Empowerment Workshops

The Cause

Femme Wave is the only multi-disciplinary, feminist arts festival in Western Canada. In 2017, Femme Wave will continue to build on the momentum the festival has been developing over the last three years. Femme Wave is committed to changing the face of music, visual art, comedy and film in Calgary by creating an integrated, encouraging scene with opportunities for women and non-binary artists. Through the festival, we create spaces where artists and community members feel safe, supported, and welcome to share their diverse stories and perspectives.

During Femme Wave 2016, we hosted 12 music, visual art, comedy and film events over four days at seven venues with 50 artists and over 900 attendees.

Our overarching goal is to get better, and better at hosting a four day festival that is recognized for excellent artist treatment; inspiring, inclusive programming; and safe, creative spaces for everyone who participates. Our 2016 surveys told us that 100% of artists would return to the festival and 88% of attendees said they would come to Femme Wave again. We are grateful to those who have supported Femme Wave as it continues to grow and we plan to keep on learning and improving to offer the best festival we can.

Our "Idea" for this year, which would hopefully be sponsored by Field Law is a female political panel.

We are excited to engage women at different points in their political careers and to explore their varied experiences. The panel will focus on the theme of leadership, including discussions about how to maintain a positive role in the community, at the decision making table and online. While the panel will be promoted widely, we plan to focus on young people in particular. We hope to crowd-source questions during the promotion process to keep the content relevant to the interests of our future leaders. Following the panel, we will invite all attendees to participate in the remaining workshops for the day, an exciting opportunity to explore different art forms, social justice issues, learn and have fun!

Who Will it Benefit?

In 2017, we are paying particular attention to involving young people in Femme Wave. Contributing to Calgary’s vibrant all-ages music and arts community is a core element of what we do. We believe the Femme Wave workshops can offer an unconventional and welcoming learning space for young Calgarians to try new forms of creativity and to learn how to be responsible, thoughtful citizens contributing to change in their city. We plan to reach out to local youth organizations such as Antyx Community Arts, the Boys and Girls Club of Calgary, the Alex Youth Health Centre and the Women's Centre to encourage the youth they work with to participate in the festival.