WonderFest: The Workshops!
Announcing details on our wonderful workshops!
Workshop: Monday March 4,2013
Business Planning for Artists with Heather Hill
7:00pm at The Central, 603 Markham Street *FREE
A dream without a plan is just a wish.
It is easy to dream about your career as an artist, but without written goals, priorities and plans, your dream is just a wish. Heather Hill, an independent musician and a high tech product marketer, will guide you through the business planning process for your art. She will detail the areas you need to consider to be focused and successful: your company/artist story, your market, your goals, your strategy to achieve those goals, your customer/audience, your competition, your marketing tools you will need (the 5 Ps of marketing: Product, Promotion, Place, Price, People) and your financial plan. In this interactive workshop, Heather will help you to further define your plans and goals, and you will leave with a framework to help you continue this process.
Heather Hill – MBA, MA, ARCT
Late one night on a business trip in England, an unmistakable voice told Heather she needed to quit her executive career and return to her music. Heather left a successful high-tech marketing job, sold everything, went backpacking, and the songs poured out. She fell in love, had babies, wrote songs, made two albums, created a songwriting guild, and now she wants to bring change and spread hope and love to anyone who will listen. Rooted in piano rock, Heather Hill is currently working on her third release. She launched her second album Leuty Station in May 2012, which features a collection of songs about women’s issues and the courage to face life challenges head on. She quickly followed the success of the launch with a Canadian tour, TV and radio play. Her first album “Listen” was released in NYC in 2005. Her voice is often compared to Kate Bush, her piano style to and Tori Amos and her songwriting to a young Leonard Cohen. She is working with Jan Cooper Publishing in Vancouver.
Workshop: Tuesday March 5,2013
With various local musicians and YOU!
7:00pm at The Central, 603 Markham Street *FREE
The greatest expression and art is motivated by curiosity, creativity and play. It is invaluable for an artist to be able to be spontaneous and creative with themselves and with others. Playing within your art is a magnificent way to be free and let the muse whisk you away; to play without a plan and let spontaneity open the omnipotent channel from the gods; to let a chance surprise become a gift of genius. Have you ever felt the spark and chemistry of creating something with another human being? Have you ever co-written a song? Join us for a night of collaboration exercises and open mic performances. You never know what magic will transpire and inspire!
Workshop: Wednesday March 6,2013
How Art Saved My Life with Lisa Anita Wegner
7:00pm at The Central, 603 Markham Street *FREE
After a trauma, art saved my life. Now I am allowing it to create my life.
Lisa Anita Wegner is an actress and film producer who in 2008 suffered a trauma-related brain injury. The Women’s College Hospital Trauma Therapy Program encouraged her to use visual art for her healing. At that point she began generating creative content, something Lisa had never done in her previous work life. Her first solo video, “So Who Am I Anyway?”, was bought by the Phoenix Art Museum for their video collection and was included in their Selection 2011 screening. Lisa was invited down to Phoenix to speak about her experience and show examples of how the injury has affected her work.
Screening a sample of film clips, personal therapy videos and pixel paintings, Lisa will tell her story for the first time in her hometown of Toronto at WonderFest. By getting to know her authentic self through art therapy, Lisa pierced the mundane to find the marvelous; she unearthed a creative life more fulfilling, rich and wild than she ever expected.
Workshop: Thursday March 7,2013
Turning Wounds Into Wisdom with Nova Browning Rutherford
7:00pm at The Central, 603 Markham Street *FREE
It is a vital process to develop and maintain positive self-esteem.
• Learn to use your past pain to propel your future progress.
• Learn to gain acceptance for what you are and let go of what you are not.
• Gain the skills to recognize and release toxic relationships at work, home or school.
• Take control and discover how challenges can be used as an opportunity to grow.
• Discover the secret to optimism no matter what life throws your way.
• Develop accountability skills – for past successes and for your role in the ‘drama’.
• Learn to use your voice and apply the 3 keys to a successful confrontation.
• See new results by taking action and create a Mastermind list.
Nova B. Rutherford has been helping young women and men develop a thorough understanding of ones own personal values – emotionally and spiritually – by using methods that are crucial to staying mentally connected to those values, which in turn help to create rewarding personal and professional relationships. Nova’s ten years of expertise in the entertainment, music, and marketing industries provides nuance to her programming which help to empower a new generation with these tools for life. Since 2009, Nova has provided her dynamic programming to such organizations in the U.S and Canada such as the United Nations Association, YWCA, NAACP, Youth Mentoring Connection, Voices Of Tomorrow The Remix Project, BlogTalkRadio, the AIDS Project Los
Angeles, Ontario District School Board, StoryCorps, ACT-SO and The Forgiveness Project. Nova has served as the keynote speaker at the “Women Empowering Women Symposium,” and as a featured panelist for the “United Nations Associations 100th Anniversary of Women’s Day” in Los Angeles, California.
And don’t miss…
WonderFest: The Concerts!
Thursday March 7,2013
Show: Super Men in Concert
Doors 9:30pm Show 10:00
The Central, 603 Markham Street
$10 at the door- receive $5 off Wonder Women in Concert
Friday March 8, 2013-International Women’s Day
Show: Wonder Women VI in Concert
Doors 7:00pm Show 8:00pm
The Gladstone Hotel, 1214 Queen Street West
$10 at the door
My Continuum Plan: To Belly Laugh
Ah… a quiet Sunday all to myself to catch up with me and plan the rest of my life again. I crack open my new CD, Florence & The Machine, which fuses magnificently with the blissful sound of coffee percolating. It’s 12:30pm when I wake up. It’s never too late for a good morning and it’s never too late for a happy childhood! I sit in my comfy chair gazing out the front window, watching glitter fall from the sky. I breathe deeply, inhaling the optimistic scent of a fireside candle, nestle in and reflect on how I want to spend the rest of my life. What is most important to me? What is the least my being needs to subsist joyfully?
I pick to belly laugh. I had an explosive time over dinner with friends last night. When we get together it is non-stop fast and funny. It is an infusion of joy and a physical reminder that I’m alive. Sometimes it’s just a visual expression, the gifted use of vocabulary in a ridiculous sentence, or a guffaw over mutual understanding. And usually the source of the belly laugh is not something you can replicate or share with others. How many times have you lamented, “I guess you had to be there,” through fits of laughter-for-one while you try to spread the joy? It’s not always possible to pay these moments forward. That’s why we must constantly revel in them and generate new ones. I find it worthy to note that it’s these small moments that make the biggest impact on us. It’s usually the smallest events that prompt a couple to fight and the wee absurdities that cause a belly laugh to take hold. You can’t bottle up and save a belly laugh. You can only be thankful for experiencing it and savor the way it remains in your system enriching the foundation of your being.
Laugh For The Health Of It is an article on the physical benefits of laughter, and it comes with a disclaimer: “Laughter may not be suitable for everyone. Remember that laughter is a form of exercise with similar side effects. People suffering from uncontrolled seriousness might experience complications or may even die laughing. Side effects however, will always include warm fuzzy feelings, afterglow and miraculous new beginnings. Consult your physician if you have heart problems, high blood pressure or palpitations, as several extra hugs per day may be indicated for you.”
My continuum plan for life is to always seek out the belly laugh. A belly laugh: the universal language of joy. It’s the orgasm of life. It can include multiple participants of all ages, sizes, sexes, and you needn’t feel shame if someone catches you doing it in public. It starts with a specific punch and spreads throughout, leaving you gasping and euphoric. Yes, I pick to belly laugh!
May you find several moments each day that tickle your fancy, trigger a belly laugh, and contribute to a joyful life!
Love KAT 🙂
KAT LEONARD 