Peterborough’s Artsweek gets SHIFTed
Six months of great art pop-ups, online and in person
This past Saturday, on a brisk but sunny autumn day, almost 30 people — all wearing masks and sitting a respectful two metres apart from each other — gathered behind Peterborough’s Theatre on King for an afternoon of spoken word and poetry. The event featured four local artists sharing works on a wide range of topics, from a playful reminiscence of a moment of minor-league hockey glory, to sober meditations on race, privilege, and our current moment. But more than anything, it was — for once in a long while — presented live and in person, in front of an enthusiastic audience enjoying the experience together, and not through the distance of a Zoom window or YouTube channel.
“I know that I've missed performing,” said spoken word artist Jon Hedderwick after the event, “but I don't think I've been letting myself feel how much I've missed it until recently ... The practice of connecting to people through the sharing of stories is such a profoundly important part of who I am.” If the response from the crowd were any indication, audiences have missed it terribly as well.
This performance was the first public event of Artsweek SHIFT, a multidisciplinary arts festival that will be bringing a series of pop-up art events, both in person and online, to the city of Peterborough over the next six months. Artsweek SHIFT is being presented by the Electric City Culture Council (EC3) in lieu of the standard Artsweek, a ten-day festival of the arts that normally takes place across the city every other fall.
“When the global pandemic hit, we knew we wouldn’t be able to present the kind of festival we had all hoped for,” says EC3 executive director Su Ditta, “but we also knew that, especially during these times, people need art, and artists need to work.” EC3 made the decision to postpone the regular festival to September 2021, and in the meantime, organize something new.
In addition to an upcoming open call for proposals, Artsweek SHIFT is kicking off with two curated projects: Downtown and Post Code Tour.
“Artists and art lovers in Peterborough are used to a bustling and vast scene, replete with discussions, gatherings, arguments, debate, performance, and reflection,” says Downtown curator Justin Million. “This project brings together a selection of artists who never stopped working during the pandemic, and who deserve to be seen and heard as much as possible, whose crucial labour bears witness to the current moment.”
Downtown includes a series of readings by local poets and spoken word artists, including last Saturday’s event and another reading with a new group of poets at The Theatre on King on Nov. 7 at 3 p.m.; as well as a Reading Giveaway, where the public can enter to win one of two private readings, either at a home or over Zoom. All Artsweek SHIFT events are free.
The second half of Downtown is Menacing Beauty, an exhibition of paintings by local artist John Climenhage. During the pandemic, Climenhage spent much of his time in the heart of the downtown, painting what he saw: the empty buildings and wide-open spaces of a city on pause. Says Million, “When we see a painting of a downtown home that we recognize, we immediately see it for its personal significance or objective beauty, but the shading and shadows in John’s work remind us that everything right now is tainted with risk, exposed and vulnerable.”
The paintings are on display between Oct. 30 and Nov. 13 in storefronts across the downtown, including Sam’s Place Deli, Dreams of Beans, and Rare. (Head to artsweekpeterborough.ca for a full list of venues.)
Fr o m the immediacy of Downtown, Artsweek SHIFT will head into strange, futuristic, and digital realms with Post Code Tour, curated by Artsweek veteran Hannah Keating.
Post Code brings together three very different artists — writer Derek Newman-Stille, visual artist Bethany LeBlonc, and multidisciplinary performance artist Sioux Lilly — and invites them to reimagine Peterborough’s downtown in the future, redesigning some of our most iconic spaces for accessibility, openness, and creativity.
“The goal is to explore new realities that are shaped by lived disabled experiences,” says Keating, “using a critical lens and humour to seek beauty and delight in inclusive public access that can exist within and beyond official accessibility codes and legislation.”
The project will start off as a series of weekly post on the project’s Instagram (@post_code_tour) between Nov. 9 and 30, showing off what the artists have put together, and then will expand, with a Google Earth virtual walking tour, a discussion on Zoom, and other public events throughout December. Watch for more event announcements coming soon.
This is only the start of Artsweek SHIFT. The open call for proposals will launch soon, providing local artists and arts organizations an opportunity to join in and present their own projects, which means that there will be art events happening in person and online, all winter long and into the spring. EC3 is grateful to the City of Peterborough and the Peterborough DBIA for supporting these projects.
Indeed, as temperatures drop and COVID-19 cases continue to rise, many of us are settling into the reality of a long and challenging winter. Artsweek SHIFT provides an ongoing bit of local culture to brighten up the winter months, and we know that other artists will be there for us too, throughout this pandemic. Even with their incomes slashed and many opportunities for public performance and exhibition closed off, artists will continue to create work that entertains us, inspires us, and keeps us going through hard times.
And winter is going to be doubly hard for these artists and arts organizations, because it is also budget season at local and provincial levels. Facing rising deficits and a downturn in the economy, politicians will be looking for something to cut, and, as is too often the case, the arts and culture sector may be on the chopping block. They will call this sector “inessential,” but those of us who have turned to art during the pandemic for comfort, aid, and support know better. Let’s find a way to enhance funding for the arts, making sure arts venues and organizations survive, and that artists can keep making the work that makes life livable.
Now is the time to show your support for the arts — by speaking up to your political representatives, and letting them know that the arts deserve support, now more than ever.
Follow Artsweek Peterborough on Facebook, @Ptbo_Artsweek on Twitter, @art- -sweekptbo on Instagram, and www.artsweekpeterborough.ca
Gabe Pollock is the Program Coordinator and Research Lead with the Electric City Culture Council. He is an experienced writer and researcher, and previously served as co-founder and editor-in-chief of Electric City Magazine. This is series of articles about the arts, culture and heritage sector in Peterborough presented by the Electric City Culture Council (EC3), a not-for-profit service organization supporting the arts, culture and heritage sector in Peterborough and the surrounding region. EC3 provides strategic leadership, research, resources and connections that build and strengthen the sector.
ACROSS
1 Carthaginian
6 Shoe marks
12 Peace Nobelist Lech
13 Oahu verandas
14 Make use of
15 Consecrate with oil
16 Faxed
17 Innocent one
19 Hwys.
20 Warning sign
22 Stitch
24 Chest-beating beast
27 Golden Fleece ship
29 Fraction
32 Buffy's job in a TV drama
35 Goya's duchess
36 Too
37 Tofu source
38 Rm. coolers
40 Unctuous
42 Rockies hrs.
44 Nine, in Nice
46 Expel
50 Win the hot dog contest
52 Accustoms
54 Hip place?
55 Tangle up
56 Hard and cold
57 Valleys
DOWN
1 Rid of rind
2 — Bator
3 Not familiar with
4 Equal (Pref.)
5 Australian capital
6 Thick chunk
7 Walking sticks
8 First numero
9 Golf course areas
10 Locate
11 Bygone jets
12 OED entries
18 “Still I Rise” poet Maya
21 — tai (cocktail)
23 Clean air org.
24 “Selma” director DuVernay
25 Crony
26 Fortify
28 Turned to bone
30 Old Olds
31 Attempt
33 Lobbying gp.
34 Texter's chuckle
39 Slow mover
41 “— be sorry!”
42 Floor cleaners
43 Fat
45 Online crafts site
47 Russian river
48 Brief moments
49 Mao — -tung
51 Wife of Adam
53 Away from SSW