National arts festival highlights Saskatchewan talent

Saskatchewan artists and performers showcased their talent at the Prairiescene arts festival held in Ottawa this spring.

The multi-disciplinary arts festival was the fifth in a series of festivals that began in 2003 and this year it showcased over 500 visual artists, musicians, performers, writers, and dancers from Manitoba and Saskatchewan.

 “It was a good experience,” said musician Donny Parenteau. “The style of show that we did was a fiddle show, just with a wide variety of fiddle music. We even had people from the Maritimes, from Cape Breton, that complimented the show.”

When organizers contacted Parenteau, who is from Prince Albert, about the event, he was pleased that it fit into his schedule.

“The main opportunity is it gets your music played in front of a different audience,” Parenteau said. “Just the amount of people that actually got to see us play who’ve never seen or heard my music before.”

Organizer Susan Hetu said the festival is a major cultural milestone for Saskatchewan because it’s an opportunity to tell the province’s stories and demonstrate its creativity not only to people who live in the Ottawa-area but around the world.

“There’re a number of talent scouts and buyers there who come internationally. So it was an excellent opportunity for our artists and probably a milestone to many of their careers,” said Hetu. 

Organizers chose the Saskatchewan performers and artists to showcase their work based on past performances and local popularity. Prairiescene’s producer Heather Moore worked on the scene for a couple of years, attending festivals and various events to talk with people and get advice from the Saskatchewan Arts Board and others about the existing talent in the province.

Along with noting Parenteau, Hetu pointed out a number of outstanding talent such as Métis fiddler John Arcand, singer Eekwol, the Great Plains Dance Troupe, visual artists Wally Dion, Adrian Simpson, and Edward Poitras, singer Buffy Sainte-Marie, and actor Gordon Tootoosis.

Adrian Stimson’s art exhibit, titled “re-herd” attracted a huge audience and received tons of attention, said Hetu. His art had 4,000 mini hydrostone bison figurines on a floor map of Saskatchewan and Manitoba, resembling the piles of bison bones during the slaughter of the herds in the 1800s.

“My colleagues and I were at the National Arts Centre for a number of nights and the place was packed,” said Hetu. “We arrived halfway through the Prairiescene and a number of those shows were already sold out. There’s a really good indication of success.”

Hetu said talents ranged from those just emerging on the scene to the more well known like Buffy Sainte-Marie.

“The Aboriginal artists that aren’t as well known, if you put them up with other big artists there’s terrific role modeling here. I think that this is really a story that has a lot of pride and is an indication of good success for these folks,” Hetu said.

Tourism Saskatchewan set up their famous green screen in the lobby of the National Arts Centre throughout the festival. It was a success at the Saskatchewan Pavilion at the 2010 Vancouver Games, allowing people to take their photograph with Saskatchewan props and backgrounds.

As well, the Saskatchewan Roughriders and the local arts community partnered to highlight works of art created to celebrate 100 years of Rider Pride. Some Riders team members were on hand to host an impromptu touch football game and a Prairie Social, demonstrating the connection between art, culture and sports.