All in Inspiring Stories

Rodeo Song: One Yellow Rabbit Takes a New Approach to the Beloved Theatre Festival

Rodeo Song: One Yellow Rabbit Takes a New Approach to the Beloved Theatre Festival

Stephen Hunt
One Yellow Rabbit, Inspiring Stories, Behind the Scenes, Arts Essentials

Prior to every new work they created over the past four decades - and there have been a lot of them - the company members of One Yellow Rabbit asked a very existential question.

“Who are we now?” says Rabbit Blake Brooker. “It’s a question we always ask of ourselves. So, when we sit down as a group, we always ask who are we now?

“And then that [question] starts to bake and gently move into other questions: Who do you want to be? Who were you? Who are you this moment?”

They may have started asking those questions back in the mid-1980s when Reagan was president, a Mulroney was the prime minister, and phones hung on walls in kitchens - when they launched a performing arts festival called the High Performance Rodeo - but 35 years later, as 2020 turned into a year unlike any other for performing artists around the world, the question seemed more relevant and more poignant than ever.

Flex Ave and the Art of Flexn

Flex Ave and the Art of Flexn

Josh Dalledonne
AC@Home, Arts Commons Presents, Artist Perspectives, Behind the Scenes, Inspiring Stories

There may be a few reasons that the dance style Flexn could seem familiar to you. Maybe you’re a culture-vulture that took note when New York City’s newest performance venues, The Shed, invited Flexn artists in residence for its inaugural season; or perhaps you caught Flexn as part of Beyonce’s 2018 Coachella performance. Regardless of whether you’ve seen or heard about Flexn before, what becomes clear when you witness this dance is that it’s a powerful grassroots form of movement that connects performers and audiences through kinetic stories and characters that are both deeply personal and wholly universal.

It All Adds Up: Delving into key role of philanthropy when the stages go dark

It All Adds Up: Delving into key role of philanthropy when the stages go dark

Alex Bonyun
Elevating Your Experience, Inspiring Stories

Arts Commons welcomes thousands of people through our doors each season for live concert, theatre, comedy, and speaker talks, as well as educational initiatives, workshops, and professional development sessions.

Though much of this programming has a ticket price, the price of the ticket only covers a small portion of what it costs to bring these events to you, our audiences.

This Feels So Real - Interview with vocalist Silvia Temis

This Feels So Real - Interview with vocalist Silvia Temis

Josh Dalledonne
AC@Home, Artist Perspectives, Inspiring Stories

This Feels So Real video series asks artists to turn their creative eye and ability towards this new world we live in and distill the big ideas and problems we’re now facing into something human-sized and understandable.

Born in Mexico and educated in architecture and design, Silvia Temis discovered flamenco dance and later singing (cante) while designing sets for flamenco shows. Now, Silvia is based in Calgary and after training in vocals with prominent flamenco singers, she is the lead singer of the award-winning quartet, Notas de 4.

Inside the Fall of CHOP - Two Canadians in the Heart of the Police Free Zone in Seattle

Inside the Fall of CHOP - Two Canadians in the Heart of the Police Free Zone in Seattle

Nicole Wolf and Gavin John
Visual and Media Arts, Inspiring Stories, Behind the Scenes

With the support of Arts Commons, artist Nicole Wolf was able to travel to Seattle during the Capitol Hill Occupied Protest (CHOP) also defined as Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone (CHAZ). This self-declared autonomous zone was established on June 8, 2020 in response to George Floyd’s death at the hands of police officers. The demands of the protesters were as follows: 1) cut funding for city police by fifty percent, 2) redistribute the funds into community efforts such as restorative justice and health care, and 3) ensure that protesters would not be charged with crimes.

Inside the Fall of CHOP is an exhibition with illustrations and writing by Nicole Wolf, with photographs, editing and writing contributions by Gavin John that takes you inside the Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone.

ACQ with jazzevangelist Tim Tamashiro

ACQ with jazzevangelist Tim Tamashiro

Alex Bonyun
Artist Perspectives, Arts Commons Presents, Inspiring Stories

Tim Tamashiro is a celebrated vocalist throughout Canada as well as speaker, entertainer and former national radio host. For a decade Tim was host of Tonic on CBC Radio 2 and he is the creator of the unique "story / song" cabarets featured at Arts Commons. He captivates audiences with story narration weaved together with songs. Get to know Tim Tamashiro better with Arts Commons Questionnaire and learn what makes this artist tick.

Interview with Rocio Graham: The Ritual Keeper and the Artist Behind My Garden’s Funeral

Interview with Rocio Graham: The Ritual Keeper and the Artist Behind My Garden’s Funeral

Celina Vides
Artist Perspectives, Arts Commons Presents, Behind the Scenes, Inspiring Stories, Visual and Media Arts

I recently had the pleasure of sitting down (virtually) with botanical artist, photographer, and performance artist based in Mohkinstsis/Calgary, Rocio Graham, to talk about her art practice and her latest work. As she joined our zoom-rendezvous, I notice her virtual background of choice is a gorgeous high-resolution picture of her photograph titled When I think of Home #8 one of my favorite pieces by Rocio. I also notice the occasional disembodied hand of her son appearing through the virtual background while we chatted and as he played with the effect, making it spooky and very appropriate for our discussion all things death, rebirth, spirits, and garden funerals.

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