Canadian culture – Jasper Community Habitat for the Arts

Mayan year for change, scarecrows and looking for you!

Hard to believe that another year has passed and we are looking at the 4th annual Alberta Culture Days month of festivities in partnership with the ARTS WITH ALTITUDE Festival and Arts Jasper and Jasper Artists Guild and the Jasper Theatre Company and the Library…!!

The theme this year is CHANGE…its 2012 and the Mayan calendar is not the only ‘icon’ of change in Jasper! The new cultural spaces the Municipality are building will mean a lot of change for the arts organizations and relationships for the future of Jasper arts and culture!

SO- lots to say and do…lets get to it! (VOLUNTEERS…we need some photographers to make sure we capture all these events for history!)

SEPT 21 RAVEN ABOUT THE ARTS AWARDS, 7pm at the Jasper Artists Guild. $5 (VOLUNTEER opportunities: door, hospitality, setup and takedown)

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SEPT 21 PRAIRIE TALES 14, 7pm in the Mandala Room at the Jasper Artists Guild. $5, entrance to the Awards Night is entrance to the films. The annual touring anthology of short films and videos made by Albertan media artists. Every year, Alberta’s filmmakers bring out a new batch of works from the shining lights of our province’s media arts scene and assemble them into a feature-length package for distribution across Alberta and beyond. (VOLUNTEER opportunities: door, setup and takedown)

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SEPT 17-28 SCARECROW CONTEST, build a scarecrow in your neighbourhood, register it at jasperscarecrowfestival@gmailcom to win great prizes!
SEPT 25 and 27 PUPPET MAKING WORKSHOPS, $10 per night. 6:30-9:30pm both nights

SEPT 28 SCRIPT WRITING for puppetry, $10. 6:30-9:30pm

Take all three workshops for $20.

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SEPT 28 The Best of the Vancouver International Mountain Film Festival (VIMFF) will host a Three Part Series this Fall!

Part One : Bike Climb Paddle Run Fly : September 28
Part Two : Pipelines and Playgrounds : October 26
Part Three : Stoked on Snow : November 23

Tickets:
$14 in Advance at the Jasper Legion (after September 10)
$16 at the Door

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SEPT 29 A WALKABOUT with heritage character MONA MATHESON…learn a bit about Jasper heritage and then drop by the Library for storytelling and a writers afternoon!!

Then stop into the Jasper Library for an afternoon of storytelling with writer John Strugnell at 3pm.

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SEPT 29 and 30, watch Jasper’s streets as Artists appear – to register to play outside…contact Peggy at events@iotad.ca or call 852.4747. (VOLUNTEERS needed to make performance badges)

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SEPT 30 BOWLS WITH SOUL, the annual night for sharing a bowl of soup with your community, and you get to keep the HANDMADE IN JASPER bowl! Only 70 bowls this year…$20. Community event, no charge if you don’t want a bowl. This year we will be voting on Jasper’s soup makers…and someone will get to take home the GOLDEN LADLE!! (VOLUNTEER opportunities: take tickets at the door, hand out ballots for the GOLDEN LADLE, dish duty!)

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SEPT 30 VARIETY STAGE SHOW, an annual stage production for Culture Days…to get on stage email hillbear@shaw.ca. Dance, sing, share your poetry or play your fiddle! Great honorariums. Free, all ages welcome.

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Jasper is home this year to HOME ROUTES house concerts…check them out on facebook! Or contact Nancy Addison to see what great musicians are coming to Jasper this winter! First concert is Sept 30 with guest artists THE SATURDAY SAINTS!
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OCTOBER 1 Jasper Legion is the place to be with great music by MATT ANDERSON!!

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OCT 6 and 7 ARTISTS IN THE PINES, share the weekend with an amazing instructor, Tessa Nunn. Tessa Nunn graduated from with a Masters in Fine Art from the New York Academy of Art in 2002. Since her return to Canada, she has been teaching figurative painting, drawing and sculpture, as well as courses on painting techniques. Tessa began to teach painting and drawing workshops because she felt a need for a new approach to teaching art, one that embraces the many levels of our being. The curriculum she has developed is based on her artistic processes which are influenced by spiritual principles, as well as traditional painting techniques. Through meditation, gentle Yogic movement, and lessons on art techniques, participants explore different ways to look at the human form, and then ultimately at the world around them. $225 please register at 780.852.0359 or arts@iotad.ca

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OCT 11 and 12 DINNER THEATRE for Arts Jasper, Jasper Theatre Company and the Arts with Altitude Festival Finale! Beyond Therapy, adult content, tickets are $50 and for sale at the Library and Tekarra Photo. BEYOND THERAPY…Trying to find that special someone can be quite a trial in our hectic, fast-paced society. In Christopher Durang’s play Beyond Therapy the already difficult situation of trying to build a new relationship is given an extra twist through the creation of a unique love triangle. The story centers around Bruce , a neurotic bisexual thirtysomething; Prudence , the equally neurotic thirtysomething who answers his personal ad, and Bob, Bruce’s high-strung, jealous lover. Add to the mix Bruce’s and Prudence’s therapists, and the stage has been set for confusion, conflict, and lots of comedy. (VOLUNTEER opportunities…please call!)

