The Belle of Amherst 
by William Luce
February 19 - March 1, 2015
Roedde House Museum
Tickets $25 - Limited Seating!

   If you missed catching a glimpse of the elusive 19th century legend in 2011 when she last visited the area, you'll want to see “Emily Dickinson” in The Belle of Amherst this February at the Roedde House in Vancouver. Written by William Luce, based on the writings of the superb, sparkling, and enigmatic poet Emily Dickinson, this multi-award-winning one-woman play was originally performed on Broadway in 1976 as a vehicle for 5-time Tony Award-winner Julie Harris. It received universal acclaim, and was hailed by theatre critic Rex Reed to be “an arresting, riveting experience unlike any I’ve known. An overwhelming, meticulous adventure full of passion and poetry and heart.” Joely Richardson, Vanessa Redgrave’s daughter, resurrected the role Off Broadway last fall; this production features Vancouver actress Renée Bucciarelli, whose portrayal of Emily Dickinson has previously garnered local acclaim, and whose work as a classical actress has enjoyed past praise from The New York Times.
   The Roedde House Museum, a special piece of local history that was home to Vancouver’s first bookbinder, provides an ideal period setting for Dickinson’s seemingly fathomless exploration of words, of a vibrantly-lived inner life, and of love. Costumed in her famous white dress (a historically accurate replica in this production, researched and constructed by Bucciarelli), “Miss Dickinson” ventures out of her self-imposed seclusion to welcome audiences into the exquisitely-furnished Roedde parlour for a little tea, town gossip, and poetry—ultimately stealing hearts while inspiring belief in the redemptive act of creation. 
    Audience members of this intimate performance will find themselves transported back to an elegant time, in an ambience complete with Dickinson’s favourite music played on the parlour piano, tea served in china cups, and even Dickinson’s famous ‘black cake’. Sunday matinées will include post-performance talk-backs with Dickinson scholars Lynn Szabo (Feb. 22)  and Judith Scholes (March 1).
    “Solo performer Renée Bucciarelli shines…deftly captures Emily’s mischievous spirit…” — Georgia Straight

brownpapertickets.com or at the door – limited seating!
Website: www.fraj.com/belleofamherst    

We're RTRACTION, and we love the arts.That's why we're giving away $25,000 worth of design, strategy, and/or communication services to one deserving arts organization.

WHO CAN APPLY? YOU... if you are an individual or part of an organization working in any aspects of arts or culture, and you're in Canada.

HOW DOES IT WORK? Your application, along with the others we receive, will be judged by our team along with a panel of notables from the visual, performing and literary arts world.

WHAT ARE THE TIMELINES? Apply by September 30, 2014. Judging will be completed by October 31. Applicants, including the winner, will be notified by November 7. And then we'll start the project, whatever that turns out to be.

Website

18 August 2014 - The Australia Council for the Arts has announced the most significant change to its grants model in the organisation’s 40 year history. Australia Council Chief Executive Tony Grybowski said the new grants model, to be implemented from January 2015, would enable an increasingly diverse range of artists and organisations to apply for funding towards the creation of excellent work and a wide range of arts activity.

“With five grant programs, streamlined criteria, and opportunities to apply for multiple stages of a project in one application, we have made it simpler and easier to apply for funding. We want to encourage ambitious projects and see more audiences captivated by work that inspires and challenges,” Mr Grybowski said.

“This is an artist-centric grants model which positively reflects extensive input from the sector, particularly through the Australia Council Review. The review identified that while our grant programs had served the arts well in the past, it needed to evolve with the sector and be more responsive to the new ways art is being made and presented.”

Peer assessment remains central to grant decisions, and the new model ensures that the Council can draw on a large and diverse pool of experts from the sector.

The new model is more transparent and efficient, allowing the Council to be more responsive to changing artistic practice and providing greater accessibility through multiple application rounds with standardised closing dates each year.

The new grants model will consist of five programs:

• Development grants for individuals and groups valued at between $5,000 and $25,000.
• Arts project grants for individuals and groups valued at between $10,000 and $50,000.
• Arts project grants for organisations valued at between $10,000 and $150,000.
• Fellowships valued at $100,000.
• Six year funding for arts organizations. 

