The Electric City Culture Council (EC3) is proud to launch the Artsweek SHIFT² ‘pocket festival,’ a series of nine COVID-compliant arts projects and events taking place live, in-person throughout Peterborough and online, between May 1 and July 31, 2021.
All Artsweek SHIFT² events are FREE to the public!
Artsweek SHIFT is new pandemic project created by EC3 in response to the postponement, until September 2021, of Artsweek 2020, the city’s multi-disciplinary festival of the arts.
Artsweek SHIFT began with series of arts events that took place in-person and online from October to December 2020, including curated projects Downtown and Post-Code Tour. The second phase, Artsweek SHIFT², included an Open Call for Proposals for two grant programs: Project Production and Presentation Grants (announced below) and Mini Grants to Professional Artists (announcement coming soon).
Click images to see full resolution.
Artsweek SHIFT²
May 1 to July 31, 2021
Three months of art events, across the City of Peterborough and online.
The Peterborough Poetry Slam Virtual Soapbox Sessions
The Peterborough Poetry Slam will turn over control of its social media platforms and its virtual soapbox stage to a number of Peterborough-area poets.
Project Lead: Peterborough Poetry Slam Collective
Dates: May 24 to June 24
The Radio Is A Stage
A project that will feature collaborations between local artists, creating collaborative audio works, to be broadcast on the airwaves of Trent Radio CFFF 92.7FM.
Project Lead: Trent Radio
Date: June 6 (broadcast)
Testing
A brief and hilariously tragic theatre monologue testing the boundaries of live(streamed) communal experience. Content warning: mature themes and strong language.
Project Lead: The Theatre on King
Dates: June 10 to 12
Jenn Cole: “Swim!” (Precarious3 Festival)
A residency by theatre-dance artist Jenn Cole about living waterways, presented as part of the Precarious3 multidisciplinary arts festival.
Project Lead: Fleshy Thud
Dates: June 20 (video premiere)
Benj Rowland Live Stream Concert
An evening livestream concert of mostly original songs, performed solo by Benj Rowland.
Project Lead: Benj Rowland
Dates: July 2
aLIVE Circus
Set at Peterborough Square, this five-act live circus production reunites audiences and performers in celebration of springtime and all things living.
Project Lead: Peterborough Academy of Circus Arts
Date: July 11
Borderless Music & Arts Festival
Multidisciplinary arts showcase that centres women, intersectional identities, and inclusive community-building with an eclectic mosaic of music, dance, visual art, poetry, drag, improv, and film.
Project Lead: Sara Shahsavari
Dates: July 22 to 25
Vertep
A puppet-based multimedia performance work. An intimate experience, it is performed privately for audiences, one member at a time.
Project Lead: The Nervous System
Dates: July 28 to August 8
Fire Shift
A collaboration between local youth and Peterborough artists to make ceramic work and then experience a traditional outdoor pit firing process.
Project Lead: John Marris
Dates: Public Exhibition TBA
Artsweek SHIFT² Call for Proposals (archived)
‘Component One: Mini Grants to Professional Artists’ and ‘Component Two: Project Production and Presentation Grants’.
(Note: no longer accepting applications.)
Artsweek SHIFT (Phase One)
October to December, 2020
Phase One is now complete.
Post-Code Tour
Artists imagine a more accessible vision of downtown Peterborough in a speculative virtual tour.
Downtown
Poetry, spoken word, and visual art in the heart of downtown.
List of events
Virtual Soapbox: The Peterborough Poetry Slam will turn over control of its social media platforms and its virtual soapbox stage to a number of Peterborough-area poets.
Testing: Only a writer and performer as gifted as Dan Smith can squeeze so much catharsis into so few minutes.
Smith’s script, equal parts absurdist humour and existential dread, directed with laser precision by none other than Kate Story, offers audiences precisely the generosity they need at this point of the pandemic.
