YRAF society hosts meeting in Jasper

The Yellowhead Regional Arts Festival (YRAF) society held a meeting in Jasper last week to discuss its proposal for a regional cultural project.

The “Creative Campus” is an initiative intended to increase arts and culture by offering more education in the form of workshops and events in the Yellowhead Region. 

YRAF plans to submit a proposal to the Rural Alberta Development Fund, a not-for-profit company created by the provincial government that aims to support “community-building projects that contribute to the growth and prosperity of rural Alberta”, for $250,000 towards the initiative.

Joan Udell, executive director of the YRAF society, said the meeting saw a small attendance. “But people who attended had some great ideas,” she said. 

“It sounds like the people wanted to have something they could count on. Arts Jasper wanted to know there would still be an Arts Jasper. People from the art gallery were looking for more space.”

Attendees suggested more little galleries around Jasper, as well as an open air market, or a closed off street with artists and buskers. “Also, they want to see more programs for youth that are not sports-oriented,” Udell said.

The Jasper Artists’ Guild, Jasper Performing Arts and Visual Arts Society, as well as Arts Jasper, are three local organizations that agreed to write letters of support for the YRAF proposal.

“The other thing is the Municipality of Jasper voted to support this with $5,000 over two years,” she said. The next step, Udell said, is to compile information from Jasper, Grande Cache, Hinton, and Edson. “We’ve included their ideas and we’ll aim to ask for these things in our proposal.”

The proposal to the Rural Alberta Development Fund is due at the end of November, and the YRAF society expects a response in about 10 weeks.