The Writing Challenge... are you up to it?

One of my not so secret secrets is that I’m attempting to write a novel. I’ve been doing so for what feels like forever and it is probably a few chapters away from completion. That is, if I ever get around to looking at my first draft again.

The reason for this massive delay is that writing is really, really… really hard. On the flip side, it’s also massively rewarding when it goes well. After complaining yet again about this thorny face of writing, a friend recommended that I read Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life by Anne Lamott. Lamott, like myself, acknowledges that the process of writing can be… wait for it… really hard sometimes. She, however, has some sound advice on how to suck it up and keep writing. Aspiring writers read this book!

It is this painful bit of first-hand experience that makes me endlessly appreciative of any form of writing. I’m especially delighted, then, when I come across great pieces of writing by people who are entirely unexpected.

Take for example, The Joining of Dingo Radish by Rob Harasymchuk. It was my father who introduced me to this book. Offhandedly one day, he mentioned that a guy he worked with happened to have written a book in his ‘free time’. This book turned out to be an award nominated, page turning, crime/thriller set in a small, rural town and Harasymchuk’s first novel. Harasymchuk, a Project Superintendent for a construction company, is a self-taught writer whose dream it is to tell people’s stories for a living.

I read Dingo and was jealous. Not only did Harasymchuk write the perfect Prairie underdog story, he managed to capture the nuances - good and bad - of life in a rural town. Plus, he finished HIS book.

Equally putting me to shame is Chris Willard’s Sundre: a novel. Willard, a former New-Yorker who is currently head of the Painting Department at the Alberta College of Art and Design, wrote this – his second book – after moving to Alberta and becoming captivated by the vastness of the prairies. After spending time in Sundre and in their archives, Willard wrote what reviewer Robert Coover called: “An affectionate elegy for a gone time, laced with strands of old-fashioned prairie wisdom in the face of life’s sad turns.”

Hey – wait a minute! Why is this New Yorker writing the prairie story I SHOULD be writing? I’m sorry. Did I say I was jealous yet?

So, I wonder time and again… what compels people to write these amazing stories? Is it the seductive feeling of a hard battle won over the self-doubting voices in your head? Is it because of the urge we have to communicate our inner thoughts and feelings to others? Or is it the simple need to tell a really good story whether it is about an unlikely hero like with Harasymchuk’s Dingo or, with Willard’s Sundre, about a time in our history slowly being forgotten?

University of Calgary English professor Harry Vandervlist has always been amazed at the tenacity many writers show in drafting and re-working their material. “If you take the time to look at the work an author puts in, which you can sometimes do by studying all the drafts and revisions available at a good archive collection, you realize just how many thousands of hours go into a good piece of writing. The only reason writers stick with the job, I’ve always thought, is because they don’t have any choice. Writers write because they have to. It can be an addiction that doesn’t make life easier for the author, but without it we’d be a lot poorer as readers.”

Our compulsion to write, to tell our stories, in fact, has realized itself in online writing groups, book clubs, poetry slams, and writing camps across the province. It’s for reasons like this that resources like the Writer’s Guild of Alberta exist. See their website (www.writersguild.ab.ca) for info on support for writers as well as for organizations looking to connect with Alberta’s writing talent.

So here’s my challenge to you. Get writing! We all can do it with a little commitment, fearlessness, and support. I’ll show you my work in progress if you show me yours.

Please see:

Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life by Anne Lamott (Pantheon Books)

The Joining of Dingo Radish by Rob Harasymchuk (Great Plains Publications)

Sundre: a novel by Chris Willard (Esplande Books)

Cultural Intelligence - how would you score?

How judgmental do you think we are as a culture or, more importantly, of culture itself? There’s no denying that we are constantly striving to improve ourselves, to embrace multiculturalism, to champion human rights, and promote diversity. How often, though, do we stop… I mean really stop… to consider what all of this means?

I had an ‘ah ha’ moment a few weeks ago while attending Alberta’s first ever Aboriginal Recreation Leaders Summit hosted by ACE Communities and the Indigenous Sports Council.

At the end of the event, participants were asked to comment on what they had learned. When it was his turn one gentleman named Tommy Quinney, a volunteer recreation advisor from Frog Lake, stated this as his reason for dedicating himself to improving his community.

“When I die and meet the Creator,” Quinney said, “the last thing I would want him to think was that I was ever ashamed to have been an Indian.”

