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Canmore Leader - Ben Smailes, with Canmore Leader files from Aimee Lorefice.
Capitalizing on creativity is no simple task.
“If you’re an artist and you want to paint a picture of a mountain, there’s no better place to be,” Mountain Arts Foundation chair Jean Samis says of her mountain home.
But another interpretation of the Three Sisters mountain chain hardly satisfies the creative appetite of most artists in Canmore, or the cultural sophistication of their community for that matter.
“Canmore is getting more culturally diverse as the community is growing,” says Bob Snape, a Mountain Arts Foundation executive member and past-president of the 25-year-old local theatre group The Pine Tree Players. “The community is demanding more cultural activities and they’re making more demands on the cultural community.
“Growth of culture in Canmore is becoming, I’d say, one of the more important aspects of community living here. People actually do come to Canmore for the culture and for the cultural activities that are going on here.
The immediate popularity of ArtSPEAK, a new event celebrating the diversity and abundance of talent in the community has become so popular with the locals. Held in June, ArtSPEAK provides showcase opportunities in all sectors, visual, performing, you name it, it is available on that weekend.
“It’s obvious that for every cultural event here a lot more dollars are spent within the community.” Snape confirms. This is the reason the Canmore Economic Development Authority will be conducting an economic impact assessment of Art & Culture in 2005.
Among some of the bigger annual events on Canmore’s cultural calendar are the July 1 Canada Day Parade, the Canmore Highland Games and the Canmore Folk Festival.
The Folk Fest last year attracted nearly 14,000 people and generated around $3.9 million of economic activity within the community, according to artistic director Ken Rooks.
Rooks says the attendance broke a new record for the 25-year-old festival, up 15 per cent on the previous year. He points out economic drivers like the Folk Fest, which grows with the size of the town, help support existing businesses and attract new investment opportunities to the community.
“All sectors of the community are affected,” Rooks says.
John Borrowman, artist and owner of the Avens Gallery on Main Street, says fostering Canmore’s cultural scene requires more affordable space for artists to hone their skills, encouraging community projects like the long discussed cultural and performing arts centre, devoting space for events like last summer’s Shakespeare in the Park, investing in significant artworks to display around town and exposing non-artists to the creative world in order to develop a better appreciation for the arts.
Community-based groups are currently working with the Town of Canmore to establish a cultural performing arts centre. This project will enhance the viability of Canmore’s cultural industry, especially in light of other heritage preservers like Canmore’s Centennial Museum.
“We get an incredible amount of visitors from all over the world to the museum,” society president Cathy Jones says. “It’s certainly an attraction. There’s been a consistent thread throughout the municipal vision that really embraces the cultural and historical environment of Canmore.”
Canmore also acts as a satellite venue and service area for cultural events at The Banff Centre, an internationally renowned centre for the arts, including the Banff Mountain Film and Banff Television festivals.