By: Iris Baguinon, Marketing Assistant.

Early this year, I started my journey on a sustainability and less waste lifestyle. This started in hopes that my future children will get to enjoy a sustainable and less toxic planet. Sounds like a hopeless dream, isn’t it?

The disposable plastic products we use every day are anything but disposable in environmental terms, and can take over 400 years to biodegrade. The booming production of plastics in recent years, fueled by demand for single-use items such as coffee cups and bottled water, means the world has manufactured more plastic in the last decade than in the whole of the previous century.

One of the most durable plastic items is beer holders or also known as six-pack rings, which can take 450 years to biodegrade. And much like plastic straws, six pack rings are often seen as enemies of the ocean. Although six-pack rings account for only a tiny fraction of all the plastic trash in the oceans, images of helpless marine animals like sea turtles with plastic six-pack rings encircling their bodies bring attention to some beer companies trying to create new, innovative ways to hold the cans together without trapping marine animals.

At The Works Art & Design Festival, artist Yong Fei Guan has been exploring plastic debris as contemporary Chinese icons. Given her background and training as a Master Composter Recycler by the City of Edmonton, the concept of re-imagining waste is at the core of her creative practice. If you’re at the Festival, Fei’s massive piggy bank sculpture is hard to miss. With its striking golden colour and bright eyes, you will get drawn in to it.

As you look from afar, you will see just a monstrous pig, but as you look closely, you will discover that the beautiful Chinese icon is made of six-pack rings– the waste that find their way to the oceans and harm the marine life.

Yong Fei Guan’s 金猪 Golden Pig is a commentary on how much plastic waste we accumulate every day. Fei’s work reflects her multicultural identity, politics, and their relationship to environmental issues.

Of all the artworks in the Festival, Fei’s piece is the closest to my heart. It’s the first work I tell my family and friends when asked what they could see at the Festival. I tell them about Fei’s dedication to eliminate plastic waste in Edmonton. And as the conversation continues, I share my own commitment to practice a less-waste lifestyle for the next generations after me.

Eliminating plastic waste altogether may seem like an impossible dream, but starting to eliminate plastic waste in our own footprint is a doable task.

Come see Fei’s Golden Pig at The Works Art & Design Festival. And as you investigate her work, take a pause, and ask yourselves what you can do to reduce your own single-use plastics. When will you take your pledge? 

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About the author: Iris Baguinon is an emerging arts administrator with specializations in Marketing, Social Media Content Marketing, and Guest Relations. She completed her Diploma in Arts and Cultural Management with distinction at MacEwan University in 2018. Prior to joining The Works, she coordinated volunteers, and designed marketing materials for other arts organizations, including Ice on Whyte and Edmonton Heritage Festival. Born and raised in the Philippines, Iris now proudly calls Edmonton her home, where she is involved in the city’s theatre community as a Front-of-house staff at Theatre Network. Iris loves social media, and you can follow her #yegarts adventures on Instagram, @iris.baguinon. 

By: Chloe Gust, Marketing Assistant.

Fundamentally, music is made up of all the same things as speech. Sound waves tumbling through our ears to make noise that some time ago we all agreed, “this means something.” Music is just more waves

Tasked with writing the Press Release for The Works Street Stage, I started to listen to music that would be featured on our stage. I heard all of these waves, and was in charge of writing about them in a way that would resonate enough to attract someone to The Works Art & Design Festival. Choosing an artist to write about is itself an impossible task, with over 70 artists performing more than 130 hours of live music, comedy, poetry, and more. We are partnered with TD Edmonton International Jazz Festival to provide Works with Jazz, Jazz in the Park, and with Festival Edmonton Chante to help produce amazing line-ups, including celebrating Saint-Jean-Baptiste Day and National Indigenous Peoples’ Day.

This is where I found Elisapie.

This Quebec-born, Inuk singer, songwriter, documentary filmmaker, and general coolest-person-in-the-room is making music that has captured my attention and refuses to let it go.

She’s performing TODAY, Friday, June 21, 2019 at 7:30PM and now I am overwhelmed with the need to convince everyone to go see her perform because her music is amazing. But “amazing” is a nothing word! How do I write words that explain not only what her music is, but also why you need to go and see it? Music journalists practice this craft for years and years and still sometimes get caught up.

 All I can do is try.

