All tagged Emerging Artist mentorship

Getting Started on the PeoplePuzzle with Wakefield Brewster

Getting Started on the PeoplePuzzle with Wakefield Brewster

Courtney Groot
Arts Commons Presents, TD Incubator

Poet Laureate Wakefield Brewster is not a fresh face in the artistic community. Since moving to Calgary 18 years ago, he has been racking up awards and recognition for his outstanding spoken word and poetry pieces and has had no desire to move to the traditional artistic epicentres of Canada, like Toronto or Montreal: “I couldn’t have done this anywhere else,” he says, “there is something very special about Calgary.” And now, as Arts Commons’ newest Incubator Fellow, Wakefield aims to encourage Calgary’s budding artists to grow where they are planted.

New Architects in a Liminal Time

New Architects in a Liminal Time

Jae Sterling and Contra
Artist Perspectives, Behind the Scenes, Inspiring Stories

With the end of closed galleries and dark stages in sight, Arts Commons is moving full speed ahead into the future of Calgary’s artistic life with Arts Commons Incubator, a first-of-its-kind professional artist development program at the city’s largest performing arts centre. Designed deliberately to support Calgary-based artists who reflect the diversity and vibrancy of Treaty 7 territory, Arts Commons Incubator is now accepting applications until August 31, 2021 from multidisciplinary artists whose work defies categorization and is in active conversation with the world around them.

Stress is a monster that eats Darryl Sinclair alive

Stress is a monster that eats Darryl Sinclair alive

Celina Vides
Artist Perspectives, Arts Commons Presents, Visual and Media Arts, Inspiring Stories

When you “step” into the virtual Lightbox Studio at Arts Commons, you will notice a large shape greeting you at the door and oversized fabric limbs hanging from the walls of the studio. Soon Darryl Sinclair, multidisciplinary artist, designer, and current resident artist at the Lightbox Studio, will turn that giant shape into a stuffed monster – one that doesn’t feed on typical monster fare, but the messages of stress and anxiety from visitors like you. It’s all part of Darryl’s project Stress is a Monster that Eats me Alive.

Hali Heavy Shield mentors RBC Emerging Visual Artists through Indigenous Storytelling and History

Hali Heavy Shield mentors RBC Emerging Visual Artists through Indigenous Storytelling and History

Alex Bonyun
Artist Perspectives, Visual and Media Arts, Learning Through the Arts

“Petroglyphs, rock carvings, pictographs, rock paintings…they represent visions of the spirit beings. Spirit beings make their home amongst the hoodoos, and rock art connects the physical and the spiritual world.”

Hali Heavy Shield paints a picture with her words, revealing a multifaceted perspective of Writing on Stone Provincial Park that goes deep into her roots as an Indigenous artist. Hali Heavy Shield or Nato’yi’kina’soyi in Blackfoot, which means Holy Light that Shines Bright, is a local multidisciplinary artist as well as PhD student at the University of Lethbridge researching Blackfoot art and storytelling. Her talk was part of a professional development session for Arts Commons Emerging Visual Artists earlier last month.