A3

By SHAWN BERRY
berry.shawn@dailygleaner.com

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The New Brunswick Arts Board, the city and the federal and provincial governments are providing $70,000 to fund artists who want to create community arts projects in the city.

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Shawn Berry photo

A new program will provide $70,000 to Fredericton-based artists to create a project that will get the community involved and more engaged in the arts. From left, Coun. Dan Keenan, New Brunswick Arts Board executive director Pauline Bourque and board chairman Benoit Duguay made the announcement.

The Fredericton Community Arts Project will provide grants of up to $15,000 to local artists. The money will go towards projects that value the work of professional artists in the community, involve community partnerships and foster the participation of citizens in the arts by making it accessible. The money will pay for three-quarters of a project. The remainder must be covered by the artist through funding or in-kind donations.

"We hope the community will come away with a better understanding of the work of artists," said Pauline Bourque of the New Brunswick Arts Board, which is funding the project along with, the City of Fredericton, the Department of Canadian Heritage and the Department of Wellness, Culture and Sport.

"Communities that are involved in the arts are healthier communities," Bourque said.

Fredericton is the third community participate in the program.

In one project, a Hampton artist enlisted the help of the public to create a sculpture. In another, a writer in Edmundston consulted residents and local folklorists before writing a legend for the Madawaska region.

The project is a spinoff from the city's designation as a 2009 Cultural Capital of Canada.

The recipients will be selected by a panel from the arts community. An information session for artists interested in participating in the project will be held Nov. 18 at the Charlotte Street Arts Centre. The deadline for submissions is Jan. 15 and projects are expected to be named in February.

Benoit Duguay, chairman of the board of directors of the New Brunswick Arts Board, said he was reading about Newfoundland and Labrador Premier Danny Williams' greeting of Prince Charles and his wife Camilla, the Duchess of Cornwall, earlier this week.

"He said it was the best place to welcome them because of their love of art and culture," Duguay said. "I thought, Why not Fredericton?"

Coun. Dan Keenan, chairman of the city's development committee, said there's a benefit to funding the arts.

"You're creating vibrancy in your city that will draw others," he said. "That's added incentive for us to continue to recognize the role of artists in our community."