SPARC

Are you a youth – between the age of 16 and 29? Or, do you know a young performing arts practitioner?

Youth participation is needed for the Supporting Performing Arts in Rural Communities (SPARC) Symposium 2016, which will take place in Haliburton, Ontario from October 27 to October 30, 2016.

SPARC focuses on the business of performing arts in a rural setting and features three streams of exploration–creation, production and presentation–across four disciplines of the performing arts: dance, theatre, music and media arts.

The Symposium will advance discussions about how we can create and nurture supportive networks and increase the profile of rural performing arts. Featuring workshops, performances, keynote speakers, and presentations by experts from across Canada and beyond–a must-attend-event, mark your calendars!

A recent funding announcement by the Ontario Trillium Foundation and Heritage Canada has made it possible for us to continue our efforts to build the SPARC Network and connect rural performing arts practitioners to develop supportive Network services.

In addition, we are able to cover the costs for youth (ages 16-29) who live, and are engaged in the performing arts in Ontario and beyond, to attend the 2016 symposium.

Although every attempt will be made to assist as many youth as possible, we regret that the Scholarship Fund is limited, and we will not be able to meet all requests. We ask that you make every effort to seek outside funding support before applying to the SPARC Scholarship Fund and ask only for what you really need so that we can assist as many as possible. We reserve the right to offer partial scholarships or to propose alternative arrangements.

The SPARC Organizing Committee is committed to making the Symposium for Performing Arts in Rural Communities accessible to people from settings and communities with limited resources, including youth, volunteers and community-based creators, producers and presenters in the fields of dance, music, theatre and media arts. SPARC is eager to provide opportunities for participants to expand connections, share ideas and be inspired.

When we started planning the 2014 Symposium for the Performing Arts in Rural Communities we knew that youth living in rural communities play an important role in making rural communities vibrant and resilient places where performing arts are alive. We felt that it was important for youth to have a significant presence in the event. We were delighted that 25% of our symposium delegates were youth from across the province who were engaged in the performing arts as creators, presenters, producers and community organizers. See SPARC 2014 Youth Journey from Sticks and Stones Productions on Vimeo at http://www.sparcperformingarts.com/about-us/media/.

For more information, please visit http://www.sparcperformingarts.com.

Please consider delivering a workshop! Check out the Call for Proposals at
http://www.sparcperformingarts.com/2016/03/call-for-proposals-for-sparc-….

Published on: April 28, 2016