Episode Transcript
Speaker 0 00:00:00 Good morning. Good morning, Fort McMurray, wood, Buffalo, and the rest of the world. You've tuned into the Mac city morning show. I am your host Elliot Pierre, and we're going to start the show off the same way we start every episode with gratitude. Thank you so much for tuning in. I know you could be doing a million other things with your time. So the fact that you choose to spend it with us truly does mean the world to me on that note, Tanner hit them with,
Speaker 1 00:00:24 Oh, she caught me, loves near listened to the next anymore.
Speaker 0 00:00:33 Okay. And we're back. All right. We got a fun guest today. Uh, as you know, I do not introduce him, I guess I let them do that themselves. Um, but this guy is going to be talking about something that's near and dear to my heart. Um, that a lot of people who come to Fort McMurray say we don't have. And so we're going to squash that rumor today. So on that note, sir, can you please introduce yourself and tell everybody who you are?
Speaker 2 00:00:53 Sure. My name is will Collins and I'm communications manager, arts council, wood Buffalo here in Fort McMurray, but we basically serve the entire region of
Speaker 0 00:01:04 There you go. Sweet. So, yeah, it's one of my biggest pet peeves and has been for years. Um, people constantly say, ah, there's nothing to do in Fort McMurray. One that couldn't be further from the truth and Fort McMurray has no culture and no arts, which that's equally as wrong as there's nothing to do here. Um, so let's talk about like your organization, what you guys are all about. Um, I know things have changed obviously through COVID, so let's hear what's going on with, uh, with you guys.
Speaker 2 00:01:34 Well, uh, arts council would, Buffalo is a nonprofit charitable organization and what our mandate is really is to support the growth and success of the arts and artists in the region. And there are a surprising number of artists here that you wouldn't really realize. And I've only been working at arts council for, for about a year. And I was really surprised at just how many artists there are and sort of the diversity of what they do. You know, everything from novelists painters and photographers and designers and actors and sculptors and, you know, craft makers. It's crazy. There's so much going on. Yeah,
Speaker 0 00:02:12 There really is. So when our council, your main mandate is to help and facilitate. So if I'm an artist out there and I want to get involved with our council may be as a board member, or maybe I'm an artist and I'm just looking for like a community. How does that process work with you guys?
Speaker 2 00:02:28 Well, we're a membership based organization, so you can get a membership. Our website is arts council, wb.ca and there's information on there about how to become a member. But, uh, that's just sort of one small piece of it. Um, actually we have an annual general meeting coming up on the 24th of this month. So if you show up at that meeting, you'll learn lots more about arts council. Um, but really we, we helped to promote connections between artists and say the business world. Uh, we help to share information with artists, how they can, you know, like opportunities and calls for funding for work, for ways to connect in and do their work, uh, sharing resources. We have a number of programs, uh, right now we're in the middle of the nomination process for the Buffy awards. So that's also known as the wood, Buffalo, um, excellence in arts awards.
Speaker 2 00:03:25 And that is a big, uh, it's, it's kind of like the Oscars for our region, right? And, uh, that's, that's held in October, but nominations are happening now. So, uh, we encourage people to nominate artists if you know, an artist, every, anything from a craft maker to a painter, uh, to whatever, to an administrator, um, you know, a dancer, anything, um, you can nominate them for an award. And there's a process where, where we have a committee that would select, you know, the best sort of candidate, I guess. And, uh, we would recognize them, but we also recognize all the nominees. So it's good for the recipient of an award and it's good for the nominees. So, uh, you know, there's right now, we're also working on, um, art of conversation, 2.0, as I like to call it, because we did that last year and we partnered with St. Adan society and connected elders and seniors with artists. Oh cool. And, you know, we all know COVID happened. So, um, we basically, we connected these artists with seniors and elders on the phone and they had conversations on the phone and then create artwork based on that conversation. So artists created the artwork and then we also invited the seniors and elders to create artwork too. So that's cool. You know, those are just some of the things we've been
Speaker 0 00:04:49 Nice. Yeah. I know your awards last year. They were virtual. Yes. High production value last year. You guys put in work on that. Yeah. It looks amazing. Yeah. And you know what all local, all local artists that's awesome. Right.
