June 2012 AF-Calgary Fellow Ashleigh Ahern is back with Episode 2 of her Buying Local video series.
Ashleigh won Awesome Calgary's June 2012 grant to create a video series that would give exposure and create public awareness of local businesses that are green and sustainable by shining a spotlight on them and profiling them on the web.
Today, Ashleigh speaks with Rod from Leaf and Lyre about the SPIN (Small Plot INtensive) method of farming.
Check it out!
This month, Awesome Calgary's Thousand Dollar Thursday was held at The AREA in Inglewood, in conjunction with Mark Hopkin's We Should Know Each Other #99.3, an event where people are encouraged to expand their social circles by meeting and mingling with people they may never have met before.
Dubbed Awesome at The AREA, an Awesome Space was able to be highlighted for those who had never been, Awesome People could meet other Awesome People, and four really Awesome Ideas would be able to have their time to shine in the spotlight.
The emcee for the night was AF-Calgary's very own Trustee of Awesome Kevin Hayes and it was with this back drop that the Top4 Finalists for the month of August would take the stage for 90 seconds each to try the wow the AF-Calgary Trustees and audience and convince them why they deserved to win the $1,000 no-strings attached micro-grant.
First up was Rich Théroux with Gorilla House LIVE ART. Art Battles take place on Wednesday nights at the Gorilla House studios where two artists are given a theme or idea by spinning a wheel and have two hours to produce a piece of art. These art battles are free for the public to attend and all finished pieces created that night is later auctioned off. The appeal to viewers is that they have an opportunity to see pieces that they like grow and become a part of that growth as well.
The $1,000 would be used by Gorilla House for rent, art supplies and advertising for the gallery as well as to ensure that the Live Art Battles can continue. Leftover money would be used to create a children's gallery at the Gorilla House and other improvements.
If you'd like to catch one of the live art battles, drop by the Gorilla House at 1503 - 15 Avenue SW. To learn more, check out this recent article by FFWD Weekly as well as their Facebook page.
Up next was Cory Mack and Harry Doupe with the first-ever, brand new YYComedy Festival.
From September 24-30, the YYComedy Festival will celebrate the best of the local comedy community. Featuring the best comedians in stand-up, sketch and improv, all performers at this year's festival have some kind of connection to Calgary. Among the performers invited to perform are Bruce McCullock and Mark McKinney from the Kids in the Hall, Gavin Crawford of This Hour Has 22 Minutes and Just For Laughs favourite Ryan Belleville.
Currently, there are only three people (Cory Mack, Harry Doupe and James Sutherland) organizing the entire festival, and the $1,000 would go towards helping fund advertising and getting the word out. Cory and Harry feel that Calgary is the best comedy community that doesn't celebrate itself, and this festival aims to change that.
To learn more about the YYComedy Festival, check out yycomedy.ca.
Third up was Caitlind r.c. Brown and Wayne Garret with CLOUD, an 18-foot interactive sculpture created from 5,000 re-appropriated incandescent light bulbs.
Created as a part of Calgary's first-ever Nuit Blanche, CLOUD will allow the public to wander beneath an installation representing a giant cloud created out of light bulbs through a rain of pull strings allowing them to switch on and off lights to create the illusion of lightning on the cloud's surface. CLOUD is also an experiment in community collaboration, as they hope to create the installation entirely through the use of donated light bulbs.
However, with a debut date of September 15, Caitlind and Wayne are far short of their goal of collecting 5,000 light bulbs as they have only managed to scrounge up about 300 so far. The $1,000 would go towards a promotional campaign raising awareness of the project as well as to encourage ordinary Calgarians not affiliated with Calgary's art scene to donate their used light bulbs. This would be achieved by purchasing ads in local newspapers and other avenues and channels that ordinary members of the public frequent.
Those in Calgary who are interested in donating incandescent light bulbs for the project can do so at the Alberta College of Art and Design (1407 - 14 Avenue NW) as a collection box has been set up in the front lobby. To learn more about the types of light bulbs that they're looking for, see here.
Dressed in kilts and with caber in hand, last up was Marshall and Ryerson Ennis with A Strong Impression.