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OCT 13 Join us at the Jasper Park Stables on Pyramid Lake Road for some ‘Flashlight painting’ for the Dark Sky Festivities. Details on the Tourism Jasper Dark Sky Festival website.

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OCT 13 and 14 DARK SKY PHOTOGRAPHY workshops at Pine Bungalows with YUICHI TAKASAKA! $55, 2-4pm. Register at arts@iotad.ca

OCT 13 noon to 4pm take in the Animation workshop ‘Drawing Dragons’ with Deanna Dence. Ages 12 – 100, $50 materials supplied.

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AND because sometimes we all need a little help planning our days when there is so much going on…we have CULTURE CACHING PASSPORTS coming out soon. Follow the arts and culture map of your community and get the passport stamped at participating merchants or locations! Then hand in your passport at the Activity Centre for a chance to win a Culture Caching prize!

Ask us questions…we have more details…or stop by ROOM 12 in Building 32 Tuesdays through Saturdays in September from 1-3pm (thankyou Chris and Sharon Diamond) for a chat about how you can be part of ARTS WITH ALTITUDE…

Thanks go out to Delphinus 18 Productions for all the help with technical and digital services. Thanks go out to Julie McMath, Jason Munn, Zaybee McGregor, Kim Wallace, Marie Helene, Randy Daniels, Peggy Munn, David Baker, Marianne Garrah, Jasper Artists Guild, Phat Cat Event Planners, Arts Jasper, Jasper Theatre Company and many more to come we are sure!!

Thankyou to Yellowhead Regional Creative Campus for administration assistance with these many events.

AND watch the JASPER COMMUNITY HABITAT FOR THE ARTS on facebook for details and more…

What is Heritage? It arrived via RIVERS RAILS AND ROADS!!

Good question.

In Alberta it is a day – August 1. A day to celebrate who we are, what makes us Canadians or Albertans…or a day to recognize the multitudes of ethnicity that now constitute our community.

Did you know that Canada was the first country – 1971 – to adopt a policy on multiculturalism?

Living in Jasper, and welcoming the world on a daily basis as we are a true Canadian destination of choice, means we see the ‘Global Village’ in a much different way than perhaps someone who doesn’t experience such diverse visitor traffic. It’s fascinating to walk the streets or go to the grocery store and hear the languages of the world trying to translate our English world.

What is Heritage? Well, if you were in Edmonton you could go to Hawrelak Park and taste foods from around the world for Heritage Day – or watch ethnic dance! (Next summer we shall try this here!) 😉

It seems that a word like Heritage is not something you can define with just more words…its a feeling…a sound…something intangible.
So – on August 1 in Jasper you can drop by the Parks Info Centre and meet ‘heritage’ characters like Charlotte Small and David Thompson. Catch the Metis Dancers, try some Maple Syrup cotton candy, check out the art of Creeatives, take a ride on the various modes of transportation…because…like our visitors who arrived this summer – we all came here at some point via RIVERS RAILS OR ROADS!

1pm August 1

Free Community Event…

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AND

DONT MISS THE 3rd ANNUAL ARTS WITH ALTITUDE FESTIVAL

SEPT 23-OCT 2

Check out the page on the right of this site…called ARTS WITH ALTITUDE!

A river of fire…at the Urban Forest Pottery Studio

‘Wood firing is an ancient technique used in many global cultures. To be a wood-firer one must be passionate about it, as there is no other way to create its result in finishing one’s work.” C.Barr and E.Kufeld

It never fails to amaze me how after driving the same highway for over 20 years we can still find new creative things to see on the way home. Often the four hour drive ends up in sleepy silence but this week we got away from the city in daylight and found the time to stop at the Urban Forest Pottery Studio. The smell of fresh rain on autumn leaves and wood smoke were welcome distractions on this much needed break after hours of being in the car. Potters Enzien Kufeld and Christian Barr were home and we got the tour!

They are the perfect example of why our advocacy work for the past 20+ years still keeps us passionate about the artistic process. We have seen their art in several galleries around the province but this brief tourist trek around their world surpassed any gallery visit or exhibition. To stand in their – yes IN – their kiln and imagine four days of stoking the fire to produce 40 foot flames to push through the claywork…mind boggling. Christian compares the firing of the kiln and the flames to water flowing over rocks in a riverbed. The smaller kiln (also woodfired) has a smaller firebox so while it doesn’t require monitoring by several people to keep it stoked – but it does require stoking every few minutes. For days.

‘Wood firing is an ancient technique used in many global cultures and was the first process to reach the high temperatures necessary (1200 to 1300 degrees Celsius is common) to vitrify stoneware and porcelain clays. It is the most labour and time intensive, and most expensive way to fire. With near limitless variables, it presents the most mentally, physically and emotionally challenging firing process. To be a wood-firer one must be passionate about it, as there is no other way to create its result in finishing one’s work.” C.Barr and E.Kufeld

While telling others about the things we find when we travel the province(s) is a lot of fun – we hope you get out and seek these adventures on your own. Let the Arts speak for themselves!