Manitoba artists to be seen in Ottawa with Prairie Scene
Mia Hudson
Winnipeg Free Press
OTTAWA — When Mother Courage and Her Children opens tonight at the Manitoba Theatre Centre it will bring a piece of the National Arts Centre to Winnipeg.
Next year, the National Arts Centre will bring pieces of Manitoba’s arts scene to Ottawa.
From April 26 to May 7, 2011, the NAC will stage Prairie Scene, a festival of more than 500 artists from Manitoba and Saskatchewan across every medium, from dancers and painters to musicians and writers.
It’s meant to keep the ‘national’ in the National Arts Centre.
“The NAC doesn’t want to be known just as great big building on the side of the Rideau Canal,” said Rosemary Thompson, NAC’s director of communications.
The National Arts Centre was created in 1966 to mark Canada’s 100th birthday. Its mandate is to develop performing arts in both the capital region and across the country.
Mother Courage is a co-production between the NAC and MTC, and is the second play this year performed by the newly revived NAC English Theatre Company.
Prairie Scene is the fifth in a series of scene festivals planned by the NAC on two-year intervals. The most recent version was B.C. Scene, held in the spring of 2009. It saw 600 artists from British Columbia visit Ottawa for 90 different events over 13 days. The Atlantic region, Alberta, and Quebec have also had their scenes in the sun, while Ontario and the Arctic are still to come.
Thompson, who joined the NAC recently after more than a decade as a CTV national reporter, said one of the things that drew her to the job was the opportunity to participate in events like Prairie Scene.
“Part of the fun of working here is it does have a national reach,” she said.
Thompson, who got her start in journalism as a cub reporter with CBC television in Winnipeg, even thinks her prairie connections may have helped her land the job.
“(The scenes) really are a chance to get to know the country through its artists,” said Heather Moore, executive director of Prairie Scene.
No artists have yet been confirmed. Moore said about one third of the programming will be decided by next fall.
To read the full article, click here.
Kevin Jerome Everson – Free Films and Live Appearance @ Club SAW
The AVAILABLE LIGHT SCREENING COLLECTIVE and SAW VIDEO present KEVIN JEROME EVERSON
OTTAWA PREMIERE
OTTAWA – February 8, 2010 – With the Embassy of the United States of America and Black History Month Ottawa, the Available Light Screening Collective and SAW Video present Virginia‐based filmmaker Kevin Jerome Everson for an evening of his films and an afternoon artist talk. This is Everson’s first visit to Ottawa. He is currently at the 2010 Rotterdam International Film Festival.
On Friday, February 19th, Available Light presents a programme by DIM Cinema of Everson’s work. Following the screening will be a Q&A session and a public reception presented by the Embassy of the United States of America.
On Saturday, February 20th, SAW Video presents an artist talk by Kevin James Everson entitled “Materials, process, procedure and subject”. Everson will present excerpts from relevant short films and features and photographic images and discuss his longtime dedication to the primacy of the subject, culled from early training in ’70s sculptural art discipline and practice.
Instead of standard realism I favor a strategy that abstracts everyday actions and statements into theatrical gestures, in which archival footage is re‐edited or re‐staged, real people perform fictional scenarios based on their own lives and historical observations intermesh with contemporary narratives. The films suggest the relentlessness of everyday life—along with its beauty—but also present oblique metaphors for art‐making. ‐ Kevin Jerome Everson
Kevin Jerome Everson’s prolific body of film work engages with, and responds to, the history and culture of working-class Black Americans and people of African descent. His short gestural films challenge simplistic expectations of ethnographic documentary, poetic narrative, or theatrical drama. He stitches archival footage, scripted sequences, verité documents, and abstract aural and visual minutiae into textured portraits of people, places, economics, and ephemera.
The films of KEVIN JEROME EVERSON
Friday, February 19, 7:30pm
Club SAW, 67 Nicholas St., Ottawa, ON
Free admission
An artist talk with KEVIN JEROME EVERSON
Saturday, February 20th, 2pm‐4pm
Club SAW, 67 Nicholas St., Ottawa, ON
Free admission
Kevin Jerome Everson (b.1965) is a filmmaker, originally from Mansfield, Ohio, now living and working in Charlottesville, Virginia, U.S.A. Everson’s three feature films and over 50 short films and videos have been exhibited at the Centre Pompidou in Paris, Redcat in Los Angeles, the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Cleveland Museum of Art, the Studio Museum in Harlem, the Armand Hammer Museum in Los Angeles, Whitechapel Gallery in London, and many other venues worldwide. He is the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship, two NEH Fellowships, two Ohio Arts Council Fellowships, and an American Academy Rome Prize.
