The Heritage Community Investment Program (HCIP) invests funds—provided by the City of Edmonton—into the stabilization, increased professionalism and innovation of heritage in Edmonton, for Edmontonians. The HCIP program offers four unique grant streams: Operational, Project, Project Accelerator, and Travel Grants to individuals and heritage organizations working to connect citizens to the stories of our city.
The Project Accelerator Grant and Travel Grant streams have four intake periods per year. Through these two grant streams, the EHC supports individuals and organizations undertaking small scale heritage projects that tell an Edmonton story in a unique or innovative way, and provides assistance for travel, education and research that shares an Edmonton story.
PROJECT ACCELERATOR GRANT RECIPIENTS
Canadian Art and Leisure Association
Project Title: “Equal Regard”
Project Summary:
This project intends to eradicate racism/discrimination rampant in the capital city (Edmonton). CALA selected a variety of project leaders MLAs, Human Right Specialists, Lawyers and Artists to lead the project positively. Leaders will deter people from racism/discrimination belief and empower victims of racism/discrimination with ways to overcome stress.
Molly Chisaakay
Project Title: Dene Tha Youth Innovations in Knowledge and Cultural Heritage
Project Summary:
This project will result in an English – captioned version of a Dene language documentary. The project will provide hands-on student training. At the end of the project, an important Dene Tha resource that was previously inaccessible to Indigenous and non-Indigenous English speakers will be available for educators, students and the Indigenous Knowledge & Wisdom centre, available at public and post – secondary schools in Alberta.
Commonwealth Associations of Museums
Project Title: “Mill Woods, Arrival City”
Project Summary:
Mill Woods, Arrival City is a bilingual virtual exhibition that focuses on the experience of migrants and refugees who have moved to Mill Woods within the past five years. It will explore the working lives of migrants in their home countries and their expectations and realities in Canada. The exhibition demonstrates the potential for museums to collect, exhibit and present migrant lives.
Judith Iseke
Project Title: “Michif Stories with Land”
Project Summary:
Michif, the Indigenous language of Métis people, is adapted to its environment on traditional territories in the Edmonton area. But Michif is a highly threatened language with fewer than 800 speakers in the work. This documentary records the intergenerational process of developing Michif- language song for teaching the language based on Elder stories. Tom McCallum, well known Michif speaking Elder, Sundance lodge keeper and traditional teacher, shares stories about relationships with land. Internationally renowned Metis singer-songwriter Andrea Menard with Tom compose a song to take us on a journey through Michif language metaphors to help connect us to our homeland in modern times.
Nisha Patel
Project Title: “Spoken Word Poetry Album”
Project Summary:
The spoken word poetry album is a deep meditation on the place of first and second generation immigrants and settlers on Treaty 6 territory and dives into Patel’s struggles defining herself and her heritage in this setting. This serves the goals of capturing new Canadian heritage while also asking questions about the place of immigrants as settlers on Indigenous lands. This album is informed by her own experiences growing up in Treaty 6, her past experience living on Treaty 8 territory and her part of the Indian diaspora.
RISE – Reconciliation in Solidarity Edmonton
Project Title: “RISE Reconciliation Week Film Festival 2019”
Project Summary:
RISE is seeking to strengthen reconciliation in Edmonton through the Reconciliation Week Film Festival. The project accelerator grant will allow RISE to realize the festival as an annual event commemorating Reconciliation Week and building a legacy of reconciliation dialogue within Edmonton. From May 28 – June 1, 2019 hundreds of community members supported by partners and panelists will join in exploring themes surrounding living on Treaty Six and engage in the shared responsibility to establish and maintain mutually respectful relationships. This annual festival will augment Edmonton’s story by reflecting truth and reconciliation in the medium of film and parking new challenging conversations.
Marlena Wyman
Project Title: “Sketching History: Rediscovering Edmonton’s Architectural Heritage Through Urban Sketching”
Project Summary:
This project uses a unique approach for drawing attention to Edmonton architectural heritage and the City of Edmonton Archives holdings. Artworks interpret and highlight the character and details of heritage architecture that we often overlook as we pass by hurried in everyday life. Creative works evoke emotions and memories that engage and connect us with our cultural heritage and encourage viewers to discover the stories behind the walls.
TRAVEL GRANT RECIPIENTS
Erik Backstrom
Proposed Travel:
Travel to the Hudson Bay Company Archives in Winnipeg to research the background and context of Edmonton’s first urban subdivision. (“Plan B”, registered by the Hudson’s Bay Company in 1882). This research is in support of the applicant’s Edmonton planning history project, the outcome of which is intended to be the first book on the history of settlement and community planning in Edmonton.
Don Hill
Proposed Travel:
Attend a 4 – week residency in the UK. Internationally renowned Blast Theory, in consort with University of Nottingham’s Mixed Reality Lab, has developed prototype experiences that attractively blend intangible heritage and built heritage. Hill will learn digital skills & explore first hand their collaboration with Brighton Museum and their smartphone app, “allowing you to create a gift for a friend by exploring the collection.” The clever approach to intangible cultural heritage and digital pedagogy will inform an interactive smartphone app Hill has in mind for the ‘miracle mile’ of churches along Edmonton’s 96thstreet.
Miranda Jimmy
Proposed Travel:
Participate in and present at the Indigenous Heritage Circle’s symposium “Closer to Home: Locating and Retrieving Indigenous Heritage from Archives Outside Canada” in Winnipeg. Jimmy will be presenting on a local archives project she worked on with government records that contain Indigenous traditional knowledge. Jimmy will share Edmonton-based stories and connect with Indigenous experts working in the heritage sector.
Shawn Tse
Proposed Travel:
Banff World Media Festival (BWMF) is a marketplace and conference designed to help content creators with the development and production opportunities. Tse’s goal is to proudly represent Edmonton by promoting his unique approach for supporting diverse heritage work, develop his professional profile in arts, build stronger networks in the film/tv/media industries and “pitch’ Edmonton heritage and community media works that he has produced and developed the past few years.
For more information abut the EHC’s Heritage Community Investment Program grants, please visit edmontonheritage.ca/grants.