What a great evening with SIX parties running candidates in Alberta’s 2012 provincial elections being represented!!

• Alberta Liberals – Laurie Blakeman, running in Edmonton Centre
• Alberta NDP – Nadine Bailey, running in Edmonton Centre
• Alberta Party – John Hudson, running in Edmonton McClung
• Evergreen Party – Trey Capnerhurst, running in Edmonton-Beverly-Clareview
• PC Alberta – Heather Klimchuk, running in Edmonton Glenora
• Wildrose Party – Doug Main, Communications Consultant (no candidates were available)

There was much lively discussion on the future of our province’s arts, culture and heritage sector.  Links to photos and recordings of the event are provided below with more to come (Hint:  The most exciting (and revealing) parts start around the middle of the forum):

PACEdmonton YouTube Channel featuring 23 videos from our Edmonton Arts Forum on April 20, 2012.  WARNING:  Our Coordinator filmed these so they are VERY amateur, but at least you can follow what happened.

• Video 1                                                                      Video 13
• Video 2                                                                      Video 14
• Video 3                                                                      Video 15
• Video 4                                                                      Video 16
• Video 5                                                                      Video 17
• Video 6                                                                      Video 18
• Video 7                                                                      Video 19
• Video 8                                                                      Video 20
• Video 9                                                                      Video 21
• Video 10                                                                    Video 22
• Video 11                                                                    Video 23
• Video 12

Come to Edmonton’s Only Arts Forum

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

Again, here are the details on our upcoming Edmonton ARTS FORUM:

Date:  Friday, April 20, 2012

Time:   7:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.

Place:  Jefferson Room, Prince of Wales Armouries, 10440 – 108 Avenue

PACE is starting to receive responses to the “ask” it sent to all political leaders running in the 2012 Alberta provincial election.  We have heard back from the Alberta NDP and the PC Alberta leaders so far.  Click here to see the answers they gave to the questions we asked on behalf of Alberta’s arts and culture sector.

In the meantime, we encourage members of the arts community and all their supporters to pose these same questions to candidates at forums and on the doorstep.  We need to impress upon them that the Alberta arts sector is vital to our province and we are taking an active role in the outcome of this election.

What you need to know about arts and culture in Alberta before you answer our questions:

• 91% of Albertans feel art activities are important in contributing to the overall quality of life in their community. Source:  Annual Survey of Albertans, Resinnova Research & Consulting Inc. 2010
• Albertans receive a 12:1 return on every dollar spent on the arts. Source: Summary of the Economic Impact of the Arts in Alberta,Alberta Foundation for the Arts, 2005.
• 88% of Albertans feel it is important that the Government of Alberta continues to fund and support the arts. Source: Culture and Community Services Annual Survey of Albertans on Culture, Leger Marketing, 2011
• All three levels of government receive tax revenue through the arts sector.  A total of 67.9 million in taxes is collected (in Alberta) through taxation systems each year.  Source Culture and Community Spirit Department Fact and Figures 2010

Please give us your position on the following:

1.  Do you support a restoration of the 2010 16 per cent cut to the AFA?

2.  If elected to serve the people of Alberta in the next Legislature, will you work towards immediately increasing lottery money investment to arts, culture and heritage by 25%?

Here are the arts and culture platforms put out so far.  We will post more as they become available.  Check out what these parties have to say on our future:

• Alberta Liberal Party: http://www.albertaliberal.com/files/Yes%20-%202012%20Election%20Platform.pdf (p.22 – includes sports)
• Alberta New Democratic Party: http://albertandp.ca/wherewestand/details/supporting_the_arts
• Alberta Party: http://www.albertaparty.ca/creative_industries
• PC Alberta Party:  http://www.votepc.ca/public/data/documents/AlbertaByDesign-DraftV5-04-12-12.pdf (p. 31)
• Wildrose Party:  http://www.wildrose.ca/media/2012/04/Pledge.pdf (p. 19)

Click here for some interesting comparison information provided to us by our friends at the Edmonton Chamber of Voluntary Organizations.

