Join us for an engaging evening of nonfiction storytelling at this Literary Cabaret, a sharing of works in the Literary Journalism residency at Banff Centre. Across three nights, explore boundary-pushing readings from participants and faculty mentors.

The three-week residency brings together writers working on long-form journalism, narrative nonfiction, cultural criticism, and reported essays. Participants focus on deeply researched, real-world storytelling—where reporting meets literary craft.

This chapter is hosted by Dr. Cheryl Thompson, a leading scholar and public intellectual whose work brings archival research, cultural history, and contemporary journalism into dialogue. Her books include Beauty in a Box: Detangling the Roots of Canada’s Black Beauty Culture and Canada and the Blackface Atlantic: Performing Slavery, Conflict, and Freedom, 1812-1897.

Enjoy a drink from the bar and immerse yourself in a vibrant literary atmosphere. Doors open at 6:30 p.m., with readings starting at 7 p.m. Afterward, mingle with the writers and faculty until 9:30 p.m. 

Literary Journalism is generously supported by the Flanagan Foundation, Fondation David R. Graham, and the Rogers Communications Chair in Literary Journalism Endowment.

Visit the studios of this summer’s Banff Artist in Residence (BAiR) participants and see how they pushed creative boundaries during their six weeks at Banff Centre. Engage with participating artists about their processes as you explore their ideas in development and works in progress.

Summer BAiR is a transformative residency that provides mentorship, critical feedback, and studio time to visual artists and curators at any stage in their careers.

Open to visual artists working across mediums, Summer BAiR combines the freedom of a self-directed residency with the supportive benefits of an organized program. As well as receiving the space to create, research, and experiment, participants are part of an international community of contemporary artists committed to developing and expanding their practice.

This is an exciting opportunity for the participants to share their work, and for the public to ask them about their processes. Artists, art appreciators, and curious first-time viewers alike are encouraged to attend. 

Visual Arts is supported by Fondation DRG and the Gail and Stephen A. Jarislowsky Outstanding Artist Program.

Join us for an afternoon Visual Arts Open Lecture with Patty Chang, an acclaimed contemporary artist working in performance, video, text, photography, and sculpture.

Chang’s recent work looks for ways to connect with ecologies and systems larger than the self. Chang will present on her projects, The Wandering Lake, a multi-year project considering human-engineered water and human life; Learning Endings, a collaborative project exploring porpoise necropsy and the emotional labour of science; and Abyssal, a project on porcelain, Chinese immigrant labour, and the oceans.

Chang is on faculty for the Summer Banff Artist in Residence (BAiR) program, which combines the freedom of a self-directed residency with the supportive benefits of an organized program. As well as receiving the space to create, research, and experiment, participants are part of an international community of contemporary artists committed to developing and expanding their practice. 

This event is part of the Visual Arts Open Lecture Series, which presents talks by leading Canadian and international artists, curators, and academics.

Visual Arts is supported by Fondation DRG and the Gail and Stephen A. Jarislowsky Outstanding Artist Program.

Join us for an afternoon Visual Arts Open Lecture with Basia Irland, an author, activist, and pioneer of ecological art, based in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

This Fulbright Scholar will give an illustrated presentation about her international large-scale water projects, including A Gathering of Waters, which fosters dialogue and connects communities along the entire length of rivers; Waterborne Disease Scrolls, based on research with epidemiologists; and Ice Book, consisting of sculptures embedded with native seed texts that are floated down global streams to aid river restoration. Her projects have been featured in over 70 international publications.

Irland is on faculty for the Summer Banff Artist in Residence (BAiR) program, which combines the freedom of a self-directed residency with the supportive benefits of an organized program. As well as receiving the space to create, research, and experiment, participants are part of an international community of contemporary artists committed to developing and expanding their practice.    

This event is part of the Visual Arts Open Lecture Series, which presents talks by leading Canadian and international artists, curators, and academics.

Visual Arts is supported by Fondation DRG and the Gail and Stephen A. Jarislowsky Outstanding Artist Program.

Join us for an afternoon Visual Arts Open Lecture with contemporary artist MacKenzie Kelly-Frère, who creates breathtaking sculptural and installation works.

As a contemporary artist working with place-based approaches to weaving, Kelly-Frère is fascinated by the myriad ways that cloth entangles cultures, histories, and technologies. In this Summer Banff Artist in Residence (BAiR) faculty talk, Kelly-Frère will discuss plant and material fibres, and their application in a new body of work exploring the ecology of the prairies and foothills regions.

Open to visual artists working across mediums, Summer BAiR combines the freedom of a self-directed residency with the supportive benefits of an organized program. As well as receiving the space to create, research, and experiment, participants are part of an international community of contemporary artists committed to developing and expanding their practice.  

This event is part of the Visual Arts Open Lecture Series, which presents talks by leading Canadian and international artists, curators, and academics.

Visual Arts is supported by Fondation DRG and the Gail and Stephen A. Jarislowsky Outstanding Artist Program.

Join us for an afternoon Visual Arts Open Lecture with Governor General’s Award-winning artist Germaine Koh, who works across disciplines.  

