While Carleton doesn’t have creation-based arts classes, that hasn’t stopped its community from developing a thriving scene.
As the school year draws to a close, the Charlatan checked in with some of the leaders of three of Carleton’s arts organizations about what worked, what didn’t and where things go from here.
Theatre
Despite “cartoonishly” bad luck, including a flood that wiped out most of Sock ‘n’ Buskin’s stock, the theatre company had a successful season, said artistic director Michelle Blanchard in an email.
The fourth-year journalism student said the Carleton community took on the challenge presented by each of this season’s plays and were “loving” it the whole way through.
The season debuted with Macbeth. The play featured some physically demanding swordfights, but Blanchard said it was the eerie witches who stole the show. Another one of the season’s major highlights was This Is Our Youth, which boasted an “outstanding” all-student cast, she said. The play was also directed by fourth-year humanities student Iain Moggach. Kenneth Lonergan wrote the script.
The season ended on a high note with Annie King-Smith’s showstopping performance of “Another Hundred People” in Company, she said.
With the outgoing executive all graduating, including Blanchard, Sock ‘n’ Buskin will have big shoes to fill. However, Blanchard said the year has been phenomenal and she wishes “the incoming crew the best of luck.”
Dance
In 2008, the Carleton University Dance Association (CUDA) disbanded. This year, the team of reunited underdogs took second place at Ontario Universities Competition for HipHop (O.U.C.H.), said choreographer Edmund Gyamfi.
There was a lot of turmoil within CUDA, but this year marked the end of a long journey of rebuilding, the third-year film student said.
The dance team’s thematic performance at the O.U.C.H in November was the year’s highlight, Gyamfi said.
“We took risks,” he said. “We were very new but we proved you don’t need an army of people.”
The seven-person dance team grew to eight and Gyamfi said doors just continued to open.
The team performed for former Governor General Michaëlle Jean at a black history month ceremony and were invited back by Jean to kick off youth week on April 2.
The team’s already looking at their next project — a video that tells the story of women who have survived abusive relationships.
“When you watch, you get a sense of a story being told through each person’s movement,” he said.
Visual arts
Walking into the the Carleton University Art Gallery this year, visitors could always find something different, said education and outreach co-ordinator Fiona Wright in an email.
From Inuit paintings to multimedia art that changes in the light, Wright said the gallery has seen it all this year.
An exhibition and panel discussion on the late Colin Campbell, who taped himself in drag, was one of the highlights out of this year’s 11 exhibitions, she said.
The gallery hosted a series of events in partnership with the GLBTQ centre, architecture and art history students. The multidisciplinary nature of this year is in part the result of the creation of Wright’s position. For example, the gallery encouraged gallery-goers to share local knowledge of a particular location in the Ottawa Valley region through HeritageCrowd.org. The map, designed by Carleton’s history department was played on a laptop in the gallery because Leslie Reid’s exhibition focused on nostalgic Canadian landscapes.
Most importantly, Wright said the gallery will continue to reach out to students and represent visual arts on campus.
“We give students a place to see, discuss and enjoy exciting art on a daily basis,” she said.
Literature
Carleton’s lit community made its voice heard and its presence known this year, defying the stereotype of quiet, isolated writers.
The Moose and Pussy started off by taking sex lit to the web to reach a wider readership, said founding editor Jeff Blackman. The blog was updated periodically with steamy poetry complete with audio clips to create a fully oral experience. They took it one step further by releasing a sensual mixtape of poems for people to listen along to. The title: Codename ORAL.
In/Words magazine wasn’t quite as racy but it definitely put out.
Incoming editor and third-year English student Jenna Jarvis wrote a sonnet to celebrate the 11th anniversary of In/Words. In her poem she gave a nod to this year’s literary highlights with verses like “writing circles, writing workshops in the winter/with Capital Slam poet Brandon Wint/and George Johnston Prize winner Bardia Sinaee.”
Given the organizational problems that constantly plague In/Words, Sinaee said he’s glad the magazine is still thriving. Jarvis’ sonnet seems to signal hopefulness for next year with her closing line, “We are the youngest we have ever been.”
Sonnet for the 11th Anniversary of In/Words
Application for a new editor:
you must be able to manage writing
circles, writing workshops in the winter
with Capital Slam poet Brandon Wint
and George Johnston Prize winner Bardia
Sinaee, who took charge of In/Words in
November and produced the magazine’s
most recent issue, eleven point one.We launched at VERSeFest in January.
Rachael Simpson from Kingston and Carleton
was there to read. We once rejected her poems
so the audience laughed at us and at
the Moose & Pussy for being so-called.
We are the youngest we have ever been.— Jenna Jarvis
