Regina, Saskatchewan

Regina, Saskatchewan

Regina is the capital city of the Canadian province of Saskatchewan. The city is the second-largest in the province and a cultural and commercial centre for southern Saskatchewan. It is governed by Regina City Council. Regina is the cathedral city of the Roman Catholic and Romanian Orthodox...

 has a rich cultural life in music, theatre and dance, amply supported by the substantial fine arts constituency at the University of Regina

University of Regina

The University of Regina is a public research university located in Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada. Founded in 1911 as a private denominational high school of the Methodist Church of Canada, it began an association with the University of Saskatchewan as a junior college in 1925, and was disaffiliated...

, which has a large fine arts department including faculties of music and theatre. At various times this has attracted notable artistic talent: Donald M. Kendrick

Donald M. Kendrick

Donald M. Kendrick is the Calgary, Alberta-born director of choral activities at California State University, Sacramento and the director of music at Sacred Heart Church where he conducts Schola Cantorum and Vox Nova Donald M. Kendrick (born 1947) is the Calgary, Alberta-born director of choral...

 and Joe Fafard

Joe Fafard

Joseph Fafard, OC, SOM is a Canadian sculptor.-Biography:Born in Sainte-Marthe, Saskatchewan in 1942 to Leopold Fafard and Julienne Cantin whose families both date back centuries in Canada. Joe is a descendant of Jacques Goulet. He received a B.S.A from the University of Manitoba in 1966 and a...

 have been particular stars.

Multiculturalism

The Regina Multicultural Council (RMC) was established in 1973 as a successor to the Regina Folk Arts Council and the Regina Folk Arts and Cultural Council. Operating as a non-profit organization, the RMC acts as an umbrella organization for over 60 member groups that represent approximately 45,000 people.

The aims of the council are:

1. To further the development and promotion of the cultures and folk arts of all ethno cultural groups;
2. To promote co-operation and mutual understanding among these groups;
3. To promote multiculturalism; and
4. To promote and retain heritage languages and cultural traditions as essential components of multiculturalism.

To meet these aims the RMC organizes and participates in a number of activities, of which the best known is Mosaic.

Cathedral Village Arts Festival

The Cathedral Village Arts Festival is a celebration of the arts. For six days in May, the Cathedral Area is packed with music, theatre, dance, visual arts, literary arts, and crafts. The arts festival ends with a street fair where artisans working in a variety of mediums will show and sell their wares, and performances on stages and buskers entertain. The festival attracts upwards of 35,000 audience members, one of the largest in Saskatchewan.

Mosaic

Dubbed a "Festival of Cultures", Mosaic has been held annually since 1974, when it began as a one-day festival. Since 1978, it has been a three-day event held in early June at pavilions throughout Regina. Every pavilion features traditional foods, art and craft displays, and traditional music and dancing.

Each pavilion has ambassadors and youth ambassadors that travel as VIP guests to other pavilions, representing their own ethnicity.

A pre-purchased passport is stamped at the door of each pavilion. It enables the passport holder to visit any pavilion an unlimited number of times and to use the free Mosaic bus transportation to all pavilions.

Mosaic has a number of pavilions representing different ethnic backgrounds. Some of these include: Aboriginal

Aboriginal peoples in Canada

Aboriginal peoples in Canada comprise the First Nations, Inuit and Métis. The descriptors "Indian" and "Eskimo" have fallen into disuse in Canada and are commonly considered pejorative....

, Austrian

Culture of Austria

Austrian culture has largely been influenced by its past and present neighbors: Italy, Poland, Germany, Hungary and Bohemia.-Music:Vienna, the capital city of Austria has long been an important center of musical innovation. Composers of the 18th and 19th centuries were drawn to the city by the...

, Caribbean

Caribbean

The Caribbean is a crescent-shaped group of islands more than 2,000 miles long separating the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea, to the west and south, from the Atlantic Ocean, to the east and north...

, Chilean

Culture of Chile

The culture of Chile is one of a relatively homogeneous society where historically its geographical isolation and remoteness has played a key role...

, Chinese

Culture of China

Chinese culture is one of the world's oldest and most complex. The area in which the culture is dominant covers a large geographical region in eastern Asia with customs and traditions varying greatly between towns, cities and provinces...