Looking at the significance of communal experiences and the connections between people, technology, and natural systems, Koh’s ongoing projects include the Slow Fashion Season events, encouraging sustainability in textiles and clothing; the Home Made Home initiative, exploring alternative forms of housing; the League project, focused on play as a form of creative practice; and a land-based artist residency. Her presentation will focus on the value of hands-on making.

Koh is on faculty for the Summer Banff Artist in Residence (BAiR) program. Open to visual artists working across mediums, BAiR combines the freedom of a self-directed residency with the supportive benefits of an organized program. As well as receiving the space to create, research, and experiment, participants are part of an international community of contemporary artists committed to developing and expanding their practice.

This event is part of the Visual Arts Open Lecture Series, which presents talks by leading Canadian and international artists, curators, and academics.

Visual Arts is supported by Fondation DRG and the Gail and Stephen A. Jarislowsky Outstanding Artist Program.

Join curator and writer Tak Pham for a discussion of his curatorial practice.

Pham is currently curator of the Illingworth Kerr Gallery at the Alberta University of the Arts in Calgary. He was formerly associate curator at the Mackenzie Art Gallery in Regina.

He has curated exhibitions and organized curatorial projects for Contemporary Calgary, Confederation Centre Art Gallery, Varley Art Gallery, Art Gallery of Ontario, and Nuit Blanche Toronto, among others. His writings and reviews have appeared in Canadian Art, C Magazine, ESPACE art actuel, esse arts + opinions, Galleries West, The Brooklyn Rail, ArtAsiaPacific, and Hyperallergic.

Pham is a 2025 faculty member for Early Career Banff Artist in Residence (BAiR)—a transformative five-week residency that provides mentorship, critical feedback, and studio time to visual artists and curators in the early stages of their careers.

This event is part of the Visual Arts Open Lecture Series, which presents talks by leading Canadian and international artists, curators, and academics.

Visual Arts is supported by the Gail and Stephen A. Jarislowsky Outstanding Artist Program.

Join us for an afternoon talk with Canadian curator Riva Symko.

In this lecture, Symko provides an overview of her own professional practice in order to think through some of the broader curatorial shifts of the past decade and a half. She considers recent curatorial methodologies as a series of relationships that have moved from sites of knowledge, to practices of opportunity, to spaces of care.

Symko is a 2025 faculty member for Early Career Banff Artist in Residence (BAiR)—a transformative five-week residency that provides mentorship, critical feedback, and studio time to visual artists and curators in the early stages of their careers.

This event is part of the Visual Arts Open Lecture Series, which presents talks by leading Canadian and international artists, curators, and academics.

Visual Arts is supported by the Gail and Stephen A. Jarislowsky Outstanding Artist Program.

The Handmaids Tale
Composed by Poul Ruders Libretto by Paul Bentley
A new arrangement by Dan Schlosberg, commissioned by Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity

Presented under license from G. Schirmer, Inc. o/b/o Edition Wilhelm Hansen, copyright owners. 

Kamna Gupta, Conductor
Brenna Corner, Director
Amanda Testini, Associate Director
Gillian Gallow Set, Designer
Jessica Oostergo, Costume Designer
Sophie Tang, Lighting Designer
S. Katy Tucker, Projections Designer
Anastasia St. Amand, Intimacy & Fight Coordinator
 

A right-wing theocracy, a burning planet, and resistance against all odds.

The operatic adaptation of Margaret Atwood’s chillingly relevant dystopian classic comes to the stage in the fully realized world premiere of a chamber arrangement by acclaimed pianist Dan Schlosberg, commissioned by Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity and performed by Interplay faculty and participants.

This staging of The Handmaid’s Tale marks the culmination of a month-long residency bringing together opera singers, répétiteurs, chamber musicians, stage directors, stage managers, conductors, prop builders, and wardrobe technicians. It provides early-career opera, music, and theatre professionals the unique opportunity to work on a fully produced opera with a world-class creative team, including conductor Kamna Gupta and director Brenna Corner.

“In Dan Schlosberg we trust. He is the musical mastermind behind Heartbeat [Opera]’s daring arrangements, and his work is always intriguing.” — New York Times

“Dan Schlosberg [is] perhaps the wittiest arranger of his generation.” — Observer

Content Advisory:

This opera closely follows the themes and narratives of the original novel with imagery and scenes of sexual and physical violence reflective of the dystopian setting (including depictions of rape and hanging). Viewer discretion is advised. For a full list of content notes please contact Audience Services.

Interplay is made possible through the generous support of the David Spencer Endowment Encouragement Fund and the Yolande Freeze Master Artists in Music Fund.
Banff Centre is in partnership with the Music in PyeongChang.

The music of Canadian-American composer Karim Al-Zand draws from a wide pool of influences, including graphic art, myths, folk music, film, spoken word, jazz, and his own Middle Eastern heritage. In a protean catalogue of solo, chamber, vocal and orchestral compositions, his work embraces a variety of interests, issues, and approaches.

Enjoy selections from his catalogue performed by the participants and faculty of the Interplay program, which celebrates the convergence of opera and chamber music, bringing together composers, musicians, singers, and more.

Interplay is made possible through the generous support of the David Spencer Endowment Encouragement Fund and the Yolande Freeze Master Artists in Music Fund.
Banff Centre is in partnership with the Music in PyeongChang.