Western Standard - Alberta Invests in Arts and Culture： Funding for Edmonton's Cultural Infrastructure

00:00:00.000 Good morning and thank you for joining us here today.

00:00:29.000 And thank you to the amazing jazz trio of Tom Van Setters on piano, Andreas Wegner on bass,

00:00:37.140 and John Gutner on drums, who kindly played the music to set the tone this morning.

00:00:46.920 My name is Garth Roselaw, and I'm a member of the Legislature for Vermillion-Leutminster-Wainwright.

00:00:52.040 And I'd like to begin by acknowledging the Windspire sits on Treaty 6 territory, a traditional

00:00:58.760 meeting grounds gathering place and traveling route for the cree the soto the blackfoot the

00:01:05.000 metis the dinnae and the nakota sioux this land also has deep importance to the metis people of

00:01:13.000 alberta it's my pleasure to welcome our guests for this special occasion the honorable tanya

00:01:19.960 fir minister of arts culture and status of women anne-marie petrov president ceo of francis

00:01:27.800 windspeare center for music darren jordan windspeare board member and founder of the five arts

00:01:34.680 one love art collective and joe tell tell chat tell chick and andrew bromberg the visionary

00:01:43.800 architects behind the windspeare's next phase each of you have played an important role in bringing

00:01:49.800 the dream of a revitalized windspeare to life and your partnership brings us here today for an

00:01:56.760 exciting announcement i would like i would like i would now like to uh welcome the honorable tanya

00:02:03.960 fir minister of arts culture and status hello everyone and thank you to my friend and colleague

00:02:15.400 mla garth roswell for that introduction it is a joy to be here at the winspear center a cornerstone

00:02:22.680 of Edmonton's arts and culture landscape for nearly three decades. The Winspear is a remarkable

00:02:29.320 space for Albertans to come together for world-class concerts, brilliant symphony performances,

00:02:35.880 family events, and community gatherings. It is also an important space to experience

00:02:41.160 arts and culture and to create unique learning opportunities. Our government has been a proud

00:02:46.840 partner of the wind spear for decades and we continue that support today i'm honored to

00:02:53.080 announce that as part of budget 2024 if passed alberta's government is committing 12.8 million

00:03:01.080 dollars over three years starting next year to the wind spear center to help support the third phase

00:03:07.560 of their renovation and expansion project this funding will help the wind spear expand their

00:03:13.240 space to include 550 seat acoustic performance venue indoor and outdoor community gathering

00:03:21.160 spaces and multi-purpose music studios and classrooms this expansion will increase

00:03:27.240 accessibility to arts performances and education for children and families and draw even more

00:03:33.640 visitors to experience amazing music in a world-class venue the new state-of-the-art

00:03:39.640 customizable stage will allow for community groups of all shapes and sizes to get theater

00:03:45.480 seating built right for their audience's needs new classrooms mean that more students and young

00:03:51.320 people from across the capital region can access after school and evening programs helping build

00:03:58.280 a lifelong love for music and learning skills that help them no matter where their life takes them

00:04:03.880 and this funding will help expand the wind sphere as a cultural hub that will help solidify Alberta

00:04:10.300 as an arts and culture destination of Canada and North America. It will also provide local jobs and

00:04:18.180 boost Edmonton's downtown economy. The expansion is expected to create more than 240 jobs during

00:04:25.240 construction as well as approximately 100 jobs once it's complete and once completed it will

00:04:31.360 attract more tourists to the area that will add an estimated $4.5 million to Alberta's economy

00:04:38.160 in the first year. It is vital that we support our province's cultural sectors, including

00:04:44.280 our screen-based sectors, the performing arts, visual arts, opera, ballet, book publishing,

00:04:49.720 and more. In 2021, these cultural industries injected $2.7 billion into Alberta's economy

00:04:58.140 and sustained over 19 300 jobs beyond the economic benefit this project means more albertans will

00:05:05.820 have the opportunity to discover and participate in the arts and cultural opportunities that our

00:05:10.940 province has to provide and i look forward to seeing the art and creativity that will grow

00:05:16.540 in this space because when we build better communities we make alberta the best place to

00:05:22.460 live work and raise a family and as annemarie and i were talking about beforehand you know how

00:05:28.940 blessed i am to have this ministry of arts culture and status of women because

00:05:32.860 what arts and culture does is it humanizes us it humanizes us it brings us together it builds

00:05:38.860 community so thank you all for being here this morning to annemarie petroff the winspear center

