THUNDER BAY - Artists, performers, and supporters of arts and culture have a lot to celebrate this weekend as the city prepares to take part in Culture Days.
Culture Days is a national celebration of arts and culture held across the country from Sept. 30 to Oct. 2. The celebration is meant to provide people in the community free access to activities and events that highlight the cultural pulse of the city.
“It’s important to highlight it with free activities because we draw more people into the cultural community and let people know what’s going on in Thunder Bay culturally so people can get involved,” said Ash Young, cultural development and events supervisor with the city of Thunder Bay.
“If people want to take workshops or classes or some of the things being offered here that maybe they didn’t know but now that we have a community celebration they can see in the event listing some of the things available.”
This is the seventh year Culture Days has been celebrated in Thunder Bay and this year’s events include the Fort William First Nation Fall Pow Wow ongoing all weekend, artist exhibitions, open houses, readings, and workshops.
Local artists and performers are also getting access to a new online tool designed to promote arts and culture in Thunder Bay.
Launching alongside the start of Culture Days is The Trunk, an online portal for everything arts and culture in the community.
Leah Bayly, manager of cultural development and events with the city of Thunder Bay, said the online portal was a collaboration between various groups and organizations throughout the city.
“The need for a one stop source of information about culture in Thunder Bay is something that we’ve heard very strongly through the consultations for the city’s culture plan,” Bayly said. “It’s something that we continue to hear any time we are out in the community.”
The Trunk includes a profile section for artists, organizations, and venues, as well as a calendar and events section, and a resource section.
There was a soft launch for the portal earlier this summer and Bayly said it has been growing every day. According to Bayly, The Trunk fills a void by bringing all this information into one place.
“There’s lots of individual sources that might cover a piece of information, but there hasn’t been anything that provides that one stop shop,” she said. “That’s really what we were really attempting to create with The Trunk.”
Dahab, dancer, choreographer, and owner of World Dance Centre, said The Trunk is a great place for artists to promote what they are doing professionally and to reach out to other artists and the public to let them know what is happening culturally in Thunder Bay.
“I’m promoting an upcoming event and I wanted to reach a very specific audience and I was struggling doing that in my budget and being heard over all the noise on the internet,” Dahab said.
“Trunk sort of did the job for me, to find that specific audience I was trying to reach. I was very excited be able to put in my event.”
Culture Days is taking place throughout the city of Thunder Bay from Sept. 30 to Oct. 2. For a complete schedule, visit the Culture Days website. To get started on The Trunk, visit www.thetrunk.org.
