OPERA NAVIGATES A ROCKY ROAD AT Banff

For 85 years, the Banff Centre has established itself as a mountaintop beacon, attracting top artistic talent and pedagogues and then beaming their accomplishments in music, theatre, literature, film, visual art and other forms of expression across the land.

Banff has undergone a major physical transformation over the past decade, including opening the new Shaw outdoor amphitheatre and the sleek, Jack Diamond-designed Kinnear Centre for Creativity and Innovation, and giving their hotel rooms a hip Scandinavian makeover. Even the name has been officially rebranded to the Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity, reflecting a wider outlook.

There have been positive strategic changes too, especially to the centre’s relationships with the area’s Treaty 7 Blackfoot, Stoney Nakoda and Tsuut’ina Nations. In 2017 a new Director of Indigenous Arts was brought on board (director, playwright and actor Reneltta Arluk) and Banff has significantly expanded its Indigenous leadership and governance programs.

However, when I visited in July 2018, I felt that the optimism and sense of forward momentum represented by all these shiny new structures and initiatives belied an