Matthew Grogono

Region: 
North Slave
Community: 
Yellowknife
All Art Types: 

Artist Story

I love the arts community in Yellowknife, and passionately try to nurture it. . Since 1994, I've been hand-crafting glassware (from recycled glass) featuring original northern designs. This endeavour has grown into Old Town Glassworks, a workers co-operative that now runs creative workshops for members of the public seven days a week, as well as selling hand-made northern glassware and northern crafts. We also present occasional music concerts by local performing artists.

Over the years, my interest in the development and promotion of arts in the North led me to co-found three northern organizations. In 2000, I co-founded and was the first president of the Aurora Arts Society which focuses on encouraging and developing the visual arts.  In 2002, I became chairperson of the Artist Run Community Centre (ARCC) project of the Aurora Arts Society and in 2011, along with Yellowknife businessman Les Rocher, established the first physical home for ARCC in the former Pentecostal church property in downtown Yellowknife.

The presentation and development of music was also a continuing interest and in 2003 I co-founded the Recording Artists Association of the Northwest Territories (RAANT), which has now evolved into Music NWT. This organization encourages and develops northern musicians.

In 2008, I co-founded the Old Town Ramble and Ride, a festival that gives prominence to the Old Town area of Yellowknife, and provides venues and support for music concerts, arts and crafts workshops and displays, heritage and houseboat tours and other cultural activities including the consumption of delicious foods. My latest project is Old Town Radio (ROT), an experimental F.M. radio station which  broadcasts from Yellowknife Bay.

Last Updated: May 25, 2023

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