Marvins Room runs from August 7th to September 4, 2023
At the cSPACE Eau Claire Neighbourhood Hub
Dates: Aug 7 – Sept 4, 2023
Curation: Linda Kee

For a full list of events, see the cSPACE Eau Claire Calendar here.

ARTIST STATEMENT
Celebrated Calgary musician, artist and community builder Marvin ‘The Fly’ Kee, who was slated for a creation residency at cSPACE Eau Claire in August of 2023, passed away suddenly in mid – March 2023.  Marvin was genuinely interested in supporting local artists by connecting them with like minded individuals and engaged and collaborated with numerous artists and groups on their creative path to success.  The theme of this month’s activation is for the artists community to express the values and commitment  Marvin ’the Fly’ Kee had to his beloved artists.  Honoring his spirit of fostering creativity, collaboration, and celebrating Calgary’s vibrant arts community are the pillars that the structure of this residency stand-on.  The impact of this month’s soulful, groovy, playful and engaging events will support processed based inquiries into each artist’s body of work, build lasting connections, create, witness each other, learn and evolve in unity – a value Marvin believed in and upheld.  This all happens at the cSPACE Eau Claire Neighbourhood Hub, which is a well-suited description of The FLy, he served as a hub – of connection, and a gathering space of belonging.

ABOUT THE PROJECT

Welcome, Oki, to the ‘Marvin’s Room’ creative residency.

The month of ‘Marvins Room’ will be engaging the Calgary community through public artists workshops, jams, gallery shows, dance battles, and public concerts. Each week various artists whom ‘the Fly’ collaborated with, from musicians and visual artists, to hip-hop artists, dancers and filmmakers, will utilize the HUB to research and create new and existing work to infuse into Calgary’s arts and culture community.

The space will be open during public hours for various events such as visual and graffiti art classes, dance and percussion workshops, breakdance battles, scratch DJ battles, visual artists gallery shows, jams, and musical concerts for the artists to showcase their unique process.  Please check out the schedule daily for details and updates.

Events include a special gallery event showcasing the art and life’s work of Marvin ‘THE FLY’ Kee, including music, artwork, film collections, news articles, stage and performance wardrobe, and other mementos and items that tell a story of the impact Marvin Kee had on the Calgary music scene.  Some of the musical and theatrical artists slated to occupy the space are musician and percussionist Luis Tovar, Scott Morin and the Purple Jazz Band, hip-hop artist Rubix and the Sunday Scratch Sessions, The Making Treaty 7 Band, Dancer and Visual Artist from the Calgary’s Original Rudes, Tony ‘Rein Rebel’, visual artist Lauren B. Sanchez, and Mo-Gravy Art House.

Thank you. Siyisgaas. Salamat, and see you in ‘Marvin’s Room.’

ABOUT MARVIN

Leo Marvin Kee, ‘the Fly’ was a musician in the Canada music scene for over 35 years. With a first appearance in the Calgary music scene in the late 1980’s as the guitar player for the legendary punk and fink band, the High Rollers. They played together until 1996.

As a full time bassist of Calgary’s Flamenco group Los Moreno, Kee garnished the city with sounds of Rhumba, flamenco and  soul and toured across Canada in 15 years and over 3000 shows, catering to all occasions and settings, but the true beauty of this style of world beat music transcends all barriers.  After the split of Los Moreno, Kee continued to entertain the city with his five-piece flamenco ensemble La Mosca.

Under the Pseudonym,’the Fly’, Kee worked with various groups including the Torchettes, Darggeatn x Comrade, Blist, Nikki V, Web of Spider, Amy Lee Owens, and Eya Hey Nakoda of the Making Treaty 7 Society.  Working with sounds from indie-rock and folk, RnB, jazz, fink, hip-hop, rock, and soul. Kee described himself as a small fly hopping from one genre to the next immersing himself into their worlds.

The Fly’s own world is Flytrap which he spawned back in 2001. He then released 2 albums of RnB, funk and soul and performed in his own band. A major driver for Kee’s artistic process as a leader in the community in Calgary is that of collaboration. IT was this type of support of the local music scene that garnered him the City of Calgary’s White Hat. These numerous partnerships with his beloved artists led him to the organization of the  current collective that was recording under the Flytrap name.