Storytelling Podcast

Having earned degrees in both art history and art conservation, as well as working across Canada for numerous institutions and museums, Sophia Zweifel is now focusing on public art and the realm of public art as the current conservator for the City of Calgary Public Art Collection. Tune into this week’s Storytelling Podcast to hear more from Sophia Zweifel on her role as conservator for the City o...

Jacqueline Huskisson considers herself an interdisciplinary artist whose work is based heavily in narrative. She is one of the artists selected to participate in the 2023 With You With Pride mural installation at Memorial Park, and her work is on display throughout Calgary's core for 2023–2024 as part of the Centre City Banners public art program. Tune into this week’s Storytelling Podcast to lear...

Lisa Congo is a writer, singer and self-proclaimed theatre buff who uses art not only as a form of self-expression, but also to promote healing through her work at Sonshine Community Services. Sonshine Community Services provides support and services for women, children and individuals who have experienced trauma through domestic abuse. Congo, who was born and grew up in Calgary, explains how the...

An office manager by day, Lana Manyfingers is a proud Blackfoot Cree woman who explores her artistic side in her free time — and, in a unique collaboration, is currently displaying it for the hundreds of visitors walking through a local big-box store. Manyfingers has experience in sewing, crafting, beadwork, jewelry making, sketching and painting, while also being very much influenced of the teach...

Melrene Saloy EagleSpeaker designs and creates all of the jewelry and accessories for her award-winning business Native Diva Creations. Each piece is created with a modern flair, bringing together the traditions of pow-wow beadwork and urban street. EagleSpeaker knew she wasn’t interested in selling the kind of trinkets she saw in some of the shops in Banff, but after she attended a symposium on Fi...

In our inaugural episode, host Brandy Dahrouge, Calgary Arts Development's Director of Public Art, introduces us to public art historian and curator Katherine Ylitalo, whose lengthy career in public art provides some interesting details about some of the artworks in the City's municipal art collection that may not have been shared before. An advocate for visual arts, Ylitalo is also a curator, wri...

Tune in to this week’s Indigenous Stories podcast to learn more about Chrissy Red and the backlash and obstacles Red and other transsexual women face in the community, as well as their thoughts on the current and evolving attitude towards transsexual and transgender persons.

A long-standing member of Calgary’s arts community, Michelle Brandenburg is an actor, a clown, a director, and an educator and lead facilitator at Inside Out Theatre. It’s the opportunity to create, collaborate and explore with a diverse cross-section of artists that helps inspire and influence her work in ways that she had never imagined when starting out 20 years ago. Being trained as a clown, B...

An artist's creative path isn't always straightforward. Visual artist and Calgary Arts Development's Indigenous Program Specialist Morgan Possberg, like many artists, enjoyed drawing and creating as a child but put those endeavours aside as a teen. After relocating from Mohkinsstsis to the East Coast to be closer to her family, Possberg found herself studying at the New Brunswick College of Craft...

Calgary-based artist, musician, composer, songwriter, teacher, mother and long-standing member of the Calgary arts community, Kenna Burima would thoughtfully describe herself as a creator and connector. With the release of her latest endeavour, a song cycle entitled While She Sleeps, Burima reflects on her creative process, motherhood and her need for connection. Tune in to this week’s Storytellin...

A member of Calgary Arts Development’s Indigenous Advisory, Yvette Denby’s love of music was nurtured by her family going back as far as the late 1800s. It is a gift that she has since passed down to her children, Breann and Kaleena Denby, who themselves have forged a musical path with their fiddle playing. The Denby family takes great pride in playing traditional Métis fiddle music and have perfo...

The most recent winner of the Calgary Catholic Immigration Society New Canadian Artist Award as part of the Cultural Leaders Legacy Arts Awards, Claudia Chagoya is an interdisciplinary artist whose work focuses on gender violence and the sociopolitical context in which that violence takes place. Having moved to Canada from Mexico in order to pursue a masters’ degree in fine art, Chagoya draws insp...

As 2022 comes to a close, hosts Sable Sweetgrass and Cherie McMaster of our Storytelling Podcast: Indigenous Stories reflect on the inspiring artists featured this year, sharing some of their favourite moments and what these artists have taught them. “I think my favourite thing about [the podcast} was a lot of the artists that we talked to, I’ve known them for years but have never really had a cha...

