Making Treaty 7 artists Cowboy Smithx (left) and Blake Brooker (right) at The Banff Centre. Photo: Narcisse Blood.

“We ask for your grace and courage to tell our story in the most honest way possible.”

It is a golden winter afternoon at The Banff Centre. I am sitting in the Kinnear Centre dance studio listening to the words of a prayer, spoken first in Blackfoot and then in English. The prayer marks the opening of a workshop presentation of Making Treaty 7, a new theatrical work that examines the legacy of the 1877 treaty between the Crown and the Blackfoot First Nations.

As the setting sun paints the faces of those performing, I am by turns moved, shocked, informed, and, ultimately, inspired.

I am moved by the hardships faced by Alberta’s Indigenous people in the 1870s, and their hope that this Treaty would bring a brighter future for their children. I am shocked by the devastating impact smallpox had on Canada’s Indigenous people in the years before the Treaty signing. I am informed about the historical context of Treaty 7 — the promises made, and the promises broken. And I am inspired by the goal of this ambitious project — to create a renewed understanding of southern Alberta’s collective history and a shared vision for the future, because, in the words of Making Treaty 7,“we are all Treaty people.”

This workshop performance is the outcome of three weeks of collaborative and creative work at the Centre during which the Making Treaty 7 crew listened to elders, agreed upon themes, and drafted a preliminary script.

Michael Green, curator and creative producer for Calgary 2012, one of the partners behind the project, says the first step was to get permission from Treaty elders to tell this story. “They told us to go ahead on two conditions. We had to tell the story properly, to get it right. And we had to tell the truth. What we’ve discovered is that the truth comes from many sources. It isn’t just contained in historical documents. It also comes from the stories passed down from generation to generation.”

“This is an important project for Calgarians and for all Canadians,” says Treaty 7 actor and contributor Cowboy Smithx. “It’s a chance for all of us to take an honest look at what happened in these treaties.”

While this Banff read-through offers just a taste of what audiences will experience at the Calgary premiere – an outdoor theatrical reenactment scheduled for September 2014 – I, for one, will be marking my calendar.

Listen to an interview about the Making of Treaty 7 on CBC Radio’s The Homestretch.

Banff National Park’s Snow Days is a month-long festival exploring traditional winter activities such as roasting chestnuts and learning to skate, snowshoe, curl, cross-country ski, downhill ski, or snowboard.  The Ice Magic Festival at Lake Louise offered world-class ice carving competitions, skating on the lake, sleigh rides, and tours of The Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise and area.  Avalanche safety demonstrations were held at Sunshine Village and The Lake Louise Ski area, while The Banff Centre presented our annual Avalanche Awareness Night, which aims to help make skiers and boarders more aware of the avalanche risks associated with backcountry and out-of-bounds travel.

Beyond the classic activities associated with a Canadian winter, there are always other activities to be enjoyed.  The Banff Centre’s Walter Phillips Gallery presented Drawn to Nature in the Banff Park National Historic Site, there were old time movies to be watched at the Banff Visitor Centre, and those who were interested could take part in photography workshops, or don a heritage bathing suit at Banff’s Upper Hot Springs.  The Banff Mountain Film & Book Festival also screened selections of some of the best short winter films from past festivals in the comfort of the Elk & Oarsman Restaurant & Pub.Topping off the festival, the Take it to the Street Tournament allowed onlookers and participants to celebrate in the quintessentially Canadian game of street hockey.

Below take a listen to podcast producer, Chris Wood’s recording of ice carving at Lake Louise’s annual international ice carving competition.

This year celebrates the 40th anniversary of the Banff Playwrights Colony and we thought it might be nice to share with you three film strips that help capture the colony’s legacy leading to the present. For more photos and writings from the archival collection swing by the Paul D. Fleck Libary & Archives and check out the current display celebrating the Banff Playwrights Colony.

Historical Photographs Collection (BCC.LA/PW.1976.3). Photo by Ron Adlington, July 1976.