“Wow,” my brain said. Funny concept that – that in this day and age someone might still have to defend himself or herself for being who they are. Pride in oneself and one’s community can still be a hard fought battle no matter what that community is. It’s the Boomers versus the Net Generation, the artsy fartsys versus the corporations, the green movement versus the oil guys. Why can’t we all just get along?

In a session at the recent Alberta Recreation and Parks Association Conference, I had the pleasure of hearing Dr. Jennifer James speak on ‘Cultural Intelligence: What’s your score?’. It was her argument that for humanity to evolve, we must first observe, learn, understand, and evaluate our own culture as well as the culture of others. She argued that we must embrace diversity and give up what she phrased a ‘single option perspectives’ in order for us to advance our civilization past values based on money and power to a place where an overall sense of community is our greatest asset.

Culture it seems can be defined in clumps based on identity. There is the gay culture, the comic book culture, the yummy mummy culture, and your classic culture based on ethnicity. It is whatever defines you and your chosen group.

In fact, if we want, we can easily alter Tommy Quinney’s statement. Maybe the thing you aren’t ashamed of is being working mom or a single dad. Or maybe it’s that you are a lesbian… Jewish… gay… a white Irish Catholic male...an East Indian woman… a feminist…a sci-fi geek…or First Nations. We could all spend hours defending our chosen culture whether it is one of ethnicity, social, or political leanings. The question arises, what can we do so that we can all evolve to a place where we won’t need to defend our cultures anymore?

I personally would like to take a lead from Tommy Quinney. I believe that we all work hard to improve the community that we are in; the rest of the world will follow. It seems what we really need to do is to BOTH take pride in ourselves and joy in learning about others. Simple enough. The real question is then: if you had to rate your cultural intelligence – what would be your score?

For more info on Dr. Jennifer James’ most recent book see: "Thinking In The Future Tense" and her upcoming new book, "Cultural Intelligence".

PASOs - what they can do for you...

One of the most useful arts and cultural discoveries I have made recently is that Alberta has its very own set of PASOs. Pronounced like Paso as in El Paso (or is it with an ‘eh’ like in peso?), the Professional Arts Service Organizations are umbrella arts-related organizations that offer services like advocacy and educational opportunities to its members. These organizations are ideal resources for rural communities or even individuals looking to expand their arts and cultural activities.

For a very minimal annual fee (which ranges from about $25-$50 for individuals and as little as $100 - $250 for organizations), members of these PASOs have access to services as far reaching as online writing workshops and newsletters to a film festival in a proverbial can. All you need to know is where to look.

Take, for example, the Alberta Media Arts Alliance Society (www.amaas.ca). On top of direct member services like webhosting, an annual conference, sponsorship and artist commissions, members of this PASO have access to Prairie Tales - an annual touring collection of Albertan short film and video. So what does this mean for rural communities? It means that with this DVD, a DVD player and projector, an empty wall, and a little ingenuity, you have the makings of your very own film festival.

Then there is The Writers Guild of Alberta (www.writersguild.ab.ca) who represents both professional and emerging writers in Alberta. This focus materializes in projects like the ‘Guild-to-Go’ that aims to bring programming and resources to writers in rural communities across Alberta. They also have a book club starting kit and a wide range of youth programs – some of which they hope to soon take online with the goal of increasing their outreach in remote areas.

Many rural communities already know about the Arts Touring Alliance of Alberta (www.artstouring.com) and their ‘Alberta Showcase’. Now in its 32^nd year, the ‘Alberta Showcase’ brings together presenters from across the province who are searching for artists who will tour to their communities. This event also brings together community presenters for creative solutions and networking opportunities. ACE Communities, in fact, has partnered with the ATAA on the upcoming launch of our own ARTS Tour.

When it comes to opportunities, Theatre Alberta (www.theatrealberta.com) takes center stage. Not only does this PASO offer its members access to their library, with over 15,000 play scripts and theatre resources, they have free mail service for members outside of the Edmonton area. They also offer their Artstrek program, which is a residential weeklong summer theatre program for teens hosted by the Red Deer College.

On top of exhibition and sales opportunities through their shop, the Alberta Craft Council (www.albertacraft.ab.ca) offers its members access to their ‘Symbol of Quality’ program – a quality assurance program vetted by a Craft Council jury. They also offer a product advisory committee and Craft Business Training. Like many of the other PASOs, they too offer awards and scholarships opportunities.

