Annual Report 2 011 Edmonton Arts Council
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annual report 2 011 edmonton arts council A non-profit society and charitable organization that supports and promotes the arts community in Edmonton. The EAC works to increase the profile and involvement of arts and culture in all aspects of our community life through activities that: Invest in Edmonton festivals, arts organizations and individual artists through municipal, corporate and private funding. Represent Edmonton’s arts community to government and other agencies and provide expert advice on issues that affect the arts. Build partnerships and initiate projects that strengthen our community. Create awareness of the quality, variety and value of artistic work produced in Edmonton. board of directors executive John Hudson - Chair, Nicole Reeves - Vice Chair, Mary Phillips-Rickey - Treasurer-Secretary Marsh Murphy - Past Chair members-at-large Wayne Arthurson, Amber Borotsik, Jenifer Christenson (appointed by Edmonton Economic Development), Christine Sokaymoh Frederick, Darrin Hagen, Cadence Konopaki, Heather McRae (appointed by the City of Edmonton), Gina Moe, Tim Paetkau, Aidan Rowe, Anne Ferguson Switzer, Richard Tosczak, Brian Webb edmonton arts council 1 executive director report john mahon The sixteenth year of the Edmonton Arts Council, 2011, was an important year in the implementation of the Art of Living plan for the city of Edmonton. It was definitely a year of expansion for the EAC. With the vast majority of our operating funding coming from the City of Edmonton, their increase to us of $2 million opened many opportunities and responsibilities. Our Service Agreement with the City was also renewed for another 5 years with the next renewal scheduled for 2016. Some 2011 highlights include: The EAC directed City of Edmonton community on-going support to the poet laureate, and the EAC investment grants to the arts increased by $1.1 worked with Douglas Barbour to curate a collection million or 23% over 2010. of the writings of the Poets Laureate of Edmonton, 2005-2012, released April 2012. Our stewardship of the City of Edmonton Public Art Collection continued with 3 completed installations, The EAC supported the Living Local arts and concurrent to managing another 37 projects in heritage neighbourhood grant program. This is a production. This year major communications partnership with the Edmonton Heritage Council development occurred with creating an interactive and Edmonton Federation of Community Leagues. online gallery featuring various works of the It is a new program intended to connect artists collection (to be launched in spring 2012). With our within and to their neighbourhood, develop conservation efforts, appraisals were coordinated artworks that express a shared sense of place for for 65 artworks in the collection, and major an Edmonton neighbourhood, or an aspect of conservation work was completed on ten artworks. neighbourhood heritage. The EAC funded a six-month artist residency at We were in partnership with Grant MacEwan Boyle Street Community Services and is planning University (Arts and Cultural Management to fund three more in 2012. program), Alberta Museum Association, and Edmonton Heritage Council with presenting In partnership with Edmonton Public Library and high profile guest speakers to Edmonton for the the City of Edmonton, the EAC organized the three lecture series Percolate…brewing ideas with selection of our fourth poet laureate Anna Marie leading minds in the fields of arts, heritage & cultural Sewell. The EPL and EAC continue to provide management. 2 executive director report executive director report john mahon The Edmonton Book Prize was raised from $2,000 many local performing artists. We commissioned to $10,000 and re-named the Robert Kroetsch City of a marketing survey and communications strategy Edmonton Book Prize. to support these new initiatives and will begin the implementation in 2012. Based on the logic of the Book Prize, and working with the film and video arts community and the Edmonton We also started a long term; intensive strategy to Film Commission, we developed a $10,000 prize for ensure the EAC is relevant to all artists in Edmonton, film and video that will have its first award in 2012. and specifically for artists from a diverse range of cultural backgrounds. This is a suitably ambitious TIX on the Square expanded from a community commitment and we are beginning by focusing on box office to a box office and retail store selling ethnic diversity. an assortment of locally made arts and heritage products ranging from CDs, books, garments, The EAC continued to provide major support to Arts fine craft to archival photographs of our city. We Habitat Association whose 2011 activities included also assumed the responsibility of programming two buildings in operation, two