Profile - Alberta Dance Alliance

SkirtsAfire Festival

National Arts Festival

https://skirtsafire.com/the-festival/

OUR VISION
SkirtsAfire empowers artists and audiences. We create space for women’s artistic excellence to be cultivated, experienced and passed on. We are diverse and daring.

OUR MISSION
SkirtsAfire is a diverse theatre and multidisciplinary arts festival that empowers its artists. We value the voices of all women. We create and showcase art for everyone to enjoy and experience. We foster an environment for both new and familiar perspectives in our artists and audiences. Our festival provides an opportunity to open minds and escape the mundane and the ordinary.

WHO WE ARE
SkirtsAfire Festival is driven by a passionate team of staff, board members, curators, artists, volunteers and audience. We are grateful for the incredible support we receive from our community, and can’t wait to continue the tradition of celebrating and elevating the work of women!

WHAT WE DO
Join us each year to be immersed in our powerful, beautiful, engaging performances, exhibits and workshops in Theatre, Poetry, Spoken Word, Design, Art, Dance, Cabaret, Music, Comedy, Yoga, and more. Programming reflects the true diversity of the thriving arts community in Alberta and Canada, and is adaptive in its approach in order to remain responsive to the needs of artists and audiences.

WHY WE DO IT
Founded by a volunteer board of artists and arts enthusiasts in 2012, SkirtsAfire Festival is one of the newest multidisciplinary festivals in Edmonton, Alberta. Unique in its mission to support the development and feature the work of women, SkirtsAfire provides quality paid opportunities to female-identified artists dedicated to pursuing a professional career in the arts.

The festival was created in response to the severe underrepresentation of female artists at the professional level, and works to celebrate and elevate the profile of these artists in Edmonton, Alberta, across Canada and beyond.

Email: info@skirtsafire.com

SKIRTSAFIRE FESTIVAL

Founded in 2012, SkirtsAfire Festival is Edmonton’s only theatre and multidisciplinary arts festival featuring women. In conjunction with International Women’s Day, our 10 day festival runs each March at various venues in the heart of Alberta Avenue, an area that is reinventing itself as an Arts and Dining district in Edmonton, and we continue to expand to more venues all over our downtown core. We present powerful and insightful stories to a diverse audience that is hungry to be moved by passionate performances and exhibitions. Programming reflects the true diversity of the thriving arts community in Alberta and Canada, and is adaptive in its approach in order to remain responsive to the needs of artists and audiences.

SkirtsAfire Festival values diversity in the women we represent and therefore welcomes women artists of all diverse backgrounds including trans women, self-identifying women, the LGBTQ2 community, all ethnicities and all abilities.

OUR GROWTH

What began as a four-day celebration featuring the work of 70 local artists and 600 attendees has now grown to span 10 days and include over 100 artists and over 3000 attendees. We continue to expand our programming, our brand awareness, our audience reach, and our team of artists, staff, board, and volunteers. Each year we ask ourselves how we can do better, think bigger, and how we can continue serving the community we’ve created with a festival to be proud of.