We’re sad that our intern, Lauren Anderson, has now finished her two semesters of work with us. Lauren has been working on her BA in Psychology and is pursuing a career in HR after she completes her CPHR exam this May. Thanks so much for all the work you did with us, Lauren! We wish you much success in your future!
We are greatly saddened to hear of the closing of CreatedHere Magazine. CreatedHere was established in 2014 to discover and document the stories of New Brunswick artists and improve their ability to present themselves regionally, nationally, and internationally through thought-provoking critical writing.
CreatedHere supported NB’s arts sector by providing opportunities for arts writers and artists to reach a national audience and provided paying work for critical arts writers. Now with the closure of this publication, on top of the closure of Canadian Art Magazine earlier in the pandemic, New Brunswick’s artists and arts writers have very few avenues for promotion and public critique of their work.
ArtsLink strongly believes that critical arts writing is vital to the health of an arts community. To that end, we hosted two intensive workshops on critical arts writing in 2018 and 2019, and many of the participants in those workshops went on to write for CreatedHere. The loss of this publication leaves a void in New Brunswick’s arts landscape.
Without the representation of our artists in periodicals across Canada, our artists are at a serious disadvantage. Whether it is a lack of understanding of the unique qualities of Atlantic art-making or unfamiliarity from jurors, promoters, festivals, or managers outside of NB, this contributes to the export difficulties our arts sector faces. New Brunswick ranks 7th among the 10 provinces for its relative trade deficit, exporting only 29 cents for every dollar of cultural imports.
The critical discourse developed through the lens of arts writing helps cultivate art excellence. It helps our artists frame themselves in an international context, contributing their voices and perspectives to a global arts community. Our sector needs to participate in this larger conversation. Understanding how to talk to artists about their work, how to contextualize work (in contemporary arts discourse, via one’s local influences, the meanings embedded in form etc.), and understanding your audience or market are all integral to taking up the task of writing for the arts.
We are grateful for the contribution that CreatedHere made to the New Brunswick arts sector over the near decade of its existence, and it is our fervent hope that arts writers and artists will once again have many opportunities to publish like those that CreatedHere worked so hard to provide.
The Sheila Hugh Mackay Foundation, an active supporter of artistic education and growth, offers a yearly program of funding to assist and encourage excellence in the visual arts.
Christiana Myers has been selected by an independent jury to receive a $5,000 Sheila Mackay Advanced Studies Scholarship. Ms. Myers, a leader in the New Brunswick contemporary arts scene, is a respected curator, teacher, writer, and organizational director. She will build on her deep engagement in the visual arts through the pursuit of a PhD in Art History at the University of Glasgow.
ArtsLink NB is presenting Dreaming Inventive Futures, its first-ever intensive workshop on anti-oppression in the arts April 23 and 24. Many arts organizations are attempting to find ways to incorporate anti-racism and anti-oppressive policies but need some guidance on how to do so in a way that moves beyond tokenism. With this in mind, this is the first workshop ArtsLink NB has offered that is geared not only towards artists, but also toward professionals working for creative organizations.
Carmel Farahbakhsh of Halifax’s Khyber Centre for the Arts and the EVERYSEEKER music festival, will be facilitating.
This two-day virtual workshop continues the series presented to ArtsLink NB members on business development and career-management subjects. Past topics have included budgeting, documentation, and critical arts writing. The decision to hold this workshop virtually was made due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and to allow participants to attend from across the province.
Dreaming Inventive Futures: Anti-Oppression in the Creative Sector is a two-day workshop and discussion space that combines foundational anti-oppressive modalities, peer-based learning, personal reflection, and active discussion as teaching tools. During this digital space, participants will explore approaches to anti-racist curation, responsible and curious storytelling, organizationally care-based artistic practices rooted in disability justice frameworks, address ways to disrupt genre and aesthetic hierarchies within cultural industries, and discuss sustainable methods to intentional cross-practice collaboration.
These themes will be grounded in disrupting tokenism in the arts sector, moving beyond defensiveness and fear in creative work, imagination, and accessibility. The aim is that participants will feel supported and motivated to engage in systems change work within the arts as well as more confident in continuing anti-oppressive conversations in their work personally and professionally.
Carmel Farahbakhsh (they/them) is a community educator, arts maker, and youth worker. They have collaborated on the Khyber Centre for the Arts board for four years, and are enjoying their new position as co-director of local music festival EVERYSEEKER. They recently transitioned from a five-year term coordinating South House Sexual and Gender Resource Centre to working as the Executive Director at the Youth Project, seeing a direct link between this community work and access to creative spaces and the arts community.