more buildings under Churchill Square in between festivals and civic development, and the near completion of the first and events–programming that aims to help animate the most substantial part of the City zoning and bylaw Square as place making for the city, while utilizing review that impact the arts. The year 2011 also saw the work of a Mayor appointed task force to, in the words of Mayor Mandel “…build on our arts plan – The Art of Living – which started to frame some bolder thinking about the arts. It asks how we can ensure our arts industry is more fundamental to our core. The vision is to establish Edmonton one of Canada’s clear cultural hubs, supporting excellence across all mediums with arts as an economic driver for our region. And from the efforts of these community thinkers, we will consider how we can help our arts community thrive as part of our overall mosaic of business and creative industry.”1 I believe we are clearly part of larger civic movement towards an energetic, authentic, creative city. It is an invigorating time. I thank the talented staff at the EAC and the dedicated Board of Directors. They all provide so much support to the arts in our city. 1 Mayor Stephen Mandel - State of the City April 5, 2011 Edmonton Chamber of Commerce luncheon executive director report 3 guest article valerie mason-john Valerie Mason-John, past Cultural Diversity in the Arts Award recipient, shares her story about her artistic path after receiving this EAC grant support. New African Canadian I didn’t have to flee England through fear of death like many refugees. And I wasn’t pulled to Canada like most immigrants in search of a better life. I fell in love with a Canadian and Canada was the most supportive place to live, openly in a cross-cultural lesbian relationship. When I immigrated to Canada, I was no longer at the bottom of the pile. I might be the oppressor of First Nations peoples. However, I was still oppressed in a country that claims to have no racism. I was apprehensive of my survival as a black, queer, artist in Canada. To my delight Edmonton had a thriving arts scene, though I felt isolated. I often found myself being the only black person at writing events, unless there was food being served by black people. I wondered how I would establish myself in this city, and make connections into the black community. As luck would have it, a friend forwarded me the application for a cultural diversity grant. Instantly I thought, I’m not First Nations, a refugee, asylum seeker or a French speaker—this does not apply to me. As I read the application criteria I realized it did. Ironically I felt excited about being called an immigrant. The grant opened up a gateway to the vibrant black community that was missing in my life. While the white artist community was so much easier to access, the multicultural artist environment I was used to was not available. The grant provided me the possibility to rewrite my British box office sell out show Brown Girl In The Ring for a Canadian audience and the possibility to premier it at the Edmonton Fringe Festival. The show opened up new possibilities for me as an artist in Edmonton. Black audiences came to my show, and shortly after I was invited by the Centre for Race and Culture to work with the Keshotu Leadership academy, dramaturgy and directing their annual 2011 show, A Better Tomorrow. 4 guest article guest article valerie mason-john Concrete Theatre also commissioned me to write a short play for their sprouts season 2011. Breath in Poetry Collective slam team contacted me to coach and direct them for the Canadian Festival of Spoken Word, now 2011 national champions. Since the grant, I have most definitely established myself as a black artist in Alberta. I co-organized Africa on the Ave at the Carrot Cafe for Black History month in 2011. I am now currently co- editing a National Anthology of Black Canadian Poetry published by Frontenac in 2013. I have recently written a new piece called Deviant, based on the real life story of a black woman in Yellow Knife during the 1950s. She was the first woman to be tried in a Canadian courts for a same sex, lesbian sexual assault charge. I’m currently looking for a Canadian publisher for my second novel The War Done Done, a family saga that takes place in War torn Sierra Leone and High Society England. While the grant has helped to establish me on the performance circuit, it cannot give me the life experience of living in Canada. Most publishers are looking for work that is specific to Canadian life. I have yet for a Canadian publisher to take my personal work seriously. Dr. Valerie Mason-John Aka Queenie Dr. Valerie Mason-John aka Queenie www.valeriemason-john.com Author, playwright, performer, professional www.bullyvictimbystander.com anger management and self-awareness trainer and recipient of a 2009 Cultural Diversity in the Arts Award.