It's time to brush up on your arpeggios and trills. The 2009 Wild at Art Festival has announced its Local Colour Song Contest, and organizers are looking for the one local vocal act that will take home the top prize of $1,000."The whole idea is to create some hype and excitement around the festival," said fundraising coordinator Michelle Neilson. "The festival is a vehicle to showcase art in the corridor and 2010 will see so many opportunities for local artists."She and the rest of the festival organizers are hoping to create a spotlight on local musicians from the Sea to Sky Corridor and "get their music out there." So all participants will have their original song put onto a festival CD, and will receive $100. Professionally established bands will receive "fair market rates" for their performances."[The CD] will truly represent our community," said Neilson. "Everyone walks away a winner Everyone's going to get something. It's so awesome for our community."Neilson said she'd like to see a wide variety of vocal acts enter the song contest, so she can connect each artist with a local venue, like have a local jazz musician play at a coffee shop or at a certain pub. She has also enlisted the expertise of Matthew Saffron not only to judge the contest but also to call upon his vast assortment of movie industry connections to help with exposure for the artists."The music industry uses songs from all over the place," she said, "like classic, funk, jazz, instrumental, choral, and blues."The contest is open to all residents living in the Sea to Sky corridor, however preference will be given to artists living in Squamish, Britannia, and Lions Bay."We're always living in the shadow of West Vancouver, North Vancouver and Whistler," explained Neilson."This is our time to shine."Live auditions will be held in November at the OP Pub, where a panel of judges will evaluate the performances of all the artists. Deadline for submissions is Nov. 1.Local visual and performing artists will have the opportunity to showcase their talents at the festival as well; the call for entry for visual and performing artists has also begun.This year's theme is "wild locals" and interested applicants will be evaluated on their ability to reflect the theme in the artistic medium they choose."Everything has to come in soon because we're going to apply for a grant," said Judy McQuinn, the visual arts coordinator for the festival.The grant will be used to give both performing and visual artists an honorarium, which is a new feature for the festival this year."We're going to pay our artists for the show," McQuinn said.The festival is an ideal venue for both new and professional artists to show their work to the public."It gives them exposure," said McQuinn. "It's getting them out there. Since we've been getting larger and larger there's been more purchases."For visual artists, the festival is also the "opportunity for the purchaser to buy directly from the artist and get the chance to meet the artist," said McQuinn.Both performing and visual artist submissions will be evaluated by a strict panel of judges. Visual artists need to submit a photo of their original work in jpg format, along with a concise explanation of how the work relates to the theme.The deadline for visual artist submissions is Nov. 30.Performing artists should be from the Sea to Sky corridor, and must include a CD demo of their music, along with a photograph. The festival encourages both new and professional artists to submit their work. "We're working on a new artists' category," said McQuinn, "so it's not just about the biggest and the best."We want to encourage new artists to enter as well."Submissions can be sent to [email protected] (visual artists) or [email protected] (performing artists and singers). More details on the festival and application forms to download are available at wildatart.ca.
