Charlottetown's Art in the Open festival scaling back for 2024

The popular Art in the Open festival will not be happening in Charlottetown this year — at least, not in the same way it usually does.

The free public contemporary arts showcase has taken place from 4 p.m. until midnight on the Saturday before Labour Day since 2011.

"We've done everything from large sculptures [to] outdoor theatre performances, projections, screenings, dance," said Art in the Open's current chair, Jordan Beaulieu.

"It's really unique and it's not really like anything else that we do in P.E.I."

The festival is spread throughout downtown Charlottetown, from Victoria Park and the surrounding wooded areas, to Connaught Square, Rochford Square and the Confederation Centre of the Arts.

A highlight for many is the annual March of the Crows. 

"People congregate on Victoria Row dressed up in their best crow costumes," Beaulieu said. "And they flap their wings and they caw and they march from Victoria Row to Victoria Park to roost, following the nightly twilight movements of the crows."

Although the typical Art in the Open won't be happening this year, organizers are planning some activities.

This year's events will take place over the weekend of Aug. 24-25, with This Town is Small and Club Red screening films outdoors in Victoria Park.

Fans of the March of the Crows, fear not — that event will take place as usual.

"It'll still be like an evening of fun, an evening of crows, an evening of art on the Art in the Open weekend," Beaulieu said. "But it'll look a bit different this year."

'Taking a step back'

In previous years, artists came from across Atlantic Canada and even internationally to display their work at the festival, while hundreds of spectators made their way throughout downtown Charlottetown over the course of the evening.

"We're kind of taking a step back to do planning and to do public consultation," Beaulieu said.

That means creating a plan for the sustainability of the festival in future years, she said, and consulting with the public and the artists who display their work. All that will take place in the coming months.

P.E.I.'s Art in the Open adapts to weather and budget challenges

5 months ago

Duration 3:10

This year, the Art in the Open festival in Charlottetown will take on a slightly different format. Severe weather late in the summer has made it difficult to plan the event in recent years. CBC’s Sheehan Desjardins spoke with the event's chair, Jordan Beaulieu, about what’s changing this year, the rising costs of holding the popular event, and how the public can help the festival move forward.

The festival has financial constraints, which Beaulieu said played into the partial pause for this year.

"Finances are always a concern when you're working with an arts organization that relies heavily on public funding. That's a landscape that's always changing," she said. 

"So we want to make sure that Art in the Open is adaptable and that we can find a way forward depending on how the funding situation changes from year to year."

While Art in the Open is free for attendees, Beaulieu said the festival pays artists fairly based on Canadian Artists' Representation standards. It all adds up to somewhere between $125,000 and $250,000 a year, she said.

"That's something very important to Art in the Open because artists are at the heart of what we do, and many people who work on the festival are artists themselves," Beaulieu said.

Weather is another factor threatening Art in the Open's operations. In 2023, organizers were forced to pivot to indoor venues at the last minute.

"It's hard to change a big event that's supposed to take place in public parks at the last minute," Beaulieu said.

Because the festival happens in late August, there's also the ever-increasing potential for hurricanes and post-tropical storms to worry about. 

'Not the end'

Beaulieu said consultants with a background in art will help to come up with a new direction for the festival.

"We want to address these problems before they build and make sure that we have a vision for Art in the Open going forward that is resilient and sustainable, and that we'll be able to navigate these challenges going forward," she said.

Beaulieu said it's "not the end" of Art in the Open, and she hopes it will be back in full force in 2025.

"I don't know what exactly it will look like yet, but Art in the Open's mission is the same: we want to get people in P.E.I. out, get them walking around Charlottetown and taking in contemporary art projects that they wouldn't see under other circumstances."