Recap: 2013 Mayor’s Celebration of the Arts

By Mack D. Male · May 2, 2013 at 10:16pm

MCA 2013 The 26th annual Mayor’s Celebration of the Arts took place on Monday night at the Winspear Centre. Talented artists being recognized for their efforts, highly entertaining performances in a variety of genres, and hundreds of local supporters of the arts – what’s not to love? I look forward to the event every year!

This year’s event supported Kids Up Front Edmonton, a very worthy organization which works to provide kids with the chance to experience arts, sports, and entertainment events. Since it was formed in 2003, Kids Up Front has donated 237,174 tickets valued at $5.8 million to local kids and families.

Here’s an excerpt of Mayor Mandel’s message in the program:

Arts and culture form the very heart and spirit of our city. The creativity of our vibrant arts community is a fitting complement to the innovative spirit of our business community. The Mayor’s Celebration of the Arts celebrates the best in local talent and each year I leave this evening of awards and performances feeling entertained, inspired and immensely grateful for the diverse, rich arts community that makes Edmonton such a great place to call home.

The full list of nominees is available at the PACE website. Here are the winners:

Mayor’s Award for Sustained Support of the Arts
City Lumber, Robert Rosen, nominated by Edmonton Symphony Orchestra

John Poole Award for Promotion of the Arts
Fish Griwkowsky, nominated by Elizabeth Withey

Mayor’s Award for Innovative Support of the Arts by a Business
Royal Alexandra Hospital Foundation (RAHF), nominated by Susan Pointe

Robert Koetsch City of Edmonton Book Prize
I see my love more clearly from a distance by Nora Gould, Brick Books

CN Youth Artist Award
Timothy Dowler-Coltman, nominated by Natalie Witte

Northlands Award for an Emerging Artist
Omar Mouallem, nominated by Lisa Baroldi

DIALOG Award for Excellence in Artistic Direction
Trevor Schmidt, Northern Light Theatre, nominated by Ellen Chorley

TELUS Courage to Innovate Award
Shawn Pinchbeck, nominated by Gene Kosowan

Syncrude Award for Excellence in Arts Management
Tom McFall, nominated by James Lavoie

ATCO Gas Lifetime Achievement Award
John Mahon, nominated by Edmonton Community Foundation

ATB Financial Ambassador of the Arts Award
Corb Lund, nominated by Todd Crawshaw

John Mahon joined the Edmonton Arts Council (EAC) in 1996 as Grant Director and took over as Executive Director in 1998. He excels at both the clarinet and the political game required to be successful in a position like ED of the EAC. Thanks to his guidance and his positive relationship with the mayor and council, funding for the arts in Edmonton has grown steadily over the years (to $11.5 million in the 2013 budget). John will be moving on from the EAC in June, so I was very happy to see him recognized at the event. Congrats John!

The evening’s performances included:

Angela Hogan & Knock Irish Dance Troupe
Anna Marie Sewell, Poet Laureate
6 Minute Warning
Niobe Thompson & Trevor Anderson, Filmmakers
Nuela Charles
Belinda Cornish & Mark Meer, Improvisors
Kent Sangster & Obsessions Octet
Corb Lund & the Hurtin’ Albertans

One of my favorite things about the Mayor’s Celebration of the Arts is the cross-section of talent that is on display. From the high energy Irish dancing that opened the show to Corb Lund’s awesome closing set, there was never a dull moment. I really enjoyed the improv performance. Belinda and Mark got Mayor Mandel on stage and used some information from him to re-enact a day in the life of our mayor. With digs at his chief of staff and Councillor Batty, it was pretty funny. The best part? Peter Brown, who acted the part of the mayor, whimpering every time the arena was mentioned.

Only Mayor Mandel knows for sure if this was his final Celebration of the Arts or not, but just in case I want to highlight that he’s the reason it exists. The event moved to an evening format in 2005 at his request. Prior to that, the event was known as the Mayor’s Luncheon for Arts and Business and attendance was by invitation only. It was a smaller event with awards and speeches, but no performances. Mayor Mandel recognized the opportunity and transformed it into an event with profile. I’m glad he did.

