Huntsville Festival of the Arts unveils 2009 image, pottery created by Eric Lindgren

(The following article originally appeared in The Huntsville Forester on Feb. 25, 2009.)

By Gillian Brunette

The signature artwork for the Huntsville Festival of the Arts 17th season has been created by Huntsville potter Eric Lindgren.

Lindgren joins the ranks of other Huntsville artists who, for the past 16 seasons, have crafted a piece of artwork in a variety of mediums for the festival’s annual graphic.

Lindgren fashioned two pottery pieces for the festival, a vase and a shallow bowl. “The two pieces are shaped differently from each other, they have a similar glaze surface, they both refer to musical performance and could both refer to stringed instruments such as guitars,” he explained.

SOUND OF MUSIC: Huntsville artisan Eric Lindgren stands with two art pieces he designed and produced for the Huntsville Festival of the Arts. The vase and bowl comprise the festival's 2009 image, which will appear on the summer brochure cover. [Photo by Jon Snelson.]

"I shy away from being clearly representational. I have taken some elements of guitars, music making and sound and played with them. One piece is made on the wheel and is a symmetrical man-made object, as are musical instruments. The other piece is free form, open and textured. The enclosed piece represents an instrument, and the open piece relates to sound and the notation of music. You can see sound holes, sound waves, the frets of a guitar, strings, a musical staff and other details in these pieces.”

Lindgren has been involved with clay for over 30 years and has developed an exciting range of forms, glazes and surface techniques that express his relationship with earth, water and fire. He first made stoneware pots in the old family homestead on Lindgren Road in 1975. In 1981, he and his wife Cathy established Lindgren Pottery in a studio and showroom next to the farmhouse. A new studio was built two years ago and the showroom was then moved downstairs to the ground floor.

Most of Lindgren’s work is high-fired stoneware, known for its durability and character of glaze, with occasional works in raku and porcelain. Sculptural vases and bowls, framed and free-form wall pieces, and functional ware, including dinnerware, are wheel-thrown, slab-built or constructed using a combination of techniques.

Festival president Kareen Burns expressed her delight with this year’s art choice. “Eric Lindgren, pour moi, symbolizes Muskoka’s finest pottery. It is a coup to have Eric as our dynamic, 17th festival season image maker. As our inaugural two-piece image, it’s symbiotic, creative, beautiful, magically musical and visually Huntsville. I am extremely proud the Huntsville festival passionately continues to garner the immense artistic talents of Huntsville. Merci Mr. Lindgren."

The image of Lindgren’s vase and bowl will be placed on the cover of the festival’s 2009 brochure and theatre program, and utilized in several advertising and marketing initiatives.

Celtic Blaze’s star, Stephanie Cadman, has surprising Huntsville connection

(The following article originally appeared in The Huntsville Forester on Feb. 18, 2009.)

By Gillian Brunette

When Sandra Cox isn’t behind the counter at Pharmasave, or working out at the gym, she is doing what she loves best: step-dancing. It is an art form in which she excels.

Little wonder, therefore, that Cox is excited about a show coming to the Algonquin Theatre on Feb. 27. Celtic Blaze stars the incomparable Stephanie Cadman, a top-notch fiddler and step-dancer who has three Canadian titles to her credit.

Cox is immensely proud of Cadman, who is not only her second cousin, but also one of her early step-dancing protégées. “Her mother and my father are cousins and that side of my family has always been into fiddling, step-dancing and singing in a big way. We were always together for reunions,” she said.

Cox grew up in Deep River, and then moved to Manotick at the age of 16. “By that time, I’d been dancing all over the province in competitions. There are step-dancing competitions all over Ontario, but mainly in the Ottawa Valley, so Dad and I did that every weekend,” she said.

At the age of 10, Cox was dancing with the Leahy sisters and their brother Donnell. “The older Leahy was a fiddler in one of my dancing contests. It was a very small world in those days. Nobody was famous yet,” she said.

When Cadman started her dancing lessons, she was three and Cox was 16. Along with several other students, Cox conducted the lessons from the basement of her home. “When Stephanie came to me, she was very impressive, the most talented three-year-old I’d ever seen. I knew at that point that one day she’d be something.”

