JOB POSTING: CREATIVE DIRECTOR

Sappyfest bid farewell last month to outgoing Creative Director Steven Lambke. We thank Steve for all his contributions over the past five years and wish him the best in his next endeavours. We are now searching for our next Creative Director! The job posting can be viewed in our employment section, as well as below. Thank you for the consideration; we hope to hear from you.

Call for Applications: Creative Director

Sappyfest Inc. is a non-profit organization led by a volunteer Board of Directors. We promote the growth of arts and culture in Sackville, NB and Atlantic Canada on a year round basis, with a focus on the presentation of Sappyfest, an annual music and arts festival. The three-day event attracts an audience from across Canada and internationally, and engages a community of volunteers and participants who are attracted to our non-hierarchical festival structure and diverse presentation. Since 2006, Sappyfest has worked with more than 1000 artists, including: musical performances by Lido Pimienta, Jeremy Dutcher, U.S. Girls, Haviah Mighty, Willie Thrasher, Charles Bradley, and Arcade Fire; visual and performance works by artists Rita McKeough, Shary Boyle, Daniel Barrow, and Graeme Patterson; readings and discussions with writers Leanne Betasamosake Simpson, Sean Michaels, Rebecca Roher, and Sue Goyette. The annual three-day festival is an opportunity to gather together a community to experience music, art, and conversations, and a chance to create real and ongoing connections between artists and audience.

Job Description:

Sappyfest is currently looking for a Creative Director to take the imaginative lead for two projects: an “off-season” presentation or small series of presentations through the winter of 2021/2022 as well as our next festival, Sappyfest 17, which will take place July 29-31 2022. In the ever-evolving COVID-19 pandemic, Sappyfest has stridently tested alternative modes of presentation, such as video and performance projection onto a 16-storey industrial “cube” and a 26-hour livestream broadcast. 

We are seeking an enthusiastic candidate who enjoys organizing dynamic and introspective arts events and seeks to foster connections across numerous art and music disciplines. Sappyfest has guided the zeal for collaboration and making things happen in the backdrop of a small town. We are open to the shape and path a new Creative Director would like to take to present our annual coming-together. 

Responsibilities:

Under the direction and support of the Sappyfest Inc.’s volunteer Board of Directors, the Creative Director will:

  • Develop and coordinate creative direction and management for the annual Sappyfest presentation.

  • Be responsible for all aspects of festival booking and event coordination, including booking artists and accommodations, venues, equipment and liaising with external sound technicians.

  • Establish and achieve budgets in coordination with the SappyFest Treasurer for programming and all operations.

  • Support the Sappyfest Treasurer and external bookkeeper with project and budget updates as well as maintaining accounts payable to artists and suppliers.

  • Write grant applications and their associated reports to public sector funding partners at the municipal, provincial and federal levels.

  • Hire, supervise and provide workplace mentorship to contractual summer employees through the Mount Allison University student internship program and/or Young Canada Works.

  • Continue ongoing collaborative relationships with other local arts organizations, venue spaces, and community stakeholders.

  • Update our website and communicate over social media about Sappyfest’s activities and presentations.

  • Collaborate with the festival’s external public relations representative and 

  • contracted artists, ensuring all Sappyfest presentations are adequately and consistently marketed to the public and press contacts.

  • Attend and participate in regular meetings with the Board of Directors by providing progress reports and participate in other discussion/committee meetings.

  • Work with the Board to identify and implement long-term goals and maintain Sappyfest’s core mission.

Job Requirements:

  • Working knowledge of regional, national, and international music and cultural sectors.

  • Demonstrated experience in festival and event management, preferably in development of arts or community events. 

  • Proven excellent and conscientious written and oral communication skills.

  • Ability to communicate and maintain working relationships with artists in a caring and confidential manner.

  • Experience with anti-oppression and equity practices in the arts.

  • Proficiency with standard digital office tools and social media communication.

