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Lead guitar player Jonathan Howe (left) and singer songwriter Drea Nasager, both from Dawson City, are receiving $4,000 to tour to eastern Canada and Belgium. Photo credit: Janice Cliff
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Minister of Tourism and Culture Mike Nixon (right) with Touring Artist Fund recipient Grant Simpson. The Grant Simpson Quintet is receiving $10,000 from the fund that is designed to help Yukon artists boost exposure of their work. Photo credit: Government of Yukon
WHITEHORSE—The Government of Yukon is providing more than $28,000 to enable eight Yukon artists to tour their work outside the territory at a variety of public events.
“This funding provides important support to Yukon’s professional artists to showcase Yukon around the world,” Tourism and Culture Minister Mike Nixon said. “Enabling our artists to gain experiences and new audiences outside Yukon helps strengthen and grow the arts in the territory.”
Singer songwriter Alexandrea Nasager is receiving $4,000 for her band Drea and the Naysayers to perform in Peterborough, Ontario and at the Mudtown Music and Arts Festival in Owen Sound, Ontario. Following the eastern tour, the group will perform internationally at the Paulusfeesten Festival in Oostende, Belgium.
“We are thrilled to be travelling to eastern Canada and then to Belgium,” Nasager said. “One of my band mates, Jonathan Howe, and I are from Dawson City. We’re excited to be able to make these tours and to present our work to appreciative audiences, which give us enormous opportunity to showcase the talent we have here in Yukon.”
Children’s book author Claire Eamer received $1,930 to travel to southern Ontario to take part in a tour of schools, libraries and special events in conjunction with the Ontario Library Association’s Forest of Reading competition in May. Eamer also delivered presentations at the Canadian Museum of Nature in Ottawa.
“Usually I work alone in my office, so the chance to meet my audience in person was both enjoyable and valuable, especially when it took place in the biggest English-language market in Canada,” Eamer said. “I got to meet and be cheered by hundreds of kids at the Forest of Reading’s final event in Toronto. It was very exciting.”
The Touring Artist Fund fosters the development of the arts in Yukon by helping professional artists, ensembles and companies that create and produce original work to tour and attend out-of-territory public events.
There are four intakes per year: March 15, June 15, September 15 and December 15. For information on Yukon government funding for the arts, visit www.tc.gov.yk.ca.
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See backgrounder and photographs below.
Contact:
Elaine Schiman
Cabinet Communications
867-633-7961
elaine.schiman@gov.yk.ca
Heather LeDuc
Communications, Tourism and Culture\
867-667-5318
heather.leduc@gov.yk.ca
Touring Artist Fund – March 15, 2013 recipients
|
|
Applicant |
Project |
Amount Awarded |
|
1 |
Grant Simpson Quintet |
To tour five cities in China for the 10th anniversary of the Nanjing International Jazz Festival in October 2013. |
$10,000 |
|
2 |
Peter Jickling |
To perform in two theatre festivals in BC in August 2013. |
$9,675 |
|
3 |
Drea and the Naysayers |
To perform in Peterborough and Owen Sound, Ontario and at the Paulusfeestan Festival in Oostende, Belgium in August 2013. |
$4,000 |
|
4 |
Claire Eamer |
To tour schools and libraries in southern Ontario as part of the Ontario Library Association’s Forest of Reading Festival in May 2013. |
$1,930 |
|
5 |
Lena White |
Presenting artwork and hosting a workshop at the Great Northern Arts Festival in Inuvik, July 2013. |
$1,000 |
|
6 |
Marie-Hélène Comeau |
Presenting artwork and hosting a workshop at the Great Northern Arts Festival in Inuvik, July 2013. |
$500 |
|
7 |
Blair Thorson |
Presenting artwork and hosting a workshop at the Great Northern Arts Festival in Inuvik, July 2013. |
$500 |
|
TOTAL: |
$27,605 |
