Insider Events – ART! At Brewer Park

Article written by Jasmine Leese – Wedding Coordinator at Le Belvedere

Title: OSCA Presents: ART! At Brewer Park
Date: Sunday June 17, 2018
City, Country: Ottawa, Ontario
Host Venue: City of Ottawa – Brewer Park

Organizing Team: Jasmine Leese, Contract Event Coordinator with Old Ottawa South Community Association

Number of Attendees: ~300

Who was the target audience?

The target audience was the community members of Old Ottawa South area and any local Ottawa residents who were looking to buy from an art show, and partake in a fun family friendly event on Father’s day.

What was unique/different about this particular event for your organization?

This year, we took a risk and decided to move it to a different park. In the previous years, it had taken place at Windsor Park, but by changing the location, we wanted it to be more accessible to a wider range of Ottawa residents. By holding the event in a city-run park, we had hoped to attract drivers using Bronson Avenue, as well as students from Carleton University to come to the event. It was also bigger than past years, and there were more components added to the event than in the past.

What was the biggest obstacle you had to overcome?

The biggest obstacle I had to overcome was the lack of electricity onsite to power our main stage set-up. Live music was an extremely important aspect to this event and I had three talented bands on board to play for the entire duration of the event. Once we got onsite, the electricity we were promised was nowhere to be seen, so we had to run extra extension cords to the front of one of the buildings instead of through the side door. This little logistical nightmare ended up being sorted out, right in time for the second band who needed a ton of electricity. Another obstacle was the fact that the exact same weekend the event was taking place, the World Cup had started. There were also a few other events taking place in the same area at the same time as my event and the weather was unbearably hot.

What was your biggest triumph?

Since this is the first year that OSCA had decided to go with a bigger and different “art show”, I would say my biggest triumph would be the fact that I successfully changed the format and made it different than it had been in the past.

Did you do anything new or innovative? If so, how did it go?

At the beginning of my planning period for this event, I had wanted to do a “Live Art Challenge”. This was going to be the centre of the event, and truly help create a vibrant “artsy” atmosphere. The plan was to get attendees to sign up before the event took place, have local artists being the judges and only supply the canvas, the paint and paint brushes to the attendees. Attendees would be given 45 minutes to create a piece of art to the live music being played. A few weeks out from the event, I decided that it was a lot to tackle for a first time art-show and decided to host a workshop instead. Sometimes new and innovative programming is good for events, but my concern was the lack of interest in this aspect from the community members I had originally discussed this with.

What challenges did you have putting the features together?

Time. I only had three months to fully plan and execute this event. In that short-time I was also expected to find enough sponsorship to cover costs. Given the time, and the circumstances, it was successful and the attendees enjoyed every minute spent at the art show.