00:05:45.020 board the generous donors thank you for enriching our lives with arts and culture opportunities i

00:05:51.660 look forward to the magnificent music that will soon fill these spaces and seeing the performances

00:05:57.180 that will grace the stage inspiring albert albertans for generations to come thank you

00:06:08.700 thank you minister fur we are grateful for your support of arts culture and heritage and community

00:06:15.900 spaces in our province and for championing the important role that plays that play in the lives

00:06:21.980 of all albertans i would now like to invite anne-marie petroff president and ceo of wind

00:06:27.980 spare center to say a few words thank you mla rosewell well to say the least it's an exciting

00:06:39.340 day for us today thank you minister i too welcome everyone to the wind spear as we embark

00:06:45.660 upon the next stage of our wonderful wind spear expansion project phase three right here in the

00:06:51.580 heart of edmonton's arts district i'm deeply proud to serve as the president and ceo of the wind

00:06:58.780 spear center at this moment in time as many of you know the wind spear expansion has been ongoing

00:07:04.860 since 2019 when we broke ground and we are thrilled with the progress made and the opportunities this

00:07:11.100 new space will bring to our city. I thank our partners in this project, the province of Alberta,

00:07:17.660 the City of Edmonton, and the Government of Canada for their generous support to help make

00:07:22.300 this dream a reality. Let me express my deepest gratitude to the Honourable Tanya Furr for being

00:07:29.340 here today and for the province's generous funding. This new commitment of $12.8 million

00:07:35.260 dollars will make a huge impact on this transformation. Minister, I recognize that

00:07:41.660 Budget 2024 is a responsible plan for a growing province and with today's announcement, our

00:07:46.300 government recognized not only the priorities of food, shelter and all the necessities of life,

00:07:52.060 but as Minister first said, also the government recognizes the need for arts, culture and those

00:07:58.140 things that give meaning to life. I want to add how much your support will contribute to

00:08:03.820 revitalizing this essential part of Edmonton's downtown and also allow us to make the Winspear

00:08:09.100 Centre truly a world-class centre for everyone where many more Albertans will have the opportunity

00:08:15.500 to connect and enjoy the many kinds different kinds of music that they love. We look forward

00:08:21.820 to working together with your office over the next four years. I know there were a couple

00:08:27.420 introductions made but I want to recognize two more people that I know are in the crowd today

00:08:31.820 because projects like this don't happen with the volunteers in our community,

00:08:36.380 and the volunteers for the Windspear Centre are a very, very hard-working board of directors.

00:08:42.140 So I'd like to recognize our third board members, and you've heard that Darren Jordan is a member

00:08:48.460 of our board, but also I want to recognize Robin Hurd. And most importantly, I want to recognize

00:08:54.300 our past chair, who's also had a significant hand in the current construction of the Windspear

00:08:59.900 Centre and I wanted to recognize Jim Carter.

00:09:10.060 Decades ago Dr. Francis Winspear imagined the Winspear as a true

00:09:14.060 cultural hub where everyone could gather to play enjoy and share music

00:09:18.860 but budget constraints at that time reduced the size of the building

00:09:22.300 so what we did is we made sure that we maintained the quality of the building

00:09:25.900 but we did have to contract a little bit both at the front and at the back of

00:09:29.100 building and then what remained was a parking lot. The Winspear expansion now, this expansion

00:09:35.420 completes the dream that Dr. Francis Winspear had. His vision was of a Winspear that not only

00:09:40.700 served the community but was integrated into it and that is a pillar of this new work that we're

00:09:46.060 doing now. The new Winspear will be a hub for Edmonton's arts community with over 50,000 square

00:09:52.060 feet of new space, space designed for everyone from elite performers to amateur musicians,

00:09:57.900 from the young musicians in our YONA program, that is the Youth Orchestra of Northern Alberta Systema,

00:10:02.700 to our talented rusty musicians. Now when I say talented rusty musicians, I mean these are not

00:10:07.260 the musicians of the orchestra, but these are musicians, amateurs in the community who also

00:10:11.820 have played instruments throughout their lives and continue to play them. They may be doctors,

00:10:17.020 they may be teachers, they may be housekeepers, but they still play instruments and they play

00:10:21.820 alongside our musicians from the orchestra on the stage and hence we fondly and lovingly call

00:10:27.580 them the Rusty Musicians. I need a point of clarification. The new Windspear will offer 0.98

00:10:34.140 an attraction right in our city's downtown with immersive experiences, gathering places,

00:10:39.900 and many more performance opportunities in the new 550-seat performance hall that the

00:10:45.180 minister recognized that we will be calling the Music Box. This expansion project was made possible

00:10:51.580 not only with the support of governments of Alberta, Canada, and the City of Edmonton,

00:10:55.900 but with additional funds from very generous donors and dedicated supporters in our community.