Congratulations to all the nominees and winners! You can read last year’s recap here. See you at the 2014 Mayor’s Celebration of the Arts!

This was my second year on the Steering Committee for the event. While I take absolutely no credit for the incredible evening, I did make some behind-the-scenes contributions. In addition to building the microsite, I digitized the nomination forms and process this year. There are a few wrinkles to iron out, but for the most part I think it worked really well! If you nominated someone and have feedback on how to improve it further, please let me know!

Edmonton needs more venues for art exhibitions like Capricious!

By Mack D. Male · August 22, 2012 at 5:55pm

Does Edmonton need more venues for showcasing and enjoying local contemporary art? Miranda Sayer thinks so. She’s an independent curator and is the organizer of Capricious!, a month-long pop-up art exhibition that would feature the work of a number of local artists, if only it had a venue.

Miranda got in touch with me a few weeks ago to talk about the project, and highlighted the crowdfunding aspect. She is using RocketHub, a platform similar to Kickstarter except that it is focused on “creatives” and works in Canada. The RocketHub mission page boldly proclaims that the platform is “the foundation for the new creative economy.” While that might be a bit of a stretch, it is a smart way to fundraise. So far Capricious! has raised $595, or about 14% of the goal ($4500). All of the funds raised will go toward making the show happen and each funding level from $10 and up features a variety of rewards.

Miranda Sayer, the independent curator behind Capricious!

While I was indeed interested in Miranda’s use of RocketHub, I was much more intrigued by her thoughts on the lack of viable spaces for art in Edmonton, and especially downtown. “It’s surprising to me that the downtown core doesn’t have more in the way of venues offering local contemporary art, as we have no shortage of talent locally,” she told me. Just a few days before Miranda and I got together for coffee, I had spent an evening visiting Dirt City, Dream City, the transitory public art exhibition in The Quarters (which runs until the end of the month), so her point about the amount of local talent we have really hit home for me.

There does seem to be a shortage of venues, however. Of course the Art Gallery of Alberta and Latitude 53 come to mind, but what else? There’s the Gallery Walk in Oliver, the gallery space at ArtsHab One, the gallery at the Stanley Milner Library, and probably a few others. But the list is not exceptionally long. And how many of the venues that do exist are really available to local up-and-coming artists? Or to curators like Miranda?

This discussion has actually been going on for quite some time. The Mayor’s Arts Visioning Committee noted in its final report last November that “City Hall must plan for arising opportunities to expand and enhance Edmonton’s inventory of arts facilities.” A number of the recommendations in the report talked about the lack of space:

“The need for arts spaces of all types is mentioned numerous times in this report. The repetition is purposeful. It is a high priority need today and the demand for places to create, rehearse, perform and exhibit will only grow in coming years.”

In March there was significant discussion about what should happen to the gallery space at Enterprise Square, which served as the temporary home of the AGA while the new building was constructed. The University of Alberta proposed a $500,000 partnership with the City, which many felt was too expensive. Council should be receiving an updated report on the issue next month.

Arts spaces need not be traditional buildings, either. The Alley of Light has become a gallery space on a number of occasions, and other similar projects have happened throughout the city. In a post last year, Latitude 53′s then-Writer-in-Residence Megan Bertagnolli highlighted the Royal Bison Craft & Art Fair as an artist run centre. “Edmonton needs more points of engagement between art and the public at large and alternative venues like the Royal Bison aim to fill that need,” she wrote. Latitude 53′s Executive Director Todd Janes agreed in a comment on the post: “I have often felt that Edmonton needs more artist-run or artist-initiated spaces and projects – the Royal Bison is just but one and perhaps one of the more successful and similar to the precursor of today’s ARCs (Artist-Run Centres).” Clearly artists are trying to find ways around the lack of venues.