He's a poet, a spoken word artist, a producer, a promoter, an educator and an advocate for literacy and wellness. And, in April of 2022, Wakefield Brewster was named Calgary's sixth Poet Laureate — an interesting turn of events considering he initially had no interest in the written word. It was in music that Brewster first found inspiration, and later, in poetry, that he found his own voice. List...

Having moved to Calgary from Nigeria in 2015 to undertake a masters degree in theatre design, Sarah Uwadiae is now a set and costume designer who also works in film and story creation. Uwadiae is also this year’s recipient of the RBC Emerging Artist Award as part of the Cultural Leaders Legacy Arts Awards. Listen to this week’s podcast to learn more about how Sarah Uwadiae chose Calgary as her hom...

Allan Rosales is a visual artist whose practice includes drawing, painting, poetry, photography, digital art and murals. He also holds a master's degree in Art Therapy from Concordia University. Having worked extensively throughout Calgary as a community connector, Rosales has recently joined the Calgary Arts Development team as Community Investment Manager, approaching the role from the perspecti...

Hailing from Stoney Nakoda, Jarret Twoyoungmen is a cultural leader in his community and founder of the Nakoda AV Club. He is a musician, writer, director and photographer who is perhaps best known for his work as a filmmaker, which he fell into purely by accident. Twoyoungmen grew up in Morley and says he was always a daydreamer. Having spent much of his childhood watching movies, it’s no wonder...

A business leader, entrepreneur and community-builder, Casa Mexico founder and president Miguel Cortines created the organization in 2009 to provide a platform for sharing and promoting Mexican arts and culture. Casa Mexico is currently working hard on the production of its upcoming event for Dia de Muertos, or Day of the Dead, at Arts Commons on Sunday, October 30, 2022. Cortines and Casa Mexico...

A dancer and choreographer, Troy Emery Twigg is also known as a performer, teacher and mentor whose love of the art of dance began at an early age. Speaking to Calgary Arts Development’s Sable Sweetgrass outdoors at Writing-On-Stone/Áísínai'pi Provincial Park, where they are surrounded by hoodoos and the sounds of nature, Twigg reflects on his interest in dance. “I’ve always known I wanted to do (...

Kevin Jesuino is an interdisciplinary performer, facilitator, activist, movement arts coach and arts educator. As co-artistic director of the TRAction collective, he also tries to engage communities in art-making to tackle issues of climate justice. Jesuino credits his curiosity and love of artistic expression to his early exposure to culture through festivals and dancing, thanks to his parents, w...

A film director and writer, Kevin Littlelight is a member of the Tsuut’ina Nation with proud Tsuut’ina and Blackfoot heritage, was instrumental in the creation of the Tsuut’ina Office of the Arts and now holds a seat on Calgary Arts Development’s Board of Directors. With the support of his family, Littlelight took time away from home and left a prestigious career behind to head to film school in N...

A member of the Siksika Nation, Adrian Stimson holds a BFA with distinction from AUArts, an MFA from the University of Saskatchewan, and has won countless awards for his creative work. Stimson considers himself as an interdisciplinary artist and exhibits nationally and internationally, and is known for his use of black and white monochromatic paintings depicting bison in imagined landscapes, while...

A writer, an artist, and now holding the title of the Calgary Stampede First Nations Princess, Sikanpinakii Low Horn finds inspiration in other Blackfoot artists. Tune in to hear their story.

A self-proclaimed lifelong learner, Brandy Dahrouge was born in Calgary and considers herself fortunate to have grown up around Treaty 7 territory. Her artistic practices include music, specifically classical piano, which she studied at Red Deer College, as well as visual arts and photography at the University of Calgary, and media arts at the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia. It...

Callie B. Elwayns is an executive coach, a mentor, a somatic movement educator, a storyteller, and a performer who helps women step into their voice and own their story in order to realize their full potential. As founder, curator and CEO of Bold and Visible, Elwayns incorporates artistic principles as a means to foster women, creative practices, and stepping into their own through somatic movemen...