page_title: Culture of Hamilton, Ontario
section_title: Arts
hierarchical_section_title: Culture of Hamilton, Ontario / Arts
caption_attribution_description: English: Hamilton Art Gallery, rooftop, downtown Hamilton
context_page_description: Hamilton, Ontario's culture has built on its historical and social background. Interesting attractions include a museum of aircraft, HMCS Haida National Historic Site, historic naval ship; Canada's most famous warship and the last remaining Tribal Class in the world, a stately residence of a Prime Minister of Upper Canada, a functioning nuclear reactor at McMaster University, a horticultural haven, the Canadian Football Hall of Fame, African Lion Safari and Christ the King Cathedral.
context_section_description: Growth in the arts and culture sector has garnered high level media attention for Hamilton. A Globe and Mail article in 2006, entitled "Go West, Young Artist," focused on the growing art scene in Hamilton. The second Friday of every month brings the James North Art Crawl where residents and visitors stroll the area's lively sidewalks, savouring the diverse flavours of local artists and nearby cafes and restaurants. James Street is one of Hamilton's most historic neighbourhoods. The Factory Media Centre opened up a new home on James Street North in 2006. Hamilton Artists Inc., founded in 1975, is also located in the downtown core on the corner of James St. N. and Cannon St. and is one of the oldest artist-run centres in Canada.  The collective has a membership of over 250 artists from around the area, and recently featured the work of Attila Richard Lukacs. Art galleries are springing up on many streets across the City: James Street, King William Street, Locke Street and King Street, to name a few. This, coupled with growth in the Downtown condo market set to draw people back to the Core, is having a strong, positive impact on the cultural fabric of the City. Steve Balaban CFA initiated its largest rollup of over 200 billboards, promoting entertainment within the city. The opening of the Downtown Arts Centre on Rebecca Street has spurred further creative activities in the Core. The Community Centre for Media Arts (CCMA) continues to operate in Downtown Hamilton. The CCMA works with marginalized populations and combines new media services such as website development, graphic design, video, and information technology, with arts education and skills development programming.
  The McMaster Museum of Art (MMA), founded at McMaster University in 1967, houses and exhibits the University's art collection of more than 7,000 objects, including historical, modern and contemporary art, notably the Levy Collection of Impressionist and Post Impressionist paintings and a collection of over 300 German Expressionist prints. It also presents the McMaster School of the Arts studio art program graduation exhibition (aka SUMMA) each spring.
  The Hammertheatre Company, founded in January 2007, is a company devoted to theatre research in Hamilton and also devoted to the plays of artistic director Sky Gilbert whose plays will deal with issues of gender and sexuality. Gilbert is also the founder of legendary Toronto theatre, Buddies in Bad Times. There, Gilbert's iconic gay plays found an enthusiastic, vast audience. The theatre is at the old Ancient Order of Foresters building in the James Street North neighbourhood where Hamilton's Art scene continues to grow and where Sky has been living since 2003.
  The 70-seat Staircase Cafe Theatre on Dundurn Street North provides space for a variety of cultural activities. The Staircase originally was opened by Hugh MacLeod in 1998, evolving and expanding from an improvisational comedy workshop to include an artist's gallery, a cafe, a theatre for film and live acts, and a rehearsal space. A former variety store next door was also acquired. The store has been converted into an additional multi-purpose space on the lower level, and houses Think|Haus, Hamilton's Hackerspace, on the upper level.
caption: Art Gallery of Hamilton, rooftop
exif: {"Image Make": "Canon", "Image Model": "Canon PowerShot SD600", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "180", "Image YResolution": "180", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image DateTime": "2007:06:21 17:10:55", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Centered", "Image ExifOffset": "196", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "180", "Thumbnail YResolution": "180", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "5108", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "5458", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/800", "EXIF FNumber": "28/5", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0220", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2007:06:21 17:10:55", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2007:06:21 17:10:55", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF CompressedBitsPerPixel": "2", "EXIF ShutterSpeedValue": "309/32", "EXIF ApertureValue": "159/32", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "0", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "95/32", "EXIF MeteringMode": "Pattern", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, auto mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "29/5", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "2272", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "1704", "Interoperability InteroperabilityIndex": "R98", "Interoperability InteroperabilityVersion": "[48, 49, 48, 48]", "Interoperability RelatedImageWidth": "2272", "Interoperability RelatedImageLength": "1704", "EXIF InteroperabilityOffset": "2824", "EXIF FocalPlaneXResolution": "90880/9", "EXIF FocalPlaneYResolution": "1704000/169", "EXIF FocalPlaneResolutionUnit": "2", "EXIF SensingMethod": "One-chip color area", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Exposure", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Auto", "EXIF DigitalZoomRatio": "1", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard"}