April 15, 2020
Dear friends,
As we all continue to grapple with social distancing and the enormous effects of this situation on the live performance sector, we regret to announce that our Spring Gathering will be cancelled for 2020.
The Spring Gathering was to take place from June 24-26 in Peterborough, ON, in partnership with the Nogojiwanong Indigenous Fringe Festival (NIFF). The team behind NIFF, the first and only fringe festival dedicated to Indigenous artists, has just announced the postponement of the festival to June 2021. We fully support this decision and agree that it would be unsafe to gather in large groups as early as June.
While we regret that we will not be able to gather in person this spring, we have been heartened by the many ways in which our colleagues have continued to work together from a distance. Ontario Presents will continue to encourage these efforts and will seek find new ways to support the sector in the coming months.
As we look forward to next year, we will continue to feature the artists selected for NIFF 2020 (who will be given first right of refusal for 2021) in our monthly Indigenous Artist Spotlight. See the full list of artists in NIFF’s press release here. We hope you will enjoy learning about these artists as much as we have, and look forward to seeing their work at a later date.
If you have any questions, please contact Natalie at natalie@ontariopresents.ca.
Stay well,
The OP Team