Copyright 2000 by Edward Willett

"In the future," said Andy Warhol, "everyone will be famous for 15 minutes."

In a nod to that Warholian prophecy, the Saskatchewan Cultural Exchange Society is holding its first hopefully annual "Fifteen Minutes of Fame" open-stage talent show Thursday, April 20, at The Exchange, 2431 8th Avenue.

Mike Burns, director of The Exchange, says he's looking for "performance artists, singers, poets, firespinners, dancers, actors...well, you get the idea." Just as the name implies, each person will get 15 minutes to do...whatever.

Fifteen Minutes of Fame is only the first of two events under the umbrella name of Aprilfooled. The second is One-Hour Artinizing, a live painting show in which 15 painters (or would-be painters) will each have a four-foot-square surface to paint, and one hour in which to do it. The Mark Briggs band will be playing "freeform fusion" for inspiration while the painting goes on, and the whole evening will end with a silent auction of the paintings, while a DJ will "spin some old school platters," Mike says, an a kind of rave for older people.

Aprilfooled began with Mike's sense that there should be more live art activities at The Exchange. The Exchange is the performing-space companion to The Club, a well-known members' club that has been around long enough it once earned the nickname of The Hippy Legion.

Both The Club and The Exchange are operated by the Saskatchewan Cultural Exchange Society, a provincial cultural organization now in its 20th year. The SCES's raison d'être, Mike says, is "to bring cultural activities to rural areas and rural culture to the cities."

Not surprisingly, with such a mandate, the SCES has "rather diverse programming." In fact, it has four different program committees. One, the fiddle committee, runs the Saskatchewan Fiddle Association and all the fiddling events throughout the province, such as the Emma lake Fiddle Camp.

Another committee is in charge of workshop tours, through which artists of all kinds--from writers and actors to filmmakers and potters--tour far-flung schools and communities.

A third committee, under a contract with SaskCulture, provides funding for festivals throughout the province.

Finally, there's the committee in charge of the Exchange. "It's been getting busier and busier there," Mike says. "We've had lots of Folk Guild shows there the last little while. We have raves and art events of all kinds. We have an art gallery in there, too." Just this week, Saskatchewan band Crooked Creek is holding a CD release part on Saturday, April 22, and the Victoria "alternative country twang" band Carolyn Mark and the Roommates will be performing on Tuesday, April 25.

When he decided more live art events were needed, Mike formed a committee of artistically inclined members, which came up with Aprilfooled. Mike really hopes the open stage on April 20 attracts more than just musicians. "We'd like to find performance artists, poets, jugglers, just a whole spectrum, loosely based around the idea of entertainment. I think we'll succeed. We'll see how it goes."

Although people can pre-register, they don't have to, Mike says. "Our hope is people just stand up with their guitar or whatever and do something. The approach has been kind of loose because I think the event will lend itself to that. I've organized a lot of poetry slams around the city for the Writers Guild and we've found that being open to whatever happens makes the event work, it lends it spontaneity."

(What happens at poetry slams, Mike says, is that after a couple of drinks people think, "I can do that" and they give it a try. Of course, that leads to a lot of poems written on a napkin whose subject matter is Scotch or beer, but...)

The One-Hour Artinizing event is a little different. "We're supplying a large surface for people to paint on, and we're inviting 15 or 20 people to come and make a painting," Mike says.

He's hoping not everyone who takes part will be an artist. " I'd love to get someone like (city councillor) Fred Clipsham or (MLA) Joanne Crawford, non-painters, to try it. It takes a lot of bravery but I think there's people out there who are willing."

Mike says he's been to similar painting events in Montreal "and it's a fantastic atmosphere. People will just walk about and have a drink and look. It's only an hour, so the atmosphere is pretty highly charged." As one member of the committee put it, "It's like potato sack races with painters."

Mike hopes both Fifteen Minutes of Fame and One-Hour Artinizing will become annual events. "I think the city needs more of those sort of things," he said. "I think it's going to be fun."

Posted February 3, 2004