What We Do
Kaleidoscope Arts in Education Programs are the primary mission and initiative of the not-for-profit Muskoka Lakes Music Festival, based in Port Carling, Ontario.
For over a decade, the MLMF has provided innovative and integrated Kaleidoscope programming in the form of children's arts festivals, summer arts camps, artists in the schools, artists in the community, and workshops for artists and teachers. Click on the links to the right to learn more about each of these aspects of our programming.
By connecting children, teachers, and others in the community with professional artists, Kaleidoscope strives to enrich childrens' learning experiences and teachers' expertise in the arts. Our artistic workshops awaken creativity, celebrate cultural diversity, and deepen awareness and understanding of complex issues. Our growing roster of artists includes painters, singers, printmakers, actors, sculptors, dancers, photographers, videographers, potters, jugglers, and many more!
In 2008, the MLMF became an official partner with the nationally renowned arts education organization ArtsSmarts. Through 17 partnerships, ArtsSmarts brings together arts, education, community, government and business partners across Canada in a collective effort to engage kids in creative learning through the arts. ArtsSmarts' model of teaching and learning is designed to engage students in the creative process of artistic inquiry into topics that span many different subject areas of the curriculum.
Who We Are
Jen Morgan Anderson, B.A., B.Ed.
Arts & Aboriginal Education Coordinator, Muskoka Lakes Music Festival
Jen received her B.A. in Studio Art from the University of Guelph in 2001, with a focus on drawing and sculpture. She worked for the Muskoka Lakes Music Festival from 2002 - 2006, where she helped to develop the Kaleidoscope Arts in Education Program. She participated in Kaleidoscope's 2003 pilot project, "Songs of the Earth," at Pine Glen Public School in Huntsville, as a coordinator and artist, and was part of several other Kaleidoscope arts projects in schools around Muskoka, including Glen Orchard Public School, Macaulay Public School, and Muskoka Beechgrove Public School. She was also the coordinator and instructor for Kaleidoscope's first art, music and drama summer camp in Port Carling. In addition, she helped to write several successful funding proposals on behalf of Kaleidoscope, including proposals to the Ontario Arts Council and the Ontario Trillium Foundation.
Jen's experiences working in the schools inspired her to pursue her Bachelor of Education at Nipissing University, which she completed in 2007. From 2007 to 2010, she taught art and music at Eenchokay Birchstick School in Pikangikum, a remote First Nations community in Northwestern Ontario. In addition to teaching a variety of art and music courses at the intermediate and senior levels, she participated in numerous arts-based extra-curricular programs, including a very popular music club, and the Outside Looking In hip-hop dance program. Her experience in Pikangikum reaffirmed her belief that the arts are a powerful tool to engage at-risk students, and to provide opportunities for success and achievement.
Jen is excited to be back in Muskoka working for this unique and important organization. Outside of work, Jen enjoys drawing, painting, playing guitar, singing, golfing and wakeboarding.
Gayle Dempsey
CAO/Director of Festival Development, Muskoka Lakes Music Festival
Gayle Dempsey believes that arts and culture are very significant factors in quality of life and play a key role in defining who we are as individuals, communities and as a society.
She is committed to reclaiming and promoting Muskoka's rich culture and heritage both locally and globally with a view to facilitating international cultural exchanges.
Education and life-long learning have been important aspects of Gayle's life. For three years, she was Trustee with the Muskoka Board of Education, and has lent her management, administrative support and energy to many community groups through executive positions and as an enthusiastic volunteer.
She currently facilitates very popular art classes at Muskoka Place Gallery, which she opened in June 2004, and which has become home to 'a learning community of painters'. Gayle has also created artist residency programs and classes at The Discovery Centre Wildlife Gallery at Red Leaves, Minett.
Over the past decade Gayle has been involved in a number of 'arts in community' projects and developed District-wide award-winning arts education programming, which has recently been recognized by an international organization, ArtsSmarts.
Gayle has served on provincial and federal arts, culture and heritage task forces and roundtables, and was one of the founders of Community YWCA of Muskoka, Muskoka Healthy Communities, the Arts Council of Muskoka and Creative Muskoka. She is currently on the Board of the Ontario Healthy Communities Coalition (advocating for the significance of arts to health and healthy communities), and is past-chair of the Arts Council of Muskoka.
Gayle is Past President of the Port Carling Community Centre Board and headed up the building of a new community cultural and performance centre. She is also a Founding Director of the Bracebridge - Muskoka Lakes Rotary Club.
During the last few years, Gayle has returned to one of her early interests: visual and performing arts. She has taken numerous workshops and courses in painting, drum making, mask making, drawing, pottery, and set design and decoration.
