Join us at Bob’s Burgers to celebrate the arts and ArtsFest 2024 – Friday, June 28!
Our fundraising event at Bob’s Burgers on Friday, June 28, starting at 7:30 p.m. is shaping up with some great local talent including Lexie Alcock and Mike Procyshyn. Join us for a fun night of music, art and community and a sneak preview of ArtsFest 2024!
If you’d like to donate a raffle prize for have other ideas about how you’d like to be involved let us know! We’re also looking for volunteers for the evening. Email lowaccoordinator@gmail.com.
There will be a $5 cover charge to offset some of our costs and other opportunities to support LOWAC throughout the evening.
Drop by for some great food, music and a chance to connect with the arts community!
ArtsFest 2024 – July 20 and 21, The Muse
Join our planning committee to help make ArtsFest 2024 the best it can be
The task of planning this great big two-day festival is falling to just a few people and we can do more with more help!
In addition to the Bob’s Burger’s fundraising, pre-festival, we need volunteers for programming, volunteer coordination, site setup/takedown/logistics, Kid Zone, fundraising and our dates at the Matiowski Market (July 1 and 10). It’s a fun gig and an opportunity to be part of bringing a great family and tourist-friendly event to downtown Kenora during our beautiful summer.
We are actively looking for a KidZone lead as this is an important and big draw for the festival. Are you someone who has ideas and experience in engaging children and youth in their own art creation? We need about three to four different activities to keep young hands active and engaged over the two days. The amazing Susan Bulman has already offered to run the watercolour station again this year and Vic Moss is doing some fun art creation with nature.
There will be many ways to help during the festival. Also note, if you know of a youth who needs volunteer hours this is a great fun way to get those too!
We’d love your help! Fill out the volunteer form here.
We are also looking for local sponsors
Local sponsors strengthen the foundation of ArtsFest. If you or your business are interested in becoming part of this lively and inclusive summer event email lowaccoordinator@gmail.com. There are opportunities to sponsor the main stage, KidZone, Greenroom, workshops and some of the other activities. We’re open to other ideas on how you might like to showcase your business during our event in ways that supports our mission.
ArtsFest 2024 wouldn’t be possible without our partners, which include include The Muse, The City of Kenora and Kenora Chiefs Advisory – Ogimaawabiitong and our funders, which includes, Government of Canada, Ontario Arts Council, Kenora and Lake of the Woods Community Foundation, and the Rotary Club of Kenora. We are also grateful for sponsorship support from Kenora Hardware for our volunteer t-shirts.
2024 vendors and programming
We had an amazing response to our artist callout so the site will be packed with 20 exhibiting artists each day and four mainstage performances. We are finalizing the schedule so watch the lowac.ca/artsfest-2024/ page for the latest updates. What we do know is we will have the Ogimaawabiitong drum and an Elder for a traditional Indigenous opening ceremony at 10 a.m. on July 20 to start the festival in a good way. Sunday will have a loud and lively opening with the Kenora’s Scottish Pipers marching in with bag pipes at 10 a.m.
Mainstage performers include harpist Olivia Whiddon, Sunset Swing Band, children’s performer Peter Welch, jazz singer Lexie Alcock, and rapper Malcolm Roulette. “Feather and the Dot” will also be presenting traditional Indigenous and East Indian fashions during the afternoon. Again watch the ArtsFest page for the final lineup.
We are also planning two feature workshops in the Art Centre on Saturday and Sunday. Ariel Gordon is a celebrated writer from Winnipeg with many books that explore nature themes, including the brand new essay collection, Fungal: Foraging in the Urban Forest and Sightseeing, collaborative poetry, formatted like a call and response, about nature and climate across the prairies. Details for a second workshop are being confirmed.
There will be a registration fee for both workshops – so again watch for more details. If you would like to be put on the list for Ariel’s workshop email lowaccoordinator@gmail.com and we’ll be in touch.
We are more than thrilled with how ArtsFest2024 is coming together. We hope to see you there!
Ariel Gordon of Treaty #1 forages for material in the urban forest for her poems and essays.
Want to be a featured artist?
We want to hear from you! Send us along a short writeup about you and your art practice and a few photos and you could be the featured artist in an upcoming newsletter! We want to tell your story!