The show is only ten minutes long. Ten minutes of tiny, successive bursts of laughter interlaced with the kind of tears that only come from seeing and being seen. From seeing yourself in the face of Other.
Paradoxically, it would seem, the cure for Zoom fatigue is more Zoom. The platform has never felt so intimate. So vindicating.
At The Theatre On King, we appreciate how difficult this ongoing collective trauma has been. This is hard. You’re trying your best. We see you.
We’ve got your back.
Testing is FREE. Testing is only ten minutes long. Registration for admission to Testing can be done well in advance OR up to five minutes before the show begins. If you miss your registered show time, you can wait and watch the next one instead.
Treat yourself to a ten-minute reprieve from this eternal pandemic-Hell – you’ll be so glad you did!
Testing runs every half-hour from 7pm-9pm on Thursday, June 10th and Friday, June 11th – with matinee shows from 2pm-4pm on Saturday, June 12th.
Audiences will have four opportunities each day to see Testing: at 7:00, 7:30, 8:00, and 8:30 on June 10th and 11th, and at 2:00, 2:30, 3:00, and 3:30 on June 12th.
Register for Testing here:
Thursday, June 10 (7pm-9pm)
Friday, June 11 (7pm-9pm)
Saturday, June 12 (2pm-4pm)
*Testing contains strong language and mature themes.
Testing is brought to you by The Theatre On King and Artsweek SHIFT2.
The final broadcast of Artsweek SHIFT² project The Radio is a Stage takes place on Sunday, June 6.
Trent Radio seeks applications from local artists working in any discipline to collaborate in 4-person group with the goal to produce a creative radio broadcast. Artists will be compensated financially for their work. This project is funded through Artsweek SHIFT².
Collaboration groups will create a 60-minute radio programme exploring how their individual and combined artistic practices can be expressed audibly, presented on the radio.
Virtual Soapbox: The Peterborough Poetry Slam will turn over control of its social media platforms and its virtual soapbox stage to a number of Peterborough-area poets.
Virtual Soapbox: The Peterborough Poetry Slam will turn over control of its social media platforms and its virtual soapbox stage to a number of Peterborough-area poets.
Virtual Soapbox: The Peterborough Poetry Slam will turn over control of its social media platforms and its virtual soapbox stage to a number of Peterborough-area poets.
Applications for Artsweek SHIFT² project The Radio is a Stage are open until Friday, May 14.
Trent Radio seeks applications from local artists working in any discipline to collaborate in 4-person group with the goal to produce a creative radio broadcast. Artists will be compensated financially for their work. This project is funded through Artsweek SHIFT².
Collaboration groups will create a 60-minute radio programme exploring how their individual and combined artistic practices can be expressed audibly, presented on the radio.
Artsweek SHIFT2/Precarious3 Festival project “Swim!” is looking for participants. See full details.
Deadline to apply is May 27.
**A video and other resources from this webinar are now available online – click HERE.**
Got any questions about applying for Artsweek SHIFT²? Looking for some tips & tricks?
EC3 will present two Artsweek SHIFT² Application Information Session online via Zoom on Thursday, February 4, at 5:30pm and 7:30pm. The sessions are free and will each last approximately one hour.
(If you can’t make it, we will make a recording of the event available after it’s done.)
If you have any questions, you can contact EC3’s Program Coordinator Gabe Pollock at infoartsweek@gmail.com.
Join us for an afternoon of spoken word and poetry by local artists presented ‘en plein air’ outdoors in the heart of Peterborough’s downtown.
Featured artists: KATHERINE HEIGH, JUSTIN MILLION, SHAUN PHUAH, AND NICK TAYLOR.
This event is presented FREE of charge.
Bring your own chair!
*Please note* This is a COVID-compliant event. Masks must be worn by audience members at all times during the event.
This event is part of Downtown, an Artsweek SHIFT project curated by Justin Million, which will include a mix of poetry, spoken word, and visual arts events. Watch for announcements about more events, coming soon