The hope with transitory projects like the Alley of Light or Capricious! is that their success will help make the case for more permanent spaces. “Edmontonians are in fact very receptive to and supportive of contemporary art when it’s offered to them, so having more exhibitions showcasing local talent will hopefully lead to more permanent gallery spaces,” Miranda told me. She is keen to have the show take place downtown, and after no luck trying to find a suitable venue for free, decided to try the crowdfunding approach. The bulk of the money will go toward rent, though some would be used for the opening reception and some promotional materials.

“Coy Fox” (2011) by Megan Stein

Here’s the description of Capricious!:

“The show is an opportunity for a number of emerging and established Edmonton artists to present their work in an exciting way (the pop-up gallery — we’re going to occupy a space that ordinarily isn’t for art) so they can encourage Edmontonians to engage and connect with contemporary local art. We have a wonderful and thriving arts community, but unfortunately less in the way of venues for viewing the work, especially in the downtown core.”

There are nine days left to contribute to the project at RocketHub. As a fan of utilizing unconventional spaces for projects that make Edmonton better, I have, and I look forward to seeing the exhibition come to life in the near future!

Recap: Trip the Light

By Mack D. Male · April 8, 2012 at 1:59pm

Last night was artsScene Edmonton’s Trip the Light, a unique after-hours party and showcase of local artists. With a brand new board for 2012, the event was a great introduction to the new artsScene Edmonton and is hopefully a sign of things to come. Trip the Light was completely sold out, so Sharon and I were lucky to be on the guest list – thanks to artsScene for that! New co-chairs Erin Elizabeth Ross and Miranda Wulf and their team put on one heck of a party – it was certainly the place to be in Edmonton yesterday evening.

We asked Erin where the name came from, and she said it was a play on the phrase “trip the light fantastic”. As Wikipedia explains, the phrase has come to mean dancing in an imaginative manner. In the sixties and seventies, it was commonly used to mean “let’s go out and have a great time!” The organizers decided to drop the “fantastic” to shorten it, but wanted to channel that message.

Held at the Breakfast Television Studios, Trip the Light was an opportunity for people to experience an unconventional event space in the heart of downtown. I understand that it took a lot of negotiation and compromise to secure the space, but it was totally worth it. The studio worked really well as a venue, with lots of room for a stage, DJ tables, a photo booth, two bars, and more. Guests even got to sit on the BT Edmonton couch, and the Good Women Dance Collective partied in the elevator! It was particularly cool that they left the cameras and lots of other equipment in the studio. One of the monitors was setup with Twitterfall tuned to the very popular #tripthelight hashtag.

Ryan Jespersen

Miranda & Erin

After DJ Alex Faid had gotten everyone warmed up, Mitch Holtby (aka Mitchmatic) got up on stage to perform his high energy mix of rap and music creation. A skilled multi-instrumentalist, Mitch impressed the crowd by playing the saxophone in the middle of rapping. Follow @Mitchmatic on Twitter to find out where he’s performing next!

DJ Alex Faid

Mitchmatic

The headline performer was local rock band Scenic Route to Alaska, made up of Trevor Mann on guitar and vocals, Murray Wood on bass, and Shea Connor on drums. They had back-to-back shows last night – fortunately their first gig at the Yellowhead Brewery was not far away! Sonic 102.9’s Band Of The Month for February, Scenic Route to Alaska did not disappoint. Follow @scenicalaska on Twitter for upcoming show announcements!

Scenic Route to Alaska

Food was provided by Bistro La Persaud and consisted of two-bite quiche tarts and salad rolls. Yellowhead Brewery served up beer all evening, while wine was provided by Cono Sur Vineyards and Winery. There was a silent auction featuring the awesome Joker mural by The Daft Punk artist, and everyone left with a small piece of art also created by Daft Punk.

Trip the Light was lots of fun! Slightly reminiscent of Electric Circus, I think it showed what an awesome combination unconventional event spaces and local artists can be.

artsScene Edmonton will be hosting a new Behind-the-Scenes event this year with the Freewill Shakespeare Festival. For details on that and other upcoming events, keep an eye on the website and follow @artsSceneEdm on Twitter. To see more photos from Trip the Light, click here.

