Marianne Garrah | Special to the 51暗网
As you have probably read in the intro to the Artists Profiles each month, theatres, galleries and stages were the first to close 22 months ago and are some of the last to open.
Not many businesses can say they saw $0 in revenue 鈥� many arts organizations can. With so much uncertainty the Habitat for the Arts started looking for different ways to engage the community in art, from online workshops to hybrid art exhibitions to this newest project 鈥淩e-Animate the Arts for 2022.鈥�
What is Habitat hoping to see 鈥楻e-Animated鈥�?
Habitat is hoping to find artists in community to inspire people, either with hands on opportunities鈥攍ike painting for the community mural or carving in clay for the community tile project鈥攐r by just writing about them each month in the paper.
We also want to give artists the opportunity to re-engage with their audiences. Re-Animate will showcase the visual arts, media arts, literary arts and the performing arts. The intent is not to simply show us what art has been created, but how art can inspire. We want those attending Re-Animate events to be captured by the artistic process.
And it鈥檚 really important to us to see youth engaged in this re-animation. Both the music and visual arts residencies planned for February include youth. It was serendipitous of that writeup last week on Jasper鈥檚 young actor Emerson Gibbons making it into the Hinton Break-A-Leg Theatre Company. The grant we received from Canadian Heritage and Arts Jasper has allowed us to bring Break-A-Leg to Jasper for Feb. 26 for the first Jasper theatre show since January 2020鈥攖he last Jasper production that Gibbons was in.
With the uncertainty around crowds how will Habitat not see more 鈥榩ostponed鈥� events?
Re-Animate is not all about events. It鈥檚 about giving artists some tools and time and funds to create and show community what is here. We have two residency programs running in February in music and visual arts. Both of these residencies involve simply giving artists the space to explore their art form, invite the community to come and see the process and ultimately to build something for a Culture Days exhibit in September. The Culture Days Exhibit will be a final showcase for everything these artists create over the next five months.
A good example of Re-Animate that won鈥檛 get postponed鈥� last August we began a conversation around 鈥渁nimating鈥� the Town Trail. It is the perfect place to tell our stories and showcase our cultural community鈥攄istanced and outdoors. The trail is the perfect venue for word artists. When the Canadian Heritage funds came through, we sought someone to take on finding the word artists in Jasper and were fortunate to have found Janeen Keelan. She even came back to us within a day with a well thought out plan and potential budget. Her plan also includes possible collaborations between genres, something else we are hoping will evolve.
How are you finding the artists to be part of Re-Animate?
Well, Habitat is now 12 years old and just upstairs from some amazing organizations like the Jasper Artists Gallery, the Francophone Society and the Library. The building is a cultural hub that does draw creatives. Today we had someone drop in looking for ways to get involved in the theatre community. We hope to see a theatre residency come from that. As we seek artists, we find more.
And we hope the 鈥渃ache鈥� we are building this year allows for them to find each other. One of the visual artists doing a residency in February is looking forward to being inspired by the musicians in their residency.
Should an artist wish to be part of this re-animation they can email us [email protected].
What would be the deciding factor鈥攈ow will you know Jaspers arts community is Re-Animated?
We chose the word 鈥渁nimate鈥� over revive or reignite because we don鈥檛 believe the arts were ever dormant. People were engaged in their art. In fact, there was a huge resurgence in painting, writing, dancing鈥� just not together. So, perhaps we will know Jaspers arts community is Re-Animated when we see a theatre troupe rehearsing again, or a young artist has created a portfolio of work they didn鈥檛 have the resources to create before, or our visitors see our stories and culture in ways not visible before.
We tell all of the creatives who come to Habitat that it鈥檚 all about the process. We hope this fund allows artists to do their own thing at distance from others or to explore with others, incorporate all ages and use that diversity ultimately seek to inspire without fear of what they create.