For further information about Kevin Jerome Everson: http://people.virginia.edu/~ke5d.
DIM Cinema is a monthly evening of contemporary short-form moving images and cinematic collaborations. DIM is focused on expanding the visibility of Canadian and international experimental artists and their practices in the cinema; and seeks to illuminate underground moving image culture in Vancouver, BC.
DIM is programmed by Amy Lynn Kazymerchyk through the Pacific Cinematheque Pacifique.
Available Light Screening Collective is an Ottawa, Ontario‐based artists’ collective committed to the curated exhibition of experimental film and video art for local audiences. Support for Available Light’s activities is received from the Canada Council for the Arts, the Ontario Arts Council, and the City of Ottawa.
SAW Video is an artist‐run‐centre committed to support ground breaking artistic production, presentation and programming of independent video and media art. SAW Video provides many services to its membership including affordable technical facilities, and a wide range of programmes designed to create an atmosphere that will inspire production through the exchange of ideas around form, content and style. Support for the centre is received from the Canada Council for the Arts, the Ontario Arts Council, and the City of Ottawa.
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For more information :
Christopher Rohde
Available Light Screening Collective
availablelightcollective@gmail.com
Denise MacDonald
SAW Video
denise@sawvideo.com / 613:238:7648
Magnetic North Compass Points seeks National Planning Committee
Compass Points is putting a call out to all conservatory, college, and university-level theatre students and recently graduated emerging artists. We are currently developing a National Planning Committee to help guide the 2010 edition of Compass Points Student & Emerging Artist Symposium. We are looking for dynamic students and emerging artists looking to share their ideas on current issues of concern to young artists seeking to navigate the gap between student life and professional practice. We are currently looking for one representative from each province and territory or region.
Held during the Magnetic North Theatre Festival, the Compass Points Symposium is a gathering of students and emerging artists from across the country which helps navigate the Festival and offers a firsthand introduction to the professional theatre industry. Organized by students and emerging artists from across the nation, Compass Points is a week-long event consisting of workshops, panel discussions, and social events which inspire participants to chart their own course in Canadian Theatre. We welcome students and artists from all theatre disciplines including but not limited to acting, directing, playwriting, design, technical production, and arts management.
For more information on how to join, please contact Liz Truchanowicz at compasspoints@magneticnorthfestival.ca.
To read the full article, visit Magnetic North Theatre Festival.
Storytelling festival announced for this fall – call for proposals
Ottawa StoryTeller’s Productions Committee is excited to announce that the Cumberland Heritage Museum has decided to run a storytelling festival this fall, the weekend of October 23-25. OST has been asked to program the English storytelling sessions.
At this time the Committee invites proposals for the following:
> Festival opening event, evening Friday October 23
OST has been asked to program two 20 minute sets. You may apply individually or with a partner for either one or both sets.
> Evening concert, Saturday October 24
This will be a two hour concert in English only. Again, you may apply as an individual, or with a partner.
> Afternoon family event, Sunday October 25
From 2-4 pm people will move from location to location, listening to 20 minute sets at each. Each set will be repeated several times throughout the afternoon.
Please note that while tellers may propose stories or sets on any topic, preference will be given to those which best fit with the mandate of the Museum, which includes: 1920’s, 1930’s, rural life in Ontario, relationship between English and French.
The Museum will be offering payment in accordance with the Canada Council rates.
PROPOSALS MUST BE RECEIVED BY TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 8, TO BE CONSIDERED. Send proposals to: productions@ottawastorytellers.ca
Please note that ALL tellers are welcome to submit proposals, so feel free to spread the word to others you think may be interested.