2012 Mayor’s Celebration of the Arts

By Mack D. Male · April 3, 2012 at 4:00pm

mca2012 The 25th annual Mayor’s Celebration of the Arts took place last night at the Winspear Centre. Being the silver anniversary, Sharon and I just couldn’t miss it! As in years past it was a fun evening of awards and performances, not to mention a great networking opportunity for everyone in attendance. This year the event came very close to selling out, which is great news for the chosen cause for 2012 – the Rock & Roll Society of Edmonton’s Centre for Arts and Music. It was fantastic to see so many people out in support of our amazing arts community here in Edmonton!

Here’s an excerpt of Mayor Mandel’s message in the program:

Arts and culture form the very heart and spirit of our city and for 25 years this event has celebrated the best artistic talents our city has to offer. Every year, some of Edmonton’s most talented artists perform at this event leaving me with renewed appreciation of Edmonton’s immensely talented arts community.

The Mayor seemed to be in a particularly joyful mood last night! His remarks during the show were brief, but he had some fun with MCs Peter Brown and Carrie Doll. At the end of the evening, he even instigated the on-stage dancing, which is something of a tradition for the Mayor’s Celebration of the Arts.

The full list of nominees is available at the PACE website. Here are the winners:

Mayor’s Award for Sustained Support of the Arts
Realtors Association of Edmonton, Jon Hall, nominated by Azimuth Theatre Association

Mayor’s Award for Innovative Support of the Arts by a Business
ATCO Gas & Electric, nominated by Victoria School of the Arts

John Poole Award for Promotion of the Arts
Arts on the Ave, nominated by Theatre Prospero

Robert Koetsch City of Edmonton Book Prize
Freddy’s War by Judy Schultz, Brindle & Glass Publishing Ltd.

CN Youth Artist Award
Candace Chu, nominated by Alberta College Conservatory of Music

Northlands Award for an Emerging Artist
Jason Carter, nominated by Jessica Aube

DIALOG Award for Excellence in Artistic Direction
Marsh Murphy, nominated by Kyle Armstrong

TELUS Courage to Innovate Award
iDANCE Edmonton, nominated by Alison Neuman

ATCO Gas Award for Outstanding Lifetime Achievement
Brian Webb, nominated by bottom line productions inc.

The evening’s performances, sponsored by Syncrude, included:

I’m a big Colleen Brown fan, so I really enjoyed her set. I thought Brett Kissel did a fantastic job as the show opener! He’s obviously a talented artist but was funny and personable on stage too. He got the audience clapping along which really set the tone for the show. I also really liked the guys from Caution: May Contain Nuts. They did an Arnold Schwarzenegger segment which was pretty funny. I think lots of people in the audience enjoyed seeing Tommy Banks perform too. Christian Hansen did a wonderful job closing the show – he was very high energy!

Some of the kids from the Rock & Roll Society also performed a song that they themselves composed. The Centre for Arts & Music is a program that helps students learn how to write lyrics, compose music, play instruments, record & produce, engineer video, perform on stage, and many other skills. More than 100 kids have benefitted from the program, which is ten weeks and consists of two sessions of two hours each week. You can learn more here.

Unlike in years past, there was no intermission during last night’s event. That meant that the evening flowed smoothly and quickly, and it meant that everyone got to enjoy the after party! Food was sponsored by Northlands, and it was great to see so many people stick around for the party. It added an excellent social element to the show that I think was mostly missing from previous events. During the after party, a few volunteers walked around with iPod touches preloaded with Touch Metric’s Surveyor to ask attendees to fill out an exit survey. It worked really well!

Congratulations to all of the 2012 nominees and winners! And thank you to all of the sponsors who made the event possible!

This year I joined the event Steering Committee, so it was great to see how it all works from the other side. I joined about halfway through the planning for this year’s event, so I am definitely looking forward to having a bigger impact on next year’s edition!

You can see more photos from the evening here. You can read my previous recaps here: 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011.

25th Mayor’s Celebration of the Arts – April 2, 2012

By Mack D. Male · February 22, 2012 at 2:43pm

This year marks the silver anniversary of the Mayor’s Celebration of the Arts, a fun evening celebrating and showcasing local artists. Tickets are on sale now for the event which takes place on April 2, 2012 at the Winspear Centre.

