Just ahead of the upcoming provincial election, PACE will be hosting a forum with representatives from the major political parties on their vision for the arts in Alberta:
Have a heart-to-heart chat with Alberta election candidates about their parties’ visions for arts, culture and heritage in our province.
PACE is organizing an Arts Forum for this Friday, April 20 at 7:30 p.m. in the Jefferson Room at the Prince of Wales Armouries, 10440 – 108 Avenue.
Bring your arts, culture and heritage questions with notebooks and pencils to the Prince of Wales Armouries this Friday. Tell all your professional artist and arts supporters friends to come, too. Let’s impress upon all these candidates how important arts, culture and heritage is to all Albertans.
Party representatives confirmed so far:
Alberta Liberals – Laurie Blakeman
Alberta NDP – Nadine Bailey
Alberta Party – John Hudson
PC Alberta – Heather Klimchuk
Wildrose Party – TBA
See the full details at paceedmonton.com or join the Facebook event.
If you haven’t already seen the list, PACE has posted the nominees for this year’s Mayor’s Celebration for the Arts awards over at their site. We’re proud to see our friend and board member Erin Elizabeth Ross on the list—as well as lots of other great local artists of all kinds.
Updated: the location has been changed to Churchill Square. See the Facebook event for details.
As part of their advocacy campaign in protest of the recent 16% cut to the arts—and rumours of future continuing cuts—PACE is organizing a flashmob media event this Monday:
“This media event will be colourful, dramatic and fun, but it will also send a very serious message to the Alberta government that further cuts on top of last year’s 16% funding cut will stop many important arts projects in their tracks,” says Daniel Cournoyer, Chairperson of the Professional Arts Coalition of Edmonton. “We know that most Albertans will be happy to show their love of Alberta art, we just hope that same love will be in the air when the provincial budget is delivered on February 24th.”
The media event will take place at 12:30 PM on February 14th in Sir Winston Churchill Square. The flash mob will only last 5 minutes followed by a media availability with representatives from various professional arts organizations.
Click through to the Facebook event to see more information and express your support.
Back in January, we mentioned that you can pick up a postcard from our neighbors the Alberta Craft Council to tell Alberta politicians about your support for the arts. They’re leaving their downstairs gallery bare for 16% of the year to protest recent cutbacks.
Recently, The Professional Arts Coalition of Edmonton unveiled its Advocacy Toolkit where you can download printable postcards featuring the above design, or ones featuring photographs from the Varscona Theatre or Alberta Craft Council. What are you waiting for?
PACE also invites you to join the campaign on Facebook.
