Episode 71: Sydney Lancaster

Meet Sydney Lancaster, the visual artist and advocate who extends the reach of her work through her blog and helps artists learn how to look after the business side of their work through Visual Arts Alberta-CARFAC (Canadian Artists' Representation/Le Front des artistes canadiens). Sydney has been a full-time artist since 2005, with a practice in drawing, printmaking, photography and large-scale sculptural installations. "I call myself jokingly a closet phenomenologist, because what I'm interested in is how we hang stories on the world around us," she says. In this episode, you'll hear Sydney's thoughts on the upside and downside of the internet for visual artists — the opportunity to connect directly with audiences and each other, and the risk of copyright infringement in a world where images can so easily be taken. You'll also hear how artists get paid and the effort to make it so; Visual Arts Alberta's work to provide professional development to artists, through workshops and a relatively new podcast, Draw More Income; the tremendous flexibility of podcasting as a medium for conveying training and inspiration; and why creative people (including podcasters!) have to understand business to make a go of it. This episode is also available in Apple Podcasts, on Google Play, on SoundCloud or on Stitcher.  Sydney was enormously generous in her recommendations of local independent media: Highlevel Showdown, the politics discussion featuring Elliott Tanti, Michael Vecchio and Sharon Mvundura; The Broadcast, an interview show about women and politics by Alex Zabjek and Trisha Estabrooks; Modern Manhood, German Villegas's exploration of masculinity in the modern age; Walkcast, Tim Querengesser's new podcast about walkability; #LostYEG: Lost Edmonton, Jaron Williams's re-creation of Edmonton's past in virtual form; YEG Uncovered, Ester Malzahn's blog about "secrets of a city I've come to love"; Vintage Edmonton, Rev Recluse's daily look back at the history of Edmonton through stories and ads in newspapers and other ephemera; Prairie Pomes, Anna Marie Sewell's poetry blog; Radical Citizen Media, Paula Kirman's documentation of citizen engagement in Edmonton; 12th Night, Liz Nicholls's blog about Edmonton theatre; Only Here for the Food, Sharon Yeo's tracking of Edmonton's culinary scene; Walkable Edmonton, a website celebrating getting around on foot; Mastermaq, Mack Male's blog about what's going on in Edmonton; Taproot Edmonton, the source of curiosity-driven stories cultivated by the community that Mack and I have started;  Seen and Heard in Edmonton, where I pay attention to Edmonton's bloggers and podcasters. You can subscribe to Draw More Income on Apple Podcasts or on Android. You can follow Sydney on Twitter: @eyeandhand. Also, Sydney lamented in our interview that she hadn't had time to write on her blog, but she has since posted some delightful updates.  Sydney also mentioned grant-writing workshops put on by Visual Arts Alberta. The next one in Edmonton is at SNAP Gallery on Aug. 9. Details here. Many thanks to Castria for editing this episode. This episode of Seen and Heard in Edmonton is brought to you by ATB Financial, founding sponsor of the Alberta Podcast Network, powered by ATB. We announced the first members of the network last week, and as you'll hear in this episode, they received a warm welcome from our partners at ATB.  The network happened because ATB listens. Learn more at atb.com/listen. Musical credits: Beethoven’s Sonata No. 1 in F Minor, Op. 2 No. 1, played by Daniel Veesey, from freemusicarchive.com.