READ MORE

This animation distils hundreds of years of culture into just five minutes. A team of historians and scientists wanted to map cultural mobility, so they tracked the births and deaths of notable individuals like David, King of Israel, and Leonardo da Vinci, from 600 BC to the present day. Using them as a proxy for skills and ideas, their map reveals intellectual hotspots and tracks how empires rise and crumble

The information comes from Freebase, a Google-owned database of well-known people and places, and other catalogues of notable individuals. The visualization was created by Maximilian Schich (University of Texas at Dallas) and Mauro Martino (IBM).

Read Nature's news story:http://www.nature.com/news/1.15650
Find the research paper in Science:http://www.sciencemag.org/lookup/doi/...

News Release
Investment of $165,150 to support arts and culture workforce strategy
03 July 2014 - FREDERICTON (GNB) – The provincial government is investing $165,150 over two years to support Phase 1 of the implementation of an arts and culture workforce development strategy.

“Our focus is on people, skills and jobs and we will ensure that this important sector, with enormous potential, thrives and flourishes,” said Post-Secondary Education, Training and Labour Minister Jody Carr. “Our province is known for its unique and rich cultural history, which is why our government is pleased to support the arts and culture sector to ensure that our identity continues to live on for future generations to discover through things like fine art, literature and music.”

In 2012, L'Association acadienne des artistes professionnel.le.s du Nouveau-Brunswick (the Association of Acadian professional artists of New Brunswick) was tasked with leading and co-ordinating the development of a provincial workforce development strategy for the arts and culture sector.

“We were proud to work with cultural stakeholders and sector professionals on the development of Creative Futures: a renewed Cultural Policy for New Brunswick,” said Tourism, Heritage and Culture Minister Trevor Holder. “This strategy will help support those who make their living in the industry, as together we work toward the goal of a vibrant and productive cultural sector.”
READ MORE

As our arts, culture, and heritage community continues to work towards developing a provincial cultural policy framework, the importance of art at all levels of education is a hot topic. Artists, cultural workers, and educators are invited to participate in Arts Summit 2014 at the Roundhouse next Friday, June 20 and ensure that their issues and concerns are on the table. Register here and join the conversation: http://www.artssummit.ca/register/

Register now to join the cultural community on Friday, June 20 for Arts Summit 2014 and take part in the work of developing a cultural policy framework for all of British Columbia.

The morning will feature presentations by Michael Davis of BoardVoice on the similar work being done on provincial social policy, reports on the recent Where Next BC gathering and the ArtsBC conference, and an update from Bob D’Eith of Music BC on the creative industries’ experiences since last year’s launch of Creative BC.  

The main order of business will be the presentation of the BC Creative Convergence draft cultural policy framework. 

There will be plenty of opportunities at this one-day Summit for you to share your views, critique the draft framework, and send the BC Creative Convergence team back to the drawing board to incorporate your ideas in the final document.

We will also be fine-tuning our engagement strategies for the coming months as we continue the BC Creative Convergence roundtables in communities throughout BC, seeking further input into the final framework document.

Breakout sessions will be facilitated by Dialogue Leaders representing most of our sectors and disciplines and many of our province’s regions. These will include arts consultant Dawn Brennan, Peter Sandmark of ProArt Victoria; Linda LaFleur of the Columbia Basin Trust; Joanna Maratta of the BC Touring Council; and Judy Robertson of Metro Vancouver.

Check-in opens at 8 a.m., Summit proceedings commence at 9 a.m, wrap-up at 4:30 p.m. Lunch and refreshments are included with registration. 

Register here to join the conversation.

Lane Harwell, Executive Director, Dance/NYC
Huff Post, Posted: 05/14/2014
There are lessons for the creative sector in the story of 280 Broadway, whose new tenant, Gibney Dance, opens its doors to the community to shape the future. In a real estate climate where too many are losing space and reporting escalating costs -- real threats to creative life -- some, like Gibney Dance, are making solutions.

The first of the lessons I offer here is the value of community engagement. As examples, opportunities for 280 Broadway are generated by the testimony of artists previously displaced by its closure in the fall of 2013 and new ideas brought forward both online through a Community Idea Portal and ongoing community forums. For example, see this video of a welcome session co-hosted by Dance/NYC.

For those focused on future space solutions, there is power to be leveraged through local community organizing--perhaps especially in non-Manhattan geographies, where increased attention by our sector, and all New Yorkers, is needed.

Second, there is a lesson learned from "'We Make Do' More Time Is Better, But Budget Is King,'" an Exploring the Metropolis study on dance rehearsal space commissioned by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. Crucially, the study recommends shifting focus away from new construction to expanding use of existing facilities. Such is the case with 280 Broadway, which in its new incarnation makes use of previously occupied dance work, training, rehearsal, and performance space.