Marshall is a former highland games competitor and youth coach who wants to introduce the junior highland games to youth in Calgary to help build up an appreciation and awareness of Scottish heritage, tradition and family values among youth.
The $1,000 would be used to create "kits" consisting of the equipment that would be used to teach kids how the sport is done, as well as to help fund the camps that this education would take place in. All youth would be invited to come out and try the different highland games, such as Putting the Stone, Caber Toss and Hammers.
The hope is that these camps can get youth interested in the Highland Games and perhaps motivate them to compete in the official tournaments in the future. Fun fact: Marshall is in training to flip the caber 150 times for a world record.
AF-Calgary's August 2012 no-strings-attached $1,000 micro-grant went to Caitlind r.c. Brown and Wayne Garret and CLOUD.
Make sure to check out their installation at Calgary's first-ever Nuit Blanche on Saturday, September 15 at Olympic Plaza Park from 7 p.m. to 3 a.m. And if you're interested in helping out with the project by providing some used incandescent light bulbs, make sure to drop them off at the Alberta College of Art and Design.
BIG Thanks to Dave Winkler and our venue sponsor for this month, The AREA, as well as Mark Hopkins for allowing us to collaborate with him for We Should Know Each Other #99.3. If you haven't been, you should definitely check out a We Should Know Each Other party. They're awesome.
Finally, we're still accepting submissions for our September 2012 prize. The deadline for submissions is Monday, September 10 at 11:59 p.m. and if you'd like to submit an idea or project for consideration, fill out this handy-dandy web form!
Thanks to everyone who took time out of their busy evening to come down and watch, and we hope you'll join us next month for a very special Thousand Dollar Thursday! Stay tuned for more details on that coming up later…
In the meantime, check out some photos from our event on our Flickr channel!
A quick reminder that this month's Awesome Calgary Thousand Dollar Thursday will be held at The AREA in Inglewood on Thursday, August 23. Doors open at 6 p.m.
But did you know that this month's Thousand Dollar Thursday is also being held in conjunction with Mark Hopkin's We Should Know Each Other Summer Tour? In the lead up to WSKEO #100, Mark is taking his WSKEO parties on the road, teaming up with various different groups doing amazing community-building things in the city with each location being a community gathering hub.
What is a We Should Know Each Other party? Since February 2008, local artist and community-builder Mark Hopkins has hosted ‘We Should Know Each Other’ parties in his living room, where hundreds of strangers have shared stories, laughter and new friendships. Everyone is invited to attend to stretch the limits of their social circles and to meet some of the diverse people that make up Calgary. Doctors, accountants, labourers and even politicians have attended in the past, and you're always guaranteed to meet someone new.
Dubbed Awesome at The AREA: We Should Know Each Other #99.3 will be the event where you can come check out the four Awesome Ideas being featured this month and then meet and mingle with people you've never met before in an awesome space dedicated to the arts, recreation, education, environment and agriculture communities!
It promises to be a Trifecta of Awesome! Hope to see you there!
The summer months are winding down here in Calgary, but that doesn't mean we are! The Awesome Foundation - Calgary Trustees have just met to go through this month's submission pile and we're ready to announce the short lists for this month.
So, without further ado, here are AF-Calgary's August 2012's Top4 Finalists and Honourable Mentions, in no particular order:
Top4 Finalists
Honourable Mentions
We're pleased to announce that this month's Awesome Calgary Thousand Dollar Thursday will be held at The AREA in Inglewood on Thursday, August 23. Doors open at 6 p.m. and we hope to see you there!
Last but not least, we're now accepting submissions for the September 2012 prize.
If you have an Awesome Idea that you'd like to submit to AF-Calgary for consideration, fill out this handy-dandy web form! The deadline for submissions for the September AF-Calgary prize is Monday, September 10 at 11:59 p.m.
Hope to see you out this Thursday!
Our most awesome trustee, Reg Tiangha just returned from the first ever Awesome Foundation Summit in Boston and he chose to emcee for us and share some of the insights and ideas that came out of this rapidly growing, global movement of micro-funding. 
The 3rd anniversary of the global Awesome movement is happening. right. now. And in honour of the 3rd anniversary of The Awesome Foundation as well as the first-ever chapter, Awesome Foundation - Boston, we decided that living in the heart of dinosaur country that we'd better pay tribute to them tonight! And they were in abundance ... but thankfully they took care not to damage the amazing host venue of DaDe Art & Design Gallery! 
