THIRD SHIFT takes place on Canterbury and Grannan. (Submitted: Laura Oland)
One of the most popular events in Saint John is back this year.
Third Shift, a contemporary arts festival is on the lookout for this years’ proposals and for the first time is introducing a theme: Traverse.
Third Space Gallery‘s executive director Katie Buckley says in the past what connected the artwork together for Third Shift was that it was all being shown over one night.
“So we thought it would be interesting to pull all of that together with one theme so that it would be more engaging to promote, it might be inspiring for artists when they’re coming up with ideas that way we can talk about the festival as a unit,” she said.
With an ongoing pandemic, the decision was made last year to move Third Shift online to accommodate for COVID-19 precautions but Buckley said it’s also opened up more possibilities.
“Last year we had animations, we had short films, we had interactive narrative fiction, we had live-streamed performances, a great number of things that may not have been able to have been included in the past third shift model,” she said.
-
- Artwork for THIRD SHIFT 2020 (Photo: Graeme Stewart Robertson)
-
- Artwork for THIRD SHIFT 2020 (Photo: Fud Fudong)
-
- Artwork for THIRD SHIFT 2020 (Photo: Emilia Shakespeare)
-
- Artwork for THIRD SHIFT 2020 (Photo: Jeff Arbeau)
-
- Artwork for THIRD SHIFT 2020 (Photo: Alexis Bulman)
Buckley said the festival moving online makes it more accessible for artists in and out of the province who can’t physically attend to show their art.
“I’ve had quite a few people give me some pretty positive feedback about the theme which is really encouraging and really exciting because it means that they’re coming up with some ideas that they can propose,” she said.
“As far as the public goes, I’m really excited to have Third Shift 2021 be announced officially so that people know it’s coming.”
The festival will run from August 19 to 22.
