Canadian Conference for the Arts-survey

Foster a national public dialogue about the importance of arts and culture

The Canadian Conference for the Arts (CCA) workshop will occur on Wednesday, February 1, 2012 from 3:00-5:00pm at the Kerr Room, 2nd floor, Prince of Wales Armoury, 1440 108 Ave, Edmonton. The workshop will be hosted by the Edmonton Arts Council and facilitated by Alain Pineau of the CCA. The Canadian cultural sector is facing considerable changes in its operating environment. One of those is an increasingly clear change in the way the federal government sees its role regarding arts and culture. As some of you may know, the CCA has learned of the federal government’s decision to put an end to 45 years of financial support.  The CCA has taken up the challenge of developing a new business model that will make it financially independent by 2014-15.   A Renewed Mission outlines the CCA as the pan-Canadian alliance linking the arts, culture and heritage communities. Through research, analyses, and informed public discussions, the CCA supports the adoption of policies that ensure the vitality of the Canadian cultural sector and access to culture by all Canadians. The CCA seeks your opinion and input on a set of proposed services and activities: this will be crucial in the development of a sustainable business model.

Alain Pineau’s visit is part of a national tour which will take him to 13 Canadian cities. We encourage all arts and cultural groups and individuals to attend.  The workshop is free but registration is required.  Please visit www.eventbright.ca  

Also, there is an online survey  that will take 10 minutes to complete and the information gathered will be crucial in the development of the new CCA business plan; https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/ConsultationCCA

Local Student wins first round of Polar Express Publishing Competition

I was recently looking though the Fort McMurray Today newspaper, a weekly event  to keep informed about what's happening in Wood Buffalo, and I came across the following article.  Congratulations Taylor; 

Local student wins National poetry contest

Article written by Morgan Modjeski

A student at Sister Mary Phillips School has made it through the first round of a national poetry competition for his poem "Love and Life," and his teacher says his future in writing is a bright one.

Taylor Tourangeau, Grade 6, said he was going through a tough time when he wrote the poem, as he wrote it after losing his girl­friend, but now that he's made it through the first round of the 6th national poetry competition put on by Polar Express Publishing, he's excited about the opportu­nity.
"It's pretty exciting and I'm kind of unknowing about it," said Tou­rangeau. "I just did it for myself, so I can be known for something, because I'm known for nothing."
He continued, "It's exciting because I never knew I was going to actually win because of how young I am, I thought they might not even pick me because I'm too young ... but I'm proud of myself," he said.
In a letter from Polar Express Publishing it explains that Tou­rangeau's poem was one of thou­sands that were submitted and out of those he was selected to make it to the second round.
Darlene Cardinal, Tourangeau's First Nation, Metis, Inuit liaison worker, said even though writing has not always been a part of Tou­rangeau's life, it is now.
"When Taylor came to us two years ago, there wasn't much writ­ing involved in his life," said Car­dinal. "He's come a long way in the two years he has been here and the writing comes naturally to him, when he wanted to write something, he would just say it and it would come out"
"I was in shock when he wrote this poem, I was like, 'where do you come up with this', it's how he feels, but he puts it in his own words."
Cardinal said she feels that writing will be a big part of Tou­rangeau's future.
"I think it could be a big pos­sibility," Cardinal said. "He expresses himself with words quite well, he even said him­self, he's done some bad things, he's gotten into trouble, but he's stepped back from all of that."
She continued, "I think that he would be awesome as a writer."

As a result of making it through the first round of the competition, Tourangeau will have his poem published in a book entitled, Below the Surface with his biog­raphy alongside other selected poems. He'll also move to the final round of the competition where he has a chance to win a prize with a total value of more than 10,000.

Free Amateur (HAM) Radio Course

The Amateur Radio club of Alberta is offering a free public information session on Saturday, January 7, 2012 at the Fort McMurray Public Library starting at 10:00am.  Learning how to use an amateur radio device is considered to be a valuable skill; they can be used as a means of communication when cellphones and other transmitter devices fail.
Course fee:  Free
Government license fee and exam: Free
Text book:  $45.00
Optional club membership:  $35.00 per year

Please confirm your attendance by emailing learn@fmarc.ca or phone 780-749-0136.
Donations are accepted and money goes to building and maintaining the local Amateur Radio network

A Man on a Prairie Mission - Grain Elevator Awareness

A successful graphic artist, Jim Pearson has been designing beautiful Alberta and Saskatchewan grain elevator calendars since 2008.  He delivered a presentation at the Heritage Canada Conference in 2006 titled, Saving Traditional Wooden Elevators in an Electronic Age and he continuously presents his work in schools, museums and libraries.  Jim has spend nearly a decade raising awareness about Western Canada’s disappearing grain elevators.  In Alberta alone, there was once a total of 1500 wooden grain elevators and now, there are a maximum of 285 left standing. 