Speaker 2 00:05:05 Um, actually I think our set designer was out of Calgary, but she used to be local. Right. Um, you know, but every, everyone else, like all the videographers, all the performers, you know, everyone, the people who created the arts awards, all local that's awesome. Which is cool. It's a great showcase. And we're doing the same thing this year. So we've actually hired the creative team. So we've got everybody in place, but again, if you nominate for those awards, you know, the artists they'll be featured on, on that showcase.
Speaker 0 00:05:37 Very cool. Very cool. Yeah.
Speaker 2 00:05:39 And we're all. Okay. Actually, now that you mentioned that, um, last year was our first, um, virtual sort of experience. So it was all prerecorded. Um, typically we'd had a live event and we asked maybe about 400 people in attendance or so, uh, when we streamed it, uh, last year in October, we had something like 14,000 views
Speaker 0 00:06:01 Really nominal,
Speaker 2 00:06:03 Which is phenomenal for the artist. It's phenomenal for the performers, the recipients, but it's also really good for the sponsors, wink, wink, nudge, nudge. If you want to sponsor a, an award or a performance video, those opportunities are certainly open. And it's great, great coverage, not to plug that at all, but I'm plugging it pretty. Uh, yeah. That's awesome. That's huge. It is huge. That's huge,
Speaker 0 00:06:29 Man. I was blown away when I watched him and uh, yeah, the production was next level. Like it was, it, wasn't something you're like, oh, you know, this is hokey local small towns. It's like, no, this is like professional grade television quality. Yeah. Yeah. It was. And the set design, like you said, like that it wasn't an air balloon or a ship. Like I forget exactly what it was, but my goodness.
Speaker 2 00:06:53 Yeah. It was basically a ship that was flying around using air balloons and other, other, you know, fictional technology to deliver awards to all the recipients. So we've got a pretty cool theme this year. I am not going to reveal it just yet. We're revealing it later at our AGM on the 24th, but it's going to be super fun. Everything's in the works script, writing's underway, you know, set design is underway, performances, performers have been hired. You know, they're awesome. Getting all their, their preparation done. So lots going on already. And it's something that basically happens year round. So, uh, one thing that we're trying to achieve this year is basically after the awards close this year after the, the showcase has finished nominations for the next year already open sponsorship opportunities already opened. So it's going to be this role in process all year round. Nice. Right now,
Speaker 0 00:07:47 In regards to yourself, how did you get involved with our council?
Speaker 2 00:07:51 Well, um, somebody mentioned my name that they were looking for somebody to fill some roles. And so I met with them and we started, you know, started that discussion. But I'm an artist. I came here for the arts, which is really unusual. I came to Fort McMurray for the arts. Nobody ever says that. Right. Uh, which was about 15 years ago. And I came to Kiana to study a music instrument repair because this piano was the only place in north America, actually in Canada, sorry, in Canada that offered that program. One of like three places in north America.
Speaker 0 00:08:25 Okay. That's right. What a sad, sad program to lose. Cause it was so like, like you said, so rare. Yeah. Anyways, go on, please continue. I'm fascinated. I've never spoken to anybody who took that program. Yeah, that's great.
Speaker 2 00:08:37 You know, um, I learned a lot. I worked at Campbell's music for both 10 years and uh, just casual, uh part-time kind of thing. Right. Um, so I've been supporting the arts since I got here. I'm still performing when I can, you know, or I'm a writing, I'm a writer as well. So there's all sorts this stuff happening always or in this community.
Speaker 0 00:08:58 Yeah. That's so good to hear. It's one of those things where, um, my background initially, um, and most people know it by now is, is human resources. So, um, I used to go to a lot of job fairs and like talk to people about different career opportunities. Um, and now because I do something very untraditional, as far as Fort McMurray is concerned anyways, um, schools bring me in to talk about like that, but like, I love hearing your story in regards to that. And I, I don't think enough people, especially in this community to know about this, like when you're in school and somebody says like a child says, Hey, I want to be an artist. I want to be a painter. I want to be a dancer. I want to be in media very often. Their parents, like there's no money in that. There's no career get a job that site and not to knock jobs at site, they pay real well, but like, it's not for everybody. Right. But like to have somebody like yourself on the show to showcase like, Hey, listen, there's jobs and you can make a living doing something different with the passion that you would like to follow.
