FESTIVAL HISTORY
For the last 11 years, Eastern Edge Gallery has organized an annual summer arts festival– the 24 Hour Art Marathon. It began as 24 hours of live art making and live music and has grown to a week-long event featuring an evening of artist talks, workshops throughout the week, video screenings, a performance marathon, as well as the 24 hour marathon of live art making with live music venues, a movie screening segment, buskers on a soap-box stage and community group participation.
The Eastern Edge 24 Hour Art Marathon has spawned a similar event in Barbados, and has generated considerable interest in other artist run centres through promotion and communications sent out about the event.
Participating artists are primarily from this province but for the past few years, we have introduced invited national and international artists, for performance, the opening launch event, video screenings, artists talks and performance art.
The Festival celebrates contemporary forms of artistic disciplines– performance art, spoken word, art ideas, contemporary music, and live art making. The event includes artists of all ages and experience and provides opportunities for younger artists to interact with artists at all stages in their careers and to experience a wide range of artistic expression. The event encourages participation and is particularly attractive to young artists and audiences. The festival complements Eastern Edge’s yearly programming by offering artistic diversity with a focus of community outreach and audience participation.
A popular component for local artists and art collectors has been the silent and live auctions held at the end of the Festival. 50% of the revenue goes to the artist, the remainder to the organization.
It is the intention of Eastern Edge Gallery to develop the scope of the Festival to include more artists from outside the province. We are building this Festival to include artists from across Canada and from diverse cultures, to broaden the range of live art making, performance, discussion and workshops at the Festival.
