New tricks for Performance

On January 18th 2023, Nakai hosted a one day peer to peer workshop followed by a public discussion focused on the environmental realities and potentials of Whitehorse performing arts and events sector. Unfortunately, the audio recording was unusable.

The day started with a conversation between arts leaders - as well as a representative from Raven Recycling Society/Zero Waste Yukon. and included artists Nicole Bauberger, Nicole Schafenacker.

With facilitation by Nakai Artistic Director Jacob Zimmer, and building on the national conversations that Nakai has been participating in, the discussion covered the whole event process - from concept and development to production.

Collective challenges were identified, some tangible ways to improve collaboration and communication were explored, and the group found a balance of hope and pessimism in the discussion.

Following the afternoon session, the wider public was invited to join a forum presenting and exploring the content from the afternoon session. These discussions were even more tangible, focussing on reducing material waste, while balancing the needs of the event. How much waste can be reduced for an international conference, given the size and scale?

As Nakai Theatre participates in discussions around making art in a climate crisis nationally, we have found the discussions often irrelevant to a Northern context. This project stimulated conversation around not only the specific challenges, but also the specific opportunities we have here, including the accessibility of collaboration between community organizations and arts programs.

We challenged each other's assumptions around unavoidable waste.

We explored optimism as it relates to the climate crisis.

We found benefits to our Northern context and isolation.

These conversations have continued since the session, and will continue to do so long into the future.