In 1976, under program head Tom Hendry, the colony’s focus was workshopping and developing scripts in progress. Hendry’s inclusion of a group of resident actors as part of the collaborative process became a national model for other playwright colonies popping up across the country. Some of the program’s earliest participants included great Canadian playwrights Sharon Pollock and George Ryga.

Photographic Services [Technical Services] fonds (LA 1986.3). Photo by Monte Greenshields, May 25, 1986.

This film strip was created using images captured during a reading of, “This is War” (in July 2012) and brought together in Photoshop by Photo Services.

Today the colony remains committed to offering playwrights a dynamic environment that gives playwrights the opportunity to experiment, collaborate, and take the necessary risks that generate plays to challenge and entertain audiences.

B.J. Paddy holds her Certificate in Indigenous Leadership, Governance, and Management Excellence, with Elder Tom Crane Bear, spiritual and cultural advisor to programs (left), and Brian Calliou, director for Indigenous Leadership and Management at The Banff Centre (right). Photo: Kim Williams, The Banff Centre.

B. J. Paddy stepped up to the podium recently to celebrate a major milestone in her career as a leader. What she didn’t realize was that she would also be celebrating an important day marked by The Banff Centre’s Indigenous Leadership and Management program area.

Paddy, the executive director for Red Deer Aboriginal Employment Services, was the 100^th recipient of the Certificate in Indigenous Leadership, Governance, and Management Excellence, which signified that she has joined 99 other Indigenous leaders before her who have chosen the same path.

As a guest at the wrap-up luncheon for the program, Inherent Right to Indigenous Governance, I heard Paddy echo sentiments similar to those I have heard from many participants in the Indigenous Leadership programs. She mentioned the life-long friendships she has made, the invaluable lessons she has taken back to her role and to her community, as well as the deep appreciation she has for sponsors who have helped fund her learning through six programs.

“I would not have been able to come here without their help,” Paddy said, “as I come from a very small organization, and we don’t always have the money for my training.”

The first recipient of the Certificate in Indigenous Leadership, Governance, and Management Excellence, in February 2001, was Brenda Etienne of Kanesatake, Quebec, who now sits on the Indigenous Program Council.

Edmonton based playwright, Meg Braem and Toronto-based playwright, Colleen Wagner have spent the past two weeks with the Banff Playwrights Colony retreat working on their current plays in the wonderful solitude of the Leighton Artists’ Colony. Below they share a few reflective words about their time here.

Meg Braem (left) and Colleen Wagner (right) on the steps of Meg’s studio, the Henriquez Studio in the Leighton Artists’ Colony, at the beginning of their residency. Photo: Brian Quirt, Director, Banff Playwrights Colony.

Meg Braem:
This time in Banff has been so helpful, so productive, and so satisfying. Sitting in this little converted boat of a studio, I feel I am a million miles away from my life. Floating in a sea of quiet, where ideas have space and time to be cared for. I’ve written a new draft of The Cut Grass Carnival, the first so far with a spine and an ending. Yay! It’s the first time that I’ve felt somewhat at the reins of this play. I spent years endlessly trying ideas and doodling bits of dialogue the characters might have the occasion to say. It feels good. It’s lovely to have the quiet and it’s also lovely to chat with other artists and hear about how they’ve been filling their days. Colleen and I have been asked to leave Vistas dining room twice, so deep in conversation we didn’t notice that dinner ended a long time ago. One Yellow Rabbit Theatre is here working on Making Treaty Seven and I can’t wait to see a public showing of what they’ve come up with. There are so many ideas, so much support for them, and so much unabashed creation happening. It feels powerfully optimistic here. 
 

Colleen Wagner:
Secluded among tall straight fir and spruce, clouds scuttling by opening up to a blue raven above, the wind whispering, “another, and another”… word by joyful, word filling the pages. How wonderful to be able to be still in the creative process, all the while aware of the mountains, elk, deer, trees, and wind dancing to their own symphony.

It doesn’t take long: Day one, settling in. Day two, immersed.

Thank you Banff.