Another service that ties all of the PASOs together is their extensive information networks. The Alberta Dance Alliance’s (www.abdancealliance.ab.ca) Dancelines e-newsletter announces dance-related opportunities on a bi-weekly basis as does the Book Publishers Association of Alberta (www.bookpublishers.ab.ca) electronic newsletter, Bibliophax.

The Alberta Music Industry Association (www.amia.ca) will soon be launching a comprehensive online music directory and the Alberta Magazine Publishers Association (www.albertamagazines.com) not only offers studies on Alberta’s publishing industry but also has its own Template magazine – a how-to resource on publishing.

In terms of educational opportunities, Visual Arts Alberta Association (www.visualartsalberta.com/blog) proudly offers the VAAA High School Scholarship Program, which provides up to four rural Alberta high school students with tuition and travel expenses to attend Summerscapes for Teens at Red Deer College. And if you are a French speaker, Le Regroupement artistique francophone de l'alberta (www.rafa-alberta.ca) offers various coaching services to Albertan Francophone artists in all media.

But this is just the tip of the taco… our province’s PASOs have all of this to offer and more! Many PASOs will even doll out advice to non-members as long as it pertains to their chosen genre. So whether it’s related to mentoring, networking, or developmental advice, you all have access to the tools to make it happen.

Artist Studios and the Community

Well, I finally went and did it.  I have officially caved in and did the one thing I never thought I would.  I commissioned a piece of art in honour of my basset hounds.   I know it’s a bit silly but among my growing collection of contemporary art there is not one single basset.  A true tragedy, I know.

This commission recently led me to a studio visit with a young up-and-coming Calgary-based artist named Samantha Walrod.  Sam, a recent graduate of the Alberta College of Art and Design, is part of a studio group located in a newly converted Calgary bottle depot and the painter of my basset portrait.  

After a preview of my still-in-progress basset mini masterpiece, Sam and I got chatting about her experience in her new studio space.  The conversion of the depot into artist studios had made the news as an example of how one community dealt with the issues of drugs and prostitution – two things that were linked to the former bottle depot.  Once a potential catalyst for crime, the depot was transformed into a potential hub of creative energy.

The link of creative spaces to community development has been a hot topic lately and was the focus of a recent conference hosted in Calgary by the Calgary Arts Development.  This conference focused on the activities of Tim Jones, the CEO of Artscape in Toronto.  “Artists are powerful agents of change,” Jones stated as part of his keynote speech.  “The challenge, I find, is to reverse stigmas around the arts and to use them to purposefully regenerate areas.  I sincerely believe in city building through the arts.” 

At one point in my career, I was the manager of a studio group and gallery in Belfast, N. Ireland.  Not only was the Queen Street Studios (QSS) the oldest studio group in N. Ireland, it was the largest and heavily riddled with physical and administrative challenges.  My recent chat with Sam and the Creative Spaces conference got me thinking about my old QSS days.

Here are 3 important lessons – both big and small - I have learnt about artist studio spaces:

1) Sustainability:  We all know the story about the crummy, yet affordable neighbourhood that is rejuvenated by the artist types only to be gentrified and made into a high-end, unaffordable condo-ville.  This story exists, of course, because it is true.  As Tim Jones of Artscape pointed out, however, this story can be reversed by purposefully using the arts as the centerpieces for new development and renovations. 

So what does sustainability mean for someone like Sam who’s rightfully concerned that her depot turned studio will be transitioned right out from underneath her?  The answer is an active and engaged connection to the community surrounding the studios.  This can come in the form of a community champion, much like her Community Association who pushed for the studio in the first place.  This particular community association saw that the arts could be used by business as social leverage.  Studies show that arts and leisure activities are what attract people to a community.  They are, in fact, prime economic development and relocation magnets.  Hello artist studio, goodbye crime, hello continuing community improvement.

2) Community integration: So you have managed to develop your studio or creative space, now what?  The key to success with something like an artist co-op in any neighbourhood is to eliminate the idea of ‘us’ and ‘them’.  Think of it as a 2-way, symbiotic relationship between the studio and the community. The more that a studio opens itself up to their community, the more they create synergy.  This can be done by studio-hosted ‘Open Days’ and workshops, for example, which would give community members opportunities to learn new creative skills while generating income for the artists. 

