Alcove Centre: Inside An Open Arts Ecosystem

Host: Adora Nwofor 

Starring: Bethel Afework, Dennis Lee, Sayson

Production House: FOREIGNERZ @sansfuccs

Director: Eman Safadi

Producer: Eman Safadi, CONTRA 

First Camera: Shardul Sharagat

Second Camera: Jemmy Lu

Third Camera: Ilia Kosmak

Editor: Benjamin San Martin 

Assistant Editor: Eman Safadi, CONTRA

Colourist:  Benjamin San Martin 

Sound Design: Benjamin San Martin, CONTRA, Jashan Makan

Location Sound Mixer: Shardul Sharagat

Title Sequence: Cole Edwards 

Music

Sugary prod by @mjminnelli.mp3

Lady Of The Lake Prod. Fred Irie

Introvert – prod by wonderlustbeats

Please Come Home prod by yogicbeats

Deep In The Woods prod by yogicbeats

Sunshine Prod. NOTURMOOD

Breaks prod. Inuyasha 

SPELLBOUND Prod. Fred Irie

Bethel Afework: When you think of a recreation centre, automatically our brain is just going to go to sports and physical activity, and we have lots of recreation centres that do just that. There’s a lot of places that people can show up, you don’t need to be a professional athlete, most people aren’t professional athletes.

I grew up here and I’ve had the privilege to access arts extracurriculars, whether it be through bands in junior high and high school or private lessons, or I did theatre in. But you realize, like, you need to self-identify as an artist to even feel comfortable to access those spaces. For art, it feels like there is such a disconnect of like, the people that are artists creating art and the audience that is spectating what has been created. Where is a place where someone can do arts for recreation, where arts is just part of their day-to-day life, where it’s not about them creating an end product, it’s about the process of them being creative.

We hope one day that recreational art is like, a recreation centre opens up and people are asking themselves, oh, I wonder if it’s for arts or sports?

Adora Nwofor: Are we ready?

Bethel: Can you hear me? Can you hear Adora?

Adora: Of course. When I walk in, they can hear me. I don’t have to say a word.

Bethel, thank you for being on my show. The executive director of The Alcove, I have been trying to get you on this show since inception, since 2020.

Bethel: And I swear we talked about this in 2020.

Adora: Every year, every year. Every year I send you the email, I’m a little salty about it, but you’re here now.

And so let’s talk about, like, what it took to get here to the place where there’s space, there’s community you’re building, and you’re doing well.

Bethel: A good way to describe it is just consistently doing things wherever you’re at in that moment.

We met a long time ago, and I feel like back then I was like, actively trying to go to shows and like just showing up to things that existed wherever they were in the city. It’s just almost feels like this natural build where you’re consistently working towards something. It like, you know, it didn’t happen overnight. It happened over several years, so yeah, when you first talked to me about Living a Creative Life, we were probably just doing pop-ups at the time. It’s really awesome that we get to talk now, years later and to see where we’re at now, checking in.

Speaker: One of my favourite memories was coming here for the first time because it was, like, nervous, but everyone is just, like, very chillaxed. I’m like, oh, wow. Okay. Like, felt very just comfortable going up there and just like, kind of playing your heart out, and like another would be hosting for the first time, a jam, and like that was, that was crazy. That was like a year apart. It just felt really good. And it’s like I get to welcome new people here, so it’s a great community.

Dennis Lee: Hi, I’m Dennis, one of the co-founders and the development director for Alcove Centre for the Arts. There was a lack of spaces in the city and in our kind of modern society for community to form, there’s places that host art, there’s galleries, things like that, but they don’t really play that function as a, as a community hub or as a connector.

We really want to create a space to have the opportunity so people can actually build the relationships over time.

Well, I think art is, ultimately, it’s a form of communication and expression, and that plays a big role in bringing people together. And it’s not just artists who partake in art, artists and creativity is something that I think inherent to like all individuals, everyone wants to express themselves and have things to connect, like have some things to connect with each other, whether it’s music or dance or whatever that may be.

And I don’t think we encourage that in people’s lives. If you don’t have a talent in something, we’re not encouraged to pursue that. Because I think we always have to have, like, kind of like a motive or like, a productive purpose to how we spend our time. Like, if you only approach life in that way, then you miss out on a lot.

Bethel: At the end of the day, the reason why we find recreational art so important is that it’s one of the foundational ways I feel like humans connect right through song, through dance, through singing, through creating. And it’s like, you don’t have to be good at these things. Like culturally, everyone did it in our cultures, everyone sings, everyone dances, everyone does these things, and it’s a way to connect with one another.