As the Executive Director of the Youth Project, Carmel holds a youth-centric approach to organizational movement and support. Carmel builds their vision from their community education background and aims to apply an anti-racist and trauma-informed framework to their work. They also collaborate and organize with local initiatives, artist-run-centres, and community partners with an aim to create wider 2SQTBIPOC community and support systems within the HRM.
The sessions will take place April 23 and 24, 2022. The intensive workshop will be held virtually via Zoom and is free for members of ArtsLink NB. Sessions will run from 9am to 4pm each day. To register, cultural sector workers should send an email to Jericho Knopp, jeri@artslinknb.com, with their name, their field or organization, and a brief description of why they’re interested in taking the workshop.
The Jane LeBlanc Legacy Fund is thrilled to announce our four music celebrity jurors for the inaugural Arnold LeBlanc Songwriter Award. We have confirmed Lennie Gallant, Joel Plaskett, Jenn Grant, and Rose Cousins for the music jury, and we are excited!
Along with that exciting news, we would like to announce that Moncton’s BRAINWORKS has come on board as a new sponsor, and thanks to them, the Arnold LeBlanc Songwriter award value has increased from $1000 to $2000!
BRAINWORKS is an international award-winning bilingual full-service marketing and creative agency. They are a team of passionate professionals specializing in helping clients get from where they are to where they want to be. From startups and local campaigns to national activations and collaborations with major brands – They are here to help their clients push the limits of what’s possible.
The Arnold LeBlanc Songwriter Award seeks to spotlight talented New Brunswick songwriters at all levels in honour of Miramichi-born Arnold LeBlanc. Arnold was gifted with a golden singing voice. As a young child, he sang in the church choir and continued to sing well into his golden years. Arnold could whistle entire songs with perfect pitch and sang every day of his life.
Arnold LeBlanc Songwriter Award
Eligible Music Category: roots, folk, and country music
Deadline: May 20, 2022
Cash Award: $2000
Two-year membership with Music·Musique NB
One-year membership with Writers’ Federation of NB
Submission Guidelines
Submit one vocal recording with music (mp3, aif, or m4a format) of your best song with written lyrics and a letter explaining who you are and your background in music (half-page). Also, tell us, why do you feel this is your best song? Nominations of music artists by individuals and organizations in the music and songwriting community are welcome.
Email submissions to: catmaryleblanc@gmail.com.
Visit the website here!
Sponsored by Maureen LeBlanc, Cat LeBlanc, BRAINWORKS, Lennie Gallant, Music·Musique NB, and The Writers’ Federation of New Brunswick
As is the case with human cells, each interpersonal interaction is unique, but those separate events are what allows for individual growth in society. That perspective seems to create a parallel between cellular and human interactions, and underlines their importance and necessity for symbiosis.
Nicole Haché’s installation, Autobiographie collective/Collective autobiography (2019), is imprinted with her reflection and sensibility towards those interpersonal relations and the meaning of a collective symbiosis.
Her work celebrates diversity and brings one to reflect on the important role each of us plays in society.
Autobiographie collective is on display at the Center des arts d’Edmundston N.-B. (Canada) from March 31 to June 9, 2022. The opening will take place on March 31 at 17 o’clock. On June 9 from 10 to 11 a.m. the artist will present a talk about his creative process.
| THIRD SHIFT Festival of Public Contemporary Artworks takes place August 19-21 |
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| THIRD SHIFT is coming up quickly and we are putting a call out to community organizations and local businesses to be part of our signature event! Are you interested in being a sponsor? Creating an art project with your team and sharing it at our festival? Donating an item to our silent auction? Volunteering to help with the festival in August? Just send us an email and we can chat about how we can support each other! Get in touch: tiersespace@gmail.com |
The Writers’ Federation of New Brunswick (WFNB) and The Fiddlehead have announced the shortlisted titles for the 7th annual New Brunswick Book Awards. The winners will be revealed at an awards ceremony on Saturday, June 4, as part of WFNB’s annual WordSpring writing festival in Fredericton.
The program will celebrate books published in the 2021 calendar year in the poetry, fiction, nonfiction and children’s picture books categories.
The finalists are as follows:
Mrs. Dunster’s Award for Fiction
Judge: Richard Cumyn is the author of nine books of fiction, most recently The Sign for Migrant Soul, and a past fiction editor of The Antigonish Review.
Amber McMillan, The Running Tree (Goose Lane Editions), Fredericton
Beth Powning, The Sister’s Tale (Knopf Canada), Markhamville
Valerie Sherrard, Birdspell (DCB/Cormorant Books), Miramichi
Alice Kitts Memorial Award for Excellence in Children’s Writing
Judge: Author of over 27 books, Dr. Kari-Lynn Winters is a children’s author, playwright, performer, and scholar.