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| Kai & Alistair of C4 - Stationary Art - "Art for public transit stations"! |
The days are getting shorter but the heat is still on here at Awesome Foundation - Calgary as we're set to announce another round of Top4 Finalists and Honourable Mentions!
So without further ado, here are AF-Calgary's July 2012 Top 4 Finalists and Honourable Mentions, in no particular order:
Top4 Finalists:
Honourable Mentions:
This month's Awesome Calgary Thousand Dollar Thursday will take place at DaDe ART & DESIGN LAB in Inglewood on Thursday, July 26. Doors open at 6 p.m. and we hope to see you there!
And last but not least, we're still accepting submissions for the August 2012 prize. If you have an Awesome Idea that you'd like to submit to AF-Calgary for consideration, fill out this handy-dandy web form! The deadline for submissions for the August AF-Calgary prize is Friday, August 10 at 11:59 p.m.
Hope to see you out this Thursday!
Video: Why SoJo from SoJo on Vimeo.
AF-Calgary Top4 Finalist idea The SoJo, pitched on the behalf of the organization by Trevor Gair at Awesome Calgary's Thousand Dollar Thursday back in October 2011, has officially launched, complete with an endorsement by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).
Originally named Social Journal, the SoJo's has evolved over the last year as it moved from beta to release. In their own words:
SoJo was originally named Social Journal. The initial vision was to become a platform that would better facilitate connections and share information to inspire the next generation of young changemakers to take action and convert the ideas written in their journals into tangible, functioning social projects.
...
SoJo has since expanded its mandate to support all social innovators in developing and implementing their ideas to solve some of our world’s most pressing challenges.
SoJo's vision:
To be the leading online resource that social innovators reference to turn their ideas for social change into action.
Aiming to "connect socially conscious, engaged social innovators to the resources and tools needed to bring their social innovations to life," the SoJo exists as a platform for anyone with a social venture or community project idea to help turn those ideas into action with high-quality information, tools and other resources.
While SoJo didn't ultimately win October 2011's AF-Calgary no-strings-attached $1,000 micro-grant, we're always thrilled to see our Top4 Finalists or Honourable Mentions execute on their ideas or projects regardless if they win the $1,000 or not, and we're happy to shine the spotlight on the awesome ideas and the awesome people behind them that make our short lists every month, as that's what it's really all about here at the Awesome Foundation.
So a BIG congratulations to Trevor and the team around the world behind SoJo from all your friends here at Awesome Foundation - Calgary!
This month, Awesome Calgary's Thousand Dollar Thursday returned to Melrose Cafe and Bar in the Heart of the Red Mile on Calgary's uptown 17th Avenue. In fact, we were here exactly one year ago in June 2011 when the Calgary Circus Studio won the prize for their Street Arials project.
The emcee for the night was yours truly, Trustee of Awesome Reg Tiangha. Faced with a packed house and many new faces and first-timers to our Thousand Dollar Thursday event in the audience, the stage was set for all of our Top4 Finalists for June 2012 to take to the stage for 90 seconds each to try and wow the AF-Calgary Trustees and the audience and convince them why they felt they were worthy of winning the $1,000 no-strings-attached prize.
First up was Vanessa MacTavish and Elizabeth Buchanan with Eureka Lost and Found.
Eureka Lost and Found is an online community that inspires finders to help seekers in their community retrieve their lost possessions.
It uses a matchmaking process unlike any conventional lost-and-found that connects finders with seekers. People can join online communities and receive alerts when items go missing in their area. People are inspired to become finders and to show neighbourly kindness through the Eureka Lost and Found and such positive behaviour is rewarded through a system involving "Karma Points" that can be redeemed for cool things. Community venues are also encouraged to sign up so that they can participate in creating helpful and trustworthy communities.
According Elizabeth and Vanessa, there is no such system on the Internet that they've found that leverages the concept of online matchmaking with a Lost-and-Found.
The $1,000 would be used towards the first prototype of their website and kickstart the momentum required to see the project to its conclusion.
Second was Natsumi Yokura and Brendan McCabe with Urban Stationary.