Join us for our 25th anniversary of celebrating the arts in Edmonton! That’s right, we have been showcasing Edmonton’s artists for a quarter of a century, and we are marking this milestone with the most exciting show yet! Get ready for an evening of awards an an eclectic mix of performances that will awe and inspire you.

Sharon and I have attended for the past four years because we love getting introduced to local artists. The mix of performances also makes attending worthwhile – you get a nice cross-section of the local arts scene. For instance, this year’s performers include Tommy Banks, Christian Hansen and the Autistics, Colleen Brown, Citie Ballet, Sandro Dominelli, and the cast of Caution: May Contain Nuts.

Check out my previous recaps if you’re looking to get a sense of what the evening is all about: 2011, 2010, 2009, 2008.

This year proceeds from the event will support the Rock and Roll Society of Edmonton’s Centre for Art & Music, which mentors the next generation of musicians in our city, with a special focus on youth at risk.

For updates, follow @PACEEdmonton on Twitter and on Facebook. You can also check out the event on Facebook and at ShareEdmonton.

Get your tickets now! Hope to see you there!

Mercury Opera’s 104 Underground (an operascape)

By Mack D. Male · November 25, 2011 at 10:23pm

104 underground Mercury Opera took over the Bay/Enterprise Square LRT Station tonight to stage an operascape featuring the talents of Alicia Woynarski, Lauren Woods, Jill Hoogewoonink, and Nevada Collins. They were accompanied by the Vif String Quartet and wore costumes by local fashion designer Natasha Lazarovic.

Mercury Opera’s presentation features an all-Canadian cast of rising operatic talent singing the sensual Mon coeur s’ouvre from Camille Saint Saens’ Samson et Dalila, The Queen of the Night’s Vengeance Aria, Mozart’s dazzler from The Magic Flute, and the exquisitely sublime Flower Duet from Lakme by Delibes. The performance culminates in a special rendition of one of opera’s favorite chart toppers,Puccini’s Nessun Dorma sung as a quartet.

The event got underway at 6pm with four businesses on 104 Street taking part. Ticket holders were invited to enjoy light refreshments at Coup, 29 Armstrong, deVine Wines & Spirits, and the Eyecare Group. Sharon and I walked over just after 7pm to find Coup full of people! We made our way from one venue to the next before heading down to the LRT station platform for the performance.

Coup filling up!

Ed pouring wine at deVine Wines

The food mostly consisted of cheese and meat platters

At around 8pm, everyone started moving underground. It was quite a sight with the LRT station platform so full of people! There were dozens of cameras, and not only from patrons hoping to capture the performance – OMNI had a bunch of cameras present to film a documentary about the event.

One of the OMNI cameras

Waiting for the performance to get underway

The setup for Vif

To ensure the LRT could still operate, volunteers used police tape to separate the event from transit riders getting on and off the trains. ETS officers also helped to keep traffic flowing smoothly.

Transit riders on the left, event attendees on the right

The performers arrived on the LRT!

They used the raised, circular benches as stages

There were big cheers when the train carrying the performers arrived. They wasted no time and started right away, eventually making their way to the circular benches in the centre of the platform. At the end of the show, the four performers came together to receive flowers and to perform an encore. The left the same way they came – on the train.

Two performers were on the east end of the platform and two were on the west end

Enjoying the show!

The four performers at the end of the show

It was particularly cool for a transit geek like me to see the trains coming and going in the background as the performance continued. And what a performance it was! The sound quality in the station was much better than I anticipated, and the lighting and reflective surfaces of the station walls and ceiling made for a very unique look. I think everyone really enjoyed it!

Tonight’s operascape is precisely the kind of event that I’d like to see more of in Edmonton. Congratulations to Darcia Parada and her team – I think its safe to say tonight was a big success! It’s so great to have people like Darcia – she had a vision, and she made it happen. Bravo!

You can see the rest of my photos here. Be sure to read Gig City’s preview as well.

