We’ve hired our summer events coordinator!
We are thrilled to announce that Sydney McInnis is the new Event Coordinator for summer 2024. Sydney brings to the role impressive digital, public media, and in-person communication skills and a strong connection to both the arts and indigenous communities through her personal passion for the arts and employment.
Sydney will work with our board, volunteers, event participants, and community partners to optimize relationships and deliver on all project goals related to our activities over the next several months – including ArtsFest (July 20, 21), Matiowski Market, Coney Island Music Festival, membership, community partnerships and fundraising.
A few words from Sydney…
Hello, my name is Sydney McInnis and I am very excited to be the new Event Coordinator for the Lake of the Woods Arts Community. I am looking forward to seeing the vibrant art community of Kenora come alive this summer! A little bit about me, I was born and raised in Kenora. I have a journalism and broadcasting background and currently work in communications for a large local organization. In my free time, you can usually find me at home with my partner, my baby, and my dog. I love to cook and spend time with my family, and when I am not busy with work or life, I love to work with any sort of artistic medium I can get my hands on – especially oil paints! I like to paint realistic oil portraits! I am looking forward to meeting everyone this summer!
You can email Sydney at lowaccoordinator@gmail.com.
ArtsFest 2024
ArtsFest 2024 planning is underway – Saturday, July 20 and Sunday, July 21 in advance of the Coney Island Music Festival and Sioux Narrows Arts Festival. We currently only have funding for a one-day festival – which would be the Saturday – but are hopeful applications to some larger funders will be coming our way in the next few weeks so are full steam ahead with planning!
As always, with no core funding, we are planning ArtsFest in accordance with what we receive from our tireless funding applications to the Kenora and Lake of the Woods Regional Community Foundation, Ontario Arts Council, Canadian Heritage Fund, Experience Ontario, Northern Ontario Heritage Fund and Tourism Kenora along with other local funders and sponsors. Many thanks to both Kenora and Lake of the Woods Regional Community Foundation and Ontario Arts Council who have awarded a portion of the funds requested.
We are also looking for local sponsors! Local sponsors strengthen the foundation of ArtsFest. Many thanks to last year’s generous sponsors: Kenora Honda, Northern Sound & Systems, Kenora Home Hardware, Ronning Law Office and Out of the Woods Counselling as well as many other generous supporters who provided donations and in-kind services. See https://lowac.ca/artsfest-2023 for the full listing.
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 our volunteer t-shirts, main stage, Kid Zone, Greenroom 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.
We need volunteers to join our planning committee to help make ArtsFest 2024 the best it can be!
Pre-festival, we need volunteers for programming, volunteer coordination, site setup/takedown/logistics, Kid Zone, and fundraising. 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. Email lowaccoordinator@gmail.com if you’d like to be a part of it!
LOWAC SPRING MIX & MINGLE
We are always looking for ways to bring artists and art lovers together. We’ve had to scale down our plans for an event at Perch Bay Resort, announced in March, but do hope to have more on this in the future.
But we still want to gather and you are invited!
LOWAC SPRING MIX & MINGLE
Wednesday, May 8, 7 p.m.
Moon in June Studio
401 6th Ave S, Kenora
It’s a great chance to get together, talk art, meet some of the LOWAC Board and members and see what LOWAC is all about…also pssst a chance for you to renew your membership if you haven’t already!
Please R.S.V.P. lowaccoordinator@gmail.com.
WE HOPE TO SEE ON MAY 8TH!!
Please renew your membership
Membership helps us achieve our purpose: to foster and promote the spirit of creativity in the City of Kenora and the surrounding area of Lake of the Woods; inspiring unity, joy and opportunity through the arts. We continue to apply for grants to fully fund events and progamming such as ArtsFest, but require membership to cover some of our operating costs, which are generally not covered by grants. Memberships are due January 1 but we accept them throughout the year to again, help support our work on behalf of the arts community. At it’s a reasonable $30, we do not pro-rate memberships that come in during the year.
If you haven’t aleady please renew now at https://lowac.ca/membership. Note that current membership will be required to be an exhibitor or performer in ArtsFest 2024.
If you’d like to make a donation as a patron, you can find out more about this opportunity at: https://lowac.ca/donate.
Once you’ve renewed, we’d love to add your artist profile (if it’s not already there) at https://lowac.ca/artist-profiles-and-venues.
You can still vote for R.C. Burns
The first two weeks of voting for the 2024 ISSA Awards is in the books for R.C. (Cecil Burns) who is grateful for all of the votes that have been submitted on his behalf. Voting is still ongoing and will end on April 30. Everyone can vote once per day per device (phone, tablet, laptop etc) per IP address – so if you have a few minutes each day – click on the link and vote. The 4 categories that R.C. has been nominated in are: International Male Vocalist, International Male Rising Star, International Male Songwriter and International Male Emerging Artist (see attached banner). This is the link to vote: https://poll-maker.com/Q3LWDQA99
If you’d like to check out his website you can find it here: https://rcburnsmusic.com/
And you can listen to R.C.’s music on his YouTube Channel here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-90ACn5QEwIl56fWgHk63w
R.C. writes, “I am grateful for your support and hope you will cast your votes for me today and every day until the end of April. If I make the top 25 in the preliminary round, my nominations will move on to the next level.”