  • Familiarity with small non-profit finances and the ability to develop and work within a budget.

  • Experience in writing successful grant applications; strong writing skills.

Contract Details:

Earliest anticipated start date – November 1st 2021 

Total contract hours - 1220 hours @ $22.00/hr, with an approximate distribution of hours as follows:
20 hours/week – November 1st 2021 to May 2nd 2022
40 hours/week – May 2nd 2022 to August 31 2022

Remote work may be possible through the fall and winter months, but the Creative Director would need to be in Sackville, NB during pertinent stages of winter programming and during the summer months of contract (May – August). SappyFest will arrange to have an office from May to August with expectation of weekday office hours and public accessibility.

How to Apply:

Submit your cover letter and CV or resume with two references to producer@sappyfest.com using the subject line “Creative Director application.” Application review will begin Monday, October 25th.

Sappyfest is committed to an equitable hiring process and strongly encourages applicants who self-identify as being part of underrepresented groups or as having additional barriers to entering or staying in the labour market. 

Please contact us with any questions you may have, and let us know if there are accessibility accommodations you may require in the application and interview process.

Thank you.


SAPPY AGM - August 24th 2021

SappyFest Inc. would like to invite its membership and those interested in becoming members to the 2021 Annual General Meeting on the worldwide web via Zoom on Tuesday, August 24th at 7 PM AST. To RSVP and receive Zoom meeting ID / passcode email producer@sappyfest.com ahead of the meeting. This is an open meeting with presentations from staff and board members on the organization's activities, financials, as well as elections to the SappyFest Board of Directors. Voting in elections to the SappyFest Board of Directors requires a $20 voting membership, e-transfers accepted.

The agenda, last year's minutes, current bylaws and the agenda, are available by request.

Key agenda items will include:
-- Elections to the SappyFest Board of Directors (2 year term).
-- Approval of 2020 Financial statements.
-- President of the Board of Directors statement.
-- Creative Director's statement.
-- Questions from the floor.

Hope to see you all there!

INFINITE VARIETY LIVE STREAM!

Hello wanderers! Wonderers! Drifters! Surfers! And Thrill-Seekers!

Thank you for tuning in to Sappyfest: Infinite Variety - this is the program of events, this is the description of the flow. This is the order of things, though please understand that these things, like all things, are subject to change due to whim, accident, catastrophic failure or glory. Thank you for your understanding, your love, your and support.

What is time? An approximation, a guess, a momentary occurrence. Enjoy the show!

Into the Infinite (8PM - 11:30)

Jon Mckiel / Henry Buckler – Henry Buckler On A Unicycle / Sean Carey – It’s Like Magic / Laura Watson – Spell For Spotting Invisible Things / Colleen Collins - Amik’s Gift / Wandarian / Tica Holiday live at Coach House Sound / Bucky Buckler - Cautionary Lullabies / Amy Siegel - Sackville, I’m Yours ….Too! / Cluttered / Marissa Sean Cruz - fire, wires, gas, glass, people, pets & poison / Alana Morouney – Ghosthunters / Century Egg

Over The Moon, Under The Moon (11:30PM - 6AM)

G.L.A.M. Bats / Rebecca Blankert - Super Duper Natural / Bucky Buckler - Cautionary Lullabies / Mother Tongues - live at Coach House Sound / Brandon Hicks – Goldzilla / Ivory Gull Puppet Theatre Co presents The Proposal / Ryan Suter - Birds Nest in Potholes / Evan Furness - stagingforstations / Rachel Thornton – uranographia / Black Dimes

Sappy Sunrise. A Universal Dawn. (6AM - 1PM)

