Goin’ Down The Road: Newfoundland Stories of Leaving is an ongoing research and print project by Tara Bursey. This first issue of the print component of the project consists of an abridged version of a transcribed interview with Gower Bursey (b. 1954, Clarenville, NFLD), who currently resides in Toronto, Ontario. The book’s text chronicles Bursey’s experiences train hopping and hitchhiking across Canada from Newfoundland in the 1970s, searching for a better place to make a life for himself. Inspired by the importance of storytelling to Newfoundland culture and tradition, this project aims to preserve the stories of people who have left Newfoundland primarily to look for work over the past few decades in an attempt to make their stories of “going west” a part of our national narrative. Participation information can be found on the project blog: http://nfldstoriesofleaving.blogspot.com

Available from: http://www.tarabursey.com
More info: http://nfldstoriesofleaving.blogspot.com

Tara Bursey is an artist whose practice encompasses sculpture and installation as well as drawing, craft, performance and self-publishing. Her conceptual work can be characterized by its labour intensive and inventive use of materials such paper and food. In the past few years, she has exhibited extensively throughout Toronto in a diverse range of venues, from storefront window installations, tattoo shops and telephone poles to the Textile Museum of Canada, the Ontario Crafts Council, as well as in group exhibitions in Halifax, Saskatoon and Copenhagen. Tara’s most recent projects include coordinating The Portable Library Project and installation/exhibition programming for City of Craft, a contemporary craft event that takes place in Toronto. She began studies towards a degree in Criticism and Curatorial Practice at OCAD University in September of 2009 and recently returned from a semester of study at Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore, Maryland.