39. Stephen Nachmanovitch - The Art of Is
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Stephen Nachmanovitch, an accomplished and classically trained violinist, has for years been espousing the life affirming power of stepping away from the notes on the sheet to explore the freedom of playing between, within and around the notes, of music, art and life as one beautiful composition. He performs and teaches internationally at the intersections of multimedia, performing arts, ecology and philosophy. He is the author of Free Play: Improvisation in Life and Art (1990) and The Art of Is: Improvising as a Way of Life (2019); both of which make the compelling argument “that...
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38. Brent Allan – Living Your Most Fabulous Life!
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Brent Allan has always led with heart, art and a deep passion to make positive impact on the world he encounters. Drawing strength from his early personal experiences during the dark days of the HIV crisis in Edmonton, Toronto and Vancouver, Brent has come to be recognized globally as a highly respected and sought after advocate and crusader for people living with HIV, through education, the arts, health policy and practice and industry. The way they have defined and designed life, community and family speaks to a true embodiment of the creative spirit. In fact, Brent often...
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37. Vern Thiessen – In Search of the Untold Story
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Vern Thiessen’s curiosity is forever leading him to the untold story, inspiring plays that have embraced theatres around the world. Thiessen, one of Canada’s most produced playwrights, a recipient of numerous awards and honours, including Canada’s Governor General’s Literary Award, for Einstein’s Gift in 2003, continues to seek out those places where a drama might find breath and lead to a life on stage. Beyond his formal writing career, Vern has always supported other writers, formally in classrooms teaching playwrights of all ages and experience and informally, he has...
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36. Gianna Vacirca – Play...Pasta...Possibilities
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Throughout these conversations on the creative process, the idea of play features heavily. There’s an incredible joy in the experience of inviting our imagination to a party of our own making and then hosting it as the guest of honor. If we believe that the innocent creative child we were when we were small, remains alive within us, then play at any age opens the door to our freedom to express ourselves and be fully alive. For Gianna Vacirca, her playful self seems never hidden within, and in her words and in her life, PLAY shows up as a language. And so, a few years ago...
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35. Fred Keating – Hosting An Open Mindset
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Fred Keating has a long and multi-faceted career in theatre, radio, TV and film in character roles and as a host, motivational speaker and podcast producer/host. I consider Fred to be a dear friend and celebrate him as one of my personal mentors and as someone who left an indelible imprint on me as a young artist and educator. He has always led with generosity, and this was certainly the case in our conversation in which we double-clicked on some of the many learnings that Fred has experienced and continues to gather over a lifetime of living through a creative lens.
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34. Karen Close - The Art of Creative Sage-ing
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Throughout her career as an educator in Toronto and then Victoria, Karen Close aimed to inspire her students through literature and visual arts; she loved to witness young people become better able to articulate themselves and to share their understanding with others through their writing and art making. Karen passionately believes in the importance of storytelling to give us a way to know ourselves more deeply and share our wisdom. So when she stepped away from the formal classroom, it was no real surprise that she brought this same desire to engage imaginations to her new community...
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33. Jan Alexandra Smith - “There I Am”...Finding Home Again
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When a previous guest recently reached out to say that I simply had to speak with Jan Alexandra Smith, who in his words “is one of Canada’s finest actors and directors”, I thought, “what wonderful idea.” For nearly 35 years, Jan has been stepping onto stages in roles that have entertained, challenged, surprised and thrilled audiences across this country. The work itself has fueled her passion for sharing stories and her love of creative expression. And yet leading up to 2020 and then throughout the pandemic quiet that performing artists were cast in, Jan was becoming aware of...
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32. Roseanne Supernault - Story is Medicine
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From early childhood as a member of the Whitefish Lake Atikameg First Nation in Treaty 8 territory, Roseanne Supernault has held the medicinal impact of story as a deep, core belief; one that guides and strengthens her in both life and art. In honoring her own storytellers, wisdom keepers, mentors and teachers she gratefully acknowledges the shoulders she stands upon and is coming to understand her role in providing the same for those who are following her lead. On the heels of starring in a terrifying new thriller, Cold Road, and beginning the post production process on her first...
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31. Christy Morin - The Alchemy of the Arts
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Since 2005, Christy Morin has been the heart of Arts on the Ave in Edmonton, Alberta. Arts on the Ave actively celebrates its unique neighbourhood community north of the downtown core as “a place whose “personality” is vividly expressed through the arts; possessing a dynamic momentum, “an arts pulse” where the artist and community continually engage.” At the core of the organization, or more accurately, the movement, lives a deep commitment “to the community through the cultivation of positive urban renewal. It is through culture-led urban regeneration initiatives, a vision...
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30. Cynthia Jimenez-Hicks - Riding the Waves
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For the past decade theatre artist, Cynthia Jimenez-Hicks has been surfing some incredibly wild waves, fuelling her love of what she refers to as creative chaos. Since graduating from the National Theatre School of Canada in 2015, she has appeared across North America on stages of all sizes, hopping confidently from comedy to drama. From the soul building and edifying work of bringing the seed of an idea to life on the smallest of stages to the high-flying adventure of hitching on to an internationally recognized sensation as a member of the San Francisco company of Harry Potter and the...
info_outlineIf you live in Edmonton, Alberta, have been in any number of schools, community centres and places where people meet, you have likely passed by, hopefully admired some of Theo Harasymiw’s visual art. She is best known for her large colourful, graphic, and often whimsical murals found all over the city. Her visual palette includes equally vivid collections of acrylic paint and assembled bits and pieces of porcelain, bone china, artifacts and the miscellany that will find new meaning and pattern in the creation of one of her mosaics. She draws much inspiration from her travels to Europe, the Middle East and Latin America, but is perhaps most influenced by her strong Ukrainian heritage and the various forms of traditional craft. Theo describes herself as seeker of all things creative, nurturer of Art in others, mother, and life enthusiast; all of which our conversation touched upon and more.