2018 is here and so are our artists! All of our artists represent a wide variety of different creative fields in which they bring forward and share with the festival and its participants.

Check them out below... and if you happen to see them during the week, don't forget to say 'Hi!'

Here Are This Year's Artists!

AMANDA MEWS
Journalism

Amanda Mews is the Entertainment reporter with NTV News in St. John's, NL. Along with writing, editing, and producing her weekly entertainment feature, Backstage Pass, Amanda also puts together, and hosts, a half-hour Entertainment News show each week. Outside of entertainment reporting, she produces a Gone Viral feature for the Sunday Evening Newshour, and daily Your Community segments which spotlight good news stories and community events. Amanda started with NTV in 2009 as an intern with Memorial University's Diploma in Performance and Communications Media program. She also holds an English Degree with a Specialization in Theatre/ Drama. Throughout her career with NTV, Amanda Mews has been involved in the many facets of a bustling newsroom; filling the role of Production Assistant, News Editor, Floor Director, and Weather Presenter over the years. She was attracted to her current role within NTV because of her passion for the arts and love of community. Growing up in rural Newfoundland and Labrador, Amanda had a childhood full of art, music, and stories. Her school years were divided between Postville, Labrador, and Birchy Bay, Newfoundland.

RUTH LAWRENCE
Acting Theatre/Film

Ruth Lawrence works as an actor, writer, director and producer in theatre
and film. She is a writer-director on the 2018 anthology feature, Hopeless
Romantic, and has a TV documentary, Circus by Komatik, in post-production
with Fire Crown Productions.
She has performed in over 100 productions in theatre, film and TV. Ruth
is Artistic Director of White Rooster Theatre and most recently created Other
Women Walk, a highly successful outdoor performance walk in St. John's, NL for
them. She won the 2011 Joan Orenstein Best Actress Award for Joel Thomas
Hynes' Clipper Gold at the Atlantic Film Festival and the 2011 RBC Michelle
Jackson Award for Emerging Filmmaker for Two Square Feet, starring Jeanne
Beker. She was named the Newfoundland and Labrador Arts Council's 2011
Artist of the Year, in 2013 was honoured with the Queen's Jubilee Medal, and
the 2016 YWCA Woman of Distinction Award for Arts & Culture

RYAN WINTERS
Photographer

Ryan Winters is from Hopedale, Labrador. He started
taking pictures when he was 10 or 11 years old with a 35 mm film
camera. He then later moved up to a digital camera. He stills
enjoy photography today and has taken pictures for a few
weddings and family portraits over the years. Ryan plans on going
to school to pursue photography sometime in the future!

GALITCHA
Musician/Dance group

GALITCHA
Kuljit Sodhi and Shawn Mativetsky
Galitcha is a Canadian ensemble which integrates music with a strong North Indian footprint overlaid
with influences from western folk and jazz and instrumentation from around the world. From heartfelt
devotional and love songs, to compelling lively dance tunes and stories from their travels across the
globe, Galitcha (meaning tapestry) takes audiences on a musical journey from one end of the emotional
spectrum to the other. The songs are mainly sung in Punjabi, Urdu and Hindi with explanations in English
and/or French.
Appearing as a duo for the festival, vocalist Kuljit Sodhi, also on dholki, and Shawn Mativetsky on tabla,
dhol and percussion, create a culturally diverse Canadian sound. Performances are not just about the
music. There is an inspiring sense of devotion - to the muse, to each other, to the audience - which is
consistently part of their presence on and off stage.

KULJIT SODHI

A musician, dancer and a civil engineer, Kuljit Sodhi leads two groups of
musical ensembles called Galitcha and Kuljit and the Bollywood Heat. As
a talented dancer in Bhangra (Indian folk dance) and Bollywood (musical films)
dance styles he has performed and given workshops and classes across North
America and beyond.

SHAWN MATIVETSKY

Dynamic performer Shawn Mativetsky is considered one of Canada's
leading ambassadors of the tabla, and is a pioneer in bridging the worlds of
Western and Indian classical music. Called an "exceptional soloist" by critic
Réjean Beaucage, WholeNote's Andrew Timar adds that "as a leading disciple of
the renowned [Pandit] Sharda Sahai, he has serious street cred." Shawn
Mativetsky is highly sought-after as both performer and educator, and is active
in the promotion of the tabla and North Indian classical music through lectures,
workshops, and performances around the world. Based in Montreal, Shawn
teaches tabla and percussion at McGill University. He recently released Rivers, a
solo tabla album rooted in the rich traditions of the Benares style of tabla
playing