Olivia McNair – Sunrise / John S. Kilpatrick – Forging and Using a Fire Steel / Brandon Hicks – Morning Shave / Tara K Wells- Lake Shorts / Lucy Koshan – Garden Variety / Laura Watson – Spells / Grey Foggy Day – Grey Foggy Day / Sappy Scary Stories / DJ Coconuts - 12 Fanfare Favourites / Breakfast with Brian / Fantasy Film Double Feature: Theo Crocker presents: The Land of Nod and the Stone of Coronus and The Land of Nod and the Ages of the Black Tear / Phil Mercier - Terrarium Workshop / Yoga with Sandra / Elm & Ampersand / Tara Wells – CANAGRAMS / SBOT N WO – Pandememonium / John Murchie

Pets! Poetry! Punk! Pop! (1PM - 7:30PM)

Pet Show and Tell / Marilyn Lerch and Geordie Miller - Disharmonies / Nyssa Live at Coach House Sound / Double Dragon Groove Cult / Steven Lambke / Erin Bardua / Ian Roy – Thank you I’m Sorry / Florence Yee – An Interrupted reading of Yoko Ono’s Grapefruit / Rachel Thornton - uranographyvi / Laura Watson – For Living Through The End of The World / Chris Meaney / Brandon Hicks – Dead Man’s Treasure / Rachel Thornton – uranographyiii / Nap Eyes - Live from Coach House Sound / Caged Animals / Happy Hour

The Grand Finale! A Great Unravelling! (7:30 PM - 10 PM)

Wendt + Dufaux - Somewhere in the unachieved / Ariel Sharratt and Mathias Kom / Wolf Castle / Julie Doiron

SAPPY AGM - SEPT 29 2020!

SappyFest Inc. would like to invite its membership and those interested in becoming members to the 2020 Annual General Meeting on the worldwide web via Zoom on Tuesday, September 29th at 7 PM AST. To RSVP and receive Zoom meeting ID / passcode email producer@sappyfest.com ahead of the meeting. This is an open meeting with presentations from staff and board members on the organization's activities, financials, as well as elections to the SappyFest Board of Directors. Voting in elections to the SappyFest Board of Directors requires a $20 voting membership, e-transfers accepted.

The agenda, last year's minutes, current bylaws and the agenda, are available by request.

Key agenda items will include:
-- Elections to the SappyFest Board of Directors (2 year term).
-- Approval of 2019 Financial statements.
-- President of the Board of Directors statement.
-- Creative Director's statement.
-- Questions from the floor.

Hope to see you all there!

A STATEMENT FROM SAPPYFEST ORGANIZERS

We believe that Sappyfest is what all of its participants, artists, volunteers and audience, have made of it together, each year; that the best of this has been in the face-to-face encounters and discussions and shared presence of all who attend. We have prioritized artist and community interaction ahead of drawing attention to ourselves as an organization.

But the time for a clarifying statement of our intentions and beliefs is now.

We witness the ongoing reality and injustice of anti-Black racism and the ongoing criminality of genocidal colonialism in this country. We recognize the corrosive effect of misogyny and trans- and queer-phobia. We live with governments that promote and enable endless resource extraction and environmental destruction.

This is the context in which we exist and in which we work. Against this, we, as a grassroots arts organization, hold the idea that art can be a powerful tool in the fight for justice and a powerful way of imagining better worlds.

Sappyfest is a not-for-profit organization led by a volunteer board of directors. In a normal year the festival is organized by a seasonally contracted Creative Director, and 1- to 2- paid student summer internships. These contracts have been significantly reduced in response to the cancellation of our regular physical gathering, and we are organizing our Plan B "virtual" festival with an even greater reliance on volunteer effort. From here on, we will continuously seek opportunities to improve our models of operational transparency with the hope that this transparency will help in the dismantling of structures of gate-keeping and white supremacy within the arts.

We believe in art and music as a medium for knowledge sharing, protest, healing and celebration and remain committed to presenting and supporting art made from a diversity of traditions, discipline and experience.

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We wish to offer our support and solidarity to those on the front lines, protesting and fighting for justice within their communities. The following list includes links to anti-rascism organizations working here in New Brunswick. This is simultaneously a local, a national, and an international struggle and we encourage you to seek out organizations in your own communities for support.