Speaker 2 00:09:55 My passion is writing and I've been doing that my whole career basically since I graduated university, which is I'm lucky. Right. Um, but you, you know, maybe I don't know if it's luck or if it's system driven, but you know, my dad told me to get a trade and all that. And you know, I've worked with my hands and I guess repairing instruments is a trade, you know? Sure. I think I'm just a man of many trades and, uh, you know, the cool thing is that there's so many opportunities in Fort McMurray and wood Buffalo for all sorts of arts, right. You know, even arts council, not to, I'm going to go back to art school, but even our organization is growing, you know, into the rural communities now. And so it's not just Fort McMurry, you know, Fort chip chip away on is, uh, is flourishing with the arts.
Speaker 2 00:10:40 We have a, we call them arousal. So rural, rural art support liaison. So we have Donna Aubuchon up in Fort chip and she's killing it. She's putting on all sorts of workshops. She's connecting different groups and they're, they're flourishing in the arts, you know, and then we've just brought on Nick and Vardy onto our team and he's our Southern Rozell, but he's also supporting artists in residency, which I'll get to after. Um, so he's working on the Southern communities like John VA's and Conklin and Anzac, and he's working on connecting those communities and getting the arts up and rolling even more so than it already is. Right. So, yeah.
Speaker 0 00:11:22 Okay. I'm going to put something on you and I've said it a few times on the show now nobody's really reached out to me on this one. If you know somebody who can teach me how to play a harmonica, please keep that in the back of your mind, I'm looking for a harmonica teacher. Okay. So if anybody is part of the council, I know a couple of heavy harmonica players. So say like, I like, um, I want to pick up this instrument. I'm not like I need to like actually be held accountable to show up, um, YouTube videos, just, they're not cutting it. So I need to teach yourself food for thought, anybody out, if you know anybody, if anybody out there knows anybody, I want to pick up the harmonica. Our
Speaker 2 00:12:00 Local harmonica players will connect after this.
Speaker 0 00:12:03 Cool. So I heard a rumor about something that's taking place. I don't know how much, how true it is or how much you can talk about it. Sure. But, uh, you guys are looking at facilities in the downtown core in theory, um, which is really exciting to me in regards to, for one, it checks off a bunch of boxes. One, you could potentially be moving into a building as vacant, which there's a lot of vacancies downtown and like they're just cavities. And two, it helps revitalize the downtown core, which I love. So are there any truth to these rumors that you guys are looking for? Some facilities?
Speaker 2 00:12:35 Yes. Yes. So you may remember the former landmarks cinema downtown on it
Speaker 0 00:12:40 Avenue. I call it the new movie theater. That's how old I am. Yeah, that's
Speaker 2 00:12:43 The new one. Yeah. New, old, new movie data. Yeah. Down on Maney avenue, SOA arts council worked with Akron engineering and we recently completed a feasibility study to see if that could be transformed into an arts incubator. And, uh, we're happy to say it is. And we're looking at releasing the results of that pretty soon here. Very cool. Um, we're looking at later this month doing a bit of a release in, uh, hopefully presenting to, uh, to council, uh, and, uh, sharing this information with the community because it's really important and it's, it's going to be beneficial for everyone.
Speaker 0 00:13:21 Yeah. That's awesome. What a great location in regards to like that? Um, when I was younger, I was actually just on the phone with, uh, an old friend, um, talking about this. I used to work, um, as a recreational programmer for the municipality with Buffalo is a summer job. Right, right. And so we were based out of the hacks and center. And so that area of town is so nice because you do have the hacker center down there, you have the water, you have the old folks homes that around there, like rotary and like the other
Speaker 2 00:13:49 Facility in bandstand, you have to bobble on bam,
Speaker 0 00:13:51 Stand down there. And now with you guys going down there, that just make sense. Right. That's awesome.
