Slate has a very interesting pictorial essay of creative uses of surplus big box stores (from Julia Christensen's book Big Box Reuse) . We often think of "adaptive reuse" as a means of employing heritage buildings.  I suspect the "heritage" of the 80's, 90's and early 2000's is going to include a huge inventory of big boxes.  Imagine what we could do with them...

What is Calgary Arts Development doing now? You can find out now on Twitter. The team here has started dishing out tasty tidbits of information via this micro-blogging platform.  If you are not familiar with the service, here's an introduction:

Twitter in Plain English Video

Our Twitter is grabbing all of the content appearing on CalgaryArtsDevelopment.com so you can follow us there to stay informed.  New classified advertisements posted on our website will go out through Twitter as well so you too can tweet to the Calgary Arts Development followers.

@CalgaryArtsDev

Provisions

What should we have taken
with us? We never could decide
on that; or what to wear
or at what time of
year we should make the journey

So here we are in thin
raincoats and rubber boots

On the disastrous ice, the wind rising

Nothing in our pockets

But a pencil stub, two oranges
Four Toronto streetcar tickets

and an elastic band holding a bundle
of small white filing cards
printed with important facts.

- Margaret Atwood

News from the University of Maryland Medical Centre:

JOYFUL MUSIC MAY PROMOTE HEART HEALTH, ACCORDING TO UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND SCHOOL OF MEDICINE STUDY

Research team concludes the cardiovascular benefits of music are similar to those found in their previous study of laughter

So... while you're out there hugging your Alderman, maybe hand them some tickets to the Beethoven Festival!  Something tells me they're going to need some help with their blood pressure next week.

The past two months at Calgary Arts Development have been among the most intense we’ve experienced in the 3+ years of our existence. So much to do, so little time, such big stakes. If you’ve been wondering where we are, or why we haven’t had much to say on our blogs, it’s because we’re moving so fast on so many things, that we really haven’t had the time. I’m happy to say that we’re nearly through this difficult period, and I have some news to report.  read more »

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Congratulations on the recently announced recipients of the Lieutenant Governor of Alberta Emerging Artist Awards! Calgary artists are Robin Arseneault (installation artist), Christine Cheung (painter), Anne Koizumi (film director and animator), Simon Mallett (theatre director) and Chad Van Gaalen (musician and multi-media artist). The Lieutnenant Governor and all Albertans should be thrilled with this investment.  

Prior to all of the artist studio visits and CIFF fun we also stopped by Dennis Oppenheim's upside down church also known as "Device to Root Out Evil" in Ramsay. This spectacular piece is on loan to the Glenbow from Vancouver's Benefic Foundation.

We followed the Oppenheim viewing with a great lunch just down the street at Cafe Rosso. The weather was fantastic - all in all a great authentic Calgary experience!

After hopping art galleries for Art Walk and the East Side Studio Crawl (an extension of Art Walk in Inglewood/Ramsay) on Saturday, I was back at the Calgary International Film Festival on Sunday. The Joe Media / NFB Best of Alberta Shorts Awards package screened at the Uptown Stage and Screen at 6:30pm. I got the very last ticket to the sold out show. (Don't tell the guy who was behind me.) Ten short films from across Alberta were screened (...ahem, mostly Calgary). The quality of the work over all was very strong and only the tip of the iceberg in the independant film scene in Alberta.The atmosphere in the theatre was of a congenial nature both on and off the screen. On screen, were numerous actors I have seen in the last year in both the community and professional theatre world of Calgary, such as personal favourite, Grant Reddick, in the film, Promise (2008), by David and Kirsten Bolton.   read more »

We had the privilege of spending time with Shelton Stanfill this morning discussing cultural tourism, thanks to the EPCOR CENTRE for the Performing Arts. Shelton, a well-known arts leader from the U.S., had some great insights on how Calgary can start moving forward in this area based on his experiences building and shaping Atlanta's cultural tourism strategy. We were joined by Johann Zeitsmann who currently runs the Mesa Arts Center in Arizona and was able to offer some very interesting perspective based on his current work as well as his past experience developing the arts in South Africa.  read more »