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).
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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
The Electric City Culture Council is proud to present the Downtown Artists in Residence Project: On Hospitality. Curated by Leslie Menagh.
Six local artists have been selected to take part in the residency and have been invited to contemplate the theme of hospitality. A cross-cultural value, hospitality can be expressed, understood, and interpreted in diverse ways. The Indigenous, settler, and newcomer artists taking part will share their unique perspectives on the subject as well as their diverse artistic practices.
Featuring Brad Brackenridge, Kelly O’Neill, Nick Ferrio, Rodney Fuentes, Mayelin Lovet, and Alice Williams
The Wailing is an outdoor performance conceived by multidisciplinary artist Laurel Paluck. At its centre is a pod of five large ghost whales assembled from plastic in Laurel’s downtown studio. The whales gather, commune, and mourn in response to the harm caused by over consumption of plastic and human pollution, and invite audiences to do the same.
This performance is presented with special consideration for accessibility. Accommodations available upon request.
What do you do when you have a craving and don’t want to cook it yourself? You order take-out of course! Step right up to the handmade, bicycle-pulled Poetry Cart, where gracious servers will offer you a menu of poetic options. Check off the style, mood, and theme you’re after and an array of talented writers will create an instant work of original poetry just for you, tapping it out on a classic typewriter.
Performance of Lookout by Anne White
An outdoor exhibition of sculpture, animated film, and performance, Between the Lines responds to the questions posed and opportunities presented by “in-between” spaces. Featuring Carolyn Code, Daniel Crawford and Anne White. Curated by Hannah Keating.
Divergent Dances Peterborough is an outdoor aerial performance created by Brandy Leary of Anandam Dancetheatre. It features local dance artists Erin Ball, Opal Elchuk, Nikola Steer, and Thomas Vaccaro in performance on an exterior wall of Peterborough Square. The performances will be prefaced by a series of open rehearsals scheduled throughout the week. Divergent Dances Peterborough explores themes of listening, non-spectacle, and how bodies move in public space.
Tootah is an open-hearted, family-friendly, red-nosed Clown who likes to keep busy. Whether collecting garbage, trying to understand Bineshiinyag (the Birds), or joyfully interacting with passersby, Tootah is always tending to something important.
Everyday is Culture Day in Peterborough!
Go out and see some art!
September 28 – 30
https://on.culturedays.ca/en
Between the Water and the Sky is a live performance featuring Unity Indigenous vocal ensemble, Peterborough Symphony Orchestra String Quartet, and dancers/choreographers Beany John and Jade Willoughby.
The Flying Canoe, presented by the Peterborough Academy of Circus Arts, tells the story of a French-Canadian folktale, the Chasse-Galerie (“The Flying Canoe”), with live fiddle music by Jay Edmunds.