Speaker 2 00:13:59 Nailed it already. Like repurposing and just like filling in places that have been, you know, they haven't been used for awhile. Um, you know, redeveloping the downtown, we all know that there's some gaps down there so we can get something vibrant down there. It's just going to kind of help to spread and create some empty down there. And it gives a place. You know, one of the key issues for artists here is they don't really have a place to do their art. It's very limited, you know? So having a place that's multipurpose where all sorts of different arts types can happen. Everything from, you know, musical performances, theater, uh, culinary arts, uh, you know, displaying artwork, doing workshops and learning things, you know, there, the possibilities are endless, you know, markets, you know, outdoor kind of performances, you know? Yeah. So fingers crossed. We can make this happen. You know, we're still somewhat earlier in the process, so there's a lot to do yet, but, uh, hopefully people will stay tuned. Yeah.
Speaker 0 00:15:03 And even with the say outdoor performances, like we used to before, COVID we used to shut down the downtown main street for performances every single night. Yeah. So you're just, if that ever happens again,
Speaker 2 00:15:17 Interplay that's exactly it. Yeah.
Speaker 0 00:15:20 So that you would literally be right in that vicinity as well. If they were to interplay again. Very cool stuff. I hope that happens. Yeah. Me too. I really hope that
Speaker 2 00:15:32 Happens so far. We're on the right track. So, um, stay tuned for further news. We'll be sharing lots of information in the coming weeks. Cool.
Speaker 0 00:15:39 Okay. All right. Well, we're, we've come to the part of the show. This is Tanner segments. It's called the Mac city minute. Time's going to hit you up with a few questions. Best of luck to you. Tanner hit him with the max 30 minute question.
Speaker 3 00:15:49 Number one. What is your favorite form of art you've seen from a local artist?
Speaker 2 00:15:56 Oh, I, I know that we get a lot of, uh, so I know this is a bit controversial, but graffiti art is pretty cool. You know, uh, I don't, I don't mean like the tagging and all that crap, but the mural art that you can see is graffiti mural art. You know, there's some really nice stuff. If you look at the wall down by, um, she, what's the part downtown heritage park area, there's a really beautiful mural. There. There's a few murals around town that I really enjoy. And if we can get more murals downtown, right. And everywhere really professionally done, you know, not really the tagging graffiti style, but like actual, you know, controlled sort of beauty. I think we'll, I think that's one of my favorites.
Speaker 3 00:16:40 Question number two, what is one way Fort McMurray does art that is unique to the region?
Speaker 2 00:16:48 That's a great question. I think a lot of the collaborations we see is pretty unique for our region. You know, we have a lot of unique artists, a lot of unique voices, and when they come together, it becomes even more unique, right? Like, uh, I hate to, you know, uh, toot our own horn, but the Buffy's last year was a great example of just a lot of talented artists coming together and making something unique for our region.
Speaker 3 00:17:14 And question number three, what is one way art council helps support local artists that people might not know?
Speaker 2 00:17:22 Well, we have an artist directory where people can list their themselves. It's kind of like a social media profile, but for artists, and that's a great way of, uh, in promoting themselves, but it's also a great way for the community to find out who's here in the arts community and I'm going to toot my horn a little bit more marketplace. We have an online marketplace on our website, which is unique for our community and it's an arts and crafts based, uh, I guess e-commerce platform through our website and we help facilitate artists learn about that and sell their artwork on our marketplace arts council, wb.ca/marketplace.
Speaker 3 00:18:07 Question number four. What is your favorite song to play on the many instruments? You know,
Speaker 2 00:18:13 Uh, I I've been recently addicted to Rubin James by Kenny Rogers in the first edition. Just started learning that this week. So that's the one that stuck in my head, this, this most recently. Okay.
Speaker 3 00:18:26 And your final question, what is one form of art you think everyone should try and why
Speaker 2 00:18:32 Humor? I love the art of humor. You know, making people laugh is a pretty fun thing to do, uh, you know, and doing it in a way that's constructive and not like, you know, taking somebody down, but, you know, having some fun with it. And so I think that's my favorite. I'm all I'm known for my terrible puns and dad jokes. And, uh, I think they're pretty harmless and often tasteless, but they're still pretty funny
Speaker 0 00:18:58 Questions. Yeah. Yeah. There you go. Good job. Yeah. It's uh, something that you brought up, which I'll after the show, I'll take you upstairs to my office and show you some of the graffiti art. I love graffiti. Yeah. I love
Speaker 2 00:19:11 It. Unify the town it's done in a, you know, proper, respectful way. That's
Speaker 0 00:19:16 Exactly it. Um, I have some beautiful pieces that I purchased years ago because I'm an old man I'm in Newfoundland over a decade ago that I have hung up in my office. Um, some of the artwork around town, one of, uh, one of my buddies, one of my friends, um, Liam called luxury stuff around town. Just
Speaker 2 00:19:34 Looking at her. I remember just saying, there you go. There you go.
