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News

IF 2022: a 24-hour Hybrid Digital/In-Person Festival of Improvised Arts

Station News by Jared McKetiak on August 10, 2022

The Inter­na­tion­al Insti­tute for Crit­i­cal Stud­ies in Impro­vi­sa­tion (IIC­SI) at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Guelph is thrilled to announce the third annu­al edi­tion of their 24-hour impro­vised arts fes­ti­val: IF 2022. Run­ning online from August 26­-27 (ET) and fea­tur­ing select live per­for­mances at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Guelph, this free, mul­ti-dis­ci­pli­nary Fes­ti­val will fea­ture impro­vised works by 150+ artists from all around the world.

UMFM is pleased to be one the part­ners for this year’s event and will be air­ing 9 hours of this amaz­ing con­tent, start­ing August 27th at 1AM CST run­ning through until 10AM!

IF 2022 fea­tures an array of world-class artists, includ­ing jazz leg­ends William Park­er, Wada­da Leo Smith, and Tome­ka Reid; inter­na­tion­al­ly renowned instru­men­tal­ists Eve­lyn Glen­nie and Susan Alcorn; acclaimed poets Lor­na Crozi­er and George Elliott Clarke; and a range of the most excit­ing com­pos­er-per­form­ers in Cana­da today, includ­ing Joy­ful Joy­ful, Markus Floats, Olivia Shortt, Gor­don Grdi­na, Anh Phung, Matthew Car­di­nal, Pan­tayo, and Sarah Pagé; and dozens of amaz­ing inter­na­tion­al per­form­ers from 15+ coun­tries world­wide — includ­ing Win­nipeg’s own Doreen Girard, as well as ex-pats Crys Cole and Steve Bates. Part­ner orga­ni­za­tions spon­sor­ing per­for­mances include Coastal Jazz and Blues (BC), Hill­side Fes­ti­val (ON), 17, Insti­tute of Crit­i­cal Stud­ies (Mex­i­co), Lasalle Col­lege of the Arts (Sin­ga­pore), the Son­ic Arts Research Cen­tre (N. Ire­land), and Ely­si­um Gallery (UK).

Curat­ed by IIC­SI direc­tor Dr. Ajay Heble (Founder and for­mer Artis­tic Direc­tor of the Guelph Jazz Fes­ti­val), IF 2022 will show­case a range of cre­ators — includ­ing musi­cians, dancers, actors, poets, painters, film­mak­ers, and more — per­form­ing new, spon­ta­neous works. Cen­tred around the theme Towards New Futures: Impro­vis­ing in Tran­si­tion, IF 2022 will pro­vide space to imag­ine (and re-imag­ine) our world, our rela­tion­ships, and our com­mu­ni­ties as we emerge from the uncer­tain­ties of these tumul­tuous pan­dem­ic years.

IF 2022 will fea­ture a 24-hour online stream of filmed impro­vi­sa­tion­al per­for­mances (avail­able for free at improvfest​.ca) as well as a spe­cial open­ing per­for­mance (William Park­er and Jesse Stew­art at the Art Gallery of Guelph, Aug. 26) and clos­ing per­for­mance (Naga­ta Shachu Japan­ese drum ensem­ble, Bran­ion Plaza, U of Guelph, Aug. 27).

IF 2022 is pre­sent­ed by IIC­SI, with sup­port from Musagetes, the Social Sci­ences and Human­i­ties Research Coun­cil of Cana­da (SSHRC), the Art Gallery of Guelph, and the Gov­ern­ment of Ontario as well as the Office of the Vice-Pres­i­dent (Research) and the Col­lege of Arts at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Guelph.