Rodney Sharman has been to The Banff Centre many times before, but his most recent was a very different visit for the Canadian composer.

While Sharman works in many different musical genres, he usually focuses on one piece while he’s here. However, when he came to the Centre last Fall, he planned to work simultaneously on four projects:  a piano piece; a piece for Duo AttemaHaring, which consists of bass trombonist Brandt Attema and harpist Astrid Haringo; a cabaret song; and finally to complete touch ups on a dance opera.

Under our interview, you can hear his piece “Incantation”, which was a commission from Kathleen McLean for her CD Nightsongs. This piece was selected by NPR’s Performance Today to represent the year 2004 in their series on music of the 21st century. The abstract piece is written for bassoon, harp, and string quartet. Abstract composition, pieces without an explained narrative, is something that Sharman is not only interested in but sees less and less in modern composition.

Andres Wanner builds robots. These robots do art. By this I mean that he attaches Sharpie pens to small robots on wheels, places them on a canvas and let’s them run through a series of pre-programmed movements. So far, so straightforward, but it becomes interesting when the robots bash into each other or into the sides of their pen, or just break and stop working for a while. This element of chaos is at the heart of Wanner’s work. The pictures that are left behind after the robots run out of battery power resemble broken Spirograph images — mathematically complex, but frayed at the edges with randomness.

We spoke to Wanner about his process during his residency at The Banff Centre last December. This audio piece combines interview with sound, with the little whirring voices of the robots chattering away as they go about their work.

Parisian artists Chloé Maillet (right) and Louise Hervé talk about their work, A Treatise on Baths, in the Walter Phillips Gallery exhibition, An Ever Changing Meaning. Photo: Kim Williams, The Banff Centre

The work of contemporary visual artists often requires a familiarity with a dense body of theory or literature in order to make the artwork accessible. Parisian artists Louise Hervé and Chloé Maillet, whose work A Treatise on Baths is presented at Walter Phillips Gallery as part of the exhibition An Ever Changing Meaning, have used a novel approach to facing the challenge of accessibility without diminishing the rigour of their work.

During curator François Aubart’s tour at the February 1 exhibition opening and on the following day, two scholarly docents – none other than the artists themselves – emerged serendipitously from the wings to elaborate upon the work for visitors. The performance momentarily inserted the artists and their expositions into the exhibition context, offering the public more background on the work. The presence of these two scholars seemed all the more justified by the particular nature of the piece, a slideshow reconstructing aspects of the social history of natural springs from early Roman civilization to contemporary Banff.

The work is actually a playful mixture of fact and fiction, by turns educational and fantastical. At an early point in the slideshow we are informed that ancient Roman sculptures of human limbs and organs were preserved in France’s Seine River, intact for millennia and awaiting discovery by scientists in the 1960s. The allusion to water and springs as a source of corporeal preservation reverberates throughout the work and culminates in its vision of the genesis of a species of amphibious Atlantians who have evolved to live underwater.

Our lively docents provided additional context to the work and interesting anecdotes about the medicinal uses of spring water in turn-of-the-century Banff. I’m curious about the inspiration for the artists’ blending of science and fiction in their work, and Maillet touches on this point: “An archeologist or anthropologist interpreting facts to reconstruct history uses their imagination to create a narrative in the same way that someone creating a work of fiction does.” It’s this connection, the artists go on to say, that may make the merging of fiction and scientific discourses into a potent approach to art-making.

An Ever Changing Meaning is an exhibition that considers the myriad interpretations and meanings that can be drawn from artistic and historical artifacts depending on context and perspective. With or without the docent performances of Hervé and Maillet, who have returned home to France, the striking, imaginative connections drawn within A Treatise on Baths offer a fertile point of departure for interpretation.

An art work by Bart Peter Gazzola, created with digital images of the human heart, is something Banff Centre work study Meghan Krauss is loving right now. What are you loving?

Not everyone has someone, let alone a beloved, to romance on Valentine’s Day. What else has captured people’s cupidity around The Banff Centre? I’ve made friends and great contacts among the community of Banff Centre work studies -– some of whom were nice enough to indulge my question.