But I find there isn’t really spaces like that here, they’ve been like kind of purposely stripped away.

Adora: Listen, I’m having like an epiphany, I’m having an epiphany moment, that I am sitting beside a legendary iconic re-Indigenize-her. Thank you. Because, yeah, we should be able just to go and punch needle badly and learn because they don’t, they won’t want to do it in school. Like, let’s learn to draw. Let you find out about like, human form when you were trying.

Hi it’s Adora. I’m going to take a punch needle workshop at the Alcove Beltline. Come with me.

Speaker: The biggest thing for me was like that it’s accessible. A lot of things are by donations, a lot of things are by, are actually free. So it becomes a really good, safe space for artists, especially if you’re even just starting. That’s kind of like the biggest thing is like, people are shy and scared to start, but Alcove opens that door.

Adora: Your workshop was exactly that. I gave myself freedom to fail and I made a, oh, what did we decide it was called? Deconstructed star.

Speaker: Yes.

Adora: Now I can’t wait to see what everybody else made.

Abigail Tsegaye: I think places like Alcove are so important because I work in public art, and I think the biggest issue we have with the arts is it being accessible to everyone. And a place like Alcove breaks barriers and allows everyone access to art, whether it’s classes, whether it’s free shows, whether it’s literally window display galleries. And I think it’s just really hard to sometimes engage with art when you feel like it’s this big, intimidating thing, and Alcove makes it so accessible and there’s so many free programs. It’s such a good community. I love Alcove, I think Alcove’s great.

Sayson: Hi, my name is Sayson, and I’m co-founder and current operations director for Alcove Centre for the Arts.

Adora: Can you tell me a little bit about the programing that happens at the Alcove?

Sayson: So we are open five days a week and that includes having  just drop-in hours for people to come in and use or borrow any of our instruments, stationery, paint, yarn and supplies, and we often have drop-In hours, every Thursday, we have free jam sessions that people can come and empower play style with each other. And we also have workshops which we do a couple times a week, of different mediums of art, so textiles, creative writing or music. Those are all, it’s just kind of pay-what-you-can, and our biggest show is Raw Voices, which happens every last Friday of the month, which you are familiar with, we have a featured spoken word artist, comedian and musician along with Open Mic with that show too. So those are the main things that we do, along with people being able to use our space and we hope they further their own [ineligible].

Adora: I love that. So who is the Alcove for, who can come to programs or workshops or drop in?

Sayson: So the Alcove is for hopefully everyone. Hopefully everyone feels that they are able to come. That’s kind of the goal. It’s mainly for those who want to express some creativity, maybe dabble in certain things, try stuff out and they don’t consider themselves a professional artist.

They don’t do this often, maybe they’re just trying to see how it feels for them.

Adora: Sayson, I feel like all I heard was you don’t have to be good at art to come to the Alcove and be part of the community.

Speaker: Specifically about being lonely, the reason I joined Alcove in the first place is because I wanted to be able to meet like-minded people, and I didn’t know where to start because it’s just so hard to make friends as an adult and I feel like the Alcove is really just that space where anyone is welcome to come. And I was so scared to come here and I was like, okay, maybe volunteering is an easier way to come, and I came here and everyone is so friendly.

Adora: How has the Alcove helped your art practice?

Dennis: Well, actually, I definitely didn’t consider myself an artist going into it. I would say, like, I had a lot of influences in my life where, like, my parents put me in like art summer school, and a lot of, like, taking art classes and things like that when I was younger. So I think, like, you know, part of the kind of drives to work in the arts and like, becoming, like, an administrator, an organizer is like, you’re kind of like creating space for yourself.

Being surrounded by artists, that really encouraged me to also pursue art myself as well. So kind of like living what I preach in a way. I started pursuing photography more like after we opened our location, actually, because I was taking a lot of photos in the space, I just felt like, you know, there’s  a lot of cool people coming in, I’ll just take photos all the time, and this kind of felt like, oh, this is actually like, kind of gave me like a purpose to it. I enjoyed it.

Adora: I’m so proud of you. I’m so proud of you. Like, as an auntie, as an old person, as someone who grew up in Calgary and I went, I was in band, they didn’t like it. I was in dance. When I went to university the dean of theatre arts asked me to join [ineligible]. I was like for why, why would I, why would I do that? I’m never going to end up in that place, and here I am. And so I can only imagine what it would have been like for me if there was a community that said, yeah, you’re valid, and I didn’t have to do all of the imposter syndrome first that I continued to do. And I’m stopping right now. Right? To identify myself as an artist.

