In the spirit of encouraging young artists in our community, Oxygen Art Centre is thrilled to announce the 2nd Annual Youth Arts Festival program!

Youth Arts Festival program and Talent Slam line up announced!

Oxygen Art Centre’s 2nd annual Youth Arts Festival opens on Friday, February 12 from 7-10pm with REUNION an art exhibition by former Self Design high art students; Sasha Baines, Reyna Brown, Hannah DeBoer-Smith, Undine Clara Foulds, Danan Lake and Savi Hanning-Brown.  Also on this night, Touchstones Nelson is opening a youth art exhibition of work by local students, and we encourage everyone to come out and circulate between both venues and celebrate youth culture!

Festival programming continues on Saturday February 13th from 1-3pm with a free portfolio preparation workshop for youth ages 15-29, at Oxygen Art Centre.  Laura White from Kootenay Studio Arts at Selkirk College will walk participants through the ins and outs of preparing a portfolio for art school. Participants are invited to bring in images of their work to discuss (no originals please.) Drop-ins welcome.

This year’s TALENT SLAM is also on Saturday February 13th at 7pm at the Capitol Theatre.  With a record 28 acts auditioning for only 18 places, the competition was fierce this year and everyone was awesome, making it very hard to choose.  So congratulations to Espoir Segbeaya, Oksana Maslechko, Graham Lingard and Tibo Komel, Bronwen Bird, Sophie Moreau Parent, Griffin Nowaczynski, Bryce Harrison, Keegan Schuh and Clayton Mallette, Madeline Reilly, Dierdra McCrory, Emma Weiland and Jess Treijs, Kozmo Sammartino, Emma Chart, Soren Hvenegaard, Lucas Burrows, Lucas Spielman and Noah Waldie, Hugo St-Denis, Ava Koeltgen  and Mélodie Giguère, Sensia Perey, Mattea Lorenzo, Mia Kraus, Sophia Lewis and Shanti Harris, Quinn Barron, Clayton Mallette, Tomas Caldwell, Alex Harper, Clayton Whalen and Kyra Von Matt, who make up the performer line up for the 2016 TALENT SLAM!  Selected performers receive one-on-one mentorship to develop their acts for the big night with mentors Bessie Wapp, Lucas Myers or Slava Doval.  This year’s TALENT SLAM will be hosted by youth MC’s Alex McMahon and Hayden Wasylyk. Tickets are $5 for ages 29 and under and $10 for everyone else and are available at the Capitol Theatre box office or online www.capitoltheatre.bc.ca

The festival continues on Sunday February 14 at the Backstage Lounge at Oxygen Art Centre, and all programming is free to attend, and open to anyone between the ages of 15 – 29. From 1-3pm join Nadine Tremblay from the Charles Bailey Theatre in Trail, for a workshop on the art on Improvisation. (Space is limited for this workshop so please preregister!) Then from 3-11pm drop in anytime to enjoy this creative “hang out” space with interactive art, an open mic and jam session. Catering by Thors Pizza and Kootenay Coop. For more information visit www.oxygenartcentre.org

Oxygen Art Centre gratefully acknowledges festival supporters; Columbia Basin Trust, Osprey Community Foundation, Kootenay Co-op, Thor’s Pizza, Nelson & District Youth Centre, Capitol Theatre and Business for the Arts sponsors Hall Printing, Juice FM, Nelson Star and ilovenelson.com