Mayor’s Arts Visioning Committee releases recommendations for raising the profile of arts in Edmonton

By Mack D. Male · November 15, 2011 at 8:37pm

After eight months of consultation and hard work, the Mayor’s Arts Visioning Committee has released 12 recommendations that aim to raise Edmonton’s profile as an arts and culture hub. The City’s existing 10-year-plan, The Art of Living, provided the foundation for the committee’s work. From today’s news release:

“The committee has done a tremendous job reaching out to the community, narrowing down a wide range of ideas to come up with this list of recommendations,” said Mayor Stephen Mandel. “Their efforts show how we can work together as a community to raise the profile of arts in our city. Arts is an economic sector as well as a part of our everyday experience as Edmontonians. These recommendations provide a good place from which to start a dialogue about how we can move forward.”

The committee was co-chaired by Dianne Kipnes and Brian Webb. The first major event was held on June 21, an initial “Think Tank” that brought hundreds of Edmontonians together to brainstorm ideas and opportunities. I was fortunate enough to take part in that event, and was delighted to see so many people with such passion for the arts in Edmonton. Over the summer, a number of smaller consultation events took place. The second “Think Tank” was held on October 28. We were presented with preliminary recommendations and tasked with providing feedback. Since then, the committee has been finalizing the report.

You can download The Art of Living in PDF here, and the Arts Visioning Committee’s final report in PDF here.

Here are the 12 recommendations:

MacEwan Centre for the Arts: The City of Edmonton acquire and convert MacEwan University’s west campus, the Centre for the Arts and Communications, into a multi-use, multicultural and City operated arts incubator.
Rossdale Plant Redevelopment: The City of Edmonton develop the former power plant site into a landmark cultural and commercial complex on the banks of the North Saskatchewan River which must include a premier Aboriginal arts and cultural celebration centre, as well as studio, exhibit and performance space for Edmonton artists.
Downtown Arts District and Performance Centre: The City of Edmonton endorse, in principle, a landmark performing arts centre (PAC) downtown, and designate land for such a development in the city core.
Arts Capital Allocation: The City of Edmonton establish a capital allocation under the civic capital budget in anticipation of future opportunities to establish, enhance or acquire arts space of all types.
Community Centres: The City of Edmonton create and sustain arts spaces within existing and future community recreation centres and other community spaces for creation, classes, exhibits and performance.
Arts Sustainability Fund: Private and government partners establish an Edmonton Arts Sustainability Fund for small and mid-sized arts organizations to help finance business development.
Arts Central: A community-led initiative, modeled after Sports Central, be supported by the City of Edmonton, to supply materials, equipment, and program support for disadavantaged and disconnected Edmontonians to pursue arts experiences.
Arts and Culture Vision in City Administration: The City Manager and Edmonton Arts Council leadership develop a strategy to embed a broad vision of the arts into city planning and decision making.
Multicultural Arts Outreach: The City of Edmonton increase capacity for the Edmonton Arts Council to strengthen proactive outreach programs to ensure diverse communities are engaged in decision-making throughout the city’s arts organizations and increase participation across the city.
Arts in Education: The City of Edmonton takes a leadership role to invite a coalition of business, civic and community groups to strongly advocate for increased funding and emphasis on arts education in Edmonton schools and post-secondary institutions.
Artists in Residence Program: The City of Edmonton and business partners increase support and awareness of the Edmonton Arts Council’s “Artist in Residence” program to enhance in-house opportunities and collaboration for artists with local businesses.
Business and Arts Advisory Council: Corporate and arts community members establish a business and arts advisory committee to work with the Edmonton Arts Council to build on the 2040 arts vision and link the two communities with shared expertise, resources and ideas.

I think it is important to look further ahead, but as we all know, it’s easy to make a plan and much harder to execute on it. There’s a lot of work to do to bring these recommendations forward!

Some of these recommendations should come as no surprise. The Rossdale Plant Redevelopment was going to happen with or without this report, for instance, but specifically including arts and culture in the plans certainly makes sense. I think the Community Centres recommendation is an obvious one, and actually am a little surprised that we don’t already include space for the arts in mega-complexes like the Terwillegar Recreation Centre. I’m less excited about the Arts Capital Allocation, because I think we should leave capital funding decisions up to the Council of the day, to decide on what they think is most important for the city at the time. All the recommendations are worth considering, however.

