The last weclome message for Inspired from Mary Hofstetter.

It’s easy to spot Jeff Melanson on campus. He’s the tall guy with the big smile, who never forgets your name once you’ve been introduced, and who is eager to hear about your connection to the Centre.

“I wouldn’t be here tonight if I hadn’t gone to Banff, if funding for places like Banff didn’t exist.”

Of her off-Broadway premiere, The Huffington Post critic in New York commented, “What a treat. It’s unvarnished, but paired with the right music and Gilbertson’s marvelous vocals, it’s catchy and memorable and funny and true.”

“Brian [Macdonald] saw something in me that I knew I had,” she recalls. “He guided me in finding my voice, and I started to approach dance almost as if I were an actress.”

On the eve of her departure as president of The Banff Centre, Mary Hofstetter sat down to talk with Inspired.

“There are a lot of people who love science, who track a career in science but have a creative side that never gets realized,” says Ingram, chair of the program.

With this fall’s publication of A Good Man, Saskatoon writer Guy Vanderhaeghe completes a literary hat trick.

I will always love Loulou the acrobat.

To listen to recordings and podcasts, or to watch videos from the 2011 Indie Band Residency, see the Banff Centre blog, www.banffcentre.org.

The Sundance Theatre Lab is a unique experience. It has some similarities to The Banff Centre’s Playwrights’ Colony, but it stands on its own as a creative hothouse.

If there is one word to describe this summer at The Banff Centre – and the stories in this issue of Inspired – that word is transformative.

Recipient of a 2011 Lieutenant Governor of Alberta Distinguished Artist Award, Governor-General Award winner, and Banff Centre Paul Fleck Fellow, Robert Kroetsch was one of Alberta’s most beloved writers. The Banff Centre is deeply honoured that the Kroetsch family has requested that donations in Robert Kroetsch’s memory be made to the Centre: banffcentre.ca\robertkroetsch.