Arts and Culture Centres in Newfoundland and Labrador have experienced a successful 2022 to date, with an increase of audience attendance by 53 per cent over 2021. This follows a record-breaking year for visitation to provincial historic sites and parks so far this year.
Approximately 113,000 patrons attended performances across the province this year, as the Arts and Culture Centres returned to traditional operations following the lifting of public health restrictions. This also allowed the Barbara Barrett Theatre in St. John’s to reopen for the first time since 2020.
With support from Come Home 2022, Arts and Culture Centres across the province presented 442 events, including five performances of Come From Away: The Concert and 11 performances of Tell Tale Harbour, featuring Newfoundland and Labrador’s own, Alan Doyle.
The Arts and Culture Centres supported cultural events, as well as individual artists, including: the Tombolo Multicultural Festival Committee, First Light Friendship Centre, the Kitchen Party Theatre Festival Committee, The Juniper Tree Collective, Azal Dosanjh and Santiago Guzman. (More information about these projects is available in the backgrounder below.)
In keeping with their role as a community hub, the Arts and Culture Centres also collaborated with local artists on a benefit concert for those affected by the war in Ukraine, which took place in April.
This holiday season, the Arts and Culture Centres province-wide are pleased to offer a remarkable calendar of more than 40 holiday-themed performances. Full event details are available at artsandculturecentre.com.
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“Arts and Culture Centres are vital to our efforts to enrich communities and share our province’s unique culture and heritage with the world. While many arts centres around the world were reopening to audiences in 2022 for the first time since the pandemic began, Newfoundland and Labrador’s Arts and Culture Centres had continued to operate within appropriate health guidelines, giving residents, artists and performers uninterrupted access to programming and support. With the added excitement of Come Home 2022, this year has proven to be a success, and we look forward to building on that in the New Year.”
Honourable Steve Crocker
Minister of Tourism, Culture, Arts and Recreation
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BACKGROUNDER
The Arts and Culture Centres has been working with Playwrights Guild of Canada’s inaugural John Palmer Award winner, Santiago Guzman in the development of a show titled “Newfoundlanded”. In this show, Guzman explores the journey of becoming a Canadian citizen as an immigrant in Newfoundland and Labrador. Drawing on the lived experiences of over 80 individuals, “Newfoundlanded” explores the themes associated with the concept of ‘home’.
The Juniper Tree Collective began working with the Arts and Culture Centres in January 2022 to create an interactive and immersive art installation featuring three monologues that combine family secrets with a subversive retelling of Philipp Otto Runge’s 1812 fairytale “The Juniper Tree” enhanced by personal experience and perspective.
Azal Dosanjh has been working with the Arts and Culture Centres in development of “Tamasha,” an adaptation project focusing on a unique form of political theatre with roots in Punjab, India. Dosanjh has undertaken the task of translating seven of Gursharan Singh’s plays from their original language into English. These plays will then be adapted into an original storyline for performance.