This year’s chicks have hatched, and are getting ready to spread their wings for the annual migration to Red Deer Polytechnic for Artstrek! And as we all know, migration is a difficult task for some fledglings. A few of them need some extra help from those of us who know the path, and the great rewards that await their successful journey to theatre camp this July.
Theatre Alberta’s Artstrek team is lovingly readying the roost for their arrival. We’re looking for 150 hawks, swans, and magpies to guide these sweet chickadees on their way.
This year our Artstrek scholarship campaign will support 30 students from across Alberta. They are travelling to Red Deer from North and South, East and West, from the mountains, badlands, forests, and prairie farmlands. Some of them need a little bit of help, and some need a lot. Together, we can get them there.
150 donors giving $100 is the simplest path to our goal of $15,000, as the crow flies, but donations of any amount are deeply appreciated.
More about the Artstrek Scholarship Campaign:
- The average amount of support requested per student is $500.
- 23% of Artstrek students have applied for financial assistance.
- Many students told us how they are saving and planning for their post-secondary education and that Artstrek has inspired them to pursue a career in the arts. While the kids are hard at work planning for their futures, let’s help them enjoy their todays!
- Students from smaller towns and rural communities describe how Artstrek is their only annual opportunity to immerse themselves and explore theatre. It is a unique creative outlet that artistically feeds them for the rest of the year.
- Bring your own matching dollars! Please ask a friend, family member, or your employer to join the flock and match your donation!
“The thing I love about Artstrek is that it teaches resilience, it teaches empathy, it teaches inclusivity, it teaches kindness, and then, after all those teachings, it happens to teach some pretty cool theatre too.” ~ Artstrek Instructor
Our Students Say Artstrek is…
“Welcoming to everyone”
“A supportive, safe, and wonderful community”
“Where I belong and I can be my authentic self”
Teachers Say Artstrek is…
“Vital, Essential, Necessary”
“A pillar of the Canadian performing arts community”
“Hope for the future”
HOW TO DONATE
Donate your amount of choice through the Birdies for Kids website to make a contribution to Artstrek. Your donation will be matched up to 50% to make even more of an impact!
PLEASE NOTE: Birdies for Kids closes on August 31!
You can use the Canada Helps platform to create a personal fundraising page to spread awareness and rally your friends and family to reach the goal amount that you pick.
Canada Helps provides instant name acknowledgement, it allows you to look over our campaign’s progress, and it facilitates invitations to friends and family to support Artstrek!
Artstrek is Alberta’s long-standing summer theatre school for teens. With more than 65 years and 10,000+ alumni livening up its classrooms, Artstrek has helped young theatre students spread their wings across Alberta, Canada, and the world.
Artstrek provides professional learning with artists and educators in a collaborative and fun environment. Students explore the creative process through five daily classes that include the study of acting, movement, voice, devising, design, directing, and dramaturgy. All of these classes take inspiration from a single play of study—this year’s play is The Birds by Yvette Nolan.
The Birds is an adaptation of Aristophanes’ ancient Greek comedy by renowned Algonquin Canadian playwright Yvette Nolan. Nolan sets the play in Turtle Island (North America). Two humans, intent on leaving civilization behind, travel to the land of the Birds. While one finds kinship with the feathered friends, the other is unable to resist the temptation to “improve” the Birds’ homeland, unsettling and disrupting their way of life.
If you have any questions about Artstrek or our fundraising campaign, please contact us at info@theatrealberta.com or 780-422-8162.
Artstrek is generously supported by the Alberta Foundation for the Arts, Red Deer Polytechnic, and the Edmonton Community Foundation, as well as Theatre Alberta’s additional operating funders the Edmonton Arts Council and Calgary Arts Development.
We are grateful to have so many ambassadors and champions of Artstrek across the province and country, and hopeful that, be it personally or through new connections, you can help us sustain and grow this important program.
