content

Patrick Keating

Maiko Bae Yamamoto

Andreas Kahre

Noah Drew

Adrienne Wong

Barbara Clayden

Alex Ferguson

Ilena Lee Cramer

Erin Wells

James Long

what we do

Filings

It's dark out. Not raining tonight. But fall nonetheless. Fall marking the beginning of the cycle of the seasons as clearly to me as spring does. The decay of leaves and retreat into stasis and hibernation clearly a necessary part of the creative process: the fertility of rest and compost making spring's budding optimism possible.

I look around my desk and see papers and notes strewn about like fallen leaves. The somewhat organized chaos reminds me of my beginnings with Rumble: eight years ago in Norman Armour's one-bedroom apartment overlooking Grandview Park. In those days I was brought on-board as a summer student with a clear task: to organize the papers and files accumulated in the preceding seven years. A monumental task it seemed, but perfect for a keen student with a clear sense of organization and a taste for systematization. Since then, my association with Rumble broadened to include developing and producing new works, envisioning and assisting on projects —including the first incarnations of this newsletter. I've shepherded my carefully colour-coded files through two office moves and witnessed their ranks expand as the list of completed projects grew longer.

Rumble is about beginnings, possibilities. It's about trusting your gut and believing in the power of hard work. It's about wanting more than just one show per season. It's about respect for artists and the creative process. It's where I learnt the value of those things that seem far from the creative process, but are equally important: like taking lunch breaks and reading books and listening to music and drinks on Fridays and paying people more than the minimum required by our professional associations. It's also where I learnt about the inescapability of administration and the small pleasures it affords.

And Rumble is about people. I met artists and creative individuals through my association with the company who have formed a solid group of work-mates and friends. I learnt about having a firm trust in people, in the potential of the human imagination, an investment in artists with a shared vision. Many of the artists whose names floated around during that first summer on The Drive are still associated with the company. And new names have been tossed into the mix—brought to the company out of a sense of curiosity, adventure and a willingness to try new things.