The next step for these recommendations is for Mayor Mandel to submit them to City Council for consideration. In the meantime, save the date for the 25th Annual Mayor’s Celebration of the Arts: April 2, 2012. Nominations are now being accepted!

Fringeopolis – The Edmonton International Fringe Theatre Festival’s 30th Anniversary Edition

By Mack D. Male · May 9, 2011 at 2:30pm

Fringe Theatre Adventures announced this afternoon the theme for the 30th anniversary edition of the popular summer festival: Fringeopolis.

The theme is a play on the “mini-municipality” that Old Strathcona turns into during the eleven days of the festival. The Fringe is inviting everyone to become a citizen of Fringeopolis for free on its website. You can also upgrade your membership by paying $20 to become a builder of Fringeopolis. Builders get a poster and program in addition to the benefits citizens receive (free transit with ETS, notifications, merchandise discounts, etc). I really love the concept, and I think they’re going to get a lot of traction with this theme. As an urbanite it definitely speaks to me.

From the press release:

“The Fringeopolis theme represents the city within a city that comes alive each August: a metropolis born of the creativity, artistic talent, innovation, and experimentation of our festival was founded on,” says Julian Mayne, Executive Director, Edmonton International Fringe Theatre Festival. “As producers of The Fringe, we believe the evolution of theatre is fundamental to the evolution of community, and Fringeopolis speaks to our past as a creative community, as well as to our future.”

Sam Jenkins and Thomas Scott helped launch the new theme.

Also announced today was a collaboration with the Art Creation Foundation for Children (ACFFC) of Jacmel, Haiti. Throughout the festival at KidsFringe, 10 young artists from the organization will create and perform folk stories and vignettes. EPL’s Writer-in-Residence Marty Chan is helping to develop the vignettes and Tanzanian author Tololwa Mollel is adapting the folk stories.

The Fringe is looking for more than 1200 volunteers for this year’s festival. Approximately 35,000 hours are dedicated to ensure the festival happens each year. You can learn more and fill out an application here. Be sure to check out Volunteer Edmonton’s 2011 Festival Volunteer Fair on Thursday at City Hall too.

The graphics and visual art for Fringeopolis was done by local artist Gabe Wong. I think it looks amazing!

Gabe Wong in front of his poster.

Last year nearly 160 productions by theatre companies played more than 40 stages across Edmonton. The festival also featured 200 outdoor performances and more than 50 busking acts. The Fringe sold 93,000 tickets last year, and more than 400,000 people visited the festival grounds. More than 1000 tickets sold on the first day of sales last year, and Frequent Fringer and Double Fringer passes were completely sold out in 24 hours. Make sure you get your tickets to this year’s event early!

Here’s a video created by Graphos for Fringeopolis:

Fringeopolis runs August 11 – 21, 2011 at venues throughout Old Strathcona and beyond. Stay tuned to the website or Twitter for more information in the weeks ahead! You can also see what others are saying on Twitter using the hashtag #yegfringe.

@AlbertaTheatre – Social Media and the Artist/Patron Relationship

By Mack D. Male · May 3, 2011 at 1:00pm

Late last year, Wil Knoll and I were asked if we’d like to share some thoughts on the evolution of artist-audience interaction for All Stages, a magazine published three times a year by Theatre Alberta. We both agreed, and early this year set about writing it. We ended up having a conversation through email, which Wil turned into the final piece (I think he did a great job of editing it).

We discussed why and how we started using social media in connection with the arts, looked at the current situation in our respective cities, and touched on where things are going.

Here’s an excerpt from Wil:

Wil: The resistance seems to be fading away. In Calgary the major theatre companies and all of the top independent theatre companies have joined up on Twitter. How well they use that opportunity varies. Alberta Theatre Projects won a blogging award last year for their efforts to invite people into the process and behind the scenes. It’s hard to find a theatre company that is not taking a stab at social media in Calgary today.