“Grain elevators were the sentinels of the Prairies.  Wherever you went, you could always find where you were.  They were a marker,” explains Jim. 

Jim’s passion stems from his home town of Delia, Alberta.  Delia lost their twin elevators in 2001; one to a devastating fire and the other was demolished.  Jim realized that these western prairie icons were quickly disappearing.

Jim has traveled across Western Canada, photographing and mapping as many elevators as possible, to bring attention and awareness to them.  His website, www.vanishingsentinels.ca encourages communities to celebrate and protect these historic landmarks and offers information and photos of his collection. 

Jim would love to hear from anyone who has photos and stories of grain elevators, especially elevators built before 1911.  Please contact Jim via his website or by phoning 403-364-3925.

Lost Arts

I was wandering the 'an' website (a great resource: http://www.a-n.co.uk/) and stumbled upon an interesting project taking place in the UK.

Check out the site for more info if your interested: http://www.lost-arts.org/

Lost Arts has been set up by eight unions whose members will be directly affected by cuts to the Arts: the MU, Equity, BECTU, the Writers Guild of Great Britain, the National Union of Journalists (NUJ), UNITE, Prospect and PCS.

We are not saying that the Arts are more important than other sectors. We just want to make sure that the effects of these cuts are properly recorded and publicised.

So in order to prevent the effects of the cuts being forgotten over time, we have set up Lost Arts.

Over the next three years to 2015, Lost Arts will:
1) Record and catalogue all of the projects, events, initiatives, performances, organisations and companies that will be lost due to the cuts in public funding.
2) Keep a running total of the money lost to the Arts.
3) And record the jobs under threats.

Anyone who wants to submit information about how they have been affected can do so here.

As soon as we hear about new cuts we will update the Lost Arts website.

Our aim is to show what we could be losing forever, on a day by day basis.

THE ARTS ARE ON FIRE in AIRDRIE ALBERTA!

The Arts scene in Airdrie, Alberta is on fire these days, but I want you to know, “we didn’t start the fire.”

Background - Airdrie is a city situated just north of Calgary and has a population of 43,000. In 2010, Airdrie grew more than 8% and has averaged a blistering level of growth for over a decade. Despite this surge of growth in our own backyard, Calgary continues to cast a large shadow over our community and impacting the work and play activities of our residents. Over the years there have been a growing number of residents who want to develop a more creative community to help entice their neighbors to stay in Airdrie to fulfill their employment and entertainment and leisure needs. This movement recently reared its artistic head at our last council meeting where a flash mob broke out which was coordinated by The Creative Airdrie Society. The Society came forward requesting funding for their planned Alberta Art Days activities and rebranding September as ARTember in Airdrie where they were successful with their dance moves and funding request.

As many communities can relate, stepping away from an image of a satellite or bedroom community is a difficult image to shake. Using ourselves as an example, a recent Needs Assessment Survey indicated that the top reasons people leave our community is to participate in Arts/Cultural related activities. News of this has made the collective lemons of our community seem that much more how I shall say TART; but the community chose to save their tears for another day. With great challenges comes great opportunity and embracing the arts and showcasing the very best of our community is a challenge the community appears to be ready to take on.

The idea of branding the better part of September as ARTember came from various community visionaries in Airdrie who committed themselves to forming the Creative AirdrieSociety and ultimately being the catalyst for creating a vibrant and creative community. The Society’s board includes members of the business community, an artist, a philanthropist, a real estate professional, a publisher of a local magazine and yes they even recruited a lawyer. All board members are drumming to the same beat and using their various levels of expertise and contacts to forge ahead with all things Arts in Airdrie.

Having the community as a primary driver of Arts comes with its share of challenges. Questions such as; will the Arts be watered down with too much corporate influence? Will there be conflict of interests with juried art competitions? Or a variety of other control (or lack thereof control issues). The important thing for us to help mitigate some of the above questions is to keep a healthy relationship between the municipality and the group and discuss any concerns in an open and honest way.

