update:
February 8, 2005
Program Overview:
In celebration of the
City of Ottawa's 150th anniversary, the Canadian Tulip Festival is creating the
Ottawa 150 Tulip Art Festival in partnership with the City and the arts
community. The Tulip Art Festival will be centred at Ottawa's City Hall on
Festival Plaza, which will be declared an official site of the 2005 Canadian
Tulip Festival. The Tulip Festival has been working closely with the City's Ottawa
150 Team, the City's Arts and Culture staff, and Ottawa's visual arts community
to establish this first Ottawa 150 Tulip Art Festival as a legacy of the 150th
anniversary.
The Tulip Art
Festival runs for the length of the Tulip Festival, May 5-23, 2005. Admission
rates of $3 weekday and $5 weekend will apply for access to the site
There will be an
exhibition of 150 Ottawa artists who will be invited to display and sell their
work to visitors to the site. Representatives of the arts community, working
closely with the Tulip Festival, will select the artists.
The artists involved
in the Tulip Art Show will also paint a 5-foot tall tulip that will be
displayed in a delightful Tulip Art Garden on Festival Plaza. The theme of
these 150 tulips is symbols of Ottawa's 150 years of history and heritage. The
artists will also produce an 18-inch tall replica of their larger tulip, which
will be sold to the business community for display in their place of business
for public viewing during the festival.
School children
across Ottawa will be invited to paint small wooden tulips with their view of
what Ottawa represents to them. These will be displayed in a Tulip Children’s
Garden on Festival Plaza.
A celebration of the
opening of the Tulip Art Festival and the Tulip Festival official site at
Festival Plaza site will take place on the evening of May 5th. The Mayor,
Councillors and other VIPS are invited to attend this special event.
Local artists will be
invited to perform throughout the Tulip Festival on the Ottawa 150 stage
located on Festival Plaza. The stage will also be used for special seniors
programming for seniors each weekday afternoon.
There will be
buskers, workshops, music and all sorts of fun things to discover on Festival
Plaza.
Festival Plaza is
included on the Tulip Route and visitors with passports can travel for free on
the Tulip Shuttle that connects all the official Tulip sites: Commissioners
Park at Dows Lake, Festival Plaza, Parliament Hill, Major's Hill Park and the
Casino du Lac-Leamy. The shuttle also stops at the Canadian War Museum, the
Canada Agricultural Museum, Canadian Museum of Nature, Canadian Museum of
Contemporary Photography, the Rideau Centre, Byward Market, National Gallery of
Canada, Royal Canadian Mint, The Currency Museum - Bank of Canada, Library and
Archives Canada, Preston Street, Canadian Museum of Civilization, and the
Maison du Citoyen - Montcalm Gallery.
There are a number of
sites highlighting the local arts community on the Tulip Shuttle Route,
including the Westin Hotel, Major's Hill Park, Commissioner’s Park at Dows
Lake, and the Canadian War Museum.