Third, there is a lesson about efficiencies of scale, achieved at 280 Broadway through synergies with Gibney Dance's other spaces at 890 Broadway. Beyond administrative and cost savings, the expanded Gibney Dance can offer space and programs to better support artists and organizations along the continuums of creative process, from rehearsal to performance, and of career and institutional advancement, from emerging to mid-career. 
READ MORE

By Robert Sibley, Ottawa Citizen, May 15, 2014
Canada’s artists enjoyed a major legal victory Wednesday when, in a surprisingly fast decision, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled that the National Gallery of Canada was obliged to negotiate minimum fees with the artists whose work it exhibits.

“It was a great day for Canada’s artists after many years of fighting,” said Grant McConnell, president of the Canadian Artists’ Representation (CARFAC). “We’re finally going to go back to negotiating with the National Gallery of Canada.”

Wednesday’s decision effectively forces the National Gallery to do what it has been trying to avoid doing for the last seven years. Since 2007, the National Gallery and organizations representing Canada’s 20,000 visual artists — CARFAC and Le Regroupement des artistes en arts visuels du Quebec – have been at loggerheads over the issue of whether artists have the legal right to bargain minimum fees when the gallery uses their work.

The issue goes back more than a decade. In 2003, CARFAC and RAAV began negotiating with the gallery on a “scale agreement” as provided for in the federal Status of the Artist Act. The associations wanted an agreement that would set minimum fees for artists if the national institution displayed or reproduced their existing artworks.

In 2007, the gallery obtained a legal opinion that binding provisions on copyright issues couldn’t be legitimately included in a scale agreement. It then pursued an agreement that cut all reference to minimum fees for the use of existing works.

The arts group complained the gallery was acting in bad faith and won a tribunal ruling requiring the gallery to stop acting illegally and bargain in good faith. The gallery, however, turned to the Federal Court of Appeal, which overturned the tribunal’s decision, ruling that matters relating to copyright, including the imposition of minimum fees for the use of existing works, didn’t come within the purview of the Status of the Artist Act.

Basically, the appeal court accepted the gallery’s argument that some fees come under the Copyright Act, which sets individual negotiations ahead of any collective agreement.

The artistic groups appealed to the Supreme Court. Essentially, what was at issue was a perceived conflict between the Copyright Act and the Status of the Artist Act. CARFAC and RAAV want to negotiate binding minimum fees for their members in much the same way that unions negotiate collective agreements. The gallery, however, maintained that CARFAC and RAAV were undercutting the right of artists to be paid less if they so chose.

The gallery lost, but even more surprising was the speed with which the Supreme Court judges rendered their decision. Normally, the court reserves its decisions pending a written judgment, which can take two or three months or more. But in a rare move, the judges made their ruling for the artists within minutes of hearing arguments from both sides.

For the artists, it was a welcome — and long overdue — win. “It’s an important, historic win for us,” said artist and CARFAC member, Karl Beveridge. “The amazing thing is it includes all issues of copyright, not just exhibition right, but also reproduction right.”
READ MORE

PHOTO L to R: Melissa Gruber, Wendy Nelson, April Britski, Susan Tooke, Manon Pelletier, Gerald Beaulieu, Julie McIntyre, Deborah Carruthers, Kristian Clarkem Christian Berard, Deirdre Logue, Grant McConnell. All are part of CARFAC. The Supreme Court will hear a case Wednesday that will determine whether, CARFAC, an association representing visual artists has the right to negotiate minimum fees for visual artists if the National Gallery of Canada uses their work. Photo by Jean Levac

May 09, 2014 - By Mark Brownlee
Ottawa festivals are getting creative in their bid to compete for the sponsorship dollars many of them need to survive. “You can’t just do logos anymore,” said Kelly Neall, the managing director of the Ottawa International Animation Festival. “You have to do something where the company is involved and where they can brand a component of the festival as their own.”

Ms. Neall cited a partnership her festival created between two different companies as an example of how sponsorship is changing.

She provided an animation company with a sponsorship for the festival in exchange for producing a 30-second animated film for another Ottawa company. The company that received the film then agreed to sponsor the festival as well.

Ms. Neall said she isn’t concerned that these sorts of activities take the festival away from its core function. Almost all of her time is consumed with getting sponsorship dollars, she said, which account for about half of the organization’s revenues.

“Sometimes you have to get a bit creative with things like that,” she said.
READ MORE