The Banff Centre: Communications

Canadian Heritage: “Renewed investments in the arts represent $504 million in support over five years and are in addition to measures announced in Canada’s Economic Action Plan. These measures include a 41-percent increase in the budget for the Canada Arts Training Fund) and additional funding of $60 million over two years for the Canada Cultural Spaces Fund,( doubling the budget for the program this year and extending it to 2010-2011.”

All About Jazz: Interview with Seattle trumpeter Chad McCullough, who was part of this year’s jazz residency. “The whole experience up there was very cool. The faculty was Joshua Redman, Tony Malaby, Jerry Granelli and Don Byron. On top of that there were 60 musicians from all over the world. We were pulling 20-hour days, playing, writing and arranging. They have a club on the campus with four bands playing every night. There’s also a recording studio so you have people putting projects together left and right. It was also eye-opening to hear people from all over the world; guys from Slovakia who could just crush everyone on the piano. It was a life changing experience.”

Victoria Times Colonist: Review of current exhibitions at the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria. “The two largest galleries are given over to The World Upside Down, an exhibit of contemporary art initiated by the Walter J. Phillips Gallery in Banff. For even the most casual visitor there is much to engage — bright paintings, figurative sculpture and a photo reconstruction of Da Vinci’s Last Supper.”

CBC: “Alaska-based composer John Luther Adams’s new work, Inuksiut [sic], which will debut Sunday at the Banff Centre for the Arts, is his first piece designed to be performed outdoors.”

Calgary Herald: “On Sunday, the Banff Centre drums in the shortest night of the year with the premiere of a work inspired by Inuit stone sentinels that have stood watch for centuries across the vast windswept Arctic.”

Photo of composer John Luther Adams

The Globe and Mail: Stephan Benediktson of Cochrane last year donated $100,000 to The Banff Centre to finance a visiting Icelandic artist program.

“The first fellowship recipient is Ragnar Kjartansson, a young performance artist and graduate of the Icelandic Academy of Arts whose productions have been performed around the world; he is representing Iceland in the Venice Biennale, which opens tomorrow.”

Toronto Star: “Baldwin, a Toronto artist, is leading the second installation of Reverse Pedagogy, an artists’ residency program-cum-social experiment. Winnipeg artist Paul Butler hatched the idea at the Banff Centre last summer; he handed it to Baldwin this year, who brought it here on the eve of the Venice Biennale, the art-world equivalent of the Olympics.”

Banff Crag and Canyon: “Six individuals and organizations are being honoured this year for their outstanding contribution to heritage in Banff National Park. Ron Warner, Jim Olver, Discover Banff Tours, Ralphine Locke, The Banff Centre / Sather Family and Pam Manning will all be honoured at the heritage awards celebration June 11 at the Whyte Museum….

“For over 25 years, Olver has been the face of the Banff Centre, greeting countless visitors and giving them a unique experience.

“The Adaptive Reuse of a Heritage Building Award is going to The Banff Centre and Sather Family for preserving the Walter Painter residence by moving it up to the Leighton Artist Colony.”

From the Government of Alberta:

Eight Alberta community leaders and innovators have been selected to receive the province’s highest honour. Chosen in recognition of outstanding service to their province and country, the Alberta Order of Excellence (AOE) members for 2009 are:

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Bernadette McDonald (Banff) - for her work to promote mountain culture through a range of Banff-based programs and to increase awareness of mountain environmental preservation.

Additional Information about Bernadette McDonald.

BCLocalNews.com: “A wealth of artistic talent could lead Salt Spring towards becoming a “Banff-on-the-Sea,” where arts professionals from across Canada and around the world come to improve their skills.”

Annapolis [Nova Scotia] County Spectator: “Now that Team Annapolis has opened the toolshed on discussions like how to developing [sic] a Banff Centre for the Arts-like education institution in Annapolis Royal, we can roll up our sleeves and get down to the nitty gritty of building the creative rural economy. “