Elisapie has been performing since she was 12, when she worked with the Salluit band Sugluk. Her latest album, titled The Ballad of the Runaway Girl, dropped in 2018. Singing in English, French, and Inuktitut, Elisapie’s dreamy voice carries so much meaning that you don’t need to understand what she’s saying to feel what it means. Layered harmonies (in songs like Una), gorgeous guitars (Rodeo (Yadi Yada), Wolves Don’t Live by the Rules), and driving, building drums (Qanniuguma, Arnaq) build this incredibly vast sound. The Ballad of the Runaway Girl is an album that should be consumed in its entirety in one sitting, every time you listen to it. It sounds like the soundtrack to an Oscar-winning movie. It’s one of those albums that you feel conflicted telling people about because you enjoy it so much – should you share it with everyone or keep it just for you. (I’ve written this blog as an excuse to listen to the album over and over again.)

I don’t know if Elisapie’s music will move anyone the way it moves me, but that’s why I love it. The Works Art & Design Festival’s theme this year is CODE, and I am so fortunate to be able to provide a key to my interpretation of The Ballad of the Runaway Girl, so that you can try and decode her performance yourself, tonight, June 21, 7:30PM, at The Works Street Stage on Capital plaza.

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About the author: Chloe Gust is a modern storyteller from Lethbridge, Alberta, focusing on long-form non-fiction content. Curious about the impact of technology on storytelling, she aims to create podcasts, essays and broadcasts that explore interconnectedness and diversity. Gust recently completed her B.A. in English with distinction and Co-op designation from the University of Lethbridge. Funded by a scholarship from the University of Alberta, Chloe was one of ten Alberta post-secondary students accepted to the 2018 Alberta-Smithsonian Internship Program. She traveled to Washington, D.C., to be the Writer/Editor Intern for the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum. Find Chloe online @cholegust on Twitter and Instagram, or at chloegust.wordpress.com

By: Caitlin Davis, Volunteer Coordinator.

Interviewing volunteers is one of the best and worst parts of my job. Getting to meet the 150+ amazing individuals who donate their time in order to help put on The Works could possibly be the best part of my entire summer. Each person brings their own unique stories, talents and motivation which places them at a special place within the heart of The Festival. Talking over their skills and interests helps us to tailor the volunteer experience we provide in order to make it fulfilling in their eyes, and therefore improving the entire experience of The Festival.

However, the actual logistics behind these interviews are time consuming and require both flexibility and patience. Setting up interviews often requires multiple communications about time, date, and location. Location is the most important, as sometimes giving the address to The Works office isn’t as simple as one may think. Many people I talk to walk past it a first time without even realizing that they did. The office is within the William Paskins Residence. Built in 1902, the William Paskins Residence is the earliest surviving example of the Queen Anne style in Edmonton. Disguised behind moldings, scrolled brackets, balustrades and decorative spindle work, no one suspects there to be twenty some individuals working to put on a festival inside.

These interviews can interrupt other events and work throughout the day, and at times need to take place outside of typical work hours. Since we accept volunteers right up to and including during The Festival, it sometimes comes down to a phone call interview, which has logistics of it’s own.

With the headache one can imagine that comes with having to interview, schedule, reschedule, continually communicate and follow up, I often get asked why I love my job so much. How does one remember the faces and names and details behind every one of our over 150 volunteers? The answer is - sometimes I don’t. But I take the time and effort to try and learn them all, and often it happens by happy accident. Simply put, each volunteer has grown to take a place within my own heart. They are some of the most fantastic people I have had the fortunate opportunity to get to know. And whenever I talk to anyone else who has worked with our volunteers before, they say the same.

When you come down to The Festival, take the opportunity to talk to the volunteers. Each one of these amazing individuals have a fantastic story disguised within them. Without their hard work and unique talents, The Works Art & Design Festival would not be possible.

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About the Author: Caitlin Davis is a third year Design Studies student at MacEwan University from Weyburn, Saskatchewan. Upon her entrance to the Design Studies program, she received one of ten entrance scholarships, and the Mad Hatters Scholarship. Currently, she has a strong interest in print design, including magazines, books, and album covers, as well as a passion for typography. Caitlin enjoys being involved in the Edmonton art community and hopes to continue meeting others who share this passion.