The Calgary Creative City Collaboration (C4 for short) plan to take over C-Train platforms with art, pop-up galleries and other interesting installations. In fact, Calgary Transit has already agreed to donate the spaces needed to execute the project.
Urban Stationary gives local artists exposure to thousands of Calgarians who commute throughout the city every day using transit, will bring life and vibrancy to public spaces all over town, making arts and culture more accessible to ordinary Calgarians.
The first event will be a pop-up gallery on Friday, June 29 at Brentwood LRT station, plus another event will occur the first week after Stampede, as well as events roughly every three weeks over the summer and hopefully from September onward.
While a good chunk of the project has been funded through smaller arts grants or self-funded by the collective up to now, the $1,000 would be used towards art supplies and honorariums to participating artists.
Up third was Lindae Stokes with Old Homes. Great Stories.
Celebrating Calgary's Century Homes, Lindae wore her presentation on her body as she explained her Old Homes. Great Stories. idea.
A grassroots movement of 250 homeowners in 30 communities who love build heritage and their homes and wanted to celebrate century homes built in 1912 in the Victorian, Edwardian and Craftsmen styles came together and were inspired to research the history behind their homes and to tell their stories by creating visual displays outside their homes to share with all Calgarians. Homeowners were trained on how to research and communicate the stories of their homes through training courses held in advance.
During Historic Calgary Week from July 27 to August 6, the public can visit their website at CenturyHomes.org and create their own self-guided walking tours of Century Homes in various neighbourhoods around the city.
According to Lindae, this is the first time such a project has been attempted in Canada.
The $1,000 would help the group pay for higher-quality and longer-lasting coroplast signs and banners to honour the buildings and the people who participated in the project, as well as to promote the homes to the public by having them on display when they go on their self-guided walking tours.
Last was Ashleigh Ahern with her Buying Local Project.
The $1,000 would be used to create a video blog series spotlighting local businesses and the things that they're doing as well as the services that they provide that are green, sustainable and sets them apart from others, giving them exposure and encouraging the public to support all local businesses and vendors who strive to be green or sustainable.
The goal is to produce at least one video per month, and Ashleigh has already started filming the project (the morning of this month's Thousand Dollar Thursday in fact), doing interviews at the Kingsland Farmers Market with Hoven Farms. She hopes to profile more local businesses in the future, but the $1,000 micro-grant would allow her to do even more as expenses thus far including various membership and administrative fees have been all paid out of pocket.
AF-Calgary's June 2012 no-strings-attached $1,000 micro-grant went to Ashleigh Ahern with her Buying Local Project.
Ashleigh plans to start work right away, and the first videos from her project should be up shortly. Stay tuned to SunOnTheRock.com or right here at awesomecalgary.org for more details as they become available.
BIG Thanks to our venue sponsor Melrose Cafe and Bar for hosting us again this month.
As always, putting on a Thousand Dollar Thursday every month is always a challenge, and it can't be done without the help and support of our Awesome Support/Production Team. So a BIG Thank You to the following people for volunteering some of their time to help us out this month with running the event:
Photo Credit:
Production Duties:
Livestream Production:
Live-Tweet Team:
We're still accepting submissions for our July 2012 prize. The deadline for submissions is Tuesday, July 10 at 11:59 p.m. and if you'd like to submit an idea or project for consideration, fill out this handy-dandy web form!
Finally, if you missed out on the event, check out our live stream recording on our YouTube channel.
Thanks to everyone who took time out of their busy evening to come down and watch, and we hope to see you again next month!
A self-professed scavenger, the inspiration for this particular project came from the fact that the house and garage that he was living in at the time was also used to create horse-drawn carriages 100 years ago.
Following up on April's One-Year Anniversary event was going to be a tough job, but thankfully, the diversity of submissions we received for May 2012 ensured another wide variety of pitches would be on display as we kick off Year Two here at Awesome Foundation - Calgary.
This month, we returned to Commonwealth Bar & Stage for the 13th instalment of Awesome Calgary's Thousand Dollar Thursday, where four ideas would vie for the no-strings-attached $1,000 micro-grant.