, Ethiopian

Culture of Ethiopia

Ethiopian culture is multi-faceted, reflecting the ethnic diversity of the country; refer the articles on the Ethnic groups of Ethiopia for details of each group.Among many traditional customs, respect is important...

, Filipino

Culture of the Philippines

Philippine culture is related to Micronesian, Bornean, Mexican and Spanish cultures. The people today are mostly of Malayo-Polynesian origin, although there are people with Spanish, Mexican, Austro-Melanesian and Chinese blood. Geographically, the Philippines is considered part of Southeast Asia...

, French

Fransaskois

Fransaskois are francophones or French Canadians living in the Prairie province of Saskatchewan. The term franco-saskatchewanian may also be used on occasion, although in practice it is rare due to its length and unwieldiness.-Population:...

, German

Culture of Germany

German culture began long before the rise of Germany as a nation-state and spanned the entire German-speaking world. From its roots, culture in Germany has been shaped by major intellectual and popular currents in Europe, both religious and secular...

, Greek

Culture of Greece

The culture of Greece has evolved over thousands of years, beginning in Mycenaean Greece, continuing most notably into Classical Greece, through the influence of the Roman Empire and its Greek Eastern successor the Byzantine Empire...

, Hungarian

Culture of Hungary

The culture of Hungary has a distinctive style of its own in Hungary, diverse and varied, starting from the capital city of Budapest on the Danube, to the Great Plain bordering Ukraine. Hungary was formerly one half of Austria-Hungary. Hungary has a rich folk tradition, for example: embroideries,...

, Indian

Culture of India

India's languages, religions, dance, music, architecture, food and customs differ from place to place within the country, but nevertheless possess a commonality....

, Irish

Culture of Ireland

This article is about the modern culture of Ireland and the Irish people. It includes customs and traditions, language, music, art, literature, folklore, cuisine and sport associated with Ireland and Irish people today. However, the culture of the people living in Ireland is not homogeneous...

, Italian

Culture of Italy

From antiquity until the 16th century, Italy was at the centre of Western culture, fulcrum or origin of the Etruscan civilization, Ancient Rome, the Roman Catholic Church, Humanism and the Renaissance....

, Laos

Culture of Laos

Laos has its own distinct culture. Through Theravada Buddhism it has influences from India and has also influences from China. These influences are reflected throughout Laos in its language as well as in art, literature and the performing arts....

, Polish

Culture of Poland

The culture of Poland is closely connected with its intricate 1000 year history Its unique character developed as a result of its geography at the confluence of various European regions...

, Punjabi

Punjabi people

The Punjabi people , ਪੰਜਾਬੀ ), also Panjabi people, are an Indo-Aryan group from South Asia. They are the second largest of the many ethnic groups in South Asia. They originate in the Punjab region, which has been been the location of some of the oldest civilizations in the world including, the...

, Scottish, and Ukrainian

Culture of Ukraine

Ukrainian culture refers to the culture associated with the country of Ukraine and sometimes with ethnic Ukrainians across the globe. It contains elements of other Eastern European cultures as well as some Western European influences. Within Ukraine, there are a number of other ethnic groups with...

.

KōnaFest

Pronounced koona-fest — kōna is one of the Cree

Cree

The Cree are one of the largest groups of First Nations / Native Americans in North America, with 200,000 members living in Canada. In Canada, the major proportion of Cree live north and west of Lake Superior, in Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta and the Northwest Territories, although...

 words for snow — this is an annual winter festival running from mid-February until the first week of March. It is held at various venues throughout the city celebrating all activities that can be enjoyed over the winter. There is an Ice and Fire weekend in Victoria Park that shows off ice and snow sculptures and encourages families to take part in all the activities like field hockey and snow sculpting. The Midwinter Blues Festival portion of Kōnafest features Blues

Blues

Blues is the name given to both a musical form and a music genre that originated in African-American communities of primarily the "Deep South" of the United States at the end of the 19th century from spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts and chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads...

 entertainers from all over North America

North America

North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...

 playing at various venues in the city, culminating with the headlining event in the Casino Regina Show Lounge on the final weekend.

