Arts and Culture Projects Receive Financial Boost

TOURISM/CULTURE--Arts and Culture Projects Receive Financial Boost

Twenty-three dance, music, visual arts, theatre and literary groups will receive more than $130,000 for arts and culture projects.

The groups are recipients of the Grants to Organizations and Small Groups Program administered by the Department of Tourism and Culture. Formerly offered through the Nova Scotia Arts Council, the program supports groups that commission new works or produce a specific work or program for presentation to the public. The program also supports groups that participate in professional development activities to strengthen the artistic or administrative capacity of their organization or the artists with whom they work.

The successful applicants were chosen by a six-member peer assessment committee, who reviewed 44 applications from all artistic disciplines. Each application received by the March 15 deadline was assessed on the artistic merit of the project and the ability of the organization to carry it out.

Committee members represented diverse artistic disciplines, cultural communities and regions in the province and were appointed by the former council. The next deadline for this program is Sept. 30.

The business of culture has emerged as one of the fastest-growing sectors in this province, with an estimated value of $808 million. It's estimated that culture creates more than 29,000 direct and indirect jobs.

NOTE TO EDITORS: The following is a list of the 23 successful projects for the March 15 deadline for the Organizations and Small Groups program. The program allocated $133,736.

• Bunnies in the Headlights Theatre, based in Halifax, will receive $3,000 to host a two-week clown workshop for 30 theatre artists, led by internationally renowned performer and teacher Philippe Gaulier.
• The Chedabucto Bay Folk Society will receive $15,000 to bring artists from Eastern countries together with artists from Eastern Canada at the Stan Rogers Festival.
• The Dalhousie Art Gallery will spend its $8,000 to present "Abstracts, Alloys and Aggregates," an exhibition of paintings by a new generation of abstract artists.
• Dance As a Performing Art Committee in Halifax will receive $1,050 to train emerging choreographers in critical analysis, feedback and evaluation methods.
• Halifax's Debut Atlantic will receive $3,000 for composer-in- residence Alasdair MacLean to compose works for three of the organization's touring artists.
• Eastern Front Theatre in Dartmouth will receive $3,000 to assist local writer Michael Best to write a full-length play based on his comedy sketch Gay White Trash.
• Festival Antigonish Summer Theatre will spend its $3,956 to stage a New Play Reading Series and three public play readings of works-in-progress.
• Gaspereau Press, based in Wolfville, will invest its $2,000 in the Third Annual Wayzgoose workshops.
• Irondale Ensemble Project in Halifax will receive $2,640 to enable the company's producer to enroll in the Non-Profit Sector Leadership Program.
• The Khyber Arts Society in Halifax will receive $3,000 for two members of the radical art collective from New York, Critical Art Ensemble, to present workshops in Tactical Media for audiences of emerging and professional artists.
• Mount Saint Vincent University Art Gallery in Halifax will receive $675 for the gallery's program co-ordinator to upgrade her skills to perform the role of communications assistant.
• The Paul Cram Orchestra based in Dartmouth will receive $2,750 to rehearse in preparation for a Jazz Festival tour of Canada.
• The Playwright's Atlantic Resource Centre in Guysborough will receive $7,000 for the Moveable Feast Playwright's Colony and script development workshops.
• The Preston Cultural Festival Society will receive $12,000 to produce "Preston" an original, two-hour musical and dramatic production on the history, culture and people of the Preston area (North Preston, East Preston and Cherrybrook).
• Preston Cultural Festival will provide its $3,000 to jazz artist Joe Sealy to create original music for "Preston".
• Saint Mary's University Art Gallery will spend its $12,000 to exhibit a dramatic career survey of the work of Australian artist Tracey Moffat. In addition to the installed exhibit, there will be video screenings, tours and gallery talks.
• Sanctuary Concerts in Halifax will receive $5,650 to produce and present a concert with Sanctuary series musicians and a 16- voice choir.
• The Shelburne County Arts Council will receive $3,810 for ArtsAlive!, a series of performances in Shelburne County.
• St. Cecilia Concert Series in Halifax will receive $6,020 for concerts and talks with guitarist Sylvie Proulx.
• Halifax's SuddenlyLISTEN Music will receive $7,200 to produce and present a series of three concerts of improvised and new music performed by SuddenlyLISTEN musicians.
• Two Planks and A Passion Theatre in Canning, Kings Co., will receive $3,000 to commission the core members of Zuppa Circus Theatre to create a full-length work on the theme of ghosts.
• Upstream Music Association based in Halifax will receive $11,000 to produce North End Extremes, a series of six concerts of new music by local and international artists.
• The Zuppa Circus Theatre in Halifax will use its $14,985 to create and perform "Junk," an original street theatre production for the Halifax waterfront.