Professionally, Gayle has owned and operated a successful company providing organizational management and consulting for profit and not-for-profit organizations for the past thirty years. Currently her main client is the Muskoka Lakes Music Festival, for whom she serves as CAO/Director of Festival Development, and was one of the founders. Several years ago she and her partner Gary Froude founded Muskoka Cultural Impresarios (MCI), a company that not only brings first-class artists to Muskoka, but is embarking on international cultural exchanges. MCI is a registered University of Waterloo Centre for Cultural Management Cultural Consultant and has been providing arts and culture programming to a number of clients, including Red Leaves Muskoka, a large, new resort development in Minett, Ontario.
Recently Gayle was one of nine arts administrators from across the province selected by the Cultural Careers Council of Ontario for a pilot project peer learning circle. She was also selected to participate in Muskoka Futures' first Innovators program.
Gayle's passion for arts, culture and community development is reflected in her work. Gayle was nominated for the Community YWCA of Muskoka Women of Distinction Award in Arts and Culture in 2002, and in the Entrepreneur category in 2004. Also in 2004, she received the Township of Muskoka Lakes' Award for Dedication and Advancement in Arts and Culture. In 2009 Gayle was the first recipient of the Muskoka Awards inaugural Arts Award for creativity, personal artistic achievements and support and leadership in Muskoka's arts community.
Gayle is a fourth generation Muskokan and feels a deep connection to the spirit of the land, the lakes, the natural beauty and the peace that is Muskoka. She is focusing more energy these days on her Gallery, painting, and writing and is studying with and representing renowned painter Pat Fairhead. Examples of Gayle's painting and writing can be found in a recently published work - "My Story Listens to Your Story: An Anthology of Women's Leadership Images and Stories" through the Centre for Emerging Leadership in Minnesota. She continues to work on her own book, "Fruit of the Spirit", while she is working on a new degree at Nipissing University's Muskoka Campus in Studies in Culture and the Arts.
Gary Froude
Managing Director, Muskoka Lakes Music Festival
Gary has spent 30 years in the entertainment industry as a manager, promoter and producer of live entertainment. His eclectic variety of indoor and outdoor productions throughout the world has entertained audiences of 500 to 250,000.
Moving to West Africa in 1986, Gary played an instrumental part in bringing World Music to North America, managing several bands and tours to this continent.
Returning to Canada, Gary spent the next five years as a designer of architectural landscapes for the motion picture industry, achieving several on-screen credits.
Gary's next move was to Costa Rica, where he became immersed in the "Mesoamerican Biological Corridor Project" (a project that required liaising with the heads of the nine governments in Central America to create an uninterrupted migratory green belt from Chiapas Mexico to Panama) for 4 years.
Gary has spent the last fifteen years living in Muskoka, and with his partner Gayle Dempsey owns and operates Muskoka Cultural Impresarios (MCI), a business committed to supporting arts and culture in Muskoka, and to preserving and promoting the region as a culture and heritage tourism destination. MCI is dedicated to supporting and developing cultural opportunities in Muskoka, including community arts initiatives and arts in education programming with community partnerships. MCI's clients include the Muskoka Lakes Music Festival, Muskoka Place Gallery, Red Leaves Resort and JW Marriott Resort and Spa. MCI is a registered Cultural Consultant with the University of Waterloo Centre for Cultural Management.
As Managing Director of the Muskoka Lakes Music Festival, Gary has worked with more than a dozen different boards to present musical entertainment and to grow the Festival's award winning "Kaleidoscope Arts in Education" programming into an important part of the Muskoka cultural mosaic. The Festival is now partnered with two national arts education organizations, ArtsSmarts and Arts Network for Children and Youth, to improve student engagement and cultivate 21st century creative learners.
Gary assisted in the building of the Port Carling Memorial Community Centre, where as a board member he was involved in many aspects of the project, from hiring the architectural firm and chairing the fundraising committee to building community partnerships and developing programming for the new Centre.
He is a charter member and Past President of the Rotary Club of Bracebridge Muskoka Lakes and is currently co-chair of this year's Santa Claus Parade committee.
As the past Board chair for the Muskoka Tourism and Marketing Association (a four year commitment), Gary guided the organization through Strategic Planning, Premier Ranked Tourism Destination Framework, Marketing Plans, Budgets, District Strategic Plan and many other initiatives to help the organization become fiscally responsible. Gary believes that a balance of responsible tourism, industry and housing are needed to create a sustainable community.
Gary is current Treasurer of Gateway Homes (an alternative home ownership model), and the ground is currently being prepared for an affordable housing project in Muskoka. Gary believes in building sustainable, inclusive communities.