Looking back, what set the community ablaze with Arts was a few very motivated community members who were interested in voluntarily engaging themselves and committing their time, money and energy into building a creative community. ARTember is just the beginning, through their various activities the group has quickly become an example of what is artistically possible in Airdrie and as it is well noted, “Example has more followers than reason.” — Christian Nestell Bovee

- Michael McAllister is a Community Developer with the City of Airdrie, AB

For more information on ARTember and The Creative Airdrie Society visit http://www.creativeairdrie.ca/

The City of Calgary is a Cultural Capital of Canada for 2012

Harper Government Designates Calgary as a Cultural Capital of Canada for 2012

The City of Calgary is a Cultural Capital of Canada for 2012 and will receive important support to continue to grow its vibrant arts scene, thanks to an investment by the Harper Government. The announcement was made today by Lee Richardson, Member of Parliament (Calgary Centre), on behalf of the Honourable James Moore, Minister of Canadian Heritage and Official Languages, alongside Naheed Nenshi, Mayor of Calgary.

"Our Government received a strong mandate from Canadians to invest in important projects like those Calgary will undertake as a Cultural Capital of Canada," said Minister Moore. "By supporting these celebrations, our Government is delivering on its commitment to strengthen our economy and support our arts, culture, and heritage."

"Our Government has made unprecedented investments in the arts, and we appreciate Calgary's commitment to promoting Canadian culture," said Mr. Richardson. "Calgary is one of Canada's fastest growing and most vibrant cities, and we look forward to working with the city on its upcoming centennial anniversaries to continue to promote the arts, boost tourism, and grow our economy."

"This is an honour for Calgary that recognizes the importance and vitality of our arts and culture sector," said Mayor Naheed Nenshi. "Calgarians take great pride in supporting culture, and 2012 will be an opportunity to share that pride with all Canadians and further develop our cultural industries."

In 2012, Calgary will celebrate 100 years of cultural accomplishments and set the path for growth over the next century. Next year's centennial celebrations of some of the city's cultural cornerstones, including the Calgary Stampede, the Calgary Public Library, the Pumphouse Theatre, and Theatre Junction GRAND, will mark a pivotal point in Calgary's history.

The Cultural Capital of Canada designation is awarded on the basis of a candidate community's achievements that demonstrate an ongoing commitment to the arts and culture. Designated municipalities must also propose a series of projects that celebrate the arts and culture and integrate them into overall community planning. The program's objective is to stimulate sustained community support for the arts and heritage.

The Niagara Region was also designated a Cultural Capital of Canada for 2012 today.
(This news release is available on the Internet at www.canadianheritage.gc.ca under Newsroom.)

For more information (media only), please contact:
Sébastien Gariépy
Press Secretary
Office of the Minister of Canadian Heritage and Official Languages
819-997-7788
Media Relations
Canadian Heritage
819-994-9101
1-866-569-6155
media@pch.gc.ca

Civic Award Nominations

The Regional Municipality is now accepting Civic Award Nominations for Achievement and Citizenship Awards. The award categories are for youth, adult and groups in the areas of Athletic, Cultural, Environmental and Volunteer Achievement. (Please Note: Groups are not eligible for the Citizenship Awards.)

For program information or to download the nomination packages visit our webpage at http://www.woodbuffalo.ab.ca/ under Living > Events > Civic Awards.

Nomination deadline is October 24th at 4:00 pm.

Any questions or concerns can contact 780-743-7966 or recreationandculture@woodbuffalo.ab.ca.

Call for Nominations :IPAC : Alberta Lieutenant Governor's Award

Each year the Institute of Public Administration of Canada (IPAC) presents the Alberta Lieutenant Governor’s Award.

The award recognizes the exceptional achievement of a person who has:
1) Shown distinctive leadership in public administration or
2) Who has made a significant contribution in the field of public administration in the province by writings or other endeavors

The award pays tribute to public sector practitioners whose careers exhibit the highest standards of excellence, dedication and accomplishments.

It seeks to provide recognition of an outstanding individual and to underscore the efforts of creative, highly skilled individuals in the public sector.

The award recognizes outstanding contributions on a sustained basis rather than as a result of a single initiative. Candidates will be judged based on criteria which include their leadership skills, innovation/creativity, accomplishment/impact, and community involvement.

Nomination deadline: October 14, 2011

Baby Steps Walk: 2011

World Suicide Prevention Day 2011