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Heather Gibson doesn’t think of herself as a gatekeeper at the entrance of an exclusive palace of performing arts, where you have to be rich and well-dressed to pass through its pearly gates.
Instead, the executive producer of NAC Presents, the National Arts Centre’s concert series that puts the spotlight on Canadian singer-songwriters, is working to make the institution accessible to everyone, a vision that was originally championed by the centre’s former CEO, Peter Herrndorf.
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Article contentThere are signs the strategy is succeeding, thanks in part to the free Wi-Fi, a light-filled lobby and good coffee, all of which encourages people of all ages to hang out at the centre during the day. The goal of NAC Presents is to bring them back for the evening.
In its nine years of existence, the series has helped attract new, often younger audiences to the venerable building, presenting everyone from Montreal’s ethereal-voiced Patrick Watson to Ottawa hip-hop artist Cody Coyote, to name a couple of highlights of the past year. More tickets were sold last year than ever before, with fans filling more than 41,000 seats. Most of them, Gibson notes, were smaller shows.
“It’s not like we’re doing 20 shows in the big hall and that’s it,” she said, referring to the approximately 2,000 seats in Southam Hall. “We’re seeing a younger demographic in the Fourth Stage, and at some of the Azrieli Studio shows. There’s a growing group of folks who just want to see something new.”
Gibson and her team are now rolling out the first wave of artists booked for the 2019-20 season, which is expected to include up to 80 concerts. The 21 announced Saturday range from superstars like folk legend Buffy Sainte-Marie, Quebecois icon Robert Charlebois and veteran children’s entertainer Raffi to under-the-radar talents such as Irish Mythen, Erin Costelo and Megan Nash.
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