Province Invests in Culture

Twenty-two dance, music, visual arts, theatre and new media groups will receive a total of $128,735 for arts and culture projects.

The money comes from the Grants to Organizations and Small Groups program administered by the Department of Tourism and Culture. Formerly offered through the Nova Scotia Arts Council, the program supports groups that commission new works or produce a specific work or program for presentation to the public.

"We are proud to support groups that work to foster creative expression and artistic excellence," said Tourism and Culture Minister Rodney MacDonald. "Their efforts contribute to the overall vitality of Nova Scotia's arts and culture sector."

The program also supports groups that participate in professional-development activities to strengthen the artistic or administrative capacity of their organization, or the artists with whom they work.

The successful applicants were chosen by three peer-assessment committees representing a broad cross-section of artistic disciplines and regions in the province. The committees evaluated 64 applications on the quality of the organization's or group's work, the artistic merit of the project and the ability of the applicant to see it through.

The next application deadline for this program is March 15, 2003.

Note: Following are the 22 selected projects.

• The Contemporary Arts Projects Society, based in Halifax, will receive $3,000 to hold a symposium on contemporary painting titled, What About Painting. The symposium will be held in conjunction with About Painting, a city-wide series of painting exhibitions presented by seven public and commercial galleries this fall.

• Khyber Arts Society will use $3,000 to develop a program that will provide studio space within the Khyber building in Halifax to a local emerging artist.

• The Mi'kmaq Native Friendship Centre in Halifax will receive $2,250 to hire professional instructors to provide classes and workshops for Pawei' Nation Theatre Company Drama Studio. It will also receive $8,000 to assist the Pawei' Nation Theatre Company in producing a story telling program to be held at the Elders Youth Conference.

• The Dalhousie Art Gallery will receive $7,736 to present the exhibition Walk Ways, an international exhibition of works in a variety of media that explore the theme of walking as an action and/or metaphor.

• Dance as a Performing Art, based in Halifax, will receive $10,000 to support the 2002-03 Open Studio Series -- a season of 10 performances (five events) of new contemporary dance created by Nova Scotia choreographers.

• Halifax's Eye Level Gallery will receive $12,000 to provide opportunities for artists and the public to explore some of the images, issues and themes current in contemporary art through a curated series of window installations.

• Gwen Noah Dance of Halifax will use $7,218 to create a full- length work, titled descendant, featuring choreographer/dancer Gwen Noah, cellist Norman Adams, composer Sandy Moore and costume designer Holly Crooks.

• Incomplete Dislocations Collective, based in Halifax, will receive $10,194 to assist in an outreach project, matching artists with technicians, to make their first digital media pieces.

• Mount Saint Vincent University Art Gallery will receive $4,300 to present an exhibition of works by Carl Zimmerman, Darci Mallon and Freda Guttman titled Optical Illusions, in which photographic realism is opened up to critical and poetic interpretation.

• The Sanctuary Trio will receive $4,000 to present a 10 piece string orchestra on March 18, 2003, at St. Mary's Basilica, Halifax.

• Scotia Festival of Music will receive $4,000 to assist with two weeks of rehearsals for the Super Nova Quartet, a string quartet of young virtuosi Canadians of international repute, which will culminate in a public performance.

• Think on Me Productions based in Halifax will use its $5,000 to conduct a developmental workshop, culminating in two public readings of a new play about internationally acclaimed Nova Scotian classical singer, Portia White.

• Zuppa Circus Theatre Company of Halifax will receive $15,000 to stage the fifth annual Street Theatre Extravaganza in the summer of 2003, with an original Zuppa Circus play titled The Rocking Horse Winner.

• Halifax Dance Association will use $2,500 to commission two new works for the Young Company of Halifax Dance. The first is by Andrea Leigh-Smith and Stephen Cross of Irondale, based on the writings of Wendell Berry. The second is a collaboration between three emerging choreographers (Jenee Gowing, Sara Harrigan and Ruth-Ellen Kroll) who share a passion for Bach.

• Mocean Dance will receive $2,500 to commission Allen and Karen Kaeja to create a new work of contact-dance choreography for the company, to be premiered in Halifax's Sir James Dunn Theatre in November 2003 at the opening performance of Mocean Dance's 2003- 04 season.

• St. Cecilia Concert Series will receive $2,000 to commission a work from composer Peter Togni for string quartet and piano in celebration of the 15th anniversary of the St. Cecilia Concert Series in Halifax.

• Playwrights Atlantic Resource Centre (PARC), based in Guysborough County, will receive $3,000 to assist with the Home Delivery Project, which will offer 30 Nova Scotian playwrights an opportunity to submit a script to the PARC office, to be sent to a dramaturge for written feedback.

• The Maritime Jazz Orchestra, based in Antigonish County, will receive $6,000 to assist with the costs to attend and perform at the 2003 International Association of Jazz Educators Convention in Jan. 2003 in Toronto, with special guest composer/trumpeter, Kenny Wheeler.

• Ship's Company Theatre in Parrsboro will receive $2,000 to commission playwright Michael Melski to write a play titled The Trout Fisher's Companion. It will also receive $3,037 to develop a play based on the novel The Parrsboro Boxing Club, by undertaking two one-week workshops for script development.

• Two Planks and a Passion Theatre Company in Canning, Kings Co. will receive $12,000 to produce a new work by Jackie Torrens in 2003, with the working title of Hal and Sal.