For further information:
About the museum itself, go to -
http://www.ottawa.ca/residents/heritage/museums/cumberland/
About the logistics for the festival, email -
Productions Committee at productions@ottawastorytellers.ca
About the mandate of the Museum, contact -
Emmanuel Doucet, Education and Interpretation Program Officer
613.833.3059, x. 229
emmanuel.doucet@ottawa.ca
Television Animation Conference Lines Up Talent
Kristin Brzoznowski, Worldscreen.com
David Silverman, best known for directing numerous episodes of The Simpsons as well as The Simpsons Movie, and Josh Selig, the founder and president of Little Airplane Productions, will headline this year’s Television Animation Conference, taking place October 14 and 15 at the Chateau Laurier hotel in Ottawa.
Full article: Television Animation Conference Lines Up Talent
Portraits of Bluesfest Silent Auction: A Community Benefit for Blues In The Schools
ONE NIGHT ONLY! FRIDAY AUGUST 28TH, 2009 7:30PM – 10:30PM
ARTGUISE GALLERY: 590 BANK ST. OTTAWA ONTARIO CANADAPREVIEW
THURSDAY, AUGUST 27TH, NOON – 6:00PM and FRIDAY, AUGUST 28TH, NOON – 3:00PM
Artguise Gallery is pleased to be hosting “Portraits of Bluesfest”, a one night silent auction benefiting the “Blues In The Schools” program.
The event; curated by Peter Simpson, The Ottawa Citizen’s Arts and entertainment Editor-at-Large, features original pieces executed and donated by thirteen regional artists :
Jennifer Campbell, Carrie Colton, Heidi Conrod, Philip Craig, Shannon Craig, Andrew Farrell, Tony Fouhse, Darren Holmes, Jim Kohan, Brandon McVittie, Weldon Poapst , Amy Thompson and Jason Vaughan.
All of the pieces being exhibited are derived and inspired by the artist’s individual experiences at the 2009 Ottawa Bluesfest. The format for the evening will be a silent auction. The pieces in the exhibition will be bid upon between 7:30pm and 9:30pm. Vying parties interested in bidding on the works will pay five dollars upon entering the exhibition space. The bidder is then given a number enabling discreet / silent bids to be placed on each painting in increments of twenty dollars. The purchased pieces shall be available to the winning bidders to take away the night of the show.
All payments for the purchased artwork should be made payable by cheque to : Blues in the Schools. Please join us Friday night as this evening promises to be an exciting, talent rich affair benefiting a worthwhile community cause in our fair city. All are welcome!
For more information please contact Brandon McVittie or Jason Vaughan at 613 238 3803 or info@artguise.ca
Great success for a frugal folkfest: Rookie emcee and new director bring in lots of creative talent
Lynn Saxberg, The Ottawa Citizen
Bruce Cockburn, Joel Plaskett and Steven Page, three of the Ottawa Folk Festival’s marquee performers, shared a tiny outdoor stage with Ottawa singer-songwriter Ana Miura on Sunday afternoon.
Under blues skies, a crowd of about 1,000 sprawled out on the grassy riverside to see Cockburn, a Canadian folk legend and Ottawa native, trade songs with Miura and singer-songwriters Page and Plaskett. The three are musical representatives of a generation of Canadians who grew up with Cockburn’s music.
The session was titled Road Songs and each artist plucked, from his or her repertoire, a song about travelling, revealing various viewpoints. One of Cockburn’s contributions was a powerful version of Mines of Mozambique, based on a trip he took to the war-torn country, but then Page followed it up with Helicopters, which pokes fun at rock stars who visit war-torn countries. No malice was directed at Bruce, Page noted, the real problem is how the media simplifies the story.
Full story: Great success for a frugal folkfest
Ottawa artists capture the glory of Bluesfest, and raise money for charity
Peter Simpson, The Ottawa Citizen
You may have seen Jim Kohan at Bluesfest, hunched over his iPhone, screen setting his face aglow as Lee Harvey Osmond played only feet away, and you should know that he was not doing what you think he was doing.
Kohan wasn’t texting during a concert, or checking his stocks, or playing a game, or in any way ignoring the band. He was drawing a piece of art, a portrait of lead singer Tom Wilson, and he was doing it on his new iPhone. And he was doing it for charity.
Kohan is among a baker’s dozen of the city’s best artists taking part in Portraits of Bluesfest, a fund-raising silent auction in aid of the Blues in the Schools foundation. Buy an original painting or photograph, and your money goes to help bring local musicians into public schools to work with young music fans.
