We’re looking for knowledgeable members of the Ottawa-Gatineau arts community (and beyond!) to help shape the artistic direction of upcoming Debaser events and programs, including our quarterly festival, Pique.
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2025 Audience Poll
Announcing our 2025 Audience Poll! We want your thoughts, gut feelings, and hottest takes. Take a moment to provide feedback on the year behind us and help guide our direction for the year ahead!
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Photo: Feza Lugoma
Pique winter edition recap
The 15th edition of Pique welcomed 1,000 people to Arts Court for performances, exhibitions, installations, and an Art Market featuring nearly 50 artists and creators. What a way to cap off a beautiful year of music, art, and community.
Read More2024 in review
Thank you to everyone who made 2024 so special at Debaser <3 We’ve accomplished so much and could not have done it without our ever-growing community of artists, audience members, volunteers, and crew! Read more to see what we’ve accomplished this past year…
Read MoreLoser Lane: Experimental game design with Marie LeBlanc Flanagan
Marie LeBlanc Flanagan will be presenting two interactive “game poems” at Pique winter edition on December 14, and recently released a protest game called Loser Lane about “the terrifying reality of biking in Toronto without bike lanes.”
Grab your tickets to Pique on December 14 to explore more of Marie’s game design philosophy and experience their interactive game poems in-person.
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Paying-what-you-can and paying it forward: a status update on our accessible ticketing policy for Pique
A few months ago, we provided some transparency about how our pay-what-you-can ticketing revenues broke down. We revealed that only small percentage of ticket buyers pay more than the base suggested price for their tickets, while approximately 1/3 of tickets to Pique are subsidized.
Today, we offer a status update, share some testimony about what the ticket subsidies mean for recipients, and urge those who can to pay-it-forward by purchasing by paying more for their ticket to Pique winter edition.
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Call for art market vendors @ Pique winter edition
The semi-annual art market at Pique is back this season, and submissions for artist vendors are now open!
Read MoreAnnouncing Pique winter edition
Pique festival brings together diverse arts communities for the winter edition featuring live music performances, art installations, DJs, an art market, and more.
Read MoreWhy Phew Matters
Tokyo based Japanese artist, singer, and analogue electronics improviser Phew is a generational talent and influence within the global experimental music landscape...Don’t miss Phew, supported by SUBR صبر and Lamb Fatale, this Sunday, October 13 at Club SAW.
Read MoreRecap: Pique fall edition 2024
Thank you to the artists, curators, volunteers, crew, staff, and partners who made Pique fall edition a beautiful and successful event! For the first time since 2022, Pique SOLD OUT. Over 1,500 attendees, flowed through the 10 venues and spaces across the Arts Court, and experienced performances and presentations by over 25 artists and speakers.
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Debaser statement of solidarity with Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI) and Arms Embargo Now!
Debaser is proud to support and endorse the Palestinian Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel or PACBI, and the call for Arms Embargo Now! on Israel, in solidarity with the people of Palestine and their fight for liberation from Israeli occupation and genocide.
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Topique symposium artist talks and workshops at Pique fall edition
Topique returns with 5 illuminating sessions focused on ballroom culture and technique, DIY electronic arts, and artistic solidarity and resistance.
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SUBR صبر | An interview between Nick and Lou
SUBR صبر is a duo (Lougien Dawoudiah and Nicholas LePage) that creates abstracted soundscapes rooted in Palestinian traditional sounds and field recordings. The soundscapes are built by layering multiple speakers that correspond to reconfigured music controllers.
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Image by Stephen Goodwin
Curated playlist: Evicshen for Pique fall '24
Victoria Shen is a sound artist based in San Francisco. Shen's sound practice is concerned with the spatiality/physicality of sound and its relationship to the human body. Her personal identity; her body; is the space her work utilizes to restructure sonic meaning…She pioneered the use of Needle Nails, acrylic nails with embedded turntable styluses, which allow her to play up to 5 tracks of a record simultaneously. These sculptural elements invite the viewer to unpack one’s relationship with material possibilities for creating sound.
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Announcing Pique Fall Edition
The change of season once again brings an exciting music and arts convergence at Pique’s fall edition, happening on September 28, 2024 at the Arts Court. The 14th edition of Ottawa’s signature underground art party, Pique brings together groundbreaking music, visual, and interdisciplinary artists for a building-wide festival at the Arts Court in downtown Ottawa.
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Paying what you can for Pique: How it works
Since its launch, tickets to Pique have remained pay-what-you-can (PWYC). Paying above the minimum price – when you can, if you can – maintains equity and sustainability at Pique.
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WARP: Learning & Mentorship Applications Now Open!
Local independent arts leaders Debaser, The Framework, Produced By Youth, and The Moving Art Gallery have joined forces to present WARP: a microgrant and mentorship program. The first-ever WARP cohort will take place both online and in-person from October 19 to November 23, 2024.
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Pique summer edition recap
Thank you to everyone who made Pique such a beautiful success! 1,500 people came through to celebrate the start of the summer with the 30 artists and curators featured at Pique
So much gratitude for everyone involved in making this one so beautiful!
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Curatorial statement for the musical programming for The Seeds We Carry
The musical programming for The Seeds We Carry is a cross-continental and pan-diasporan exploration of Black music and movement-making as manifestations of Black resistance, Black survival, and ultimately Black aliveness. Showcasing forms of Black creativity birthed in the Caribbean and North America and whose roots can be traced to the African continent, this musical programming seeks to celebrate the temporal and spatial linkages that exist between Afro-descendant communities and that have traced the evolution and expansion of the Black diaspora around the world over the past four centuries.
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Dominion City supports environmental sustainability at Pique
We are pleased to announce an exciting new partnership with Dominion City Brewing Company to enhance sustainability efforts at Pique. The collaboration introduces a reusable eco-cup initiative, featuring a unique design by Ottawa artist Najeeba Ahmed, the graphic designer responsible for Pique’s striking visual identity. Design to be revealed!
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