Superbloom Community Art-making Session

Facilitated by Krystle Silverfox & Nicole Schafenacker

Wednesday, April 16th - 6PM-8PM (Doors @ ~5:45PM) - Other Room, The Guild Hall, Whitehorse YT

Inspired by the fireweed superbloom that followed in the wake of the Ethel Lake wildfire, Superbloom explores how the land regenerates after a wildfire and how making art, in turn, can feed our whole selves and support our agency as stewards. This community art project, developed through the Dechinta Centre, considers both the recent impacts of the climate catastrophe across Yukon and NWT, and the webs of connection and resilience emerging in response. Tune into your senses and get your hands dirty with pastels, charcoal and other mixed media and help create a panel for our installation. No art experience needed! Open to anyone ages 5 & up (children will require a guardian to be able to attend).

Make sure you register for free tickets to attend the Local Presentation of the Superbloom Installation Unveiling on Saturday April 19th at 7PM alongside the wâhkôhtowin project’s Climate Play Reading!

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Krystle Silverfox (b. 1984) is a Selkirk First Nation (Wolf Clan) interdisciplinary visual artist living and working on the traditional territories of the Kwanlin Dün First Nation and Ta’an Kwach’an Council (Whitehorse, Yukon). Silverfox holds both a BFA in Visual Art (2015); a BA in Gender, Race, Sexuality and Social Justice from UBC (2013); also an MFA in Interdisciplinary studies from Simon Fraser University (2019). Inspired by a material- focused practice, Silverfox uses visual mediums to communicate ideas and tell stories. Silverfox’s work explores concepts of Indigenous futurism, feminism, activism, and de-colonialism.

Nicole Schafenacker is a writer, interdisciplinary artist and community-based researcher with euro-settler ancestry residing on the traditional territory of the Kwanlin Dün First Nation and Ta’an Kwäch’än Council outside of Whitehorse, Yukon. Her creative work explores body memory, intimate geographies, liminal spaces at the threshold of change, and hopeful acts/relationships between humans and place. She creates projects in the North at the intersection of arts, social justice, and environmental stewardship. To this end, she has collaborated with organizations including AdaptationCONNECTS (Oslo), the Dechinta Centre (NWT) and Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society (Yukon) to carry out projects including site specific art in wild spaces, digital anthologies, community art installations and more.

Exploring Indigenous Play Readings

By Colin Wolf

Monday, April 21st - 7PM-8:30PM (Doors @ ~6:45PM) - Classroom A, Kwanlin Dün Cultural Centre, Whitehorse YT

Gwaandak Theatre’s EAD Colin Wolf will host us online during week one and in-person during week two of Awaken as we read plays created by Indigenous writers. We will share them out loud together with vigour, experience what it feels like to perform with emotion (and without the addition of sets or props!) and explore the mechanics of a group script reading. If you have ever been interested in being involved with Indigenous Summer Play Readings, this is a great way to try it out!

If you are interested in attending the online version of this event on Monday April 14th from 7PM-8:30PM via Zoom, make sure you pre-register in order to receive the Zoom link!

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Colin Wolf is a Métis performer, theatre maker, and activist from Moh’kins’tsis (Calgary), AB on Treaty 7 Territory. He graduated with a BFA in Dramatic Arts from the University of Lethbridge in 2014, and then spent five years making theatre all over the prairies. Colin co-founded Thumbs Up Good Work Theatre Collective with his sister Caleigh Crow in 2013. Colin felt the call of the North and moved to Whitehorse in October 2019 to serve as Artistic Director at Gwaandak Theatre. He wrote and produced CoyWolf, a story about loss and grief backdropped by a story of land displacement. Colin produced it as Thumbs Up in partnership with the Guild Hall Theatre in Whitehorse, and toured it to four rural communities in 2023.

Funding Opportunities for Yukon Artists

By Alainnah Whachell & Virginie Hamel (Arts Branch, Government of Yukon)

Tuesday, April 22nd - 4PM-5:30PM (Doors @ ~3:45PM) - Classroom A, Kwanlin Dün Cultural Centre, Whitehorse YT

Join members of the Yukon Government's Arts Branch as we explore funding opportunities for artists! This workshop will include a Q&A period and is intended for artists who already have a project in mind that could benefit from this type of support. Attendees are encouraged to come prepared with thoughts and questions relating to their specific projects and to also bring a notebook.

Seven Steps For Starting

By Donna-Michelle St. Bernard

Wednesday, April 23rd - 4PM-5:30PM (Doors @ ~3:45PM) - Classroom A, Kwanlin Dün Cultural Centre, Whitehorse YT

Playwright/emcee/agitator DM St. Bernard shares some first steps to move from impulse into creation. Suitable for artists at all levels of experience. Please bring writing materials and water. Promotional image by Graham Isador.

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Donna-Michelle St. Bernard aka Belladonna the Blest is an emcee, playwright and agitator. Her playwriting is focused in the 54ology: The First Stone, Diggers, Give It Up, The Smell of Horses, Just Now, Click Click, Cake, Sound of the Beast, A Man A Fish, Salome’s Clothes, Dark Love and Gas Girls. She is co-editor with Yvette Nolan of the Playwrights Canada Press anthologies Refractions: Solo and Refractions: Scenes, as well as editor of Indian Act: Residential School Plays. DM is currently the associate artist at lemonTree Creations, and artistic director of New Harlem Productions.