Cox instructed Cadman for three years before leaving to study pharmacology. Cadman continued dancing and winning every competition she entered. “Now, she travels all over the States and Canada with Bowfire. She’s incredible.”

Cadman and her accompanists are Celtic Blaze, a fast-paced show featuring a contemporary take on Canada’s music and dance heritage. Told through music, dance, song and storytelling, the show features Ottawa Valley step-dancing, classical and Celtic fiddling, tap, jazz, and musical theatre.

Cadman has been performing since the age of four, delighting audiences with her Celtic fiddling and dazzling footwork. At the age of 17, she won the top female tap-dancing award at the World Tap Dance Championships in Germany. She has also won three Canadian step-dancing titles.

Cadman has appeared as a dance soloist and Celtic fiddler with the National Arts Centre Orchestra, the Edmonton, Milwaukee, Indianapolis, Seattle and Portland symphony orchestras, as well as the Kennedy Centre’s National Symphony Orchestra. She has also participated in a Canadian Forces tour, where she performed for the troops at several bases in the Middle East.

As well, Cadman appeared as a lead in Swing-step, combining her considerable talents as an actor, dancer, singer and fiddler, and then went on to perform in the Celtic review Needfire with the Broadway National Tour of 42nd Street. She also appeared in Anne of Green Gables and Canada Rocks at the Charlottetown Festival.

When not performing with Celtic Blaze, Cadman is a principal violinist and dancer with the internationally acclaimed Bowfire show, which features 10 of the top violinists in the country and tours the U.S. most of the year. She also tours with the Celtic dance show The Step-Crew throughout Canada and the U.S.

“While I can’t take credit for what Stephanie has achieved, I feel proud I had the opportunity to start her on the path to success,” said Cox. Meanwhile, Cox continues to dance and teach privately. “I still dance with Chuck Joyce, who is one of the best fiddlers in Canada and a Canadian champion. I step-dance and play piano for him. We do a show in London, Ontario, each year. I’m also practicing with (Canadian performer) Marion Linton and we are hoping to put a show together.”

Tickets for Celtic Blaze are $28 for adults and $15 for youth under 18 and are available at the box office on Main Street, by dialing 789-4975, or online through the Huntsville Festival of the Arts website at www.huntsvillefestival.on.ca. To get a taste of Cadman’s talents visit her website at www.stephaniecadman.com.

Town’s youth to benefit from Wizard of Oz

(The following article originally appeared in The Huntsville Forester on Feb. 11, 2009.)

The Huntsville Festival of the Arts and the Rotary Club of Huntsville are delighted and excited to be partnering to co-produce the upcoming theatrical presentation The Wizard of Oz during the last two weeks in April.

Community-wide auditions were held in November and rehearsals have been underway since early January. In addition to involving over 100 talented cast members, the musical requires myriad individuals to design and create costumes, build sets, work backstage and assist in numerous ways to deliver an incredible production.

“The partners in this production are passionate community-minded organizations, with a focus on giving back,” said festival general manager and Rotarian Rob Saunders. “I understand funds generated by the musical, in excess of expenses, will be reinvested for the greater benefit of the Huntsville area.”

Barb White, president of the Rotary Club of Huntsville, confirmed that the Rotarians’ anticipated share of the play’s proceeds will be directed to improvements to the Huntsville Public Library.

“Our club has committed funds to assist the library in two important projects,” said White. “The first phase involves improvements to the children’s section, including purchase of new and updated reading material, the addition of an electronic reference collection and a child-sized computer with desk and chairs.”

White added that the second phase will see the construction of a youth section in the library, where teens and young adults can interact and feel welcomed. In addition, there will be some minor renovations and additional shelving and furniture, along with an increase in teen-relevant books, magazines and journals, as well as in electronic format materials.

