photo from 'Device for Listening to Snow Falling', a public Sound Art event by Caitlind RC Brown and Wayne Garrett. Photo by Elyse Bouvier.
kinship listening fundraiser
supporting our soundwalks through the 2023-2024 season
We’re launching a campaign to fund our 23-24 Soundwalk Series!! The campaign will run from June 30th through to September the 15th.
Soundwalks fall under our new branch of community programming, Kinship Listening. This branch of programming includes our immensely popular soundwalk series, as well as an outdoor community performance project planned for Spring 2024. We’re also introducing a couple of public workshops, on topics related to sound and the more-than-human environment.
We’re aiming to fully fund our 23-24 Soundwalk Series through community support. In this way we can keep individual soundwalks free to attend, which increases accessibility and inclusivity within our programming.
We’ve set our goal as $2000, which will cover artist wages for each of our 8 soundwalk facilitators ($250 per artist per walk).
We’ve set donation tiers at five levels:
Pinna: $25.00
Cochlear: $75.00
Vestibular: $150
Amplitude: $300
Supersonic: $500
Sunnyside By Side Soundwalk 2021. facilitated by Julie Hammond (Sunnyside in Portland, Oregon) and rebecca bruton (Sunnyside in Calgary, Alberta). photo captured by Patrick Weishample.
WHAT IS A SOUNDWALK?
... any excursion whose main purpose is listening to the environment. It is exposing our ears to every sound around us no matter where we are. (Hildegard Westerkamp, World Forum of Acoustic Ecology)
The term was first used by members of the World Soundscape Project at Simon Fraser University in the 1970s. At New Works Calgary we take an interdisciplinary approach to soundwalking, inviting not only musicians but artists from all disciplines to lead our walks. We encourage activation of sonic awareness from many different points through the body and mind; we are excited to explore as many different creative paths to listening as there are creative souls in the cosmos.
Our outdoor Soundwalk series is one of our most popular programs, as music lovers, families, and walking enthusiasts of all kinds enjoy guided listening excursions at various locations around Calgary.
This past year, we hosted 5 soundwalks, each facilitated by a different local artist. For the 2023-2024 season, we aim to offer a soundwalk each month of the year, September through May. Our walks have taken us exploring Chinatown, Inglewood, the Bow River Pathway, and other Calgary neighborhoods.
As a non-profit, charitable organization, New Works Calgary relies on the donations of community members like you to keep bringing unique listening experiences to Calgary.
Please support New Works Calgary Soundwalks by donating! Our campaign will run from June 30th through to September the 15th.
Sunnyside By Side Soundwalk 2021. facilitated by Julie Hammond (Sunnyside in Portland, Oregon) and rebecca bruton (Sunnyside in Calgary, Alberta). photo captured by Patrick Weishample.
What is ‘Kinship Listening’?
Since 2020 we have created a steady stream of ecologically-focussed programming alongside our musical presentations. Since 2020 this programming has included The Drop & The Turning podcast, our Soundwalking series, and in 2023 the newly commissioned outdoor public sound event Device for Listening to Snow Falling by Caitlind RC Brown and Wayne Garrett.
In 2023-2024 we are officialising this programming as its own unique branch at New Works Calgary. We are calling this branch of programming KINSHIP LISTENING, to reflect the breadth and diversity of practices that might be included under this umbrella.
What is ‘Kinship’?
In recent years this term has grown in popularity in artistic, scientific, and philosophical spheres. While words like ‘nature’ and ‘the environment’ can alienate the non-human natural world from our roles and responsibilities as humans, the notion of ‘kin’ offers an entryway towards building more meaningful relationships with the nonhuman sentient others we live amongst. Kinship also moves beyond nonhuman ‘others’ to encompass feminist, decolonial, and antiracist practices that form a fundamental part of ecosystemic action.