The interesting thing is that artists are often looking for a similar connection to their neighbourhood.  It is a common reality that artists, while being in a co-operative space like a studio, often work in isolation (due to the varying schedules of artists who often have multiple jobs and varying deadlines).  The most useful thing any artist studio can have, in terms of location, is a neighbourhood coffee shop or café.  It’s in these third places and bumping grounds that the most fertile community and arts development happens.  If you don’t have a neighbouring café, think of starting one like The Carrot, a Community Arts Coffeehouse in Edmonton (http://artsontheave.org/thecarrot/).

3) Sense of pride and place:  If there is one thing I have learned, it is that environment affects self-worth.  When it comes down to it on its most fundamental level, a studio group starts with a building – and, more often than not, this building is old and tired.  The challenge is not to let this state of disrepair affect the self-worth of its inhabitants.  Just like how we might define ourselves – for good or for bad – by the attractiveness and safe-state of our own neighbourhoods.  The most successful artist studios that I have seen are the ones whose common areas are clean and bright with areas where people want to linger.  Think of this in terms of how the best communities also reflect this philosophy. 

I am always interested in hearing your creative space stories, challenges, and successes.  So send them on because there is always someone who can benefit from our collective wisdom!  Email me at: jnaclia@aceleaders.ca or post below.

Related Links:

-A current exhibition of Samantha Walrod’s paintings can be seen at: www.newzones.com/dynamic/artist.asp?ArtistID=148

-For an example of Artscape’s latest project see: www.torontoartscape.on.ca/places-spaces/artscape-wychwood-barns

-More info on the Queen Street Studios in Belfast: www.queenstreetstudios.net

-See the Carrot, a Community Arts Coffeehouse: http://artsontheave.org/thecarrot/

 

 

 

Alberta Art Days - check it out!

The last time I checked there were 54 communities celebrating this year’s Alberta Art Days.  That’s a sum of 235 different events taking place in libraries, galleries, and community centers across the province.  Whether it’s a puppet show at the Hinton Library or the Sauerkraut Festival in Innisfail, these events are meant to showcase Alberta’s vibrant cultural pulse.

But what exactly is the Alberta Arts Days, you ask?  Well, let me happily tell you.  The Alberta Arts Days, a Government of Alberta initiative, is a three-day celebration of Alberta's arts, culture, and heritage taking place from September 18-20.  Alberta Arts Days is an important part of 'The Spirit of Alberta', Alberta’s cultural policy.  If you want to learn more about this policy (which I highly recommend), visit: culture.alberta.ca/culturalpolicy. 

I am very excited by what an initiative like this means for the province.  After being in the arts and culture sector for over ten years now as a writer, an administrator, and as a volunteer, I have seen many cultural events take form – both in Canada and in Ireland where I lived for three years.  I have even been involved in the start-up of festivals myself.  I can tell you firsthand that there is inherent value in these events that is far beyond the appreciation of art for art sake.

In a recent study entitled “Developing and Revitalizing Rural Communities Through Arts and Creativity”, researchers Dr. Nancy Duxbury and Heather Campbell discovered that it is often the arts, cultural, and heritage related activities that connect and build a community. They state that: “The nature of arts activity in rural communities – the underlying cultural assets, dynamics, and foundations – inform and shape the nature of community and economic initiatives that interact with them.”  Basically, what they’re saying is that it’s arts, culture, and heritage that often act as our community’s spiritual and emotional glue.

I have found that, in many ways, a puppet show like the one in Hinton is more than simply entertainment for the kids.  Instead, it is a way of bringing families together and studies show that couples that play together stay together.  Arts and culture builds strong families and, as a result, healthy communities.

Leisure activities, like Innisfail’s Sauerkraut Festival, are more than a reason to eat bratwurst and listen to styling German tunes.  These activities contribute to mental health - reducing stress, reducing depression, and contributing to emotional, psychological and spiritual well-being.  These cultural events help people understand their neighbours, environment, and history.  This is what builds both pride in a community and a sense of place.

So there you go!  There are a whole slew of reasons for you to check out the Alberta Arts Days events in your community.  Do it for your peace of mind and as an active exercise for your brain.  Engage with the world and experience new creative outlets.  I, for one, have already planned my Alberta Arts Day weekend.  What about you? 

See this link for event listings in your community: http://www.culture.alberta.ca/artsdays/