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Alberta's Artist in Residence / Arts Ambassador 2020-2021 

Wow... we are super honoured to announce that Joal has been selected as Alberta's Artist in Residence / Arts Ambassador


The official announcement interview by The Hon. Leela Sharon Aheer, Minister of Culture, Multiculturalism and Status of Women is linked below (*Note: tissues may be required). For the official Government of Alberta Press Release please click here. To view Joal’s short-list artist interview, please click here.

This incredible opportunity comes with the privileged responsibility of advocating for the Arts every day as well as creating a new residency work (to be announced at a future date).

As the Artist in Residence / Arts Ambassador, I also want to highlight the incredible work of my fellow short-listed artists (in no particular order). Each individual has made significant contributions to our province’s artistic milieu and deserves attention. Please click the links to learn more about each of their careers and accomplishments, and support each of them as able: 

Billie Zizi, musician, Edmonton 
Artist Interview / Online Presence 

Janita Frantsi, dancer, Edmonton 
Artist Interview / Artist Instagram / Artist YouTube

Lanre Ajayi, filmmaker and visual artist, Calgary 
Artist Interview / Online Presence 

Natalie Vargas, filmmaker, Calgary 
Artist Interview / Online Presence 

Yukichi Hattori, dancer, Calgary 
Artist Interview / Online Presence 

Zach Polis, poet and spoken word performer, St. Albert 
Artist Interview / Online Presence

*Links we be updated periodically as each artist so desires.

Interview & Songwriting Season 

Hey folks! We hope you're doing well. There's snow in Calgary now... but it's brought with it a fresh breath of productivity! We recently had the pleasure of being interviewed by Karl Magi for a feature on his Canadian Folk Band Profile blog. It's one of the more in-depth interviews we've done so far, and we talked all about our touring endeavours, running a music business, and how family is very important to us. It was a lot of fun and if you like reading, we hope you'll take a peek for yourself. See the full interview by clicking HERE.

We were recently awarded tour funding from the SOCAN Foundation to help cover some of the expenses we faced on western Canadian tour this summer. We're thrilled about their support because touring Canada sure ain't cheap, and once you factor in the cost of fuel and BC ferries, it's just downright expensive! Thank you SOCAN Foundation for helping us pursue our dreams!

Next week we'll be hunkering down for a very important project: a 12-week self-imposed songwriting residency. It'll be the first time in our lives where we'll be spending regular, dedicated time honing our craft and focusing on writing new material. In a lot of ways I (Joal) think I'm a little scared as an artist that we won't have anything worthwhile to share, so I would greatly appreciate your thoughts, prayers, and encouragement for artist inspiration and creativity.

 

Contentment in the midst of Chaos? 

A while back while touring the gulf islands, we met Gail Lynne Goodwin of Inspire Me Today during a performance at the Tree House Cafe on Salt Spring Island. She invited us to submit some thoughts on the topic of thankfulness and, well, this is what we came up with: The Key to Contentment: Thankfulness.

In all the busyness of this past touring season we nearly forgot to share this post... If you're curious to know more, or have some thoughts to share with us, please drop us a line? We'd also love for you to share this post as well - as we're always curious to see how people might respond. THANK YOU!