Indigenous arts

The Thousand Faces Festival Association welcomes  artists and groups from all disciplines to submit proposals for inclusion of their mythically-inspired performances, films, and visual works at the 2025 Thousand Faces Festival.

Festival Dates: June 21 & 22, 2025

Festival Overview

The Thousand Faces Festival is a multidisciplinary arts festival in Edmonton, AB that celebrates and nurtures Edmonton's and Canada's richly diverse cultural scene through mythic art and food. Since 2012 we have brought together performances reflecting the richness of diverse cultures found within our community. Dancers, musicians, poets, painters, playwrights, and performers from many cultures share mythic stories ranging from short poetry readings to feature-length multi-disciplinary epics in our home on Alberta Avenue. 

We strongly encourage submissions from people of all backgrounds and look forward to continuing our tradition of Edmontonians of all backgrounds  discovering what connects them to each other when they share their cultures’ deepest stories through the arts.

Submission Details

The festival team is accepting proposals for mythically inspired performances and presentations for our 2025 Festival, scheduled for June 21 & 22, 2025, at our home at the Alberta Avenue Community Centre (9210 118 Ave NW, Edmonton). 

New for 2025, all acts will perform on our outdoor stage between 2 PM - 9:30 PM on June 21, and between 1 PM - 5 PM on June 22. This stage will be located in the parking lot to the west of the Community Centre. We encourage presentations that not only showcase performers and stories of a culture, but that have an interactive element with the audience, whether that be active interaction within the performance, or a short workshop in the art form before or after the performance.

If you are interested in performing at this year’s Festival, we ask that you please prepare and send us a proposal which includes the following information:

• Whether you are submitting on behalf of an organization, a collective, or as an individual
• A bit about yourself (or your organization/group)
• Your history of past performance or artistic work (including links to samples of your work if possible)
• Your proposed performance or artistic presentation for the 2025 Thousand Faces Festival
• Why you want to perform at the Thousand Faces Festival
• The myth your piece is representing or responding to (see the paragraph below for how we define mythology)
• The discipline(s) involved in your performance or presentation
• The number of performers participating in your piece
• The anticipated length of your performance
• Whether parts of your performance may be presented in shorter parts (teaser performances), or if the whole performance may be shortened if required
• Any potential Technical requirements or support your presentation may need or want (in particular, any specific audio needs).

The main thing we ask is that you propose something that responds in some way to the world(s) of what we call mythology. What do we mean by that? To quote Joseph Campbell: "Myths are public dreams, dreams are private myths”. To us mythology is, as Joseph Campbell also said, “ . . .the song of the Universe”. 

However, if you think mythology is a false construct, but believe in ancient stories or dreams for their deeper truths about the human condition and their possibilities for awakenings, please propose something that has to do with that! It can be as ancient, as modern, as reverent, or as lampooning as you want.

To apply, please email your proposal to info@thousandfaces.ca with the subject line “2025 Artist Application” by Monday, April 21, 2025.

Artist Benefits

The Thousand Faces Festival is proud of our long history of supporting mythically based storytelling from a wide range of cultures.  Benefits of performing at our festival include:

• Participating in a Festival that values artists and believes in fair compensation for their talent and hard work.
• Access to an artistic and administrative team that has extensive experience presenting a diverse array of culturally based artists and shining a light on the stories that underpin the performances
• The Thousand Faces Festival consciously creates and sustains an ecosystem of opportunity where artists may develop their craft in collaboration over the long term.
• The opportunity to engage with artists from a wide range of cultural backgrounds and disciplines. In the past this has lead to unique collaborative opportunities and development of performance works

*Please note  that you as the artist will be responsible for engaging and compensating any performers in your piece, travel to and from Edmonton, accommodations while you are in Edmonton, and any specialized technicians you may add beyond the sound technician provided by the Festival. Additionally, you will be responsible for all wardrobe, make-up, wigs, props, scenic, and sound design elements that may be required for your presentation. 

Questions? Email info@thousandfaces.ca for more information.

ART/Work: That's a (Vinyl) Wrap – From Idea to Install

Curious about how public art vinyl wraps come to life? Join us for the next session in our ART/Work professional development series, That’s a (Vinyl) Wrap: From Idea to Install, on Wednesday, April 2, at 6:30 pm. 

Learn about the full journey of Lethbridge’s Public Art Vinyl Wrap projects—from concept development to installation. Our expert panel includes KT Wilde, Public Art Coordinator with the AAC, and Suzanne Griffin from Generation Design, plus representatives from Warwick Printing to answer your technical questions. 

This hybrid session will take place in-person at the Sisters’ Boardroom and online via Zoom. Space is limited for in-person attendance, so register today to take advantage of the best experience—networking with fellow artists and gaining insight into the process of transforming urban spaces with art. Attendance is FREE. 

Register here to attend! 

Learn more about programs & events Allied Arts Council of Lethbridge

For more information, please call 403-320-0555

Get your art fix, shop for Mother’s Day or treat yourself to something special! 

Meet over 45 local emerging to established artists showcasing: Painting, Jewelry, Glass, Photography, Ceramics, Sculpture and Textiles. 