00:11:01.020 And I might add, I know that there are more commitments to come.

00:11:04.940 We're thrilled to see their vision come to life. Some of these individual supporters were

00:11:09.580 gracious enough to join us today and we thank them from the bottom of our hearts.

00:11:14.860 Like so many other organizations, the pandemic posed serious challenges for the completion of

00:11:19.260 the Winspear project as we were well in construction and left us with a significant

00:11:24.540 gap in funding with this new support from the province for this phase three and the unwavering

00:11:30.060 support of our donors and community we're building momentum to enter this the final stages of our

00:11:35.100 expanded windsphere we are confident that nothing else exists quite like this new and revitalized

00:11:41.180 windsphere and we're thrilled to welcome you to see inside of our building and to see the progress

00:11:47.340 later this afternoon or later this session thank you

00:11:57.740 thank you ann marie and i can't wait to see and hear what the what the new phase

00:12:02.460 of the windsor center will bring you obviously have great passion for this building and it comes

00:12:07.180 through i would now like to invite darren jordan windsor board member and five artists one love

00:12:14.780 arts collective founder up to speak

00:12:25.900 good afternoon everybody what a pleasure it is to be here

00:12:29.580 mr firth thank you uh thank you everybody uh that took the time to come

00:12:34.460 out today uh as uh mentioned my name is darren

00:12:38.140 jordan i am the founder of five artists one love

00:12:42.140 what is five artists one love well give me a moment i'm going to tell you all about it

00:12:47.260 five artists one love is a an annual multi-disciplinary art show and a music production

00:12:53.660 that started in 2007 so at 16 years it's one of edmonton's longest running and most anticipated

00:13:01.100 black history month events it celebrates it honors the creativity and the vibrancy

00:13:09.100 of the cultural diversity within edmonton's black communities and edmonton is the focus um it

00:13:19.900 it needs to be said uh black history month is in february is the coldest

00:13:24.220 shortest month of the year um and let me tell you uh we need something to warm our souls at that

00:13:29.900 time and five artists one love is hopefully filling that uh that that spot um it's been

00:13:36.460 described as something that resembles a party at the UN and is comprised of three events.

00:13:43.740 Those events are, number one, an art exhibit at the AGA at the Art Gallery, the Albert Gallery of

00:13:51.900 Art, runs from January to April. There's an exclusive one night gala at that gallery and

00:13:58.940 there is an exhilarating immersive musical experience at the Windspear for the last three

00:14:06.300 years. We've had a long journey. We've been to a number of other places when we first started out,

00:14:12.700 but we ended up at the Windspear, and this is where we've been for the last three years, and

00:14:18.540 we're very happy about that. Five Artists, One Love was born out of necessity. You see, as a younger

00:14:27.260 Black visual artist, I didn't see any representation of people in my community

00:14:32.060 in the galleries in the city i learned that many people in my community felt that there was no

00:14:37.820 place for them in the more established creative spaces it made sense they didn't see themselves

00:14:45.660 or their experiences reflected in any scene out there so my mantra became if there is no scene

00:14:54.060 if you can't find a scene then make a scene and um we got started we started small at first

00:15:02.060 uh it was a very small gallery uh that we started in on 124th called the two gallery

00:15:07.100 does anybody know dutch's bakery okay it's that building um best macarons and the best

00:15:13.820 bread pudding you've ever tasted um it's true um the music venues that we followed

00:15:21.100 that we used afterwards i included the yard bird suite uh the leadcore theater at the aga's

00:15:26.060 community space the citadel and and finally grant mckeon's trifle theater which was our home for

00:15:31.820 a few years um and it was wonderful uh but i have to tell you in my heart i had my sight set on

00:15:39.900 the wind spear um i didn't think it would happen for a very long time and it was almost like a

00:15:47.980 a hockey player a young hockey player having his sights set on the nhl i don't know i don't play

00:15:54.620 hockey uh but i know that a brother can dream and so that's what uh that's what we did we dreamt um

00:16:03.020 we dreamt that it would happen and uh and it did i mean imagine what it would be like to be in a

00:16:08.300 place like this where you could feel the energy in a space that echoes the music from people like

00:16:14.380 john legend who is here wynton marcellus and even edmonton's own eso um we we developed this