New Brunswick Black History Society

Black Lives Matter - Fredericton/New Brunswick

Black Lives Matter - Saint John/New Brunswick

No One Is Illegal - Fredericton

New Brunswick African Association


SAPPY FOREVER

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For 14 consecutive years, Sappyfest has been held, here in the heart of the heart of the heart of the maritimes, in the hot heart of summer, on the August long weekend in beautiful Sackville NB. It is with a certain sorrow that we have to acknowledge that even impossible dreams sometimes meet impossible realities. The ongoing public health situation will prevent us from hosting Sappyfest, as we’ve come to know it and love it, this summer.

So many of you have gathered here, from near and far, year after year, and given your kindness and your generosity and your genius to make Sappyfest what it is. Please know we miss you dearly and true, and look forward to a time when circumstances may be more lenient and allow us to welcome each other, face to face.

For those of you who trusted us enough to purchase an early-bird ticket for this year, we thank you, foreverly, and will be in touch to work out the details of your refund.

While we cannot meet this year in person under Sackville’s magic summer sky, all is not lost. The Sappyfest spirit remains strong. Swamp magic still rises unexpectedly, and our dreams and goals remain the same: to foster connections, collaborations, and encounters; to celebrate and present great art and music; to work together to make something surprising and kind and hope filled.

Sappyfest will manifest this summer, at more or less the appointed time, in a new way. More on this soon.

With love, sappiness, and good dreams,
Team Sappy

“LOVE IS A SONG” project by Andrew Maize, Amy Seigel, and Paul Henderson. Photo by Corey Isenor.

MORE NEWS FROM NOWHERE - SAPPYFEST 14 (NEARLY) COMPLETE LINEUP ANNOUCEMENTS!

It seems like we’re never quite finished! As some of our oldest, most inspirational and foundational friends return, as some new friends pay surprise and anticipated visits, we’re thrilled to welcome their legendary songs, their poetic wisdom, their story telling inventions, their sonic instigations, their musical deconstructions, their creative energy to the Sappyfest 14 program. We hope for Sappyfest to be a conversation between everyone willing to share this space in the spirit of goodwill and with open hearts, across disciplines, genres, and forms of expression. We hope you will join us!

SAPPYFEST 14
Allumette // Annick MacAskill // Apollo Ghosts // Aquakulture // Barnacle
Cursing & Swearing // Danika Vandersteen // Deliluh // Dog Island // Diamondtown
FET.NAT // Flour // Gianna Lauren // Haviah Mighty // Ian Roy // Janowskii
José Contreras // JOYFULTALK // Juice Girls // Julie Aubé // Julie Doiron // Kate Mildew
LAL // Lillia // Liz Brain x Doug // Lo Siento // Marilyn Lerch // Mauno // Motherhood
Nyssa // Papal Visit // Patrick Allaby // Positive Body Language // Short&Sweet
Shotgun Jimmie // Tim Baker // Tryal // WHOOP-Szo
The Weather Station // Yves Jarvis

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SAPPY AGM - JUNE 12 2019!

***UDPATE: the AGM is now on Wednesday, June 12th at 7PM. Sorry for the inconvenience, hope to see you next week!

SappyFest Inc. would like to invite its membership and those interested in becoming members to the 2019 Annual General Meeting at President’s Cottage (146 Main Street) on Wednesday, June 12th at 7 PM. This is an open meeting with presentations from staff and board members on the organization's activities, financials, as well as elections to the SappyFest Board of Directors.

The agenda, last year's minutes, current bylaws and the agenda, are available by request.

Key agenda items will include:
-- Elections to the SappyFest Board of Directors (2 year term).
-- Approval of 2018 Financial statements.
-- President of the Board of Directors statement.
-- Creative Director's statement.
-- Questions from the floor.

Hope to see you all there!