Sackvilles new Cultural Capital co-ordinator up for the challenge

Warren Maddox is well aware he has a mountainous task ahead of him. As the co-ordinator for the towns Cultural Capital program, Maddox has been assigned with putting together an ambitious year-long schedule for 2008 that is expected to feature plenty of events highlighting the areas artistic excellence, regional history, and cultural achievements.

Simply put, he says, his job over the next year will be to help realize the dreams of a committee of very community-oriented people.

The committee of which he speaks made up of local arts, culture and heritage representatives initially put together the application over a year-and-a-half ago which ultimately lead to the town being awarded the Cultural Capital title for 2008.

When they put together the plan and the layout for the Cultural Capitals application back in 2006, it was an incredibly ambitious project and now, having been given the honour of being able to realize it, it takes a fair amount of work. . . . to take what the overall hopes and dreams were and introduce that into a context of whats actually possible, explains Maddox.

2008 will be a year for celebrating, he says, a year full of cultural initiatives and events designed to bring prestige, money and a lasting legacy to the town of Sackville.

Maddox will be the driving force behind organizing, coordinating and marketing of the event programming which will include a wide array of activities centering around the communitys music, theatre, heritage, and arts sectors.

And with a wealth of experience behind him, he is most certainly up for the task.

Ultimately, what I bring to the table is a fairly wide range of experience in terms of non-profit administration, as well as special event planning and coordination, he says.

Maddox has extensive know-how in all aspects of the administration of cultural events and is especially adept at raising funds both through grants and private sponsorships.

Throughout Maddoxs career, he has held a wide range of positions in cultural administration including as director of business development for ScienceEast in Fredericton, tour administrator for Theatre New Brunswick, interim general manager at Ships Company in Parrsboro, development officer for the Atlantic regions Nature Conservancy of Canada, and director of communications for the NB Special Olympics.

As a volunteer, he has been on the board of directors for Dance Fredericton and the Harvest Jazz and Blues Festival.

Maddox says he is excited about the potential behind Sackvilles Cultural Capital programming, entitled Crossroads 08, and gave praise to the volunteers who have already put forth a really honest, earnest commitment to making this work and to doing something special.

He says part of the towns vision in pulling together the schedule is to reach as much of Sackvilles demographic as possible.

What we ultimately want to do is to create something thats based on arts, culture and heritage thats extremely accessible to everybody, from four years old to 94 years old, he said.

We want to try to deliver something that the people of Sackville will realize is incredibly beneficial to the community.

Those benefits will come in the form of economic development, tourism development, arts and culture development, heritage appreciation and so much more, said Maddox.

Its about creating opportunities for artists and businesses and for townspeople to get exposed to things that they would, under normal circumstances, perhaps not be able to see in their own community.

The year will kick off with a New Years Levee and will be followed up with beefed-up Heritage Day activities in February hosted by the Tantramar Heritage Trust.

Under the heritage sector, the activities will be centred around Sackvilles shipbuilding era and the horse era. Celebrations will be focused on the 20th anniversary of the Waterfowl Park and the 10th anniversary of the opening of the Campbell Carriage Factory.

The 2008 schedule will be jam-packed with musical acts, from classical and jazz to country and bluegrass, world and blues.

Maddox said the music portion of the program, which is expected to have an extensive budget, will be a main focus throughout the year.

In terms of developing an audience appreciation and touching as many demographics as possible, music is the most accessible.

But he admitted a lot of the scheduling - particularly for the larger international acts - has yet to be nailed down.

A lot of it is so far outside of our control, he said.

Youre dealing with agents in New York and Toronto, and just trying to find out whos on the move, whos available, can we afford them, can we get them here, will they come here . . . all that sort of stuff.

There are two or three world-renowned musicians the committee is working on trying to attract to Sackville to help put Sackville on the map a bit and develop some financial benefits to businesses in town.

As well, local, regional and national musicians will also be brought in to entertain audiences throughout the year, including well-known artists as well as up-and-coming talent.

The summer months will be a highlight, as the committee prepares to host an international environmental sculpture symposium. During that time, 10 world-renowned artists will create works of art throughout the town using natural materials.

So by the end of August, there will be 10 incredibly interesting sculptures around Sackville, he says, noting that the artists are being brought in from throughout the world, including Europe, South America, North America and Central America.

Ive never encountered anything quite like it.

Maddox expects the event will be a huge success.

I think the response will be wider than people might expect. I think that were probably going to bring tourists in from a lot of outlying areas. In the research Ive done so far, there certainly isnt anything happening in Canada thats close to this in 2008 and only limited amounts worldwide.

He says Sackville is fortunate to be able to host such an international-level event.

For someone in Sackville to be able to see 10 internationally-renowned sculptors do something over a three-month period, its just unheard of. Its amazing.

I think its going to create a lot of buzz . . . and good art should do that, he adds.

Through these events, the coordinator says he hopes to engage the broader community into becoming more aware of why arts, culture and heritage is so important to the overall health and well-being of a community.