Join us April 26 & 27 from 10 am - 4 pm with free parking and admission, draws and no GST. With different artists each day and hundreds of unique handmade artworks, you are sure to find art as unique as you! 

For more Info: Upcoming Show

Bridgeland Riverside Community Association 917 Centre Ave NE Calgary

Fluid Fest 2025 Call for Submissions by Alberta Artists

Deadline for submissions April 9, 2025

Applicants will be notified of results by May 1, 2025

Submit your application HERE. Website HERE. Details below.

For the Fluid Fest, Calgary’s premiere art, contemporary performance and dance festival (and our sparkly petri dish of possibility) we sink into the interconnections between distinct local creative voices and artists coming our way across many kinds of borders.

For Fluid Fest 2025 we are seeking submissions from Alberta (Treaty 6 and 7) artists. We invite proposals for evening length and mixed-bill presentations as well as our infamous festival cabarets. We are also keen to know about developing site-specific and small scale venue projects for inclusion in season presentations.

Springboard Performance aims to feature many local artists that together celebrate the beautiful multiplicity of voices that is Alberta- from the wacky and experimental to the political and poignant, show us who you are and what you care about through your distinct artistic offering.

Priority to artists of underserved communities and those with a focus on community animation.

Fluid Fest 2025 will take place the last two weeks of October. Dates will be confirmed with contracted artists.

Cabaret Submission Details:

• Works 5 - 6 minutes in length
• Presentation in a small venue with 6-8 total acts
• Very low technical needs
• Emergent and developing works, work-in-progress or improvisationally-based pieces welcome. This is the place to develop ideas and test with creative colleagues and an audience
• 1-2 performances
• Artist fees $350-$500

Mixed Bill and Evening-Length Submission Details:

• Works 15 - 80 minutes in length
• Possible venues include DJD or cSpace theatres, the Erratics Indie Art Club or site-specific locations, featured with 0-3 other works
• Technical rider required, or at least specific notes on technical needs, set-up, strike and storage
• Preference to fully developed works that have not yet premiered in Calgary, or where significant development has been made since a previous presentation.
• At least 2 performances
• Artist fees for mixed-bills between $1500 - $2500
• Artist fees for evening-length between $4000-$5000

Submissions must be made through this Google form, requiring:

• A short piece description or proposal
• Why this piece and why the Fluid Fest is the right context for it
• An artist statement or CV
• Link(s) to video footage.
• For the mixed-bill and evening length submissions we will also require technical details.

Faye HeavyShield
blood, 2004
cotton, cotton string, acrylic

In celebration of International Women's Day we are proud to share, blood—the work of  Kainai artist Faye HeavyShield. 

Bold Women

Two of HeavyShield’s installation artworks, blood and homecoming, from the AFA’s Art Collection have been selected for Bold Women, a landmark exhibition at the Spencer Museum of Art at the University of Kansas. 

The show features over forty primarily Indigenous, Black, Newcomers and LGBT women artists as well as those of gender non-conforming identities whose visionary ideas and experimentation demonstrate the concept of boldness through challenging dominant institutional, cultural and social boundaries and reshaping historical narratives. 

Set to open February 18 and running through to July 6, 2025, the exhibition includes 75 artworks from various disciplines including photography, sculpture, textiles, paintings, video, installations and is organized across four galleries each exploring one element of boldness:

• Portrayal / Resistance: ways that portrayals can deny visibility
• Collective Preservation / Liberation: women preserving, healing, and liberating communities across generations
• Nature / Erasure: the erasure of women’s contributions, in conversation with nature
• Wisdom / Knowledge-keeping: transmitting knowledge and women as connectors

The exhibition was curated by Susan Earle, the Spencer Museum’s curator of European and American Art, along with a team of diverse curatorial collaborators from across North America including the Brooklyn Museum’s Curator Dr. Kimberli Grant and Wanda Nanibush, an Anishinaabe curator from the Beausoleil First Nation in Ontario among others. 

About the artist

Faye HeavyShield is a member of the Blood Nation. She graduated from the Alberta College of Art in 1985, and continued her studies at the University of Calgary. Gaining prominence and recognition in the past few years, her work has been the subject of many solo shows including major exhibitions of First Nations contemporary art. HeavyShield's work is a fusion of highly evolved personal and powerful imagery influenced by her Christian and Blood upbringing. Her minimalist installations are metaphors of the human body and a reflection of her personal experiences.

Bold women accelerating action at the AFA

Meet the bold women of the AFA's Board of Directors that are passionate about the arts and work steadfastly to support a vibrant Alberta arts community that sparks innovation, bursts with creativity, fosters understanding, and promotes belonging.  

Click the names of the board members and watch as they share their personal takes on the importance of the arts in Alberta.

Cynthia P. Moore AFA Board Chair Calgary	Yasmin Jivraj Edmonton	Melody McKnight Red Deer	Shana Yang Calgary

About International Women's Day

International Women’s Day is celebrated annually on March 8 around the globe. IWD has been celebrated globally since 1911 and is an important day that highlights the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women.

This year’s IWD theme focuses on accelerating action for gender equality. We encourage you to take part in an IWD event within your community and continue supporting women in the arts throughout the year.