This just in - you may want to tune your radio dial to 102.1FM in Calgary before you read.

The Calgary Girls Choir has just won the CBC Radio Choral Competition in the Youth Choirs Category! The choir performed this afternoon as part of a "live-to-air" broadcast today, April 30. If you were unable to attend in person, tune in to CBC Radio Two tonight at 7 p.m. MST or listen via the internet (see below).

A huge congratulations from all of us at Calgary Arts Development to the Calgary Girls Choir, artistic director Elaine Quilichini and all the hard-working parents and volunteers behind the scenes!

Internet Listening Instructions

1. Go to http://www.cbc.ca/radio2/  read more »

Writing on location from Curico, Chile. It´s a small city two hours south of the capital, Santiago. Curico is not unlike the Okanagan, surrounded by vineyards and orchards. (The wine is cheap and delicious… and so is the fruit.) It´s spring here: the sun is shining and I´ve slathered sunscreen all over my fair skin. I´m staying with a visual artist whom I met several years ago when studying art in Spain. She has regular exhibitions and teaches art and yoga by day (not at the same time). I´m here on vacation but our work at Calgary Arts Development never escapes me. There´s nothing like a trip to South America to offer some perspective on development in general…  read more »

Scanning bloglines today, I noticed an item on the 37Signals blog Signal vs. Noise... it appears that Calgary's own VEER was purchased by Corbis. Congrats are due to the folks at VEER for another major Calgary creative industry success story. Some of the heaviest hitters in the world in the creative industries--Corbis and Getty Images--now both have major operations in Calgary.  read more »

Congratulations to Calgary's Joe Slabe, who is basking in the glow of a successful run of his show Austentatious, recently part of the New York Musical Theatre Festival. Heck, even the New York Times agrees!

Calgary's strength as a centre for new performance creation is not going unnoticed. One Yellow Rabbit has just wrapped up the High Performance Rodeo, ATP's playRights Festival is on the way, the premiere of Calgary Opera's Frobisher just closed and the Old Trouts Puppet Workshop has recently returned from their trek to New York's Under the Radar Festival. And now Alberta Ballet is getting international press coverage for their new work, Dancing Joni.  read more »

Take a look at this piece by Sean Carrie in today's National Post. Sean looks at the story of the creation of Calgary Opera and the Banff Centre's Frobisher, making its world premiere on January 27th. Here are a couple of great quotes that speak to what we're starting to think is Calgary's authentic story:  read more »

Seth Godin , one of the office's favorite thinkers, has a great new post on his blog, called "Hard Work." It's basically a list of 'easy things' and 'hard things.' (In his words, One... or the other...). Here are some of my favorites:

• One... Being board certified... or the other ... Looking patients in the eye
• One... Making a lot of money... or the other ... Donating a lot of money (quietly)
• One... Having a great idea... or the other ... Sticking your neck out

One of the many things I love about my job is that I'm around people who are CONSTANTLY sticking their neck out. Every time I look around Calgary's arts scene, thats what I see... you? Who've you seen take a great idea and make it reality by sticking their neck out?

Andrew Taylor (The Artful Manager) has written an insightful article in response to Jim Collin's monograph Good to Great and the Social Sectors.  He gives a six point alternative to 'running like a business' that raises the bar for arts organizations:

"1. Arts organizations must strive to be better than a business.
Being responsible, accountable, transparent and responsive is the lowest standard we should set for ourselves. Let's be exceptional."

read the rest here: 

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