The Whose Show is it Anyway? conference presented by TRU’s SSHRC-funded Community-University Research Alliance project on the cultural future of small cities, will be held this week at TRU from Thursday to Saturday. The conference features a cast of performers, artists, scholars, curators and producers with a wealth of experience and talent.
Kamloops audiences will be treated to the likes of Nancy Duxbury, whose credits include Executive Director of the Centre of Expertise on Culture and Communities, Director of Research of the Creative City Network of Canada and Cultural Planning Analyst at the City of Vancouver’s Office of Cultural Affairs, and Martin Segger, Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, and Fellow of the Canadian Museums Association who has been active on the boards of UNESCO organizations related to monuments and museums and is currently President of the Commonwealth Association of Museums.
Other presenters of note include world-class keynote speakers as well as scholar-artists like Gary Pearson, whose exhibition history includes solo and group exhibitions in Canada, the US, Australia, and Europe, Will Weigler, a community-based theatre director, teacher, and playwright for over twenty-five years whose book, Strategies for Playbuilding: Helping Groups Translate Issues into Theatre, earned the Distinguished Book Award for outstanding contribution to the field from the American Alliance for Theatre and Education, and Robin Whittaker, who has written extensively on theatre in Canada and has taught and directed at universities across the country.
“We’re fortunate to have been able to attract conference presenters from as far away as Glasgow,” said Dr. Will Garrett-Petts, director of the TRU CURA, referring to panellist Anthony Schrag, who has exhibited/performed in Vancouver, Budapest, New York, Mexico City, Beijing, Norway, Denmark, Germany, and Iceland as well as across the UK and Ireland, and is now developing a programme of social outreach projects for the Gallery of Modern Art in Glasgow.
The conference is open to the public. Registration, which includes receptions, lunches, and Friday night’s dinner at the Old Courthouse catered by Brownstone Restaurant, is $120 for adults and $75 for students, with an additional $25 registration fee for either of the Saturday workshops. To register, or for more information, go to: http://www.tru.ca/cura2009.html or call 250-371-5757.
Schedule of Conference Highlights:
The Whose Show is it Anyway conference, which begins Thursday in TRU’s Panorama Room at 2 pm, features a series of panel discussions exploring performance and community throughout the afternoonThat evening starting at 7:30 pm, a keynote panel on “Directing, Producing, Creating Arts in the Small City: Engaging the Community” winds up the day’s activities.
Friday’s events, to be held in TRU’s Grand Hall, open with the 9 am keynote address by theatre professor Ted Little, a specialist in intercultural, community-engaged and popular theatre forms. Panel discussions on culture and community run from 10:15 to 4:30 that day, and at 4:45 Bruce Barber, an internationally known artist, writer, curator and professor in media art, historical and critical studies delivers a keynote address focused on Atlantic Canada’s Newcomer Artist Project, aimed at social integration and cultural legitimation.
Friday winds up with a performance and presentation in the Old Kamloops Courthouse at 8:30 pm. Cathy Stubington of Enderby’s Runaway Moon Theatre Arts Society will lead the audience through an interactive session on “Every Which Way: A retrospective of ten years of community-based arts in Enderby and District, in the Shuswap Territory.”
Saturday begins with a 9:30 am keynote panel and discussion on community-university alliances, and then moves into a roundtable discussion on “community-engaged public art in smaller communities, ” featuring Adelheid Mers of the Art Institute of Chicago, Ruth Howard of Jumblies Theatre, Lisa Baldiserra of the Greater Victoria Art Gallery, Bruce Barber, and Annette Hurtig of KAG.
In the afternoon, conference-goers may choose between a hosted lunch and artwalk at Arnica Artist-Run Centre or their choice of two afternoon workshops: “Conversation Mapping and Collaborative Live Diagramming as Tools for Community Communication” with Adelheid Mers, or “Storytelling our Lives: Including Immigrant Communities in the Performing Arts” with Lina de Guevara, artistic director of Victoria’s PUENTE Theatre.
Contact: Will Garrett-Petts, (p)250-371-5757