Speaker 0 00:19:38 Um, but yeah, like how Edmonton, I don't think it was last summer. Maybe two summers go. How they, like they hired, they hired a bunch of mainstream graffiti artists to come and do murals in their town or city.
Speaker 2 00:19:49 They do that almost every year. They have different mural projects they do around town in each one. Really cool. I've seen some of Liam's work too. Like the B the change up at, um, um, is it holy Trinity?
Speaker 0 00:20:03 Yeah, so good there back in the day. And I don't know if this was sanctioned or not, but, uh, uh, you know, the skate park down in Borealis park, we used to be a graffiti contest there every year where like they would say like they would clean it all up and then they'd have graffiti artists come. And then they also just had locals who just like tagged the crap out of like the skate, skating bulls. That's cool. And, uh, yeah, I just, I think it's art and, uh, Tanner loves this artist and he got me watching a documentary on Banksy. Oh yeah. Banks. He's great. Yeah. And so I think if, if you're open-minded and you see what it is and kind of where it's coming from, it's great. And just like what you guys are doing. It promotes art. Cause not everybody, like my mother grew up making me to place I've gone to so many plays at can on taking me to art galleries and going to museums. Um, and she thought that was really important. Yeah. Um, so like, I love going to museums and art galleries when I have the opportunity to do so. However, not everybody has an opportunity to see that. So like with graffiti, especially done well, that's a way for you to walk by art every day and just have it as part of your psyche. So, but a lot of old schoolers look at it like that. They just think it's not, well,
Speaker 2 00:21:14 If I can interject, I, uh, I'm a world traveler and like south America and, um, last two years ago, I guess it was, I went to Columbia and, uh, Metagene is famous for the TV show, Narcos and stuff. Um, other things and a few other things. Yeah. But there there's a neighborhood called Komoona 13, you know? And I can't remember what kimono it's like common 13 or something. Um, anyways, that was one of the really sort of most war torn sort of, uh, slums in Metagene. Right. And, uh, they started doing this graffiti project there and now it's just, there's graffiti art everywhere, like beautiful murals, like world-class murals. And now it's become like a tourist attraction and it's incredible there. And you get people like bill Clinton visiting this place, and it's just transformed one of the worst war torn neighborhoods in south America. And it's now become like this vibrant neighborhoods. And so that's the power of art in my opinion.
Speaker 0 00:22:22 Yeah. I've heard about it. That's cool that you've been there. I've seen
Speaker 2 00:22:24 That place. Well, it's cool. And parts of that, like neighborhood are in the show Narcos, right? Like there's a, there's a certain area that's famous for being the Narcos area. Um, so if you've seen it, it is kind of, it used to be like that, but it's not anymore. Right? Like it's still this sort of impoverished area, but it's crazy how beautiful it is with all that artwork.
Speaker 0 00:22:46 Well that no man tanners hit his watch a few times. So we went
Speaker 2 00:22:49 Overboard. That's okay. Listen, it's me too.
Speaker 0 00:22:53 And we're going to talk after you leave. So, um, thank you very much for coming. Thanks for having me really appreciate it. Uh, I say this to everybody and some people are taking me up on it. Anytime you want to come back or
Speaker 2 00:23:04 Come back on the show, see you next week. There you go. Listen. I'm not going to be mad about it. Become a regular guest. So thank you so much for coming on the show and do come back again. Thank you for having me and again, arts council would buffalo.ca sorry. Arts council, wb.ca is our website. And, uh, yeah, I was going to get you to do your shameless plug and he did it already. I love it. All right. Before McMurry
Speaker 0 00:23:27 Would Buffalo in the rest of the world. Thank you very much for tuning in really does mean the world to me. So thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Hopefully you're having a great day and we'll see you tomorrow. Peace.
Speaker 4 00:23:54 Talk about quenching your ugly thirst.
