May 10, 2005
OTTAWA (Ontario) –The Alberta Scene festival wraps up today with a much anticipated performance by Medicine Hat-raised country music superstar Terri Clark at the National Arts Centre’s Southam Hall.
Audiences, critics, and artists had kudos for Alberta Scene.
“I’m just overwhelmed by the responses we got to our show,” said Michelle Thrush, director of Time Stands Still, a play about two Aboriginal men in prison that played to packed houses at the NAC’s Fourth Stage.
Thrush said she and her cast and crew from Crazy Horse Theatre – Calgary’s only professional Aboriginal theatre company - emerged from the Alberta Scene experience energized and inspired.
“I think the Alberta Scene really elevated us from thinking of ourselves as a small theatre company in Calgary, to wanting to dream higher, I guess because the Scene had such a prestigious quality about it. We just felt so included and supported. We were treated with such respect by everybody at the NAC. I’m still floating from the whole experience.”
“Being a part of Alberta Scene felt a little bit like coming home,” said jazz legend Tommy Banks of Edmonton. “There were artists from my home province all around me, sharing their Alberta music and stories in front of new audiences. It’s that kind of exchange that will make the arts in Canada stronger, and that’s what the National Arts Centre is all about.”
For the 13 days of Alberta Scene audiences were treated to performances by artists such as:
Oscar Lopez, P.J. Perry, Alberta Ballet, Edmonton Symphony Orchestra, Gordie Johnson, Terri Clark, Wil, War Party, SNFU, Guys in Disguise, Crazy Horse Theatre, Barrage, David Hoffos, Ann Vriend, Amir Amiri, Nicole Mion, Carolyn Dawn Johnson, Shumka, Shani Mootoo, John Stetch, DJD, Tri-Continental, Crystal Plamondon, Ian Tyson and Tommy Banks. Alberta’s visual artists, authors and chefs were also part of the celebration which opened April 28 with a full house and a roaring standing ovation for the all-Alberta opera Filumena.
“Alberta Scene has given local and national audiences a wonderful overview of the province’s exciting and eclectic range of talent,” said Alberta Scene Producer and Executive Director Heather Moore. “Perennial favourites such as the Shumka dancers played to full houses, and up and coming artists like Corb Lund, Amir Amiri and Darrin Hagen found new enthusiastic fans in venues around the region.”
The festival touched tens of thousands of enthusiastic local audience members, but also had an enormous reach through extensive national media interest. In addition to unprecedented editorial coverage from media outlets across the country, the Scene’s media partners helped create national interest in the art and artists from Alberta, including a CBC Newsworld broadcast on Alberta Scene that will air later this year. In particular, Alberta media outlets covered the scene widely, with daily reports appearing in the Calgary Herald, the Edmonton Journal, CKUA-FM, and from Edmonton’s Canada Now anchor Portia Clark, live from the NAC foyer.
“For the past 13 days, the nation’s capital really did become ‘Alberta-on-the-Rideau,’ said Peter Herrndorf, President and CEO of the National Arts Centre “On any given day during the Scene you could find Alberta business and community leaders, federal and provincial politicians and other Alberta ex-pats cheering on “the home team”, proudly proclaiming that Alberta’s artists are second to none in terms of their creativity and innovation. The National Arts Centre is proud to have helped celebrate Alberta’s centennial with this wonderful celebration.”
One of the objectives of the Alberta Scene was to help emerging and established artists further their careers. Western Economic Diversification and Foreign Affairs Canada made it possible for the NAC to invite more than 80 domestic and international arts presenters to attend the Alberta Scene and seek out new talent and touring productions for audiences beyond the two-week festival. This was one of the most successful aspects of the festival as talent scouts from as far as Australia and Korea joined Canadian and American scouts to book Alberta artists for future tours. The presenters at the Scene were uniformly enthusiastic about the quality of the talent they saw at the festival. Without a doubt, many Alberta artists will be appearing in a wide variety performing venues, as well as securing distribution, recording, management and booking deals in Canada and abroad as a direct result of the presenters programme.
“I’ve been a flag-waver for Alberta culture for a long time,” said Alberta Scene blues music programmer Holger Peterson. “The response of the international presenters to Alberta artistswas very re-affirming and gave most of the programmers a renewed and enhancedsense of pride in the talent of this province.”
The Alberta Scene, presented by EPCOR is the second in a series of biennial regional festivals produced by the National Arts Centre which showcases the best in Canadian arts and culture from coast to coast to coast. The 600 established and emerging artists from Alberta took part in 95 events ranging from theatre, visual arts, film, dance, and literary arts, to country, jazz, blues, rock, hip hop and classical music – and even culinary arts – at more than 20 venues across the national capital region. In 2003, the NAC produced the Atlantic Scene to great acclaim, hosting more than 500 artists from Atlantic Canada during the inaugural Scene.
Alberta Scene was presented by EPCOR and supported by Major Sponsors TSX Venture Exchange, The Banff Centre, and National Arts Centre Friends - Alberta. Performance Sponsors were Enbridge, CIBC, Suncor Energy Inc. and Capital Health. Media sponsors included CBC Radio-Canada, the National Post, the Ottawa Citizen, LeDroit, the Edmonton Journal, the Calgary Herald, and Y1O1 FM. Supporting Sponsors include Edmonton Festival City, Galaxie, CD Warehouse, mymusic.ca, Holiday Inn, Ontario Tourism Marketing Partnership Corporation, Big Rock Brewery and Farm Boy.
Alberta Scene is grateful for support from the Government of Canada, the Government of Alberta, the Canada Council for the Arts, Western Economic Diversification Canada, and Foreign Affairs Canada.
VENUE AND PROGAMMING PARTNERS
Venues and Programming partners included: Alberta Association of Artist Run Centres, Alberta College of Art and Design, Alberta Craft Council, Alberta Foundation for the Arts, Canadian Film Institute, Cisco Systems Ottawa Bluesfest, CKUA Radio, Edmonton Art Gallery, Edmonton Arts Council, National Film Board of Canada, Ottawa Art Gallery, Ottawa Folk Festival, Ottawa International Jazz Festival, Punkottawa.com, Regroupement artistique d’Alberta, Centrepointe Theatre, Library and Archives Canada, National Gallery of Canada, Canadian Museum of Civilization, Canadian Museum of Contemporary Photography, La Nouvelle Scene, Great Canadian Theatre Company, Le Théâtre du Casino du Lac-Leamy, University of Ottawa, Capital Music Hall, Barrymore’s Music Hall, The Rainbow, The Roxy, The Black Sheep Inn, Yuk Yuk’s, St.Andrew’s Church, AXENÉ07, SAW Gallery, SAW Video, Gallery 101, and more.
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For additional information, please contact:
Mary Gordon
Communications advisor
National Arts Centre
613-947-7000 x.524