Arts Notes
Northern Arts News
The results are in for the first deadline to the new Northern Arts program. The northern-based jurors from Kenora, Timmins, Moonbeam, Elk Lake and Sault Ste. Marie looked at 87 grant applications. Of these, 45 projects were funded (a 50 per cent success rate) – two in dance; three in theatre; one in multi-arts; four in media arts; five in literature; nine in music projects; and 21 in visual arts. More than half of the grants were awarded to emerging artists. Three of the eight francophone applicants received funding.
Staff Comings and Goings
Congratulations to Mark Haslam and his partner Rakesh! They have just adopted a baby girl. Mark is on parental leave until early December. Former Visual Arts and Media Arts Associate Officer Annette Mangaard will be stepping in during this period.
Lisa Fitzgibbons, Francophone Arts Associate Officer, has had her contract extended until the end of June.
Welcome to Lindsay MacDonald, our new program assistant for Aboriginal Arts and Community and Multidisciplinary Arts. We are also delighted that Elena Yunusov has joined us as our new communications assistant.
Lastly, after 18 years with the Ontario Arts Council, Popular and World Music Officer Arlene Loney has told us that she is leaving OAC in late September. Fortunately for us, this long goodbye will give the music office time to plan for the transition.
Form Frustrations
Some organizations applying for operating support encountered technical difficulties with our form-fillable PDFs. We apologize for any hair-pulling that the forms may have caused. Know that we are doing our best to have this issue resolved for the next deadline. Although it did not affect all organizations, this is small comfort if you were one of the ones affected.
Event Listing Opportunity with Ontario Tourism Marketing Partnership Corporation
The Ontario Tourism Marketing Partnership Corporation’s (OTMPC)recently launched multi-media campaign expects to generate increased traffic from potential tourists to the Web site. If your organization has a summer festival or arts event, make sure you take advantage of the free listing opportunity by registering as a tourism partner on the
www.ontariotravel.net site.
Registering is easy. Click here to register
Passing of Key Figure in Franco-Ontarian Arts
Each arts community has its key figures. One of the most important members of the Franco-Ontarian arts community, poet Robert Dickson died on March 19th. Winner of a 2002 Governor General's award for his French-language poetry collection Humains paysages en temps de paix relative published by Éditions Prise de Paroles, his influence went far beyond the borders of poetry. He was a literary translator and an academic whose passion and generosity inspired several generations of artists.
Over the years, Robert contributed to the building of the Franco-Ontarian arts infrastructure, having been a lyricist for the popular music group CANO, and involved in the founding of the Théâtre du Nouvel-Ontario, the Galerie du Nouvel-Ontario, Éditions Prise de Paroles. Robert profoundly influenced this community through his kindness and his art.
Juno Kudos
Several OAC-funded recordings were among the Juno nominations this year:
Moment in Time, by Richard Underhill (Contemporary Jazz Album); Other Stories, by William Carn and Movin’ & Groovin’ by Jake Langley (Traditional Jazz Album); The Edge, by Mr. Something Something (World Music Album); Seeds by Digging Roots (Aboriginal Recording).
Another nominee received a creation grant from our popular music program – Start to Move by Elizabeth Shepherd (Vocal Jazz Album).
We kept our fingers crossed for all of them.
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