Apparently a post we wrote a year ago ‘Who are the artists in the neighborhood’ never got published! (So – it is attached below cuz it was important to us to re-animate!)
And here we are today – nearing the end of 2023.
So much happens in this amazing space that writing it all down to share doesnt happen fast enough! We will try to change that for 2024. A date that seems – to us – to be something out of a sci-fi movie.
Key to our success is always our volunteers. 2023 (cultural life renewed after the years we wont mention) saw some new energies up here.
Someone built on our once a year artisan fair to create four in 2023!
Valentines Day – Canada Day – Fall Fair and the 48th Christmas Fair.
Another amazing volunteer took the time this summer to create MUSIC IN THE PARK on Sundays – free music on Sunday evenings at the outdoor stage! Big thanks to the Marie and the Municipality for making that happen!
Out of town schools looking to engage in community and share their art stopped by twice this summer! These amazing youth from the Kamloops School for the Arts – all dressed in black – entertained us on the hottest day of the summer!!
And
2023 came with some new administrative tasks. The Municipality of Jasper asked us to do quite involved quarterly reports on what we do…which at first felt like a lot to ask of a volunteer admin and THEN we discovered some amazing things.
Like…
…from January to October we had open doors for over 1700 hours with over 3000 visitors and participants walking through those open doors into this amazing safe space where all things art happen!
We hosted 34 special events ranging from workshops to music and theatre events to fairs and even a circus camp. Summer 2023 saw youth engage in 5 full weeks of camps.
One young artist took 4 of the 5 camps. She also attended the usual summer ‘school’ when we had no camp for her…when she got home one day from summer ‘school’ she was a bit down in the dumps.
Her mom asked her ” how was your day?”
Youth: “ok, not great”
Mom: “what would a great day be!?”
Youth: “a day of culture camp followed by a day of circus camp and pizza!”
We are pretty proud to see our camps rate as high as pizza!
Summer is definitely for youth at Habitat…with so many adults working two or three jobs!
It’s also the time when artists are traveling and stopping in. This summer we saw Lynne Hanson return, the Coldharts stopped by after Fringing, and we had our first Chicago bluesman stop by after Calgary BluesFest! Thanks Keith Scott for the workshop!
Ray Elliott returned for another great night of storytelling at the Culture Days Cowboy Night…Denise Lefevre has been captured by the lure of Jasper and regularly comes to do paint nights!
Much of what we do you can see and be part of on our facebook page – Jasper Community Habitat for the Arts!
WHATS NEW for 2024? Jasper Arts Connect…a conversation and calendar for community arts…because…
“A co-ordinated arts community not only provides inspiration ā it plays a vital role in ensuring that all of our events meet their potential.Ā We know the value of art and artists and how they enrich everything from school programs to festivals. We are all championing and investing in creativity to enrich our own programming.
As we all invest time, energies and monies to āchampionā the arts for our programsā¦there can be overlap, calendar conflicts and ultimately ā missed opportunities to maximize those valuable investments. With this new conversation and calendar we hope to enhance each otherās efforts and continue to amplify the arts!!” mgarrah
IF YOU WANT A REGULAR EMAIL SENT TO YOU OF THIS ARTS SPECIFIC CALENDAR…let us know!
(and now I know why the last post never got published…we are out of time! Class starts in 14 minutes!! THANKS for reading…thanks for being part of Jasper’s dedicated space for art!)
Below is the post that never was…read on!
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We began 2022 with the amazing news that IOTAD’s Habitat for the Arts would be receiving funding from Canadian Heritage to RE-Animate the Arts that had been dormant since we took down the 2020 banners.
The excitement of having actual money to spend on all the things we had been waiting and hoping to re-animate, revive…was unbelieveable. So unbelieveable that we waited until the actual cheque arrived in mid January to fire up the dream.
And it did. And it came with a deadline. 10 weeks.
Our excitement turned to anxiety as we knew creating events, finding artists – caterers – registrations…would take 8 of those 10 weeks. Back to the drawing board…revision the vision… ask for an extension. Extension granted…we have until Culture Days – fall 2022 to use the funding and get artists back to being artists.
YAY!
A daunting task (for us at least) is how best to get the word out that all the things an artist could want to do, were now, moderately possible with this new infusion of cash into Jasper’s arts and culture community.
We should have an event!! The return of the annual Variety Show and Dinner Theatre! It was planned – then postponed, then re-planned, then SOLD OUT!
Eventually, on March 14th, we were all able to meet over music and the need to be together with friends was more than evident in the faces of those who attended.
Jasper Community Habitat for the Arts 