More @ Ottawa Citizen online: Ottawa artists capture the glory of Bluesfest, and raise money for charity
Animation Producers To Give Their Best Pitch At TAC: Producers find out if they have what it takes to create a hit series in the über-competitive world of animation at the fifth annual Pitch THIS!
The Television Animation Conference (TAC), taking place on October 14 and 15, will present Pitch THIS! At the historic Chateau Laurier Hotel in Ottawa, Canada as part of this year’s Ottawa International Animation Festival. Pitch This! is presented this year by Toronto’s 9 Story Entertainment.One of the most popular events at the conference, Pitch THIS! is just one of several TAC events which give delegates an amazing opportunity to learn what today’s broadcasters are looking for in new animated series. Pitch THIS! is also the only pitching competition in Canada geared specifically to animation producers.
“If you’re looking to really get noticed in the industry, Pitch THIS! gives you that chance!” says TAC Director Azarin Sohrabkhani. “Take advantage of this opportunity to show off animation’s next big hit!”
Two intrepid producers will step up to the plate on Thursday, October 15th and have 10 minutes to pitch their projects to a panel of the world’s leading animation broadcasters. Not enough pressure? An audience of over 300 buyers, financiers, partners and industry gurus will also be hanging on your every word!
Following the pitches, representatives from various networks will respond with detailed insights, assessing each project’s creative and financial elements and analyzing its marketability and appeal to each broadcaster. Along with this invaluable feedback, each participating producer gains the type of industry exposure that can lead to future success.
“If you have a great idea for an animated television show and work hard to package and pitch it, then coming to the Ottawa International Animation Festival and TAC could change your life,” says Al Bohl, creator of “It changed mine. Not only did I make a development deal with 9 Story Entertainment, but I met people who can make things happen. If you are serious about cartoons, you need to find a way to bring your dreams to the festival.”
For Pitch THIS! consideration, producers should submit their proposals for an original adult or children’s animation series and must include a project bible, sample episode synopsis, concept art and biographies of the key creative team.
Submissions may be sent to tac@animationfestival.ca or by regular post to 2 Daly Avenue, Suite 120, Ottawa, ON, K1N 6E2. Please mark Attention: TAC Pitch THIS! No more than two submissions per production company will be accepted. Deadline for submissions is August 14, 2009.
For additional information on Pitch THIS! , TAC and the Ottawa International Animation Festival please call 613-232-8769 or visit www.animationfestival.ca
About TAC
The Television Animation Conference is Canada’s only animation business forum designed for professionals in content creation, development, production, distribution and marketing. TAC brings together key players in North America and international markets and provides a forum for active networking, practical information exchange, and trade in a comfortable and intimate environment. TAC ‘09 will be held October 14-15 in Ottawa. For more information about TAC, please visit www.animationfestival.ca
About OIAF
The Ottawa International Animation Festival is one of the world’s leading animation events, providing first-class screenings, exhibits, workshops and entertainment since 1976. The annual five-day event brings art, industry and inspiration together in a vibrant hub that attracts artists, production executives, students and animation fans from across Canada and around the world. In 2008, more than 1700 industry delegates flocked to the capital to take part in the festival. A similar crowd is expected to attend OIAF ‘09, which will be held from October 14-18 in Ottawa. For more information and to experience OIAF online, please visit www.animationfestival.ca.
About 9 Story Entertainment
9 Story Entertainment is an Emmy Award® winning animation studio and production company. Established in 2001, 9 Story creates, produces and distributes children’s and family entertainment, from concept stage to delivery.
Please visit www.9story.com for more information.
Ottawa plans $3-million showcase of Prairie arts
PLANS are gearing up for an ambitious celebration of Prairie arts in Ottawa.The National Arts Centre will mount the $3-million festival, titled Prairie Scene, in April 2011 to showcase the best of arts and culture from Manitoba and Saskatchewan.
“We’re going to drain your province of artists for 13 days,” says producer Heather Moore. “Many of them we select will be familiar to you but just emerging on the national scene.”
Following BC Scene, which wrapped up in May, Prairie Scene will be the latest in NAC’s string of regional arts festivals, which started in 2003 with a showcase of Atlantic Canada.
“The idea was to put the ‘national’ back in the National Arts Centre,” said Moore, who has produced all the festivals to date.
Full Story on the Winnipeg Free Press website: Ottawa plans $3-million showcase of Prairie arts
