For one month beginning on May 12 in Chinatown, art fans can attend an art gallery exhibit in a restaurant and catch a musical performance in a laundromat.
Chinatown Remixed pairs 40 artists with businesses along Somerset Street West between Bay and Preston streets. Restaurants, grocery stores, and other businesses will act as venues for visual and performing artists in this fourth annual arts festival.
“It’s a community event and it’s showing visitors what kind of art the city has,” says organizer Cindy Deachman. “And showing them art, not in a gallery – a cube with white walls – but showing them art in some crazy, crazy, overflowing grocery store or a performance in a laundromat.”
Bringing artists and businesses of different cultures together is a goal of the festival, says Deachman. Chinatown is home to many cultures other than Chinese, including Indian, Persian, and Vietnamese Many of the artists performing are local talent but are of many different backgrounds.
“This is why it’s called Chinatown remix,” says Deachman. “It’s about remixing the cultures but it’s also about mixing up art with different types of commerce.”
The event is intended to promote the whole of Chinatown, says Deachman. Many businesses, she says, look to the Chinatown Remixed Collective, the group behind the annual festival. The collective is a not-for-profit group working with the Somerset Street Chinatown BIA to promote the arts and strengthen ties between arts and business.
The group is “injecting so much energy” into the neighbourhood, she says, and businesses are seeing the benefits of visiting artists and performers.
“Chinatown Remixed exposes you to a lot of places that maybe you've walked past a thousand times but never gone into,” said Nadia Kharyati, owner of the Raw Sugar Cafe, in the festival’s press release. “It’s art that brings you in – how amazing is that? There definitely needs to be more events like this in Ottawa!”
Many new artists are set to take to the stage – or drug store – this summer. Ottawa’s Success Lion Dance Troupe will perform the traditional Chinese dance dressed in a lion costume. Mike Essoudry’s Mashed Potato Mashers, a nine-piece brass band, will kick off the festival on May 12 by leading a parade through the neighbourhood.
Visual artists such as Stephen Frew, a painter, and Gabe Thirlwall who, literally, makes puppets of politicians, will showcase their work at the festival.
Artist vernissages and street performances will take place, and treats from participating restaurants and grocers will be offered between 2 p.m. and 5 p.m. Artists at their venues will answer questions and offer insight about their work.