The emcee for the night was our very own Trustee of Awesome Chris Salmon, and it was with this backdrop that the four AF-Calgary finalists for this month took to the stage for 90 seconds each to wow the Trustees and convince them and the audience why they felt they were worthy of winning the $1,000 prize.
First up was Daniel Rodriguez with Sharing Souls, a collaborative project heavily inspired by the "Before I Die" wall by Candy Chang, which has already been executed in many cities around North America.
After arriving in Calgary two years ago and observing the city, Daniel felt that Calgary was a city that never wakes up. That said, he felt that Calgary and Calgarians had big dreams and big potential, and he wanted to know exactly what it was that Calgarians were dreaming about. So Daniel wishes to bring the "Before I Die" project here to Calgary to help realize that.
Plywood sheets painted with chalkboard paint would be placed on the City Hall, 1st Street SW and Centre Street C-Train platforms for two weeks where Calgarians would be able to share their thoughts and dreams by writing them down for all to see. After that, those boards would be placed in a permanent installation somewhere where it could stand as a monument to the dreams of the people and could help motivate people to start executing them now that they've managed to define them.
Ideal project launch would be towards the end of June, and the majority of the $1,000 would go towards the purchase of materials to execute the project, mainly plywood, chalkboard paint, and various writing implements.
Second was Courtney Hare and Kristen Holm with Tool Library, where they wished to use the $1,000 micro-grant to launch Calgary's very first tool lending library.
The Tool Library would give all Calgarians access to Do-It-Yourself (DIY) and gardening tools that they can use on various projects. Rather than renting or buying tools that you may only use for eight minutes or pestering friends and family for tools to borrow, you can simply borrow them for free from the Tool Library instead.
They felt that Calgarians as well as various organizations and programs in the community would benefit from having a Tool Library in the city in three ways:
The $1,000 would go solely towards the purchase of tools to kickstart the collection. New tools, refurbished tools and donations would go towards the collection and to start, three main kits would be created.
Courtney and Kristen will house the tool library at the Central branch of the Calgary Public Library downtown and they hope to have the project launched within the next six months. The long-term vision would be that the collection could be expanded and housed in a trailer that could move from branch to branch.
Up third was Ava Jane Markus, a local theatre writer and actor, with Project Grandma.
Ava, along with two other artists, will write a 45 minute play in conjunction with the residents of Canyon Meadows Retirement Home. Interviews with residents would be performed, poetry written and other stories would be told.
The play will happen on June 1 and the $1,000 would go towards audio equipment to perform the play, as well as to help pay for craft materials, performer's fees and promotional materials. Ideally, this would serve as a pilot project and could be used as a template for other productions and collaborations with other nursing and retirement homes in the future.
Last was Michelle Warkentin with Puppet Gratitude Journal.
The Puppet Gratitude Journal is a new play written by Michelle launched last month. The play would use puppets to teach children between Kindergarten and Grade Six about what gratitude is and the wonderful virtues that people have inside, mainly kindness, compassion and empathy because in Michelle's experience, the earlier children can get that message, it makes them better people later on in life.
The $1,000 would allow four schools by the end of June or September with 100 children at each school to be able to view the play for free.
AF-Calgary's May 2012 no-strings-attached $1,000 micro-grant went to Courtney Hare and Kristin Holm and their Tool Library.
Courtney and Kristin hope to have the project implemented within the next six months, so keep an eye out for that!
BIG Thanks to our venue sponsor Commonwealth Bar & Stage for hosting us again this month.
As always, putting on a Thousand Dollar Thursday every month is always a challenge, and it can't be done without the help and support of our Awesome Support/Production Team. So a BIG Thank You to the following people for volunteering some of their time to help us out this month with running the event:
Photography Duties:
Production Duties:
Livestream Production:
Live-Tweet Team:
We're still accepting submissions for our June 2012 prize. The deadline for submissions is Sunday, June 10 at 11:59 p.m. and if you'd like to submit an idea or project for consideration, fill out this handy-dandy web form!
Thanks to everyone who took time out of their busy evening to come down and watch.
Finally, if you missed out on the event, check out our "live-to-tape" version of it on our YouTube channel here (apologies in advance for some of the tech issues within the video):
And check out some photos from the event on Flickr.
Hope to see you out next month!
