100 Mile Network welcomes Kate Weekes

In the years since she moved into the Gatineau Hills, after a decade living in the great outdoors of the Yukon and then Ottawa, singer/songwriter Kate Weekes has made her considerable mark on the musical community. She has been performing solo and with local musicians James Stephens, Brian Sanderson and Peter Andree, teaching ukulele, banjo, as well as working with Radical Connections, a local organization founded by Carol Wiebe of Wakefield that connects local musicians with dementia and hospitalized patients. As a musical administrator, Weekes took over the role of artistic director for the venerable Blue Skies festival in August of this year, and was involved in launching the recent very successful Gatineau Hills Fiddle Festival.

As well as the indoor life of a performing musician, Weekes spends as much time as she can outdoors. In the Yukon, she captained a dog sled team, and she helped organize a magical musical tour in canoes from Kingston to Ottawa on the Rideau Canal. She has been dog-mushing-for-hire in Norway, toured China with a swing band, and canoed far-north Canadian rivers as a wilderness guide.

Given that extensive resume, it is no surprise that Weekes has been selected by the 100 Mile Arts Network as its new Director of Programming. As reported earlier, the Network is in the process of administering a grant, some of which has gone into the new gallery and boutique which opens on Nov. 7 above Nikosi in Wakefield. Now, also out of that grant, the position of director of programming has been filled by someone eminently qualified.

As Weekes explains, “artists play an important role in helping us to process our daily lives and broader political themes and concepts. The arts help to reflect in a creative way what we’re all going through and connect us in kind of a bigger fabric.” True that, and there is the promise of some exciting programming to come from the 100 Mile Arts Network with Weekes in the chair. Maybe a musical canoe tour from Low down to Hull and back?