And check out the following links:

• http://www.albertaviews.ab.ca/2012/04/04/the-value-of-your-vote-march-2010/
• http://changealberta.wordpress.com/2012/04/16/some-surprising-numbers-we-can-change-alberta-by-tom-priestly/

Also, have a look at the great campaign ArtsVote Calgary has been doing!  Click here to view coverage on the arts forum they hosted in Calgary.

General provincial advocacy information is available at the Public Interest Alberta website.

Award for Innovative Support by a Business for the Arts

ATCO Gas & ATCO Electric

Award for Sustained Support of the Arts

REALTORS® Association of Edmonton, Jon Hall, Marketing Manager

John Poole Award for Promotion of the Arts

Arts on the Ave

ATCO Gas Award for Outstanding Lifetime Achievement

Brian Webb

CN Award for Youth Artist

Candace Chu

DIALOG Award for Excellence in Artistic Direction

Marsh Murphy

Northlands Award for an Emerging Artist

Jason Carter

Robert Koetsch City of Edmonton Book Prize

FREDDY’S WAR  by Judy Schultz, Brindle & Glass, Publishing Ltd.

TELUS Courage to Innovate Award

iDance Edmonton

Award for Innovative Support by a Business for the Arts

ATCO Gas & ATCO Electric
Capital Power Corporation
Sam Osman – Film Alberta Studios
The Delcon Group
WorleyParsons/CoSyn Technology

Award for Sustained Support of the Arts

Maryanne Gibson
REALTORS® Association of Edmonton, Jon Hall, Marketing Manager

John Poole Award for Promotion of the Arts

Arts on the Ave Edmonton Society
Wendy Hollo
Sharara Dance and Fitness Studio
Sun & Moon Visionaries Aboriginal Artisan Society
The In Crowd (Aimée Hill and Jason Kodie), CBC Radio

ATCO Gas Award for Outstanding Lifetime Achievement

A.J. (Al) Rasko
Brian Webb

CN Award for Youth Artist

Ileanna Cheladyn
Candace Chu
Danielle Lowe
Olivia Wik

DIALOG Award for Excellence in Artistic Direction

Pamela Anthony
Jane Ash Poitras
Don Berner
David Garber
Drew McIntosh
Marsh Murphy
Ritchie Velthuis

Northlands Award for an Emerging Artist

Jason Carter
Punita Chohan
Alexis Marie Chute
Braden Gates
Caleb Nelson
Dara Humniski
Mieke Maligne
Alison Neuman
Amy Shostak
Sean Sonego
Erin Elizabeth Ross
Claire Louise Uhlick

Robert Koetsch City of Edmonton Book Prize

NOBODY CRIES AT BINGO
by Dawn Dumont, Thistledown Press

SANTA ROSA
by Wendy McGrath, NeWest Press

FREDDY’S WAR
by Judy Schultz, Brindle & Glass, Publishing Ltd.

TELUS Courage to Innovate Award

Ellen Chorley
iDance Edmonton
Darcia Parada of Mecury Opera
Karyn Stirling, Expressionz Café

We warmly congratulate all our nominees and wish them the very best of luck.  Come to the Mayor’s Celebration of the Arts on Monday, April 2 at the stunning Winspear Centre to see who receives awards.  Click here to purchase your tickets online or call the box office at 780.428.1414.  Remember, this year the cost of tickets includes an opulent after-party!

Our steering committee has decided to extend the deadline to Monday, January 30 for all award categories EXCEPT the Northlands Award for an Emerging Artist.

Nominations for the Northlands Award for an Emerging Artist are now officially CLOSED.