Dennis: Where, you know, the artists take all of the, I wouldn’t say take, but they receive all of the attention. But there’s so much that goes into it in the background where, you know, artists, they’re good at what they do and they need an ecosystem that supports and kind of elevates what they’re able to do. And, and artists may be great at performing and singing or whatever that is, but they need others in that ecosystem to help, perhaps, like, you know, open up a space that they can perform or find ways to sustain it, like from a logistical or organizational perspective I would say.

Adora: Us acknowledging that an artist needs support for their home, or their life or their family or their finances, to also be an artist, and all of those people are important, and we should support them too. Love that, love that, love that.

(Music) Let’s go. Let’s do it. Let’s do it.

Adora: What does Alcove do for Calgary?

Abigail: Oh my goodness. I think Alcove creates one community for Calgarians. I think people come into Alcove maybe not knowing anyone and leaving with like a family. I think that it is a place where people can, like, really come together and no matter what your skillset is, there’s always people who are willing to teach you how to do things, willing to connect you with someone who knows how to do things.

It really has, like, filled a void that Calgary had for so long. I think it’s really special and I think everybody should go visit.

Speaker: What I love about the Alcove most, and I think what attracts me is the fact that it’s like an open art space. And I don’t think there’s a lot of places in Calgary where like a bunch of youth can come and just kind of hang out or be around each other.

I feel like there’s an incentive because it’s free. But I also feel like because everybody’s lonely, like you want to be around others.

Adora: What can Calgary do to ensure that your goals, Alcove’s goals, and the community growth of Alcove can continue in the future?

Bethel: That, one thing that I could say is that we want to start to be creating some sort of campaign to encourage our community members that are able to, to start donating. And so we’re asking for those donations, so hopefully we can start garnering like a community base where there is financial support.

Another way is just like showing up and sharing our story to others. Like I think that sometimes people think, oh, I need to like do all these things, but sometimes it’s just like, tell the people you know about it. And I think that in itself has a lot of compounding effects for the future.

Something that Dennis and Says and I have chatted about, too, is like, hopefully creating a blueprint for other people to feel like they can start outcomes in their own community. Because I think the idea is that, like things like YMCA and recreation centres, they’re replicated in other communities. And I would hope that, you know, if someone that was like 17 had an empty community centre and wanted to, you know, revive it or, had space in the community that was empty or, you know, was ready to be taken over, and they’re like, I want to start a recreation arts centre that we can mentor and help get those, like, started up as if it was like a franchise in a sense, and have community-led spaces that is like led by community for that community. And maybe there’s like Alcoves that are more music based, and maybe there’s Alcoves that are more visual arts based, because like right now, our help is very multidisciplinary, which is awesome.

I want people to know that it isn’t your traditional arts organization. I think that when people hear Alcove Arts Centre, they think of maybe a gallery or a theatre group or things like that, and it’s like, no, like we are not a traditional arts organization.

If you really think about what we do, we’re providing a like a social service to like all of Calgary, but arts is the medium that we’re connecting on. You can just walk in, like, I think that there is this huge barrier in people’s head to like, you know, it’s an art centre or arts organization, they were like, oh, is it membership based? Can I get a membership? I was like, no, anyone can literally walk off the street. Anyone can come pick up an instrument, anyone can come paint, anyone can come colour, do a workshop, like it’s literally the most open-door policy that I think could exist in, like, pretty much any establishment.

We have our house rules, as long as you’re being respectful of the space, you are welcome to stay for 10 minutes, for four hours, like, no questions asked.

Recreational art. The idea is quite new here in Calgary, and it’s like one of the only spaces of its kind like this in North America. Yeah. So like I think that kind of seeing that Calgary has really positioned us to be able to cultivate something like this, and I’m really thankful for that because I think there’s such a collaborative, creative spirit in this city that has allowed a space like Alcove to start up and flourish and be accepted, because I think people in Calgary have been looking for something new, something unique, and we’re so entrepreneurial and DIY, especially in like the tech sector and, and different industries.

And I think that as part of the arts ecosystem, we are providing that first foot in the door to access art, and hope that, you know, if you want to one day work in big organizations or theatres, like we hope to be the catalyst and the foundation, but also if you just want to hang out and make art and play with Lego all day, you can stay there, you know, let’s hang out and just do that.