The cultural gurus

> IRIS NEMANI AND DON SHIPLEY

The desks of the duo leading the massive arts and culture festival happening in tandem with the Pan Am/Parapan Am Games are separated by a partition and a bit of irony — one of those talking red buttons from Staples that, when pushed, proclaims, “That was easy.”

It’s tapped a few times a day in this corner of the Toronto Pan Am Games’ downtown headquarters, where the joke, of course, is that very little comes easy when you are planning a 35-day festival featuring 1,300 artists from 41nations.

“The size and scope — it was a formidable challenge,” says Don Shipley, the creative director tapped four years ago to lead the celebration his team would name Panamania.

If Shipley is the dreamer, then managing director Iris Nemani is the get-it-done realist. “With a great appreciation for the dream,” she adds.

Together they are running a festival that amounts to putting on Nuit Blanche 35 times and includes 28 premieres of newly commissioned works. It features what Shipley calls a “cultural tapas menu” of events including music, theatre, visual art and comedy. Something for everyone, they hope.

Among the great Canadian gets: a world premiere by internationally renowned director and playwright Robert Lepage at the St. Lawrence Centre for the Arts, and a free concert by songstress Serena Ryder, who sings the Games’ anthem.

The events are scheduled to take place in July and August all over the city, but mostly at three major venues: Nathan Phillips Square, CIBC Pan Am Park (at Exhibition Place) and the Distillery District.

It has been, at times, a strange experience for two veterans of the arts world to find themselves planning a cultural festival tied to a sporting event.

“We really do feel like a vegetarian in an

abattoir,” Shipley says with a laugh.

Nemani, a master multi-tasker, joined his team three years ago. She had taken a hiatus of several years from her work in theatre production to spend time with her children, but when she heard about the Pan Ams, Nemani began spreading the word that she wanted to work on the team planning the cultural festival. “I told everyone I knew,” she recalls.

One day her phone rang and it was Shipley. “Many people are telling me to talk to you,” he said. Nemani applied and got the job.

Their creative marriage began with a yearlong exchange of ideas. Working from Shipley’s vision, they set out to build a festival that would reflect the cultures of the 41nations participating in the Games. They wanted it to be contemporary and populist, but quality-driven.

Then it was time to make choices, a process Nemani likens to picking apples. Her job as managing director was to bring Shipley five apples that fit the bill and get him to “commit to one apple, to stick with that apple and to only bring in apples we could afford,” she says.

“I think we’re a very good balance because Don is a dreamer and I help bring him back to the ground, gently.”

Among Nemani’s many responsibilities is administering the roughly $12-million budget, which she says the team is on track to meet. She is also in charge of the mammoth job of co-ordinating the arrival of roughly 1,000 artists from all over the world.

Most festivals last a weekend. Maybe 10 days. This one, which lasts five weeks, will stretch Nemani, Shipley and everyone involved to their limits.

“But if we’ve done our jobs right,” Shipley says, “then people will remember some of these events for the rest of their lives.”