00:16:22.460 wonderful multicultural fan base uh throughout that was along the ride along with this sharing

00:16:30.220 with these um as we had these these soulful collaborations uh we did everything from spoken

00:16:35.980 word rmb opera strings hip-hop soul and motown and so much more and these performances these

00:16:43.500 performances resonated with our city and and people came and they watched and they enjoyed

00:16:51.660 and they became joy celebrations of culture and community that would spill out into the night

00:16:57.340 uh long after the show was done um it was one evening where uh hen marie showed up after one

00:17:05.020 of our shows and everybody was in the back room and they just randomly started singing

00:17:09.740 a boys to men song uh end of the road i don't know if you know that but it was everybody choirs

00:17:16.880 volunteers um all types of people singing and i remember um annemarie walked in at that moment

00:17:23.740 i don't know maybe she liked the song uh i don't know maybe she liked the vibe but

00:17:27.600 we got an invitation to join uh the wind spirit and uh and we've been here for the last three

00:17:34.780 years. So a big thank you to you. It was an absolute game changer. And everybody that has

00:17:41.180 been participating in the show has been, has felt blessed, has felt blessed.

00:17:49.180 We've done three shows here at the Winspear. Every show that we do has a theme, and hopefully

00:17:54.860 it touches people's hearts. The first time we got back, we had just returned from COVID. Everybody

00:18:00.680 had been locked down and we wanted the first big shows um to be in the wind spear and definitely

00:18:06.680 the first big show in our black community uh to do anything and what we did was we basically

00:18:11.880 played the songs that helped people get through that pandemic that was what the celebration was

00:18:17.640 um the next one was in june and we did something that had not been done before we celebrated a

00:18:23.640 holiday called juneteenth has anybody heard of this before yeah so we had done that it

00:18:29.000 It commemorated the end of slavery in North America,

00:18:31.440 but we also made the connection with Alberta

00:18:36.040 because there's a unique story that connects us

00:18:38.540 to that particular holiday, and we did that.

00:18:41.060 The last one that we did was called The Joyful Noise,

00:18:43.520 and we basically just celebrated joy.

00:18:47.080 We just felt that the world was at a point

00:18:49.740 where we needed to just sing and enjoy each other's company,

00:18:53.980 and that's what we did with that.

00:18:55.280 I just want to say, this new expansion means a lot to myself, to organizations like ours. It gives opportunities for people to have access, access to a space that is world-renowned, a world-class space that will change the narrative for a lot of these new

00:19:25.280 and upcoming organizations um i i'm just gonna i'm gonna i have so much but i'm gonna skip ahead

00:19:32.640 because um time but what i want to do is just share the last point that i have um this expansion

00:19:40.480 means a lot for our children a lot for our children and what i mean by that is that uh

00:19:49.600 we get to show them excellence in a space like this excellence being created by people that

00:19:58.560 look like them and that is important it is essential because inclusion begins with

00:20:03.520 representation so i cannot wait to see this amazing expansion and i want to say thank you

00:20:11.640 to everybody that is a part of it and is supporting it we hope to see you soon thank you

00:20:26.520 thank you darren and congratulations on achieving your dream and i wish you all the best success

00:20:31.320 going forward you're a real get her done kind of guy so well done and thank you to everyone

00:20:37.960 that ends the speaking part of our announcement i will now turn the mic over to garrett kohler

00:20:44.280 ministry press secretary for a question and answer session after that i will invite you to have a tour

00:20:51.240 of uh of the building and the new construction so we'll turn it over to garrett thank you very much

00:20:57.240 minister back up to the podium thank you um we'll go to the lines there's no one on the lines i see

00:21:02.520 Is there any questions from the floor?

00:21:05.580 We have one question.

00:21:06.580 Please state your name, outlet, and one question, one follow-up.

00:21:10.020 Hi there, Jacqueline Cousy, Global News.

00:21:14.060 So when this project was initially announced, it was the budget, or the full funding, full

00:21:19.220 amount for it was $65.6 million.

00:21:22.600 I know that's been delayed a little bit.

00:21:24.580 What's the total amount that this project is going to cost?

00:21:27.560 Yeah, so let me follow up with you on total costs when we get all the funding in from

00:21:32.520 or the amounts from the federal government and city as well.

00:21:35.920 Our contribution for the provincial government of Alberta

00:21:39.140 for this phase three is $12.8 million over three years,

00:21:43.220 starting next year, providing that budget 2024 is approved.

