artificial Intelligence (AI), with a particular focus on its intersection with the art field. She’ll lead participants in an exploration of how AI originated, its evolution over time, and its profound impact on various aspects of our lives. By examining the connections between AI and art, this workshop aims to uncover the underlying issues and ethical considerations associated with this cutting-edge technology. Through engaging discussions and interactive activities, participants will gain a deeper understanding of AI’s role in shaping our world and expand their imagination about this innovative tool while also critiquing the numerous issues behind it.

Ages 15 & up

$35

REGISTER HERE

Partial scholarships available upon request

Biography

Even during her childhood in her homeland of China, Song Lu knew she had a passion for making things no one had seen before. This inspired her to pursue a career as an artist and move to New York to obtain an MFA in Photography, Video, and Related Media from the School of Visual Arts, where she graduated in 2021.

“There is nothing else in the world that compares to the feeling of creating something from scratch and seeing it come to life before my very eyes,” she writes. Lu’s art explores the multiple dimensions of memory, emotion, and relationships, with a focus on personal consciousness in the context of social experience. Working across a variety of visual media, including photography, video, 3D animation, and artificial intelligence-generated images, Lu’s work breaks down the traditional boundaries of the familiar, while reinterpreting and redefining them in a playful way. By presenting the intricate connections between things, she provides the viewer with multiple perspectives on the world around them.

Song Lu’s work has been shown in various art exhibitions and screenings in different cities and regions, including ZAZ 10 TS in New York, Flatiron Project Space in New York, UNTITLED Art Fair in Miami, Breeze Art Fair in Seoul, PHOTOFAIR Shanghai in Shanghai, Advance Art Museum in Changsha, CICA Museum in South Korea, UNFOLD Art Book Fair in Shanghai, Unlimited Edition Seoul Art Book Fair in Seoul, and others. Song Lu is also one of the “20 exciting artists to watch,” as chosen by the editors of Art in America magazine in the 2024 Fall Talent Issue.

Open Hours: Intimate Objects
2024-12-22 13:00 - 16:00, 2024-12-21 13:00 - 16:00 | Surel’s Place, 212 E. 33rd Street, Garden City, 83714, United States
INTIMATE OBJECTSVEIKO VALENCIA

Opening Reception:Friday, December 20th | 5:30PM – 8:30PM

Open Hours:Saturday, December 21st | 1:00PM – 4:00PMSunday, December 22nd | 1:00PM – 4:00PM

free

The object is the subject. Physical reference points, receivers of light, generators of shadow- objects, though physical, define the positions we occupy in the world of ideas. An object is also a concept.

Veiko Valencia was born in Peru and has lived in Boise, Idaho, since 2007. He studied at a traditional Art School, Carlos Baca Flor, in Arequipa, Peru. Later, Valencia obtained his BFA in Painting and Drawing and his MFA in Visual Arts from Boise State University. He is a current recipient of the Alexa Rose residency.

Opening Reception: Intimate Objects
2024-12-20 17:30 - 20:30 | Surel’s Place, 212 E. 33rd Street, Garden City, Idaho, 83714, United States

BLAC Water Rabbit Mural Opening & Dedication
2024-12-15 13:00 - 15:00 | Roots Zero Waste Market, 3308 W Chinden Blvd, Garden City, Idaho, 83714, United States
Celebrate the newest mural in the Surel Mitchell Live-Work-Create District during this opening celebration and dedication. Artist statements will be available inside with a dedication at 1:30pm.Created by artists from the Black Liberation Arts Collective @blac_boise: Carnessa Lynn @carnessalynn, Kiara Bell @_a.kiara, and Mungo Ligoya @mungowona. The mural is based on the Chinese Zodiac Water Rabbit, a symbol of rebirth and ambition. These first time muralists were mentored by Black Cat Sign Company @blackcatsignco. The project was made possible by the support of Together Treasure Valley, Surel’s Place, the Garden City Placemaking Fund, and Roots Zero Waste Market.

strikethrough 48: a performance installation
2024-12-13 19:00 - 20:30 | The Common Well, 110 W 31st St, Garden City, Idaho, 83714, United States
Artist-in-Residence Maxine Flasher-Düzgüneş presents an evening-length installation on the three-dimensionality of erasure poetry and its cross pollination with the disciplines of dance, animation, sound, and scenic design.

Original poems of Surel’s Place workshop participants will be displayed and opportunities will arise for attendees to strikethrough portions of text to create new ones. What remains of the poems will change the landscape of the space…

The installation will culminate with a solo performance in response to “strikethrough 48,” an erasure poem about ending one’s life in a country flooding with natural beauty but drought-ridden when it comes to services for the mentally ill. In collaboration with Taipei based animators Jade Lien & Irene Lin, whose “drawn-on-film” technique will be projected at intervals throughout the evening, along with ambient sound by Salt Lake City based composer Michael Wall.

A talk-back at 8pm will discuss the impact of interactive media and how both language and dance can be malleable and ephemeral in their attempts to touch the hearts and minds of those who encounter them.

REGISTER HERE

Workshop: Choreographic Writing
2024-12-07 13:00 - 16:00 | Surel’s Place, 212 E. 33rd Street, Garden City, 83714, United States
Artist in residence Maxine Flasher-Düzgüneş will lead an introduction to using poetry scores in the creation of movement. It will consist of a physical and written improvisatory warm-up using the language aesthetics of erasure poetry technique, a form of found poetry where pre-existing text is blacked out to form new sequences of text. The warm-up will be followed by a composition exercise with poetry scores and an opportunity to share discoveries made within the creative process.

Workshop participants will have the opportunity to contribute their own poems as well as respond to the poems through movement. All poems by attendees will be displayed at Surel’s Place during open studio hours and during a culminating installation at the end of the month.

This workshop has been offered both online and in-person at NYU Tisch, University of Roehampton, Shawl Anderson Dance Center, Big Sky Workshop, The Writer’s Nest, The Collective SF, Ruth Asawa School of the Arts, Gallery Route One, CalPoets in the Schools, and more!

Date was changed from 11/23 to 12/7 to allow for increased participation.

REGISTER HERE

First Friday Art & Studio Stroll
2024-12-06 17:30 - 20:30 | Idaho
Garden City’s Surel L. Mitchell Live-Work-Create District is bustling with artists, artisans, and creative, artisanal businesses. Come to our neighborhood on the river as much as you can, but especially during our First Friday Art & Studio Stroll.

More information is available on The Live-Work-Create GC Page on Facebook.

See below to view an interactive Google map of the First Friday participating venues.

Closing Night: Tenacious Collage
2024-11-14 19:00 - 20:30 | Surel’s Place, 212 E. 33rd Street, Garden City, 83714, United States
In addition to some wine and cheese to accompany the jazz at Jazz Night with Rob Scheps: The Music of John Coltrane and Wayne Shorter, we also have the artwork of Andrew Groth in the gallery. This will be the closing night.

Utilizing the best in synthetic adhesive technology, Tenacious Collage is a bold collection of two dimensional sculpture. Each piece is painstakingly created from layers of woven material, cut and carved into dynamic, colorful pieces.

DREWCO initially specialized in questioning artistic commodification, but has since expanded its product lines to include examples of moody ambivalence, moral ambiguity, societal contradictions and even challenging antiquated traditions. Andrew Groth navigates the liminal spaces, yet resists the temptation to take anything too seriously. He is an artist, musician, avid cyclist, animal fan, and child of the 80s who enjoys poking fun at things, at life, at art, at his art, and especially at himself.
