Juno-nominated and Canadian Folk Music Award-winning artist John Wort Hannam has been selected as the new 2025-26 Alberta Artist in Residence.
Hannam, who grew up in Calgary and moved to Fort Macleod after immigrating to Canada from Jersey in the Channel Islands at age 9, will continue his journey across Alberta with a new project entitled Everyone Has a Story.
That project will see Hannam travel to both big cities like Calgary and to small towns to teach songwriting workshops to unleash the creativity of everyday people.
“I was a school teacher. I’ve been a songwriter for a long time. I’ve been a performing artist for a long, long time, and I just feel like I love the creative aspect. I love the craft of songwriting, and I love to be able to teach that to people and see their eyes light up like mine lit up when I maybe figured out a few things when it came to the craft of songwriting,” he said.
“I want to hit all the regions of Alberta, and Calgary being one of them. So, I will be here at some point over the next year.”
The Alberta residency for Hannam was announced in Calgary on Oct. 16, at the new Alberta Foundation for Arts (AFA) art house, which has become a hub for the display of cultural works held by the AFA.
Minister for Art, Culture, and Status of Women Tanya Fir said that as part of the residency, the Government of Alberta would be granting Hannam $50,000 for Everyone Has a Story.
“John’s project will aim to foster empathy, connection and community by celebrating the unique voices and experiences that make Alberta so incredible. I can’t wait to hear the results at the end of his term, and to see how this project will impact and inspire Alberta’s communities,” she said.
Difficult choice given the quality and breadth of artists applying, said the Minister
This year’s residency had 50 applicants, which Minister Fir said led to a difficult choice for her and the panel to award a single artist, given the quality of the submissions.
“I think the breadth and variety of artists that we have is incredible,” she said.
“We’ve had other artists in residence that are painters, sculptors, musicians, but as we know, it’s so broad. It’s more than that. It’s poets, it’s so many different genres of art. And it was amazing to have Samantha last year as a plein air painter, and now to have John as our artist in residence, especially as we look to focus more on an Alberta music plan and everything we can do to promote musicians.”
Hannam said that with his project, he really wanted to focus on connecting people through the art of storytelling rather than just traveling across the province to perform.
He said there was a hope that people would be able to find shared connections in a time when people feel disconnected from one another.
“You may have a very different point of view about a subject than I have, but I do feel like there’s always some sort of middle ground that we can find, whether that is that we want good lives for our children or things like that, there’s always something. We realize we do have more in common sometimes when we voice it out,” Hannam said.
“The second part is more important, is when we listen. When we’re listening to other people’s stories, that’s when we finally realize, ‘OK, I actually do have something in common with this person on this particular topic.'”
For Calgary’s many folk music fans, Hannam said that their appetite for Canadiana right now would hopefully translate into interest in making their own songs.
Regardless of whether they have ever done so, or have ever sung or played an instrument, those skills were not required for his workshops, he said.
“My role as Artist in Residence is to make you an artist, or make you at least make you feel creative and realize that you do have an artistic side. You do have a creative side. How do we tap into that, and how do we try and incorporate an artistic practice or a creative practice into our daily lives,” said Hannam.
For more information on the Alberta Artist in Residence program, see www.alberta.ca/alberta-artist-residence.
