EXHIBIT
Integrate Arts Festival
Where: Various locations
When: Friday and Saturday
Admission: Free
What's in a name change?
In the case of the Integrate Arts Festival, quite a bit.
Its antecedent, the Off the Grid Art Crawl, started out in 2007 as a soirée to showcase Victoria's "underground art spaces and galleries that were basically being ignored by the mainstream," says Renee Crawford, who sits on the festival's board of directors.
As the event evolved, it drew the attention of bigger, more commercial galleries.
"As we wanted the project to remain really inclusive, those galleries and spaces were welcomed to participate. Now that it's definitely not as focused on the underground and artist-run galleries anymore, it kind of seemed fitting to change the name."
The new moniker reflects the inclusive spirit, as well as how the annual do has outgrown the diminutive "crawl" label.
"We wanted to turn it into a two-day event instead of just a one-night art crawl to create more of a festival feel and also to allow people to see more galleries than they could in just one evening," Crawford says.
This year, 29 galleries are participating, including a handful that are outside convenient walking distance of the downtown core.
The traditional open-house portion will take place on Friday night between 6 p.m. and 11 p.m, though outdoor projections will run late into the night.
Many galleries will remain open on Saturday and festivities will culminate that evening with a bash at The Sculpture Studio, at 211 Harbour Road.
Boasting DJs and live music, the finale party is scheduled to run from 8: 30 p.m. until 1: 30 a.m.
The festival will also feature five off-site video installations, tie-ins to Victoria's 150th anniversary celebrations.
"The theme of it is historical remixing, so keeping the idea of Victoria's history in the project, but remixing it to create a modern, contemporary feel," Crawford says.
One installation, Digging Emily, directed by painter Cameron Kidd, quirkily imagines the process that Emily Carr might have gone through to gather materials for her work.
Other changes to the festival reflect an increased emphasis on environmental sustainability, Crawford says. This year, there will be no shuttle buses running between galleries.
"We're really hoping people will walk, bike and use public transit to get around," Crawford says.
In addition, organizers will print fewer brochures. To compensate, they have designed a mobile website that allows art lovers to access maps, schedules and programming information on their smartphones.
Crawford hopes this feature, in addition to the festivities on tap, will lead visitors to take in a broad sampling of what Victoria's art scene has to offer.
"People kind of know what their favourite galleries are, but I encourage them to go out of their comfort zone to explore spaces that they might not see otherwise."
For more information, including a full schedule of events, go to integratearts.ca.
