Edmonton: Culture Capital of Canada

Yesterday, at a news conference at City Hall, Edmonton was named the “Culture Capital of Canada” for 2007. Edmonton Journal story Bascially, this means that the city receives a nice $2 million federally-funded injection into its arts community. It appears that the city is kicking another million or so into the project. Although solid details have yet to surface, this is most certainly fantastic news. It’s about time this town received some recognition for its arts scene. Makes me proud to live here. There are many cool plans in the pipe, but the one that caught my eye was “The Year-Long Poetry Festival”. Sounds a tad on the crazy side, as far as organization goes. I’m sure it’ll do nothing but good things for the city’s poetry scene. I will undoubtedly be involved with this on some some level, but we’ll have to see what happens. A fine, fine day for poetry and the arts in Edmonton.