Musicians and ballet students on the roof of Donald Cameron Hall, 1962. Dance programs made their debut at Banff in 1947.
Banff Centre strings students at Bankhead, 1959. Music programs began at the Centre in 1936. Photo: Cascade Camera.
Alon Nashman’s interpretation of Canadian composer Patrick Cardy’s The Snow Queen was developed with the Tokai String Quartet at the Centre, and will be performed in locations across Canada in 2008, including a 75th anniversary appearance at Toronto’s Young Centre and Ice Magic in Lake Louise. Photo: Don Lee
The Centre kicked off its 75th anniversary celebration with a January Scrap Arts Music concert. Scrap Arts artistic director Gregory Kozak credits a three-month residency at the Centre as the genesis of the group’s unique sound.
Toronto Dance Theatre’s (TDT) Timecode Break appears on February 29 at the Centre, as part of the 75th anniversary celebrations. Choreographed by TDT artistic director Christopher House and developed in Banff, Timecode Break was described by Globe and Mail dance critic Paula Citron as “among the greatest dances ever created in Canada”. Timecode Break is a commission from the Canada Dance Festival and a co-production with the National Arts Centre and The Banff Centre. Photo: Aaron McKenzie Fraser.
Walter J. Phillips and painting students at Surprise Corner, 1952. The Centre’s Visual Arts programs began in 1935 when A.C. Leighton moved his summer painting school to Banff.
Celebrating
75 years
of inspiring
creativity
For 75 years, Banff Centre programs have inspired new creative works, transformed careers, and changed lives.
The Banff Centre was born in 1933, in the depths of the Great Depression. Undaunted by the dark times, the Centre’s founders saw the need for a place where creativity could flourish. That first summer a single course in drama was offered.
Over the next two decades, programs in music, painting, ceramics, dance, and opera were added, until eventually the Centre’s offerings encompassed all of the performing and fine arts. In 1952, business management programs and conference services were included in the mix, and in 1976, with the birth of the Banff Mountain Film Festival, the seeds for mountain culture programming were planted.
Today, The Banff Centre is a globally respected arts, cultural, and educational institution and conference facility.
Throughout 2008, the Centre will celebrate its 75th anniversary at events across Canada including at Calgary’s One Yellow Rabbit High Performance Rodeo, Alberta Theatre Project’s Enbridge playRites Festival, Edmonton’s Citadel Theatre, the Royal Winnipeg Ballet, Ottawa’s National Arts Centre, Toronto’s Harbourfront Centre, Vancouver’s Push Festival, and in Seattle, New York, and Los Angeles.
Programs will be reinvigorated with the launch of a new drama program in partnership with Edmonton’s Citadel Theatre, a new dance program in cooperation with Canada’s top ballet companies, new choral and puppet theatre workshops, and a renewed community outreach program in music. The Centre will commission a play and 75 new works of music over the year. The Walter Phillips Gallery will mount a retrospective exhibition in June, and the Centre will publish a book of essays and creative works by distinguished alumni entitled Inspiring Creativity in July.
The Centre will also bring together thinkers and creators from across Canada and the world for a series of conferences in 2008, including a Global Creativity Summit, a Governor General’s Art Matters Forum, the International Trumpet Guild Conference (featuring over 300 trumpeters!), and an International Arts Management Conference.
In celebration of the 75th anniversary, the 2008 Banff Summer Arts Festival will be bigger and better than ever, featuring two operas (Dido and Aeneas and Midsummer Night’s Dream), the premiere of Red Sky Performance’s Faster, Higher, Stronger: The Mongolian Project, and of a new work by Les Ballets Jazz de Montreal.
75th anniversary events and programs are made possible by The Kahanoff Foundation and by lead corporate sponsor Chevron.
