Wanted: Fringe Artists

So, you have a great idea for a Fringe show, but you didn’t make it into the 2012 Festival through the Lottery? Or maybe you’re a theatre maker looking for a challenge? Well, you can still be part of the 2012 Vancouver Fringe Festival!

Starting January 17, we will start accepting applications for BYOV/Site-Specific Shows and for the Fringe Onsite Program and we’ll accept as many as we can.

So what’s the difference between Fringe Onsite and the BYOV/Site-Specific categories?

Fringe Onsite is an 11 week program with mentorship from The Only Animal, Vancouver’s premier site-specific theatre company. Don’t come with a script, or even an idea! You’ll be challenged with a space on Granville Island and have to build a show around that site.

The BYOV/Site-Specific categories are for those of you with an idea in mind already. We have pre-approved venues (however we will consider others), or if you already have a story based on an unusual site, then this might be the category for you.

Read up now, because January 17 is just days away!

Gaming Grant Update

As many of you know, in 2009 there was a major shift in funding for arts and culture in BC when most arts organizations, including ours, became ineligible for Community Gaming Grants. We had just secured a three-year agreement from Gaming which has carried us through until now. It was a long two years in which many of our colleagues struggled and reduced their activity significantly—and the Fringe panicked and fundraised.

In the interim, Premier Christy Clark commissioned an independent review to undo the “mistake” (her own words) that was made at that time. The review was extensive and engaged 1,700 British Columbians in dialogue about the value that community groups bring to our province. The review has now been completed and options given to the government. The report is long and the options are many, but the most important result from our perspective was that our eligibility to apply for Gaming Grants was restored. There is less funding available than there was in 2008 (by $21 million dollars), but we are again eligible.

What we learned over the past two years of preparing for such a major loss is that we have a strong and broad base of supporters that we can count on. You have been, and will continue to be, our best bet because you understand the value of what we do. The change in policy in 2009 indicated that the government did not understand the value of arts in our communities. Not only did they cut arts funding, but they made the arts community virtually ineligible to apply for funding. Throughout her announcement speech Premier Clark talked about the ability of community groups to deliver services effectively and with agility, which indicates there is perhaps a renewed understanding of what the non-profit arts sector can and does do with government investment.

We are thankful that there has been a change of heart in government although the investment is considerably smaller. The uncertainty does continue—we don’t know if we will receive a grant—and we don’t know if it will be anywhere near the amount formerly invested in us. We are most thankful that when mistakes were made in 2009, Fringe supporters like you gave us hope and courage to carry on despite the uncertainty.

Gaming Grants are not awarded for artistic merit but for community engagement, one thing we have in spades. So thank you for being such a strong community. We hope to report in the future that the engagement we have together will be acknowledged with a grant from BC Gaming.

—David Jordan
Executive Director
Vancouver Fringe Festival

Donor Profile: Don Wright

Back in the early days of the Vancouver Fringe Festival, a man named Don Wright got involved—first as a patron in a car load of UCFV Theatre Department kids, then as a writer and actor in Blue Herring and Sex Outside the Box (“we were thrilled when a Vancouver Sun writer gave us one star out of five,” Don laughs), as a volunteer when the Fringe moved to Granville Island, and finally as a monthly donor last year.

“I fully understand that a monthly commitment really helps organizations with cash flow and budgeting,” Don explains. “And given the challenging political and economic climate for arts organizations, I felt it was time to show that I support the Fringe in this important way.”

But the Fringe isn’t the only charity Don is involved with. For the past 10 years he’s been the Regional Activism Coordinator (BC-Yukon) for Amnesty International. “It is a great pleasure to support people willing to engage in protecting the human rights of others,” Don says.

“But how can the Fringe’s work compare to that of Amnesty,” we asked Don. “I would say donate to both. I certainly do. The founding issue for Amnesty International 50 years ago was freedom of expression, and although there were no artists in the first set of cases, many writers and playwrights have been the subject of Amnesty appeals,” Don explains.

Don brought Amnesty International and the Fringe together in Short and Sweet: Small Plays for Big Ideas for the 2011 Fringe. “When the directors and I debriefed after the Fringe, one of them noted that we had ‘helped the artists see human rights, and helped the humanitarians see art.’”

Currently, Don is traveling in Central and South America on a one-year sabbatical. He’s hoping to catch some theatre as his Spanish improves. “It is really the culture, the way people live and organize their lives, and present themselves and their world views through the arts that [my partner and I] are particularly looking forward to,” Don shares. You can check up on Don via his blog, here.

Food at the Public Market

Food and wine are two of the greatest things in life. A third is another reason to come down to Granville Island (besides the Fringe Festival of course). That’s why Plated and Paired at the Granville Island Public Market promises to be such a great event!

As part of Dine Out Vancouver, the Public Market shops will provide cheese, pastries, and sausages, along with tasty morsels created by Granville Island’s chefs, and pair them with BC wines (including some from our wine sponsor, Mark Anthony).

Sadly, Plated and Paired is already sold out, but that doesn’t mean you can’t discover all the tastiness the Public Market has to offer! Edible Canada has chef guided tours of the Public Market, plus some other stops around Granville Island. Another option is just to wander the Public Market. But before heading down, please not that the Market will be closed on Mondays throughout January.

Fair Trade for Children and Families!

We’re thrilled to announce that the Fringe and our sponsor Camino will donate over 150 litres of fair trade organic juice to the students and families of Admiral Seymour Elementary School. The juice is a tasty surplus from the 2011 Camino Lounge, which enticed lucky Fringe patrons to donate in exchange for generous samples of Camino’s new fair trade organic juice and candy bar lines. The yummy and nutritious juices are a great way to support the growing children of this 100+-year-old school, whose wish list raises serious questions about how children can have such need while living in such a wealthy city. Camino’s donation reminds us that we are all one community.

“This helps us meet our goal of helping families meet the immediate need of providing healthy food to their kids. Organic fruits and vegetables are the most expensive foods to provide and many families can’t afford it. It’s kind of like gold to them,” Admiral Seymour teacher extraordinaire, Carrie Gelson, says. “The school puts together weekly bags of groceries and other items that they send home with the kids for their families and this juice will be included.”

Carrie will be speaking on January 25 at the End Child Poverty Now! forum at Langara College to bring awareness to this important issue.

We at the Fringe extend a huge thanks to Camino and welcome the students, families, and staff of Admiral Seymour into our extended family. We think you’re an essential part of our community!

Hello. Goodbye.

You all know that the super dedication of our interns lends us an almost indestructible power to do more than your average festival. Well, the Fringe has reason to celebrate yet another amazing volunteer to our ranks: Ana Elena Garza! Originally hailing from the beautiful 500-year-old city of Monterrey, Mexico, Ana has joined the Development Department to support its off-season efforts to prepare for the 2012 Festival and beyond. Ana brings a great mix of experience with site-specific and other theatre, cool small-scale events, and edgy and fun marketing and public relations work. With her indomitable enthusiasm and alert sense of humour, she’s got the perfect background and attitude to make her mark on the Fringe and help us support a fantastic 2012 Festival. We’re very excited to have her on the team!

Continuing much of the same work, Ana will be filling the impressive boots (and you should see her dresses!) of Aleks Brzozowski, whose time as Development Coordinator has sadly come to a close. Aleks did a phenomenal job as the right hand (and sometimes left!) of Gareth Duncan, helping evolve the Development Department into a well-organized and focused component of the Fringe. We already miss her!

This entry was posted on Thursday, January 12th, 2012 at 6:17 pm. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.