Sudbury

Musagetes’ Artistic Programs are informed by the learnings we take from research and dialogue during our Cafés. The Artistic Program in Sudbury is built upon on our findings during the Musagetes’ Sudbury Café in September 2011, where we heard narratives of industry, community and culture. The projects in the 2012 Sudbury Artistic Program express, rewrite and circulate these narratives by reflecting a range of approaches, disciplines and entry points for multiple publics. The 2012 Artistic Program is comprised of a workshop, a rock concert, a theatre piece, a residency leading to a new performance, and a photographic essay.

DodoLab
Artist duo Lisa Hirmer and Andrew Hunter (DodoLab) will work with the Sudbury Action Centre for Youth (SACY) to engage young people in Sudbury a youth lab. Along with New York artist collective Smudge Studio, they are developing Talismans for Infrastructure which will explore the community’s relationship to the city’s infrastructure and probe the concept of preparedness. Does a lack of preparation for disasters only reflect poor planning or wishful thinking?

Bik Van der Pol
The Dutch artist duo Liesbeth Bik and Jos van der Pol (Bik Van der Pol) are creating a free rock concert bus tour called Between A Rock And A Hard Place. The tour hits the road on Saturday August 18th, 2012 and feature local Sudbury bands who will perform on blackened rock formations of their choice. Audiences will roam from band to band as the tour forms an alternative map of Sudbury pinpointing exceptional culture and landscapes.

Miriam Cusson
Francophone playwright, actress and producer Miriam Cusson will write a site-specific theatre piece for the Algoma Tavern, a historic restaurant and bar in Chelmsford. Cusson will move beyond limited discussions of language to tell the complex story of Canadian identity in a completely new way. Cusson will undertake a writing phase in 2012. Her new theatre piece will be presented publicly at the Algoma Tavern in 2013.

Rebecca Belmore
Musagetes is forming a new collaboration with la Galérie de Nouvel Ontario (GNO), to co-produce a project by Anishinaabe-Canadian artist Rebecca Belmore. Rebecca Belmore will visit Sudbury in October 2012 to explore the city for an outdoor site for a future performance and to present a public lecture about her practice. In 2013, she will create a performance with an accompanying exhibition simultaneously at GNO.

Geoffrey James
Renowned photographer Geoffrey James will come to Sudbury in 2012 to document the current state of the city, a mining town slowly reclaiming and restoring the region’s landscapes after a period of massive, systemic pollution. He will work in tandem with writer, critic and independent curator Kenneth Hayes, who has done extensive research into the mining and geological history of the region.

Guiding Questions for the Year Ahead in Sudbury
Musagetes is dedicated to fostering temporary spaces for permanent change. In all our cities, we hope to share informal approaches tethered to long-term mindshifts. In particular, we hope to encourage those leaders who are putting their hands up, and those emergent thinkers and doers who pull the levers. Throughout the year, we will regularly return to the questions: Who will keep this work on the agenda? How do we support leadership who will enrich and write new narratives?