By: Marie Yuan, Design Assistant

Image by Zag Creative

The theme of this year’s festival is “Code” and we are happy to partner with Zag Creative to create a fun and exciting marketing campaign to bring this theme to life. Code refers to a system of information embedded in linguistic, visual, and sensory forms. It could be used to simplify or complicate the message. In the interest of decrypting the visual codes of this marketing campaign, I invite you to think of your own interpretations of these graphics.  

I see the bright pink and teal colours as a playful tone for the campaign while the tagline “Decode as you see it fit” unveils the theme: “Code”. Looking at the poster, the first thing that caught my eye was the extraordinary glasses with artistic flair. Theses glasses are a visual code for you to solve and understand its meanings. Decorated with colourful paper or flowers, the glasses could be perceived as a piece of art or as a metaphor representing the distinct perceptions of individuals. While the colourful lenses allow us to immerse ourselves in a space where we feel comfortable to be ourselves, they may regulate how we view and think in this society.

However, the best part of decoding at The Works is that there are no right or wrong answers, as long as the message makes sense to you. The beauty of the festival is that we appreciate the uniqueness of each individual’s interpretation and we embrace the diversity of different contexts. We encourage you to join us for the festival and enjoy the process of decoding our many art exhibits.

Image by Zag Creative 

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About the author: Marie Yuan is a designer, illustrator, and pre-service art educator from Taiwan. With a B.D. in Graphic Design, Marie worked as a graphic designer in an advertising agency with a focus on print and digital media in Canada. She is currently studying Education at University of Alberta, majoring in art and design. Her designs involve educational purposes and storytelling with colourful illustrations, hand-lettering, and interactive components. With a passion in how design thinking enhances user experiences and positively affects communities, she aims to incorporate design thinking and creativity in classrooms. With a belief that everyone is an artist and a designer in nature, she hopes to empower students to be lifelong learners and creative problem-solvers.

By: Amy Malach, Volunteer Administration Assistant

Photo: Amy and the wooden puzzle at the market, taken by Heather Savard.

One of our many exciting tasks working in the volunteer department is our occasional trips to local farmer’s markets. These outings are intended to both recruit new volunteers and advertise for the festival. Every time we head out to the markets we make sure to bring our trifold, handbills, brochures, applications, candy, pins, stickers, email sign up sheets, and of course; our giant wooden puzzle. 

On market days, transporting this puzzle can be one of our most difficult tasks. There are a few reasons hauling this puzzle around town is one of our less preferred activities. With each large coloured piece being made entirely of solid wood, the sheer weight of the puzzle itself is extremely heavy (can anyone say arm day?). The wooden box also has no handles and a few protruding nails, which needless to say makes for some often difficult and painful attempts at trying to get a good grip, especially when the only parking spot available near the market is across a busy street with a shortly timed walk signal. Despite the trouble it takes to carry these puzzle pieces to every market, they seem to be the biggest draw for many passersby. It always proves to have been worth the trouble of bringing along the puzzle, as children and adults alike love to come put some pieces together or add onto the already existing structures, creating something unique and intriguing with every new addition. 

Much like how the farmer’s market patrons contribute to the interconnected structures created out of the puzzle pieces, our volunteers all have an important place in our festival and are all in essence, the “puzzle pieces” that come together to create the structure of the festival.  Some pieces reliably ground the structure and prevent it from tipping over, while others placed on top create intricate and eye-catching arrangements. The pieces can work and be placed together in many different ways, their versatility allowing countless possibilities. Our volunteers also possess these qualities and more. They are reliable, creative, unique, and adaptable and without them, the festival would most certainly not be possible. In both the interviewing and scheduling of volunteers for the festival, I am amazed at the diverse backgrounds of our volunteers as well as the numerous strengths and attributes they possess. I know that much like the pieces in our farmer’s market puzzle, each role they fill and the work they do will interconnect to make something great. With all of this being said, I think it’s clear that in these days leading up to the festival, I am very excited to see how these “pieces” will fit together to create an amazing whole. 

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About the author: Amy Malach is a fourth-year student at the University of Alberta majoring in psychology and double minoring in art & design and Italian. She is excited to expand her artistic knowledge and gain invaluable interpersonal experience working in the volunteer department in the Works to Work program. Amy is a current member of the University of Alberta Mixed Chorus, working on attaining her grade 9 RCM certificate for piano, and is a four-time recipient of the band student of the year award for alto saxophone. She has a deep appreciation for and interest in all things creative and hopes to combine her love of art, music, and psychology in her future pursuits.