00:21:47.820 Great, thank you.

00:21:49.020 No, that's all, thank you.

00:21:49.940 Thank you.

00:21:51.060 All right, any more questions from the floor?

00:21:52.900 All right, name, outlet, one question will follow up.

00:21:55.900 Joelle Bouchard, Radio-Canada.

00:21:57.860 My question is to, can you say a bit more

00:22:01.020 about why choosing the Windspear Center Extension

00:22:04.860 to invest that much,

00:22:06.060 because there's a lot of projects in the city,

00:22:08.260 for example, or in the province.

00:22:10.140 So yeah, a bit more about the why.

00:22:12.620 Yeah, thanks for that question.

00:22:14.080 You're right, there's a lot of amazing projects

00:22:16.360 to choose from, and I think what was so amazing

00:22:19.240 about the Windspear is what the funds

00:22:21.180 were going to be used for.

00:22:22.520 It's not only the amazing 550 seat acoustic theater,

00:22:27.360 but it's their focus on having more community spaces,

00:22:30.360 community programs classrooms educational opportunities their focus on making it an

00:22:35.480 open inclusive environment for everyone their focus as you know darren was talking about the

00:22:40.840 importance of bringing more children and kids into art like anything else earlier you're exposed to

00:22:46.760 something the sooner you can develop a love for it and we want our government wants that to include

00:22:52.280 arts and culture and it's amazing for the economy as well the amount of pre and post construction

00:22:58.520 jobs and what it means not only for local Edmontonians and surrounding area but what

00:23:04.280 it means for the boost in tourism and visitors to a world-class facility like this thank you

00:23:11.800 for my follow-up yes I just like to take this chance to ask if any of the speakers speak French

00:23:18.760 Okay.

00:23:19.760 Anne-Marie, do you...?

00:23:20.760 Oui.

00:23:21.760 OK.

00:23:22.760 Anne-Marie, do you...?

00:23:23.760 Oui.

00:23:24.760 OK.

00:23:25.760 Oui.

00:23:26.760 J'espère que...

00:23:27.760 J'espère que je peux me débarrasser.

00:23:32.760 Oui.

00:23:33.760 Débrouiller.

00:23:34.760 Oui, débrouiller.

00:23:35.760 Mais, en fait, si vous pouvez simplement faire un petit résumé de l'annonce en français,

00:23:40.760 puis qu'est-ce que ça signifie pour vous, ce serait très bien.

00:23:42.760 Je vais faire mon possible.

00:23:43.760 Merci.

00:23:44.760 Today, the announcement is that there are about 12,8 million dollars in the province of Alberta

00:23:59.760 to our project, the expansion, I don't know how to say it in French, but I don't know

00:24:13.760 how to say it in French, but for me, in the business, it's a bit complicated.

00:24:19.760 Okay, sure.

00:24:21.760 Okay, perfect.

00:24:28.760 The reason why it's important is that it's a project in the heart of downtown Edmonton.

00:24:38.760 Whereas we have been a magnificent performing arts center at a world-class level, which

00:24:44.960 is outstanding not just in Edmonton, not just in Alberta, not just in Canada, but in North

00:24:50.360 america one of the premier performing arts facilities the challenge we've always found

00:24:54.760 is that we're not open to the to the public during the day and we know that there's so much uh

00:24:59.960 interest and and desire to learn music and that's why this is so important and that's why we're so

00:25:05.320 grateful to the province to also share in this vision of making music accessible to the community

00:25:10.840 literally building community through this project

00:25:13.240 we have time for one more question are there any other questions from the floor name and

00:25:22.920 outlet and one question one follow-up please hi christina lachlan city news um so as you were

00:25:29.080 saying that you have the funding for the next three years for phase three is there a plan a

00:25:33.240 date that you guys have in mind for grand opening or the completion will be completed yeah i believe

00:25:37.800 it's summer 2025, correct Annemarie? Annemarie, summer 2025 is when we're projecting completion.

00:25:46.920 We're looking at the 25-26 year. We're aiming for 2025, but it depends on some of the other

00:25:53.080 levels of government and other contributions fulfilling the gap. So that's why this is so

00:26:00.120 significant for us today. Right, well with that, one big round of applause for the Windspear Center.

00:26:06.760 thank you very much for coming and we're going to go back to our wonderful jazz trio

00:26:36.760 Thank you.

Western Standard - March 13, 2024

Alberta Invests in Arts and Culture： Funding for Edmonton's Cultural Infrastructure

Episode Stats

Summary

Transcript