Craven Country Jamboree

The Craven Country Jamboree

Craven Country Jamboree

Craven Country Jamboree is an annual country music festival. It was originally called the Big Valley Jamboree, and was first established by Father Lucien Larre, as a fundraiser for his Bosco Homes for emotionally disturbed youth. A successor event, the Kinsmen Rock'N the Valley rock music...

 is an annual summer event in mid-July featuring well-known country music

Country music

Country music is a popular American musical style that began in the rural Southern United States in the 1920s. It takes its roots from Western cowboy and folk music...

 performers in an open-air environment 30 km (19 mi) northwest of Regina. Craven Country Jamboree management stated an attendance average in 2006 of 17,500 visitors daily with a total for the four day event at 70,000 people. On-site camping adds to the country atmosphere with most sites being sold out from one year to the next.

Regina Folk Festival

The Regina Folk Festival takes place in mid-August (August 8 to 10th, 2008) in downtown Victoria Park and features diverse artists from all over the world. Workshops, beer gardens and merchants are set up as part of the weekend's activities. The festival also sponsors an ongoing concert series in Regina throughout the year.

Regina Dragon Boat Festival

Held annually on Labour Day weekend in and around Wascana Lake. The Regina Dragon Boat Festival draws around 20,000 spectators who participate in the racing activities as well as the martial arts demonstrations, the children's fair, Chinese folk dancing, as well as partaking in the beer gardens and the food merchants booths. This multi-cultural community event has over 70 teams participating in the races during its fifteenth year in 2007.

Visual arts

Regina has a rich history in the visual arts. Many artists, such as Bob Boyer

Robert Boyer (artist)

Robert "Bob" Boyer was a Canadian visual artist and university professor of aboriginal heritage. He was a Métis Cree artist known for his politically charged abstract paintings.-Life and work:...

, Roger Ing

Roger Ing

Roger Ing was a Chinese Canadian artist.Born in Canton, China, he emigrated to Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada in 1950 at the age of 18....

, Joe Fafard

Joe Fafard

Joseph Fafard, OC, SOM is a Canadian sculptor.-Biography:Born in Sainte-Marthe, Saskatchewan in 1942 to Leopold Fafard and Julienne Cantin whose families both date back centuries in Canada. Joe is a descendant of Jacques Goulet. He received a B.S.A from the University of Manitoba in 1966 and a...

 and members of the Regina Five

Regina Five

Regina Five is the name given to five abstract painters, Kenneth Lochhead, Arthur McKay, Douglas Morton, Ted Godwin, and Ronald Bloore, who displayed their works in the 1961 National Gallery of Canada's exhibition "Five Painters from Regina".-External links:...

, call or have called Regina home. Regina is also home to a number notable public galleries, including the MacKenzie Art Gallery

Norman MacKenzie Art Gallery

The MacKenzie Art Gallery is located in Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada. The MacKenzie Art Gallery has over of space, with eight galleries totaling . It has modern technical areas including conservation lab, workshop, preparation rooms and vault, a 185-seat theatre, public resource centre, gift shop...

, Dunlop Art Gallery, Neutral Ground and the Art Gallery of Regina (formerly the Rosemont Gallery). Successful commercial galleries have included the Susan Whitney Gallery, the Nouveau Gallery, the Assiniboia Gallery, Mysteria and the McIntyre Gallery.

Also see Subnormality

Subnormality

Subnormality is a bi-weekly satirical and often absurdist webcomic by cartoonist Winston Rowntree , a former resident of Regina, Saskatchewan...

 (webcomic).

See also

List of Visual Artists from Regina, Saskatchewan

Regina Public Library

Regina Public Library

Regina Public Library is a city-wide library system spread throughout nine locations that serves the citizens of Regina, Saskatchewan by providing an open and accessible environment where anyone can access information for work, study, and recreation...

Interactive Media and Performance labs

IMP Labs

The Interactive Media and Performance Labs are directed by Dr. Charity Marsh, Canada Research Chair in Interactive Media and Performance in the Faculty of Fine Arts at the University of Regina in Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada.-IMP Labs:...

 at the University of Regina

University of Regina

The University of Regina is a public research university located in Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada. Founded in 1911 as a private denominational high school of the Methodist Church of Canada, it began an association with the University of Saskatchewan as a junior college in 1925, and was disaffiliated...