Fend Players Society
 

Fend Players is a non-profit charitable society whose mandate is to "fund, facilitate and promote primarily Canadian works, expose local talent and serve the community through the arts."

Based at the Station Street Arts Centre in Vancouver, BC, for over eleven years, Fend Players has an extraordinary record of achievements. Fend produced over 56 plays, received six major awards and nineteen nominations for awards. Fend developed the Theatre Street Youth Society for at-risk youth and provided the Vancouver theatre community with rehearsal, play reading and workshop space.

In 1996, the Station Street Arts Centre closed down because of structural problems with the building, and the Fend Board began to look for a new space to continue Fend's activities. The society continued to operate in a minimal way without a facility until 1999, when it found a new home in the Cariboo, under the corporate sponsorship of the Flying U Ranch.

In 1999, the Flying U Ranch and Fend Players reached an agreement whereby Fend will work to create employment and new markets through the development of arts programming on-site at the ranch.

Recently, Fend received approval by Human Resources Development Canada to create a 1,400 square foot studio space at the ranch, where artists can produce work, and Fend can host workshops and seminars on a year-round basis.

Over the past year, Fend has successfully:

• Developed and offered a Native Studies Program which offers education related to the aboriginal heritage of the Cariboo to groups of school children coming to the Flying U Ranch for a 5-day program;
• sponsored a successful week-long painting workshop at the ranch with internationally known watercolorist, Judi Betts;
• sponsored a concert at the Flying U with popular western swing artist Ray Condo;
• sponsored well-known sculptor Davide Pan to produce metal sculptures at the ranch over the summer and fall of 2000;
• sponsored an exhibit of miniature steam engines, hand crafted by local artist Ross Meade;
• participated in the opening show of the 100 Mile House Arts Center;
• donated sound equipment for a music festival in 100 Mile House;
• raised the level of awareness of cultural activities at the Flying U, both in the community and in the Lower Mainland;
• administered and continued to develop new programming for school children at the Flying U Ranch. (More than 400 children came to the program in 2000); and
• sponsored a visiting writers program. Writers included X Files/da Vinci's Inquest writer Frank Borg, and CBC television writer, Mark Leiren Young.

For more information about Fend Players, call 604-929-6026.
Artists at the Flying U | Studio Project | Shuswap Studies | Anything Goes