Kareen Burns, Huntsville Festival of the Arts president, said funds resulting from the musical will be directed to enhance projects related to the festival’s youth education committee. The festival board recently revised its educational mandate to focus on “mentoring today’s youth for tomorrow’s artistic excellence." Over the past few years, a number of exciting initiatives have been undertaken by the festival, partnering with local high school and public schools, including the Kaleidoscope projects, numerous musical collaborations, the HHS Film Festival, the Group of Seven mural project and a series of workshops covering topics from ‘careers in music’ to ‘creating performance poetry.’

“Opportunities to work with talented, young and aspiring artists are only limited by our imagination, and by available funding,” said Burns. “It seems so relevant that presenting a classic musical aimed at children and families, involving many young actors, will allow us to fund and create many new related programs. This is a win-win partnership.”

Saunders summarizes the situation this way: “We have a few hundred community-minded residents, young and old, giving many, many hours of their time and talent, all in support of creating the best production possible. The rest is up to the community. At this point, we have nine shows planned, and will likely add an additional one for a school audience. There is nothing I would like more than to address the actors, just prior to opening night, and tell them that the entire run is sold out. If that happens, I am confident that both the Rotary club and the festival will meet the challenge of ensuring that any net funds raised will be used to create the positive impacts they have outlined.”

Chamber and Festival of the Arts propose installation of new Main Street info booth

(The following article originally appeared in The Huntsville Forester on Feb. 4, 2009.)

By Carlye Malchuk Dash

The Huntsville/Lake of Bays Chamber of Commerce and the Huntsville Festival of the Arts are proposing a joint venture to run an information booth along Main Street during the summer and early fall. All they need is for the Town of Huntsville to build it.

“There is a void of information access on Main Street,” chamber general manager Kelly Haywood told the town’s finance administration committee on Jan. 22. “We would like to combine our efforts to operate and administrate, in every capacity, an information booth. We’re here today to ask the Town of Huntsville to consider constructing one.”

Under the proposal, the town would be responsible for construction, insurance and maintenance. The booth would be open on weekends only, from mid-May to the end of June and from early September to early October. During the summer months (July and August), the booth would be open seven days a week, nine hours a day every day except Sundays.

The proposal submitted to the committee included a number of suggested locations, such as in the old Huntsville Festival of the Arts booth location adjacent to the Royal Bank building, opposite the Pharmasave store, at the corner of Main and West streets, between the town hall and Trinity United Church, or somewhere on the Kent Park footprint.

Festival of the Arts general manager Rob Saunders told the committee that, from 1997 to 2004, when the festival ran a booth on Main Street, employees and volunteers were constantly inundated with questions about where to stay, where to eat and what’s happening around town. “When we moved to the theatre as kind of our main presentation point, we lost a lot of contact, we feel, and a lot of ability to get our message out,” said Saunders, adding that having Internet access at the new information booth could mean increased public access to festival ticket sales.

Councillor Mike Greaves told the committee that, while he agreed with the benefits of having such an information booth on the Main Street, he felt it would be a redundancy to put it “within eyeball distance of both the chamber of commerce and the theatre ticket sales office.”

He added, “I have some concern with the centrist attitude that the downtown is downtown Main Street . . . . There are other parts to this community and,if an information booth is to be provided by the town, then maybe (areas like King William Street or Commerce Park) should be offered an opportunity to discuss it.”

But, Huntsville mayor Claude Doughty suggested that, for an information booth to work, it should be where the greatest amount of pedestrian traffic can access it.

Haywood added that having a booth downtown would benefit all other areas of the community, since booth staff could direct tourists to other locations, like King William or Commerce Park, as well as Algonquin Park and Lake of Bays.

Doughty said he was excited about the opportunity, adding that he has been in discussions with a local contractor who is willing to construct the booth for free for the town. He said, with the donation, the total cost to the town would be around $5,000, and that the booth would be portable so that it could be moved if the location chosen was deemed unsuitable down the road.

“I think it would be a great initiative and it would really put a contact on the street that would continue to strengthen our downtown,” he said. “(Plus) if it were to increase our theatre occupancy by two or three per cent, which is more than reasonable, a lot of those dollars flow to us as well.”

Finance committee chair councillor Chris Zanetti suggested that the issue go to the next meeting of the town’s economic development committee, and that they bring a final cost and proposal to the next finance meeting in February.