vision

Chillin´ in Chile

Holly Simon — Tue, 13 Nov 2007 14:42:48 -0500

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 »

Re-Inventing TV

Holly Simon — Wed, 31 Oct 2007 02:10:13 -0400

Over and above back-to-back arts events for 11 weeks straight... I find myself in a particularly exciting week book ended by me in a bumble bee suit at the Grave Gala and a flight to Buenos Aires. In between, I had a flash adventure in Regina, Saskatchewan, for the 22nd Gemini Awards. (I hardly even watch television. When I do watch, I watch The Hour or Corner Gas.) I had a line on good seats through a friend and I couldn't say no...

I've seen the Gemini Awards now and again but this was obviously different. If you know George Stroumboulopoulos and The Hour, you'll not be surprised that he and some of his team re-invented the Gemini awards this year.* As soon as the show went live on the air at 5 o'clock, the energy in the room spiked. George was his usual attentive, humorous and provocative self. Somehow, a show about television, became about relevancy and response to the Canadian condition. The humour became a little more real. (I hope you saw the "Saskatchewan IS flat" skit - not the correct title - written by Paul Bates, I think.) This was the first Gemini Awards that was open to the public (which hopefully foreshadows the open and transparent future of Canada). The day ended with a party in the (haunted) Hotel Saskatchewan lobby with a crowd of young and smart Canadian television makers. Besides feeling a little star-struck, I'm reminded of the constructive threat our generation provides to the status quo.

I'm excited for the Juno Awards in Calgary, April 2008!! Let's break the Calgary music scene wide open to the world. Music lives here!

P.S. Many thanks to George and his friends for the hospitality.

*My knowledge of the whole Gemini's production is limited.

Engaging Art

Erica Mattson — Tue, 19 Jun 2007 18:00:14 -0400

I've been reading the ArtsJournal series "Engaging Art" since last week. What a great conversation about how things happen between art and audiences. A few brief excerpts below, plus great reading on the blog, mp3s, and a future book, so dig in!

----- read more »

Art Imitates Life

Mike Scullen — Thu, 14 Jun 2007 15:35:07 -0400

"Google search frequency for "art" and "life" from 2004 to 2006 are plotted against each other on a search-volume graph where the number searches for each term is shown in relation to the number of searches done on Google during a given time period. The two graphs synchronize a surprising amount and are generally very close in volume, At least on the web, Art and Life imitate each other." By Caleb Larsen.

Which makes more sense to you: art imitating life or life imitating art? I'm going to go with a both/and answer.

via VVORK read more »

Somehow... Branding Calgary's Arts Scene

Erica Mattson — Thu, 31 May 2007 20:09:57 -0400

Lots of feedback has come in on the Request for Proposals we put out for a partner to help us with a strategy for "Branding Calgary's Arts Scene." Agencies and firms have been contacting us with questions and ideas, marketers have expressed interest and there's been an interesting mix of enthusiasm, skepticism and even criticism within the arts community. read more »

New Blog: Urban Scrawl

Erica Mattson — Wed, 25 Apr 2007 13:11:03 -0400

Calgary Herald editorial writer Paula Arab has just launched a new blog called Urban Scrawl. Read her first post below and watch for more Urban Scrawl posts from Paula to come in the Creative Calgarians Journals. read more »

Sculpture Park a Combo of Art, Environmental Conservation, and Urban Planning

Holly Simon — Tue, 23 Jan 2007 12:59:58 -0500

Check out this new major sculpture park project in downtown Seattle. The Seattle Art Museum purchased a 9-acre waterfront brownfield site 8 years ago when it was in the final stages of environmental cleanup and the neighborhood still pretty rough. The park has a unique architectural design (Weiss/Manfredi Architects) that surrounds and overpasses a major roadway and railroad track, exhibits almost 30 critically acclaimed sculptors (I'm a Richard Serra fan), and offers free entrance for all. read more »

Peter Sellars

Mike Scullen — Wed, 10 Jan 2007 12:24:39 -0500

The staff here had a listen to Peter Sellars' (no, not Peter Sellers) keynote for the American Symphony Orchestra League.

Certainly worth a listen; Sellars arugues that an important cultural link has been broken between the community and the typical American orchestra.

Listen to the audio here

Symphony Magazine scan here read more »

via

TCFKAC: The City Formerly Known as Cowtown

Erica Mattson — Wed, 25 Oct 2006 15:38:22 -0400

For those still wondering just what Calgary Arts Development is all about, check out this interview with Creative Generalist where our illustrious and insightful President & CEO, Terry Rock, elaborates on the goals and aspirations of the organization.

Terry uses an acronym sums it up well: “TCFKAC: The City Formerly Known as Cowtown.”

Which makes the marketer in me wonder, should we start taking orders for t-shirts?

The Calgary Long Tail

Mike Scullen — Tue, 25 Jul 2006 12:05:56 -0400

Michael Geist, Internet and intellectual property law expert, writes in the Toronto Star on how Canada's culture industries benefit from the Long Tail effect:

From a Canadian perspective, the importance of the Long Tail should resonate strongly with businesses and policy makers since we don't have to look very far for Long Tail markets - with few exceptions Canadian culture is in the Long Tail.

Where does this place civic culture? With markets opening up to niches how can Calgary leverage the Long Tail?

Geist goes on to explain how the Internet plays a major role in distributing the specialized content found in the Long Tail. This makes a lot of sense when looking at creative output of a city. If Calgary is a city for the world, there needs to be a repository of our civic culture that the world can easily access. Not only this, but Internet publishing makes Calgary culture available for Calgarians. I know that I personally would love to have more local content coming in on my RSS feeds.

link