SOCIALLY ENGAGED PRACTICES
Saturday October 11 - 2:30 PM
Calgary Drop In Centre Meeting Room
423 4 Avenue SE
Calgary's drop-in centre, a symbol of the small rights among the big wrongs of the world, is the setting for PCC's Socially Engaged Practices panel. PCC presents a sampling of artists whose practice is intimately tied to how they see the world and how people relate to each other. Find out how the need to participate in changing society can radically impact an artists' work, as well as the diversity of outlets possible for this strong conviction.
Art for arts sake or Art that changes the world? Are they any different for these artists? Does social engagement mean bad, partisan and political art? Panelists are: Tomas Jonsson (Toronto/Calgary), Camile Turner (Toronto), Annie Roy (ATSA, Montréal), A representative of the City of Calgary's This is My City project, and facilitator/panelist Inouk Touzin.
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Inouk Touzin
Franco-Ontarian born, Inouk Touzin is Passeur théâtral (Theatre activator) for RAFA (Regroupement artistique francophone de l’Alberta), charged with the revitalization of French-language theatre in Calgary. Theatre creator and multi-talented, Inouk holds a bachelors degree with honours in theatre from the University of Ottawa and an artistic education certificate from York University and the Ontario Arts Council.
Ecclectic, he has worked professionally at his multiple theatre occupations, both in French and English, in the majority of Canadian provinces over the past 9 years. Inouk worked on Théâtre du Trillium’s Jean et Béatrice; which won a prestigious Masque award. He has also contributed to the ATFC (Association des theatres francophones du Canada) as development officer and to G2 (Groupe des Deux), where he served as coartistic director for the theatre company. Playwright, director, actor and arts administrator, Inouk has a broad profile that includes improvisation, facilitation, technical work and critical thinking.
Inouk Touzin is also renowned for his accomplishments in artistic education. 13 years of experience facilitating workshops to several thousand young Canadians from all regions, delegate in Lisbon for the first UNESCO World Conference on artistic education, and panellist in the 2nd World Creativity Summit in Taipei, he is committed to the advancement of French-language theatre, the development of French-language communities outside Québec, and capacity-building through leadership and creativity.
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Inouk Touzin |
This is My City - Represented by Beth Gignac
Manager of Arts & Culture, Beth Gignac, will represent The City of Calgary Arts & Culture Division, with their innovative program This is My City, a part of the Community Cultural Development (CCD) initiatives, in partnership with social services and arts organizations. This is My City provides a 12 month cycle of art making activities to be showcased at important cultural events throughout the year. The project is multi-disciplinary in approach and is designed to provide the homeless citizens of Calgary opportunities to express their experiences through art.
Beth Gignac - Whether running to be a Member of the Legislative Assembly for the Alberta Liberals or running her daily 5km, Beth Gignac brings energy and enthusiasm to every venture. As the Manager of Arts and Culture for the City of Calgary, she directs policy and operations in several key areas: public art; event planning and services; cultural centres; community arts development and liaison work with major cultural attraction partners. Her work is dedicated to community building through placemaking and healthy living for all citizens.
Recently, Beth was the President of the Creative City Network of Canada, a national organization dedicated to the ideals of creative community building and the precepts of such urban thinkers as Jane Jacobs and Richard Florida. As part of her work with this organization, she co-developed a program entitled “Active and Creative Communities: Alberta”. Operated by the Alberta Recreation and Parks Association and the Creative City Network of Canada’s Alberta Caucus, this collaborative effort will share cultural community building between the urban and rural communities in Alberta for the next 5 years.
She is also the President of Public Space Management, an organization that she developed to assist other communities resolve the challenges of community building through open space planning, events, public art and community cultural development. Based on her extensive experience in this area, she knows that each community has the knowledge to resolve challenges and issues. Beth embraces every opportunity to facilitate creative processes in new communities to unlock the local potential. |
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Tomas Jonsson
As an artist, curator and writer, Tomas Jonsson has a strong interest in issues of social agency in processes of urban growth and transformation. From 2003-2005 Tomas was Programming Director at The New Gallery (Calgary), where he was involved in the promotion and facilitation of critical artistic and literary activities within local and national communities.
Tomas is pursuing a Masters in Environmental Studies at York University in Toronto, with an emphasis on social planning. He recently participated in the Border Cities Kolleg at the Bauhaus Institute in Dessau, Germany, where he developed projects with creative and precarious communities in Tallinn and Helsinki. He will be participating in The City of Calgary's This is my City project in 2009. |
Tomas Jonsson |
Camille Turner
Camille Turner is a Toronto based artist and curator who uses digital media and performance art to build bridges across cultures and differences, help communities and individuals tell their stories and create meaningful exchanges. A founding member of Year Zero One, a collective operating as a network for the dissemination of digital culture, she also curates exhibitions for Subtle Technologies, a Festival that blurs the boundaries between art and science. Camille has presented talks, performances , workshops and exhibitions throughout Canada, Jamaica, USA, UK, Senegal, Australia, Germany and Mexico. Her ongoing performance projects include: Miss Canadiana, a beauty queen on a 'round the world Red, White and Beautiful Tour, who challenges assumptions of Canadian identity and normative beauty and The Final Frontier, her latest afrofuturist endeavour currently presented in Lethbridge by M:ST. |
Camille Turner |
Annie Roy (ATSA)
ATSA is an organism founded in 1997 by artists Pierre Allard and Annie Roy to create so-called urban interventions: installations, performances and realistic stagings bearing witness to the various social and environmental aberrations which preoccupy the two artists. Their works investigate and transform the urban landscape and restore the citizen’s place in the public realm, depicting it as a political space open to discussion and societal debates. ATSA promotes an open, active and responsible vision of artists as citizens contributing to the sustainable development of their society. |
Pierre Allard and Annie Roy, ATSA
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