Meghan Krauss, photography work study: Of all the holidays, Valentine’s Day seems to be the most contrived.  Forget overpriced flowers, forget chocolates.  What I look forward to every year is the beautifully, yet often dark Valentine’s Day cards made by Bart Gazzola – like the one above.

Conrad Sweatman (okay, that’s me), marketing and communications work study: I’m in a complicated relationship with Banff’s popular weekend routine: pounding late-night dance party, head-pounding early-morning skiing.

Graham King, video editor work study: I’m loving the high altitude hangover cure.

Gina Lende, videography work study: I’m loving Conrad Sweatman’s dance moves.

Emily Dobby, library work study:  I’m in love with the mountains, the sunrises, the unseasonably warm weather, the baby deer that sits by my window (her name is Wanda), waffles, crepes, maple bacon, and my overall experience here.

Jessica Mayne, field producer work study: I’m loving the thrill of the project and the excitement of collaboration.

Camara Miller, Podcast producer work study: Right now, I’m loving this Tumblr: http://newscatgif.tumblr.com/. Journalism and cats. ‘Nuff said.

Chris Wood, podcast producer work study: I’m loving Cakes da killa! Hard, super-performative NYC rap. Free download:  http://goo.gl/uCo1v.

Traighana Smith, arts administration work study: I’m loving BBC Good Food Guide –- dinner for one never looked so damn fine! My oven is always pre-heated for you.

Laura Trethewey, Banff Centre Press work study: As a Toronto lady, I’m loving that I didn’t have to buy a whole new parka to live in Banff. And here comes the snow…

The Banff Centre’s work study programs are offered year-round in a variety of disciplines ranging from film, photography, digital media, and audio, visual and literary arts, music, gallery, theatre, podcasting, to arts administration, and library.

Thank you to Saskatchewan artist Bart Peter Gazzola for permission to  publish an image of his artwork (above), from his series “Heart“.

I am not alone in my pure enjoyment of the Lord of the Rings films, and Sunday night TV that includes HBO’s Game of Thrones. While the latter offers up the kind of steaminess that makes me blush, it’s the battle scenes and hand-to-hand combat that get my heart racing the most. Just how do they make it look so real?

The Paddy Crean Stage Combat Workshop at The Banff Centre, which wrapped up another week of intense training in January, explores a wide variety of combat and fight techniques used on the stage and screen. Participants learn from a who’s who list of instructors and specialists from film, television, and the stage. I caught up with Scott Witt, the faculty director for the workshop, to learn more about this highly specialized program.

Who attends the Paddy Crean Stage Combat Workshops, and what motivates them to come?

The IOSP’s (International Order of the Sword and Pen) Paddy Crean Workshop is an extremely unique experience compared to any other movement or stage fighting workshop in the world. Our workshop has a focus on bringing together professionals from the film, theatre, and historical martial arts communities on the premise that instructors come to share ideas, information, and experiences and also to learn from the participants. This means that we attract a wide range of people with diverse levels of experience and artistic backgrounds as well. The motivation is about receiving the highest level of international instruction in a non-competitive environment with no exams or tests at the end.

Is there a greater need today in film, television, and theatre for combat skills taught in this course?

The industry and audiences alike have been exposed to a blossoming in research and development in the combative arts from the historical to the modern. This development and exposure has pushed audience tastes and in turn necessitates that fight directors and anyone performing fights needs to put in a lot of extra professional development. The Paddy Crean Workshop is the place to do that.

Who was Paddy Crean?

During early-Hollywood’s swashbuckling days, Patrick “Paddy” Crean served as Errol Flynn’s choreographer and stunt double, arranged fights for such legends as Sir John Geilgud and Sir Alec Guinness, and was directly involved in the formation of organizations devoted to stage combat in both Europe and North America. The International Order of the Sword and Pen (IOSP) embodies Paddy’s respect for both the artist and the art.

All photos above by Kim Williams, The Banff Centre