28 Reasons I Love Hamilton... Reason 5

Why write 28 reasons I love Hamilton?

1. Hamilton is a CITY.
2. The Location
3. The size (population)
4. The scale

5. Creativity and the arts

I'm about as creative as a zebra mussel.

When it comes to thinking of truly new ideas, I'm not the person to talk to. My talents in the world of visual art lie somewhere beneath my writing, (but above my singing ;)) I find myself pretty clumsy and derivative. Most visuals I put together for work consist of hacking some sxc.hu photo and text together, and my paintings usually run on similar colours and themes.

So I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE to be in a place where people have the grace and originality I lack - and can change the environment in ways I cannot.

Hamilton's a great place for that.

Originality, vision, passion, creativity... It's here. In a fresh way. Without a lot of attitude or "hey-look-no-I'm-the-coolest-hipster" crud. People are good - really good! at what they do, but they're also unpretentious. And that's true especially on James North, but present all over the city.

At the same time, the arts in the area are established, with more traditional things (museums and opera, both things I enjoy once in a while) to entertainment venues and other types of art. but I'll talk about entertainment and music in a future post.

I must, at the top of everything, highlight Flar's photo tours of Hamilton. They really helped orient me to the city, both the brutal and the beautiful. He also took the photo at the top of this blog and let me use it. (My house is in this tour somewhere.)

Here's some of the places, people, things that stand out to me. Almost all stand out because I've been there and enjoyed them a great deal. (A few I haven't been to, but keep hearing great things about).

If you want to look further, the first link should connect you with a whole lot more.

The whole James Street North area - many, many galleries and events like the James North Art Crawl here. (Also, Supercrawl was epic).

The Imperial Cotton Centre & the Cossart Exchange
Think|Haus: a place for hackers, makers, artists, crafters, and DIYers
Mixed Media
Transit Gallery (Locke)
HIStory and HERitage
You Me Gallery
Hotel Hamilton
Classical Stained Glass
Flophouse Gallery
The Pearl Company
Gallery on the Bay
First Fridays (free) at the AGH
Heart of the Hammer and FRWY and Skydragon and My Dog Joe and other cafes/gallery spaces.

Hamilton's becoming an artistic city in a wildly unpretentious way, and I like it. I like that artists are generally very low-income people, but add tremendous value to a city. It's a very selfless thing, no matter how much you love your art.

It's been thought and said that we need more higher-end galleries and a few more things to give sustainability to the arts in Hamilton, but the current situation should provide a lot of affordable, artistic critical mass for a long time. It's also interesting how in a post-industrial economy there's a lot that the arts can do - and are doing! to catalyze change.

Where else in Canada are you going to get this?!?! That's another reason I love Hamilton.