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artsVest in Owen Sound & District

Sheatre Education Alternative Theatre and Rogers Television, Simcoe-Grey

Sheatre is a professional theatre and community arts organization, whose mandate is to “inspire creative expression and transformative learning” through theatre arts and workshops. This particular project focused on a production targeted for teens highlighting the topic of date rape. With its traditionally-lean operation, Sheatre would have made an important contribution within the community through individual live theatre performances. However, its overall impact on the entire youth population would have been limited to the relative few attending the live performances. The artsVest challenge spurred on the formation of a partnership with Rogers Television which resulted in filming of the production, with subsequent local broadcast, enabling a much wider impact on the community and a permanent record which can be available for future viewing. Rogers fulfilled its community mandate in a creative way, and Sheatre drew on in-kind resources which exceeded 50% their last year's overall budget. This single project propelled Sheatre into a whole new level of public awareness and community impact, particularly within the youth market critical for the topic of their play.

Owen Sound & North Grey Union Public Library with Frank Dabbs Canadian Energy Communication and John A. Tamming Law Office

The concept of a Poet Laureate is not something typically found in a city of 32,000. Nevertheless, the local library developed the idea as a means to promote poetry, literacy and celebration of the written word. Additionally, the project intended to build community by highlighting local talent as well as utilizing writing to illuminate important public events. Solicitation by the library was simply a matter of “putting the word out there”, with an almost immediate uptake by community partners. In the words of the head librarian – “it was magic”. The two sponsoring partners had natural links to the craft of writing – a communications firm, and a legal concern. The convergence of resident stakeholders (poets, librarians & professionals) produced a community phenomenon substantially greater than the sum of its individual parts, and resulted in a bold and unique cultural contribution.

“My long term goal is to develop a community where poetry and the arts are just as important a part of a municipality's infrastructure as pipes, pavement and police. By hosting open stages, workshops, feedback sessions, reading to high school students, book clubs, the Chamber of Commerce, City Council, strangers in the street and an amphitheatre full of people celebrating Owen Sound's 150th anniversary, I hoped to create a lake effect of poetry.”

Click here (PDF 12KB) to read “Addictions of a Poet Laureate” by Liz Zetlin in its entirety.

“Owen Sound's poet laureate Liz Zetlin created a remarkable legacy of poetry during Owen Sound's 150^th anniversary year. We are grateful to Liz for proving that poetry has special meaning for our community, and to artsVest and local business sponsors Frank Dabbs and John Tamming for the financial support that made this pilot project possible through the Library.” – Mayor Ruth Lovell, City of Owen Sound

“The impetus of matching funds through artsVest prompted the Owen Sound & North Grey Union Public Library to seek out new business sponsors to make the Owen Sound Poet Laureate project a reality. The Poet Laureate project... has been a much greater success than we could ever have imagined. The project will certainly leave a legacy, and may in fact, continue!” Judy Armstrong – Chief Librarian/CEO – Owen Sound & North Grey Union Public Library

“I will continue to sponsor the Poet Laureate program at the Library in 2008 and beyond. It is fundamentally important for artsVest, the government and the Ontario legislature to know that artsVest seeded a program in Owen Sound that, because it has been a remarkable success, is now a permanent part of the community's business, literary and cultural life.” Frank Dabbs – Frank Dabbs Energy Communications

“I am pleased that Judy asked me among others to support the poet laureate endeavor. For me, the payback was less in the resultant publicity (though there was some of that) but rather in the connections formed with some in the artistic community whom I would never have met... Someone once called poetry the shortest way to the heart; there has been a lot of that so far this year.” John A. Tamming – John A. Tamming Law Office

Poems by Liz Zetlin, Owen Sound Poet Laureate 2007

Liz Zetlin, Owen Sound Poet Laureate, 2007 (right) reading to Andree Levie-Warrilow at the Owen Sound & North Grey Union Public Library, September 24, 2007, during Meet the Poet Laureate		Liz Zetlin reading “Sounds a City Makes” at the Owen Sound Homecoming Opening Celebrations to honour the city's 150th anniversary

Tom Thomson Memorial Art Gallery with Owen Sound Transportation

The Tom Thomson Memorial Art Gallery partnered with Owen Sound Transportation for The Home Port Project, a project engaging over 200 students from Grades 6 through 8 living in “Port” communities along the shores of Grey and Bruce Counties. The students' project was to create a personal “tourist” map of their own community, establishing points of interest and personal attractions. A selection of these “maps” are available for viewing on the Chi-Cheemaun, at the Ferry Terminals in Tobermory, and South Baymouth. Owen Sound Transportation was eager to support this project as they are interested in supporting the long term success of their business by ensuring that children have the experience of traveling on the S.S. Chi Cheemaun ferry service. They have found that people who have a positive experience riding the ferry as children tend to come back and bring their families as adults, hence supporting the economic development of the port communities the ferry services.

The Georgian Bay Children's Choir with Parker Pharmacy, Rissi Davies Pharmacies Ltd., Bank of Nova Scotia, BMO Bank of Montreal, Douglas Cleaners, and Artemisia Artistic Glass Design

The Georgian Bay Children's Choir was very proud this year when we were selected for inclusion in the Artsvest program. Just the thought of our hard-earned fundraising dollars being matched by Artsvest was too much of a temptation to pass up, and many of our Board members and parent volunteers took on the challenge and fought for the cause.

Thanks to Artsvest, we fundraised $9,000 for The Georgian Bay Children's Choir! This funding could not have come at a better time – we have had such a busy year! In July, our Touring Ensemble trained heavily for an upcoming international competition by spending three days together at working intensively at our first-ever summer music camp. Shortly after, the Touring Ensemble travelled overseas to compete in the 25th annual Festival Internacional de Música de Cantonigròs in Catalunya, Spain! We are now embarking on a fall music camp for our middle choir (The Middle C's) and our Touring Ensemble. Camp offers a rare opportunity for both of these choirs, which include children ages 8-16, to work together and bond, setting the tone for a successful year ahead.

This spring, the Choir will embark on our first-ever exchange program with the Guelph Youth Singers! With upcoming performances at The Festival of Northern Lights, historic Leith Church, our annual Sounds of the Season concert and more, it is a busy year and we are thrilled to have the support of our partners through it all and the extra financial security we achieved with the Artsvest program. Our past partners are more committed then ever, and our new partners are embarking on a new adventure supporting our Choir and the arts in our community.

Thank you artsVest!

Sincerely,

The Georgian Bay Children's Choir