Jodie Callaghan,Ga’s The Train (Second Story Press), Campbellton; translated by Joe Wilmot, and illustrated Georgia Lesley
Leo LaFleur, The Errand: The Queen (Simply Read Books), Saint John; illustrated by Adam Oehlers
Riel Nason, Disaster at the Highland Games (Chocolate River Publishing), Quispamsis; illustrated by Nathasha Pilotte
The Fiddlehead Poetry Book Prize
Judge: An editor atRoommagazine, Isabella Wang is the author of the chapbook, On Forgetting a Language and her full-length debut, Pebble Swing.
Triny Finlay, Myself a Paperclip (Goose Lane Editions), Fredericton
Rebecca Salazar,sulphurtongue (McClelland & Stewart), Fredericton
Jane Tims,a glimpse of waterfall (Indie published), Rusagonis
Writers’ Federation of New Brunswick Nonfiction Award
Judge: Julie Sedivy is a language scientist, editor, and award-winning writer of nonfiction whose work crosses and recombines scientific and literary genres.
Michael Boudreau and Bonnie Huskins, Just the Usual Work: The Social Worlds of Ida Martin, Working-Class Diarist (McGill-Queen’s University Press), Fredericton
Janet Coulter Sanford, Memories on the Bounty: A Story of Friendship, Love, and Adventure (Nimbus), Moncton
Martha Vowles, Senior Management: Parenting My Parents (Nevermore Press), Grand-Bay Westfield
The New Brunswick Book Awards are open to traditionally published and self-published authors who have lived in the province for three of the last five years, including the award year.
The book awards program represents a partnership between the Writers’ Federation, which for more than 30 years has passionately supported the development of home-grown writers at all stages of development, and The Fiddlehead, Canada’s oldest literary magazine, which has nurtured New Brunswick’s literary culture for more than 75 years.
RE: FREDERICTON’S PERFORMING ARTS CENTRE
As members of the arts community in the Greater Fredericton Area, we write to express our enthusiastic support for the new Performing Arts Centre (PAC) that is proposed to replace the much-loved but failing Playhouse. Many of us are practicing artists who have performed at the Playhouse, including Juno and ECMA Award-winning musicians and actors on international stages; some of us lead local or provincial organizations that help the creative arts thrive, including those that rely on the Playhouse as a venue to present performances and events. All of us recognize that a professional facility such as the Playhouse is an indispensable component of this vibrant city’s cultural life. Fredericton would be a much lesser place without it.
As a community, we count on the Playhouse to present the best available performing artists in music, theatre, dance, comedy, and more; we also count on it to provide space where our own, home-grown artists, musicians, dancers, theatre companies – whether youthful or seasoned, amateur or professional – can create and present their work. It is a place where we gather to celebrate creativity, to connect with each other, and to enjoy an enhanced quality of life.
However, while it has served us well for several decades, the Playhouse is now beyond its useful life; its design and condition make refurbishing it unfeasible. We cannot lose this valuable community asset. It must be replaced.
The leaders at the Fredericton Playhouse and the City of Fredericton have a bold plan to build a new PAC to replace the current facility. Like the dozens of downtown businesses that signed a similar joint letter last Spring, we fully support this plan to invest in cultural infrastructure in our region – a plan that will build on the Playhouse’s record of success and take it to a new level by providing greater capacity, increased versatility, better functionality, and an improved audience experience.
The City of Fredericton has identified this project as its top priority for new infrastructure, committing $14 million to its construction and commissioning a design for the new facility. We encourage other levels of government to do their part to make the PAC a reality by providing the necessary funding to build it.
As we embark on our collective recovery from the impact of COVID-19 on the performing arts, the PAC will be a most welcome investment. We urge all levels of government to work in partnership with each other and the community to address this urgent priority for our cultural sector.
