WELCOME

Nextfest marks the beginning of a long creative journey for a huge array of artists. For 26 years, we have fostered the growth and learning of thousands of artists who continue to practice and create on Treaty 6 land. We embody the spirit of newness and growth while respecting the deep roots planted by those who came before us.

We are a platform for emerging artists, a meeting ground for community, a springboard for creative invention. Mentorship, inclusion, learning, creative risk, and vulnerability are at the core of everything we stand for. And so, we embrace the spirit of Tatawaw: a Cree phrase meaning “welcome, there is room.”

The Nextfest Arts Company acknowledges that we are situated on Treaty 6 territory, the home of the Nations of Cree, Nakota-Sioux, Blackfoot, Dene, Tsuu T’ina, Metis, and other Indigenous peoples who call this land home, who have created and gathered on these lands for thousands of years. At Nextfest, everyone is welcome exactly as they are. Our circle continues to grow and evolve with our artists as they grow and evolve, too. We are still learning, and promise to continue learning from past and future generations of artists who make Nextfest possible.

We recognize and value that we are at the end and the beginning of a long line of artists, creators, and people living on and benefiting from this land. Nextfest takes responsibility for this ongoing relationship as we strive to listen, learn, and continually do better as an organization and community. We are committed to creating new beginnings, supporting revival, and providing community for everyone, as we are all Treaty People.

BLACK LIVES MATTER

We at Nextfest support Black Lives Matter. We express our commitment to this movement and condemn police brutality and systemic racism in Edmonton, Canada, and the world. We say this loudly, as silence is violence.

We commit ourselves to learning, listening, and growing as we stand with BIPOC artists throughout and beyond our festival. We are currently working with our team to plan genuine action to address our role in supporting raising the voices of BIPOC artists.

Our team commits to updating our festival policies and is currently working with our BIPOC stakeholders, curators, and artists to form meaningful action. We want to get this right, so these actions may take time – stay tuned.

Our festival and our community stand with you.

Learn how the Nextfest Arts Company is taking action by visiting nextfest.ca/ black-lives-matter-statement/ NEXTFEST PROUDLY SUPPORTS THE 35//50 INITIATIVE

Representation matters. In order to create a more representative community, we must look to our arts leaders, mentors, and staff to create that change.

We, as a leader in Edmonton’s arts community, will be a part of that change. This is why we are committing to shifting our organization’s training, education, staffing, and projects to ensure that we can help create an equitable, diverse, inclusive, and accessible future in the professional landscape of the arts.

The Nextfest Arts Company is committed to the 35//50 Initiative, a coalition of IBPOC artists across Alberta who believe in representation and leadership as an actionable plan. Over the next three years, the 35//50 Initiative is committed to seeing our civic landscape more equitably reflected in our professional landscape: a minimum of 35% IBPOC and 50% women and gender minorities in paid, professional positions. Nextfest is committed to curating our festival along with the guidelines of 35//50 and gathering data over the next three years (and beyond) to monitor concrete progress in the percentages of IBPOC and women/non-binary artists we include in our curation and programming.

For more information about our pledge to 35//50, please visit nextfest.ca/35-50-statement/