The City of Burlington has announced its list of 19 projects awarded funds under the Burlington Arts and Culture fund (BACF) for 2023–2024.
The call for potential projects went out earlier this year, and the city received 27 applications. A jury of peers (artists, arts and cultural professionals, individuals with expertise in the subject matter) and city staff evaluated applications based on artistic merit, evidence of innovation or unique opportunities for artists, the public or other arts and culture organizations, and a comprehensive project plan with clear outcomes that align with the city’s Strategic Plan goals, amongst other criteria.
Some of the projects that were awarded funding this year have a history of receiving the BACF award in previous years: Halton Black History Awareness Society’s Halton Freedom Celebration Festival, a one-day summertime event featuring cultural crafts, music, activities, and food; Redleaf Cultural Integration’s Lunar New Year Celebration Gala, which includes cultural displays, art and calligraphy displays, songs and dances; the Telling Tales Festival, in the summer at the Royal Botanical Gardens.
Amongst the other inspired and inspiring visual art projects funded in this round are the Elizabeth Gardens Art Walk, a one-day summer event featuring local artists showcasing their talents; a large-scale community pour painting workshop where small groups of people will together to create a large abstract painting, the brainchild of visual artist Samantha Le Grand; two workshop projects for specific underserved groups of people, including Home Is Where the Art Is (painting classes for at-risk pregnant women and new mothers), and Images of Our Past, Present, and Future (still photography workshops for new immigrants); the Burlington Fine Arts Association’s ten-day juried art exhibit at the Hub in Burlington Centre, entitled The Artist’s Mark; and the Inspiration Initiative, a week of demonstrations, interactive activities, and performances by local artists and a free art exhibition featuring the varying perspectives of three artists on one subject: Lake Ontario.
Burlington residents can also look forward to theatrical and musical community art projects as a result of these awards, as well as Authors in Your Neighbourhood, a project featuring demonstrations and workshops by local writers and illustrators for children.
For music lovers, One Burlington will present Enhanced Memories of the Brant Inn at the Burlington Performing Arts Centre, with new arrangements of the music of renowned Black artists who once performed at the Brant Inn. There is also the Metamorphosis Concert by pianist, composer and arranger Charles Cozens and his trio; the Effusion and Friends Collective’s Women Composers Project; and the Burlington Symphony Orchestra’s Young Artists Engagement Project, which will not only foster youth learning and engagement but will also feature a Young Artist Competition — the prize of which will be a solo performance during a concert at the Burlington Performing Arts Centre.
Burlington’s schools are also set to benefit from the BACF: Chris McKhool’s Indigenous Collaborations project gives elementary and high school students the opportunity to hear an inspirational musical lineup of McKhool and his core Sultans of String bandmates alongside Indigenous musicians including Dr. Duke Redbird, Alyssa Delbaere-Sawchuk, and Shannon Thunderbird, amongst others.
Students will also have the opportunity to learn more about opera with the Southern Ontario Lyric Opera’s Hansel and Gretel touring school production. The aim is to foster engagement with opera and encourage them to learn more, with a production including a cast of five professional opera singers, costumes, props, and a musical director and pianist of an accessible work followed by a Q&A session.
Theatre Burlington was also awarded a BACF grant for Hope for Home, which aims to provide workshops to adults from diverse backgrounds the opportunity to learn new skills in the basics of live theatre and fundamentals of production, culminating in the final production of the play itself.
The final two innovative projects coming to a neighbourhood near you include the Melting Pot, a multicultural cooking demonstration during which participants will learn about various cuisines alongside music, art, and crafts from the associated cultures, and the Lowville Festival’s Journey Around the Sun, a series of performances that will take place on June 21, Sept. 23, Dec. 21, and March 19, all dates of equinox and solstice. These outdoor events aim to attract a diverse audience, all joining together to celebrate the change of seasons.
