More news on the Regional Gathering & Cabaret!

Image Description: a black background reads: SPARC's Newest event! Regional Gathering & Cabaret, Almonte, Saturday February 25, 2023. There are two red suns beside the writing.

Réseau SPARC Network announces new in-person event - Regional Gathering & Cabaret. And it’s launching in Almonte!

SPARC (Supporting Performing Arts in Rural and Remote Communities) is a provincial network that connects rural and remote performing artists, creators, producers, presenters, and community animators (Who are community animators? You know, those folks in town who make things happen!) 

This brand new in-person event will happen at the Almonte Old Town Hall on Saturday February 25th. 

So, what is a Regional Gathering and Cabaret?

The Gathering is a peer to peer networking and learning day. It will feature facilitated networking and sharing in the morning. Then a catered lunch will be followed by two workshops, to choose form, and a panel on engaging municipalities in the arts. In the evening it’s time for regional artists to shine! This is the Cabaret portion of the event and it is open to the entire community. While attendees of the Gathering can attend the Cabaret for free, tickets will be available to the community at large at PWYW (pay what you wish) price points of $5, $10, $20 and $50. 

The Gathering will include a facilitated panel on "Engaging Your Municipality in the Arts on a Deeper Level” with pan lists Lisa Poushinsky, Erin Coyle, Cate Proctor and more!

Gathering attendees will also have the opportunity to attend one of two workshops.

Workshop 1 - Make a Shadow Puppet and discover a storytelling and performance medium!

In this fun and interactive workshop, Susanne Larner will demonstrate how shadow puppetry can be a magical medium for creative storytelling and a useful visual technique in video and stage performances.Playful and dynamic, shadow puppets can be quite simple or very intricate, in this workshop, you will be shown different methods and materials to create you own puppet and to animate it on screen.Susanne Larner lives in Oxford Mills, North Grenville and works as an inter-artist and community contributor. She loves paper craft and has facilitated shadow puppet programming at schools in Ghana and Canada. She has been a puppeteer in several plays and videos and is often dreaming of ways to illuminate rural spaces.

Details on the second workshop will be made available soon!

Registration for the Gathering is completed via a simple google doc (https://forms.gle/CGCar3fAQugnKYXbA). 

Oh and did we mention that attending the Gathering is FREE? That’s right - it is totally free to attend the Gathering. And if you register for, and attend, the Gathering - your ticket to the Cabaret is included!

As artists are confirmed for the Cabaret we will be sharing their info via our socials and Tickets Please (all sales for the Cabaret will be via Tickets Please). Produced by local talent finder Joey Graff, the Cabaret is sure to delight. We don’t want to give too much away just yet, but here’s a teaser for you….. the amazing and talented Wake Lloire will be our MC and host for the evening. Wake will be taking us a journey filled with regional artists like Heather and Kathryn Adeney, James King and Nathan Sloniowski. Stay tuned to our socials for intro videos and artist announcements!

If you want to attend the Cabaret only, tickets are on a Pay what You Wish sliding scale and can be purchased here: Tickets Please

So if you’re within the Almonte region (that includes Perth, Smiths Falls, Kemptville, Brockville and everywhere in between) and want to connect with your fellow members of the performing arts community, please join us for this inaugural event. We can’t wait to meet you!