GerryFest encourages emerging artists to shine bright

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This article was published 11/08/2023 (1101 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The late musician and writer Gerry Atwell used to joke about hosting a festival.

For this theoretical event, he’d gather the members of all his bands — Ministers of Cool, Rockalypso, Voice of Boom, the Juno-winning Eagle and Hawk, among others — at the St. Norbert Arts Centre and put on a great show for the community, free of charge, to share the gift of music with friends and strangers alike.

“He’d call it GerryFest,” says Judy Williams, Atwell’s older sister.

After Atwell died in 2019, at the age of 60, his deep and ever-growing circle was looking for a way to pay tribute to a man known throughout Winnipeg and beyond for his larger-than-life personality and commitment to the city’s culture. A tireless volunteer, he was known to take young performers under his wing. After wrapping up his own performances, he’d encourage them to keep striving and sometimes, he’d invite them up to play a song with him.

In 2020, GerryFest became a reality, held at the arts centre, based in the community of St. Norbert where Atwell was born and raised, and where he served as the de facto artistic director for several years.

That first event was more of a memorial for Atwell, with friends playing some of his favourite songs and performing selected poems and readings from his plays and screenplays, like Soul in Ice, a show he wrote in the 1990s about his grandmother.

But in the years since, GerryFest — happening this Saturday at SNAC — has become an ongoing mentorship project, teaching nearly 30 emerging artists all the tricks of the trade before culminating with a community performance at the centre’s amphitheatre, now named in honour of Atwell.

“It’s become our flagship event,” says Sharon McIntyre, the arts centre’s executive director, who worked with Atwell for decades and stage-managed his community memorial. “Gerry naturally mentored people, whether in an official capacity or in passing, and I think that energy exudes the festival.”

Each year, a new crop of musical and visual artists is given the chance to learn about elements of the arts industry including branding, storytelling, grant applications, visual presentation, collaboration, and of course, performance and presentation, in both group and one-on-one settings.

Each festival also features a new artistic director, giving a different community member the opportunity to gain valuable leadership experience. This year’s artistic director, Ashley Bieniarz, a former GerryFest mentor, was eager to take on the task.

“I really wanted to create an opportunity for artists to have a safe space to learn the foundations of a life in the arts, acquiring skills that can be applied in every stage of their careers,” says Bienarz, who makes music under the name Kwiat.

Over the course of the summer, Bienarz oversaw weekly workshops for a group of nine mentees, with guest mentors like Manitoba Film & Music’s Stephen Carroll, Synonym Art Consultation’s Chloe Chafe, and Misfit Music Management’s Claire Boning joining in to share their insights. The artists also each got professional photos taken — a must in the social media era.

Every Sunday, the mentees met one-on-one with Bienarz to touch base and get feedback on their personal projects; each mentee created new pieces of art during the program, to be displayed and performed during GerryFest. Some of them will be performing live for the first time.

Bienarz gave a quick rundown of each mentee and what they’ve prepared.

Shay Wolfe has been composing folk-pop music on the piano; singer Ally James, who started creating music at the Broadway Neighbourhood Centre’s JustTV program (an Atwell project), has leaned into her R&B sensibilities. Rapper-producer Kwado, who also harbours interests in fashion and painting, makes afrobeats-influenced hip-hop; Kozii makes soulful, jazzy rap.

Two mentees, producer RJ and soul singer Tega, will make their live debuts at GerryFest. Singer Emmanuel Bongar, of the alt-rock band Spectrums, will release his band’s latest single, Plot Twist, at the fest.

A pair of visual artists are also being featured. Surrealist painter Zen Thompson will have work on display, plus a looping video, while Xiaojun (Ada) Zhang will show off her paintings. Ada’s painting of Atwell is featured on the festival’s official poster.

The festival is free, but a $20 tax-deductible donation is suggested. That money goes toward the Atwell memorial mentorship endowment fund, which supports the festival’s mentorship program. About $30,000 has been raised in the last three years, says Williams, the fest’s co-chair, who wouldn’t be opposed to more sustained funding from the private sector; FACTOR Canada has funded the fest the last two years, she adds.

ben.waldman@winnipegfreepress.com