around the World
Ford Foundation Supports Art Space Development in the U.S.A.
- Posted by Terry Rock on April 10th, 2010
This article from the NY Times was passed on to me by two CADA board members this past week.
It seems Calgary isn't the only city in North America experiencing challenges related to art spaces... but we're clearly on to something with our long-term strategic approach to ensuring art spaces not only respond to need, but also stimulate redevelopment and community vitality.
Positive Space as Clean Space
- Posted by Holly Simon on February 13th, 2009
I thought this short video of an artist who makes graffiti using water on dirty surfaces was pretty cool. The English artist, Paul "Moose" Curtis, has an elaborate website all about his work worth taking a look at. It looks like the work is of very high artistic merit. People say Calgary is a clean city (and I won't argue with that) but is it too clean to try this here?
The Simplest of Gifts
- Posted by Karen Ball on January 20th, 2009
For anyone that is moved by art, history and a belief in change. The incredible contribution of some of the world's best artists were front and centre at today's inauguration of Barack Obama, showing the power of art in our lives and the role that it plays in our combined histories. Here is the performance of Air and Simple Gifts by John Williams, performed by Yo-Yo Ma, Itzhak Perlman, Anthony McGill and Gabriela Montero.
Big Box Reuse
- Posted by Terry Rock on November 23rd, 2008
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...
SIng out at the sing off
- Posted by Karen Ball on June 23rd, 2008
Thanks to Art Journal, I just read an article in Sunday's London Times about the resurgence of popularity of choirs in the UK. Calgary is a hot bed of choirs, Calgary Arts Development funds 16 choirs which involve over 500 Calgarians. Many of these choirs tour throughout the country and are winning national recognition. Maybe CTV will start a Canadian version of Last Choir Standing.
Deploying artists
- Posted by Erica Mattson on April 29th, 2008
Edmonton Journal arts reporter / Alberta novelist Todd Babiak published an article today titled "Don't spin oilsands, deploy artists." In this piece he comments on a $25 million provincial advertising campaign aimed at improving perceptions about oil sands development among U.S. policymakers and poses an alternative: investing in a cultural diplomacy program instead as a way to bolster the province's reputation. Here's a brief excerpt and a link to the full article: Read more »
Changing Times
- Posted by Catherine Knops on November 15th, 2007
Looking back at the blogs for the past week or so, there seems to be a thread running through all of them and that is creativity.
Creativity and creating creative cities are very much buzz ideas developing in the early years of the 21st century. With organisations such as Toronto's Artscape addressing how to create the conditions for creativity to thrive within a city and companies such as Pixar and Google addressing creating conditions for creativity within their workforce, there is no escaping the fact that this is an important movement.
Being an historian by trade, this got me thinking about the importance of creative thinking in the past and the revolutions this has created, why they occurred and how that compares to our situation here. Unsurprisingly, there are common themes running through all of them. Read more »
Culture House in Buenos Aires
- Posted by Holly Simon on November 13th, 2007
Another
quick note from South America: I found a culture house in Buenos
Aires, care of Lonely Planet and confirmed by a hip, young porteña (local woman) walking her dog. It´s called El
Catedral. If you were every lucky enough to go to The Night Gallery in Calgary,
then you´d love this place. It’s located in a warehouse just outside of the
centre of Buenos Aires. It’s cavernous filled with art and eclectic furniture
with gigantic chandeliers with red lights, vegetarian food, and a big dance
floor. We drank the local beer, Quilmes, and watched stylish, young
couples do a sensuous tango lesson. It was mesmerizing… Check out the photos on this
website. I hope the link works!
Chillin´ in Chile
- Posted by Holly Simon on November 13th, 2007
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 »
News from the creative industries
- Posted by Terry Rock on November 6th, 2007
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 »