Nominations continue to be accepted only for:

• Award for Innovative Support by a Business for the Arts
• Award for Sustained Support of the Arts
• John Poole Award for Promotion of the Arts
• ATCO Gas Award for Outstanding Lifetime Achievement by an Edmonton Artist
• CN Youth Artist Award
• DIALOG Award for Excellence in Artistic Direction
• TELUS Courage to Innovate Award

Nominators can deliver their nomination packages to the first floor reception desk at City Hall or e-mail them to admin@pacedmonton.com by 4:30 p.m., Monday, January 30, 2012.  Please click on the icon to download a nomination form:

PLEASE NOTE:

• The nomination deadline is 4:30 p.m. on Monday, January 16, 2012.
• The nomination drop off point is the main floor reception area in City Hall.

PACE is inviting nominations for the following award categories:

Award for Innovative Support by a Business for the Arts recognizes a business that has supported an arts organization, event, project, or individual artist in a creative and original manner.

Award for Sustained Support of the Arts recognizes a business or an individual that has demonstrated an ongoing commitment to supporting the arts. This can be support for a specific arts organization, event, or individual artist or for general widespread support of the arts.

John Poole Award for Promotion of the Arts recognizes an individual, arts organization, media organization or business that has promoted the arts in a distinctly creative or exceptional manner. This category can include advocacy, marketing or any activity that increases the profile of the arts, artists, arts organizations, or arts events.

ATCO Gas Award for Outstanding Lifetime Achievement by an Edmonton Artist ($2,500 cash prize) recognizes an individual artist who, over an extended period of time, has made an outstanding contribution to the arts inEdmonton. Nominees for this award should be based in the greaterEdmonton region and may or may not be currently active as an artist. While that contribution should be primarily through their chosen artistic discipline, nominees will also be recognized for outstanding work in support of the arts in general in theEdmonton region.  Their artistic output should extend for at least 25 years.

ATCO Gas would like to applaud all the nominees for the Outstanding Lifetime Achievement by an Edmonton Artist Award. Their outstanding talent and determination given to Edmonton and to the arts have contributed to the rich fabric of life in our city. ATCO Gas is pleased to honour an individual who is committed to bringing culture and distinction to their community. All the nominees are an encouragement to others, and will no doubt lead the way for generations to follow.

The CN Youth Artist Award ($2,500 cash prize) recognizes the importance of the arts and design to a youth’s education and to the community.  We believe it is the responsibility of caring companies like CN to encourage the development and education of young artists. The award is eligible to anyone attending junior or senior high (Grades 7 through 12). Nominators may not nominate their family members.

At CN, we recognize our citizenship responsibility to the communities in which we operate – not only in our commitment to safety and the environment, but also in making our communities better places to live and work.

Chair:  Jennifer Faulkner (Associate Executive Director, Alberta Ballet)

Co-Vice-Chair:  Keltie Brown (General Manager, Workshop West Theatre)

Co-Vice-Chair:  Kieran Leblanc (Executive Director, Book Publishers Association of Alberta)

Treasurer: Karen Brown Fournell (General Manager, Rapid Fire Theatre)

Directors:

• Marian Brant (General Manager, Cantilon Choirs)
• Carol Holmes (Executive Director, Writers Guild of Alberta)
• Anna-Karolina Szul (Executive Director, SNAP Gallery)
• Meghan Unterschultz (Strategic Communications & Government Relations, Edmonton Symphony Orchestra)

Daniel Cournoyer gives his last report as Chair of PACE at our Oct. 20 AGM

PACE has openings for ten board members.  If you are interested in voting, nominating or being nominated for a position on our board, you first need to make sure you are a full member in good standing.  Call us at 780-485-3085 or e-mail us at admin@pacedmonton.com for more information.  To become a member or renew your membership, click here to download a form.  You can also sign up at the AGM.

Refreshments will be served.  See you on Thursday, October 20!

Slate of Candidates for PACE’s 2011-2012 Board

Please note:  Only PACE members in good standing are eligible to make recommendations.

Recommended charities must meet the following criteria: