Setting the stage with In the Soil

Matthew Hadley
Issue date: 3/31/09
Section: Arts & Entertainment

Niagara's first collective art showcase is approaching, and it's something that all Niagara Region residents should take notice of.

This April, In the Soil: Niagara's Homegrown Arts Festival will mark its inaugural year by providing exactly what it set out to - a stage for Niagara's artists.

Since January, the festival's coordinators - Annie Wilson, Administrative Director with Suitcase in Point Theatre Company, local singer/songwriter Joe Lapinski with YUMMY Recording, Jordy Yack of Pulse magazine and Sara Palmieri, Sales and Marketing Manager for the Brock University Centre for the Arts - have been planning, in detail, the weeklong event, taking place April 17-24 - including focusing on the festival's main goal.

"In the Soil's aim is to provide opportunities for artists with a Niagara connection to showcase their work to the community," said Palmieri. "[It] intends to celebrate Niagara's distinct arts and culture. The festival will showcase all types of artists, at all different stages of their career [and] bring together the talents of filmmakers, musicians, visual artists and performers of all kind. The festival artists will benefit greatly by being able to have a platform to share their work with the community and the audience will be exposed to many different genres of art that they might not normally be able to see. This is totally Niagara based and I think everyone will walk away from the festival with a sense of pride and community."

Despite being in its first year, and as a product of the hard work of its coordinators, the festival has come together quite smoothly, especially over the past few months.

While the coordinators hoped to include as many Niagara artists as possible, the shocking number of applicants made this an impossible feat. Now, In the Soil will showcase selected artists in seven different St. Catharines venues.

"We were overwhelmed by the amount of submissions that we received," said Palmieri. "The submissions really helped to shape each event. The programming committee used the jury's comments and scores and have created themed events that will include something for everyone's tastes."

Some of these themed events that residents will be able to catch include "Tractor Tango: An Afternoon of Roots, Country, Folk and Farmhands", "Seedpod Rockers: Celebrating the sprouts of rock" and "Organic Originals: Words, Rhymes and Songs". These make up just a few of the showcase events.

The biggest event, perhaps, is the festival's finale, "The Sweetest Soil: An Evening with the Jury's Top Picks". Here, 11 of the jury's favourite submissions, including Valerie Gore, Hospitals, Major Chords and Lewis Melville & The Joe Lapinski Band, will perform on the Sean O'Sullivan stage.

Narrowing these performers down was presumably difficult for the jurors, as the collective received over 130 applications to review. As their selected panel of jurors auditioned many of them, the final line up began to take shape.

"The jury process went very well," said Palmieri. "Younger acts who didn't have albums to submit and a few other multi-disciplinary acts who needed to be seen on stage to show their craft [were auditioned]. Overall, the quality of work amazed the jury and made for a very hard decision process."

In the Soil has generated a positive response from the city of St. Catharines and its residents, and according to Palmieri, this is a product of the massive buzz that continues to grow. She also noted that, given the timing, the festival is very important to the partnership between the city of St. Catharines and Brock University, given the future plans for the Marilyn I. Walker School of Fine and Performing Arts to be relocated to the downtown core.

Ultimately, In the Soil has now done its job in providing the stage, and now it's up to the artists to showcase what Niagara has to offer.

In the Soil takes place from April 17-24 in various venues in St. Catharines. For more information, including the festival schedule, visit inthesoil.on.ca.