General Assembly / Assemblée Générale
5b Fairmont Avenue K1Y 1X4 Ottawa, ON, Canada

We would like to extend our gratitude to the community, as well as everyone who has ever performed, booked or attended events here; those who have provided generous support via donations or volunteer time; the artists, organizations, and collectives whose tireless effort brought our space into existence, and kept it running. Running an independant, art-driven DIY space comes with limitless challenges - financial, structural and emotional. And attempting to run it in a quickl...y gentrifying neighbourhood only further complicated those challenges. How do we all work together? What does it mean to provide a safe(r) space? How can we responsibly serve a neighborhood while contributing to its rapid gentrification? These are some of the ongoing conversations that have arisen or stayed with us during this phase of General Assembly. Though we often learned the hard way and in many ways still still have more learning to do, this structure fostered perpetual dialogue and growth. In time, we'd love to share as much information and perspective as we can from our time running this space: the ways we succeeded, and where we ran into the most trouble. We encourage future collectives to explore this model further, to continue having these difficult conversations, and to keep investigating non-traditional forms of organization. Since our founding five years ago, initially at House of Common, we have been committed to an art-first, all-ages ethos, prioritizing independent artists, and work that isn't commercially motivated. We facilitated events through a collaborative process, platforming voices from a wide range of backgrounds and experiences and prioritizing those that don't always feel comfortable in other spaces. We urge the city to keep these values in mind and start widely supporting small, artist-run community spaces in a material way, because these types of relationships are crucial for Ottawa's arts landscape. The end of the current location does not mean the end of General Assembly as an organization, but we will first be taking time to reflect on our experiences at 5 Fairmont Avenue. When we shut these doors today, the community that has been forged around General Assembly will not be gone. And while we feel some sadness about leaving today we are mostly galvanized by spirited work and friendships we've encountered through the years. With warmth, Bruno and Sothea

Officially our last show tonight with friends Mystery and Wonder, come say hi!

We have Sarah Louise tonight! "For as long as humans have roamed the earth, forests have captivated a special slice of our collective human imagination. From hot, wet jungles to dry, snowy taigas, forests are sites of refuge, mystery and abundance. It's understandable, then, that guitaristSarah Louise Henson shares in that fascination. She's based near Asheville, N.C., where dense greenery coats the billion-year-old Blue Ridge Mountains. From a distance, the region looks lik...Continue reading

Friends gathering tonight and all month before our farewell the end of this month <3

This is tomorrow night! It will be our last show with Everyday Ago as General Assembly is cocooning for awhile. We will be around until May 31st and we've got a packed two weeks of wavy gravy performances until the end