Yours sincerely,
| Judie Acquin-Miksovsky | Indigenous Artist |
| Zach Atkinson | Coordinator, Shivering Songs Festival |
| John Ball | Actor, Theatre Director, and Chair, UNB Dept. of English |
| Jarrett Bartlett | Musician, Sound Engineer |
| Don Bossé | Director of STU Jazz, Music Educator |
| Mike Bravener | Musician, Performer |
| Tania Breen | Director, Performer, and Professor, STU Fine Arts |
| Measha Brueggergosman-Lee | Performer, Soprano |
| Wayne Burley | Former President, Fredericton Playhouse |
| Marshall Button | Actor, Playwright, Director; Artist-in-Residence, Capitol Theatre |
| Paul Campbell | CEO, Downtown Blues Band |
| Matt Carter | Editor, Grid City Magazine |
| Emma Chevarie | Founder and CEO, Music Runs Through It |
| Sarah Clarke-Rowinski | Director, X-treme Dance Studio |
| Michelle Daigle and Don Rigley | Performers, Frantically Atlantic Entertainment |
| Leslee Dell | Director, Dance Fredericton |
| Sally Dibblee | Singer, Teacher, Conductor |
| Mike Doherty | Composer, Sound Designer, Music Director, Conductor |
| Jo-Anne Elder | Writer, Translator, and Chair, Word Feast Literary Society |
| Len Falkenstein | Artistic Director, Bard in the Barracks and NotaBle Acts Summer Theatre Festival |
| Katie FitzRandolph | President, Fredericton Arts Alliance |
| Pat Flanagan | Musician |
| Jason Flores | Bassist, Montgomery Street Band |
| Norm Foster | Playwright |
| Heather Fyffe | Conductor, F’ton Choral Society; Director, F’ton Concert and Marching Band |
| Cheryl Gillespie | President, Fredericton Music Teachers Association |
| Ryan Griffith | Playwright and Artistic Director, Next Folding Theatre Co. |
| Garry Hansen | Musician |
| Tristan Horncastle | Artist |
| Richard Hornsby | Director, Fredericton Symphony Orchestra and NB Summer Music Festival |
| Tom Hoyt | Producer, New Brunswick Country Showcase |
| David Huebert | Author and Co-Director of Creative Writing, UNB |
| Mike Johnston | Former Technical Director, Theatre UNB and Memorial Hall |
| Bonnie Kilburn | Dance School Director |
| Andy, Olivia, and Graysen LaPointe | Performers |
| Sharisse LeBrun | Artist and Director, TNB Theatre School |
| Tony LePage | Broadway Actor, Come from Away, Rock of Ages |
| John Leroux | Manager of Collections and Exhibitions, Beaverbrook Art Gallery |
| Ian LeTourneau | Former Cultural Laureate of Fredericton; Founder, Word Feast |
| Trent Logan | Technical Director, Theatre UNB and Memorial Hall |
| Natasha MacLellan | Artistic and Executive Director, Theatre New Brunswick |
| Marie Maltais | Director, UNB Art Centre |
| Julie Maston | President, Fredericton Music Festival |
| Tony Merzetti | Executive Director, New Brunswick Filmmakers’ Co-operative |
| Andrew Reed Miller | Musician and Composer |
| Joel Miller | Artist |
| Gina Moreno | President, Filipino-Canadian CommUNITY of New Brunswick |
| Michael Morrison | National Blogger |
| James Mullinger | Performing Artist |
| David Myles | Musician, Singer/Songwriter |
| Carolyn Nielsen | Vocalist, Bel Canto Singers |
| Tim Rayne | Filmmaker |
| Jeff Richardson | General Manager, Harvest Music Festival |
| Lisa Anne Ross | Director, Solo Chicken Theatre Co. and Coordinator, Black Box Theatre |
| Chris Saad | Technical Director, Theatre St. Thomas and Black Box Theatre |
| Peter Sametz | Director of Operations, Symphony New Brunswick |
| Samaqani Cocahq-Natalie Sappier | Wolastoqiyik Indigenous Artist |
| Judy Joe Scheffler | Stage Manager and Technical Theatre Instructor, UNB |
| Terry Seguin | Former CBC Host |
| Anne Sessa | Director, Camerata Singers |
| Philip Sexsmith | Founding Director, Characters Incorporated |
| Ilkay Silk, OC | Theatre Director |
| Sue Sinclair | Editor, The Fiddlehead, and Co-Director of Creative Writing, UNB |
| Ben Smith | Artistic Director, Impulse Productions |
| Brent Staeben, ONB | Artistic Director, Harvest Music Festival |
| Courtney Steeves | Executive Director, Charlotte Street Arts Centre |
| Krista Touesnard | Musician and Music Educator |
| Jordan Trethewey | Poet Laureate, City of Fredericton |
| Madhu Verma | Founding Chair, Asian Heritage Society of New Brunswick |
| Kelly Waterhouse | Musician and Music Educator |
| Greg Webber | Musician, Kill Chicago |
| Julie Whitenect | Executive Director, ArtsLink NB |
| Shawn Wright | Actor and Playwright |
| Zhenyong Yang | President, Chinese Cultural Association of New Brunswick |
| Eddie Young | Founder, Roots & Soul Music Promotions |
| Nick Zildjian | CEO, FMZ Productions Inc. |
| No Man Is An Island Streaming on-demand March 16-27. Tune in for a beloved story enhanced with footage from the Partridge Island quarantine station and the living history museum, Kings Landing! Inspired by the history of Partridge Island, a major arrival point in New Brunswick for Irish immigrants during the mid-19th century. The play is a story of immigration, sacrifice and belief, about facing one’s fear of others, and what it takes to make a community. The story focuses on a group of doctors who clash over the treatment of patients in a quarantine centre. Tickets are $15 and can be purchased by visiting NMIAITickets or clicking the button below. |