Engine driving the arts

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This article was published 10/07/2010 (5822 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

In its 26th year of existence, the Brandon Folk, Music and Art Society (BFMAS) is an organization the Brandon community can now truly be proud of.

But other than the annual Brandon Folk, Music and Art Festival, board chair and visual artist Shandra MacNeill says not many people in the community know about the society and how multi-faceted it is.

"The mandate of the organization in the first place was to have an umbrella organization that was a general arts presenter, not just music. We promote and present all manner of arts and cultural activity. The exciting part about the last couple of years is that we’ve actually really been able to do that," says MacNeill, who received a 2010 Mayor’s Volunteer Award for Arts and Culture.

The BFMAS provides support and services for musicians, visual artists, authors and dancers through various programs, workshops and performances.

"It’s about providing all those kinds of artists with opportunities to engage with industry professionals like they could in larger centres like Winnipeg," says MacNeill.

The last few months have been particularly exciting for the organization.

Last week, the BFMAS received a provincial Neighbourhoods Alive grant of $12,000 for its Emerging Artist Program and community-based visual arts projects. The money will be used to hold a 10-month open studio program that includes free, community-accessible workshops from professional artists in literature, theatre, dance, music and the visual arts.

"The essence of the programming is to be able to access the wealth of knowledge of the arts professionals we have at the university and the performers we have come through and bring them out into the community," says MacNeill.

The programming will begin with a mini-mentorship where five musicians and five artists from the BFMAS’s Emerging Artist’s Program will participate in workshops with singer/songwriter Buffy Sainte-Marie, the headliner of this summer’s folk festival. The Emerging Artist Program is open to all local musicians and gives them opportunities to perform in the community and participate in workshops with professional musicians and industry professionals.

The Community Portrait Project is this year’s installment of Core Values, a project that focuses on downtown Brandon. Board members and photographers Colin Corneau and John Scott took up to 70 portraits of willing community members, with a focus on people living and working downtown, to be displayed in the Art Gallery of Southwestern Manitoba at the beginning of August. Disposable cameras will be distributed to community members in the next few weeks so they can take their own portraits, which will then be displayed in the windows of downtown businesses during Culture Days in September.

"The idea is to create a community portrait archive of the people that are living and working in our area right now. It offers a lot of ways for people to get it involved – either as a photographer, subject or viewer," says MacNeill.

Rosser Ward City Councillor Vince Barletta says the BFMAS, particularly the Core Values Project, has been important in bringing community to downtown Brandon.

"It’s important for any community to have arts and cultural organizations that are bringing activity, energy, music and culture to a community. Organizations like the BFMAS are one of the reasons we live together in communities," he said.

In April, the society moved into its new headquarters, the old Recreation Bowling Lanes located at 126-10th Street, donated by the owner of the building, Dr. Diarmuid Decter, a BFMAS board member. MacNeill said it’s been great to move their home base out of her dining room.

"It’s been a godsend. It’s been nice to have a place for all the staff and volunteers to work," says MacNeill. "We just needed a home base so badly and somewhere to have meetings and use for the portrait project, some drawing classes, and dance rehearsals."

The group is also in the process of applying for $928,998 in federal funding crucial for the development of the old Strand theatre into a multi-purpose arts centre. If the funding comes through, MacNeill hopes the project will be completed within a few years.

This summer’s folk, music and art festival will be the biggest in the society’s history. MacNeill says the number of volunteers needed for this summer has doubled. This year’s festival will bring more focus to non-musical activities happening at the festival. Literary and dance workshops will take place throughout the weekend, and there will be installations of sculptures, portraits and paintings spread throughout the festival site.

MacNeill says the success seen by the BFMAS right now is the result of a lot of hard work and a long struggle to remain in existence.

The BFMAS has had a bit of a shaky history. It originated 26 years ago when a group of 12-15 friends, mainly Brandon University students and young working professionals, decided to put on Brandon’s first folk festival.

Founding member Keay Dobson-Golletz says the idea originated with her husband, Richard Golletz, and his friend — now Brandon East NDP MLA Drew Caldwell — and was quickly embraced by their group of friends.

"We were just music fans, more than anything, just wanting to have a place for people to hang out and hear music and play music," Dobson-Golletz said.

"I think now for all of us founding members, it’s like you’re a parent who has puffed-up pride about their child. It’s come so far over the years. We wouldn’t have imagined it would still be going."

The society and festival continued every year — whenever the board that had been carrying the society and organizing the festival decided it was time to move on, a new group would take over and mould the society into the kind of organization that suited its needs.

MacNeill says the resources available to the society were different year to year. Funding and involvement went up and down, but she says the BFMAS faced the same problem as many other volunteer community groups.

"Like any small organization, there was always more to do than there were people to do it," says MacNeill.

The board also experienced some rocky transitions throughout the years as conflicting visions for the organization developed. MacNeill says that’s natural with any organization, but particularly with arts groups.

"Whenever you have something that people are passionate about or takes a lot of energy and a lot of work, there is always some frustration."

But every year, the society managed to scrape together enough funding, resources and volunteers to put on their annual folk festival.

MacNeill says after looking back at some of the society’s financial statements, she is amazed by the resilience of the group when it had little to work with.

"In 2002, the board experienced a high turnover and a small group of people managed to put on the festival for just $1,100. They must have called in every single favour they were owed because I can’t imagine the musicians were paid really anything and they must have borrowed a P.A. or something. I still credit that board for absolutely saving the whole organization."

Since 2002, the BFMAS has slowly grown and expanded. MacNeill, who has been involved with the society as a volunteer since 1990 and a board member since 2003, says community interest in the development of the Strand gave the organization a big push around 2005.

"The Strand really brought in people from the community who saw the potential to build something really amazing for the community, particularly for the arts. We knew there was a need in the community for that kind of space, and community members were realizing that, too, so they became interested in us."

In 2008, the board finally reached full capacity at 21 members. In 2009, they enlisted the advice of Mitch Podolak, founder and artistic director of the Winnipeg Folk Festival. He says he told the group that it was important to professionalize the organization of their board.

"Organizations like folk fests work best when there is hybrid between a professional arts staff and a huge community-run volunteer organization," he said. "That’s what makes folk festivals successful, and I really think the Brandon crew has been able to do that. Their folk festival last year was wonderful — the attitude in Brandon was great."

Since the restructuring, which saw the installation of artistic director, volunteer co-ordinator and business manager positions, the society has nearly tripled its operating budget, allowing for more community programs and increasing community involvement.

MacNeill says she is thrilled for the future of the BFMAS.

"We know we have exceptionally creative people here in Brandon — professionals, people interested in the arts as a hobby and young people looking for a future in the arts — and we want to continue to create resources for them."

MacNeill hopes that the programs started by the society over the past few years will continue to expand.

"I would hope that we keep providing great musical events, but the added value programming, like the community-based visual arts projects, the professional development opportunities, all of those things can really keep growing."

While the expansion of the folk festival and the development of the Strand continue to be top-priority projects, as a long-term goal, MacNeill hopes the BFMAS can help create jobs in the arts to bring more professional artists to the city and provide them with an opportunity to make a living while they share their advice.

"If we could create staffing opportunities, there will be more professional arts people in the community, and we’re already seeing the benefits culturally of having the staff at the art gallery or the university. To create more positions, both creative and administrative, we know that would benefit the community."

 

» klawson@brandonsun.com