Episode 61: Jason Ribeiro, Calgary Surge
Calgary's basketball team champions art and creativity through sport
What form does your artistic expression take? For Jason Ribeiro, Vice-Chair and President of the Calgary Surge basketball team, being part of community and having the opportunity to flex a little bit of creativity with the team and its brand is a priority.
“Our role in the community, I think, is to disrupt some of the norms around sport and entertainment,” says Ribeiro, who takes pride in Surge fans’ freedom to show up to the games with attitude and fashion sense fully on display. “You have to come as you, fully as you. We think our role is uniquely to unlock and share some of the amazing stories in Calgary and not put the Calgary Surge in front of that.”
Ribeiro encourages the team and its fans to take in the arts and culture on offer here in Calgary — and also invites local artists to get in on the action. Recognizing the expense of brand-name court shoes as a barrier to sport for a lot of people — youth in particular — Ribeiro’s team came up with an idea to bring together art, fashion and sport. “So we had a crazy idea… go to Walmart and pick up a $14, $15 shoe and think about how we can customize that sneaker and make those affordable sneakers cool. So, we dropped 500 of these sneakers in the community, that’s 500 kids playing basketball that weren’t playing basketball.
“But how could we do that by making those affordable sneakers cool? … We got amazing, amazing artists to donate their time and customize [the shoes] and tell stories about our city,” Ribeiro says. “We’ve got artists like Billie Rae Busby, whose work is featured in embassies around the world and Contemporary Calgary, you know, doing a Northern Lights pattern on a $15 shoe, (and) trying to, I think, send the message that however you come, whether it’s the top tier or the affordable sneaker from Walmart, come as you and come with that self-expression and that creativity.”
Tune into this episode of Living a Creative Life to learn more about how the Calgary Surge has become a champion for art and creativity through sport.
About the Living a Creative Life Web Series
As a salute to the thousands of Calgarians who are living creative lives, Calgary Arts Development has launched this web series to celebrate creative living in our city.
The Living a Creative Life web series, hosted by local activist and comedian Adora Nwofor and produced by Bamboo Shoots, will release a new episode each month, featuring stories of Calgarians living creatively.
Have a story to share? Email us at submissions@calgaryartsdevelopment.com.
Tune in and be sure to subscribe to the #yycLCL channel on YouTube for premiere reminders.