And here’s my closing statement:

Mack: Gone are the days of the passive theatregoer, who takes in a show, perhaps reads a review in the local paper, and moves on. The tools we have now allow for the theatre patron to be engaged at all stages of a production. Gathering feedback, promoting upcoming events, reaching a demographic not normally tuned into theatre, all of this is possible with the tools. Today arts organizations still have the opportunity to lead the way with using these tools—they are relatively new and continually evolving. In the not too distant future however, patrons will demand it, and organizations will have no choice to but to engage.

That more or less sums up how I feel about the topic! What do you think?

You can read the article on page 4 of the Spring 2011 issue (PDF).

2011 Mayor’s Celebration of the Arts

By Mack D. Male · April 11, 2011 at 10:45pm

The 24th annual Mayor’s Celebration of the Arts took place tonight at the Winspear Centre. Sharon and I attended for the fourth year in a row, and were happy to learn that this year our tickets would be supporting the Edmonton International Street Performers Festival’s Comedy Cares Program and the iHuman Youth Society. The evening always brings out an eclectic mix of Edmontonians, and features a broad range of local artists.

Mayor Mandel’s message in the event program thanked local businesses for their support of the arts:

I also offer a special thank you to the many Edmonton businesses and community organizations for their continued and unwavering support of the arts. Their generosity and encouragement have made a lasting difference to our artists, making it possible for them to achieve enormous success.

He echoed those thoughts during his time on stage, but also used the opportunity to call upon new businesses to step up in support of the arts. He noted that we see the same, few organizations year after year, and while they are absolutely appreciated, it would be nice to see some new faces join them. As he wrapped up, Mayor Mandel joked that he was done preaching for the evening, but I thought his comments were appropriate.

The Be Arthurs performed an interesting mix of songs as guests arrived, including Lady Gaga and the Ghostbusters theme!

The full list of tonight’s nominees is available at the PACE website. Here are the winners:

Mayor’s Award for Sustained Support of the Arts
Lexus of Edmonton, nominated by Alberta Ballet

Mayor’s Award for Innovative Support of the Arts by a Business
ATB Financial, nominated by Alberta Music Industry Association

John Poole Award for Promotion of the Arts
Avenue Magazine, nominated by Edmonton Opera

City of Edmonton Book Prize
Prodigal Daughter: A Journey to Byzantium by Myrna Kostash, University of Alberta Press

ATCO Gas Award for Outstanding Lifetime Achievement
Charles Thomas Peacocke, nominated by Catalyst Theatre

Stantec Youth Award
Cynthia Hicks, nominated by Philippine Barangay Performing Arts Society

Northlands Award for an Emerging Artist
Arlen Konopaki, nominated by Tessi Flood

The Sutton Place Hotel People’s Choice Award
Ulrike Rossier, nominated by Nina Haggerty Centre for the Arts

Molson Coors Award for Excellence in Artistic Direction
Sandro Dominelli, nominated by Nathalie Tait

TELUS Courage to Innovate Award
Geri Actors & Friends, nominated by Edmonton Seniors Coordinating Council

Tonight’s performances included:

Good Women Dance Collective
Poet Laureate Roland Pemberton
The Irrelevant Show
Nathan Berg
St. Aggies ‘84
Kat Danser
A Blank Canvas, by Dianne Donovan and Adolfo Ruiz, commissioned by FAVA
Dave Babcock and his Jump Orchestra

I quite enjoyed the Good Women Dance Collective, it was an interesting way to open the show. Roland Pemberton’s poem was new, for an upcoming public art project. He won the crowd over making reference to Keillor Road and the infamous baseball bat on Alberta Avenue. Kat Danser was great, as always, and the Strathcona High School’s theatre program students did a wonderful job with St. Aggies ‘84. Dave Babcock was an excellent selection to close the show, as his upbeat tunes made it possible for the return of the big closing dance! A few people got up on stage to shake it, but unfortunately it wasn’t as big as years past.

Congratulations to all of tonight’s nominees and winners!