Spotlight on 62 Broadway & NL Venues

As an arts professional working in the music industry, Nigel Jenkins, Founder of Laughing Heart Music (LHM), knows how important it is to have a dedicated space that encourages and cultivates creativity. That's why he and his team have launched 62 Broadway in Corner Brook - a new arts hub that's helping the local creative community flourish by connecting established and emerging artists to programming, resources and support, while growing local support and appreciation for the arts.

Officially flinging open the doors in the spring of 2023, 62 Broadway (housed in the former Scotiabank building) was envisioned as a space where arts organizations and individuals artists and creative entrepreneurs could come together to dream, create, connect, learn and grow. This is accomplished through a range of programs - several of which are offered by LHM, including paid mentorship opportunities where youth can shadow and learn from industry professionals, as well as three paid internship programs in arts administration, marketing, and sales to help grow the industry.

“There's so many incredible artists out here, and there’s a lot of young people just really interested and excited in the arts generally. And so (we’re) trying to create opportunities for them and create pipelines into artistic and artist support-type careers,” Jenkins says.

Nigel Jenkins speaks to the crowd gathered for an event at 62 Broadway in Corner Brook.

Members of 62 Broadway can also rent a boardroom and events space, and have free access to a micro studio (for a limited number of hours each month) where they can work on audio projects with all the necessary gear at their fingertips. Through the 62 Broadway Demo Piloting Project, budding musicians also have the opportunity to work with in-house producer Louis McDonald to record rough demos.

"Emerging artists can come in and record demos for free, and then we provide them with free grant writing and admin support to use those demos to submit for funding to MusicNL, Arts NL, and FACTOR (the Foundation Assisting Canadian Talent on Recordings). We've had a number of successful applications," Jenkins says. They've also worked in partnership with other organizations, he adds, like the Association for New Canadians, with whom they're creating a full-length album featuring 10 different new Canadian artists (which he hopes will be released in the fall).

Members of 62 Broadway also have access to a micro studio where they can bring their audio projects to life.

"And then we have youth members of the community who are coming in to get mentorship in the studio with their songwriting from mentors like Phil Churchill and Geraldine Hollett of The Once, Sherman Downey, and all sorts of folks that we have passing through. Kelly McMichael has been here and led workshops, Mark Manning and the guys in Rum Ragged have been through," Jenkins adds.

"(We're) just using it as a platform and a point of connection for emerging and established artists so that knowledge is being shared, resources are being shared, and people are collaborating as much as possible."

Artist Kelly McMichael speaks to budding musicians during a workshop at 62 Broadway.

Since it launched, 62 Broadway has been buzzing with activity, hosting over 60 events, including events with Canadian artists like Jenn Grant and Cadence Weapon (who came in for a reading and Q&A), a youth songwriting workshop with Kellie Loder, and more.

While music is a big focus of the space, 62 Broadway has also hosted events and festivals in collaboration with other local arts organizations like the Rotary Arts Centre, the Cloud Factory (a not-for-profit, artist-run contemporary arts organization that fosters and facilitates art, culture and creative exploration in Western Newfoundland), and the League of Artists of Western Newfoundland.

Since opening, 62 Broadway has hosted a number of events, some in collaboration with other local arts organizations.

The space also hosts an artisan shop out front which features a variety of crafts and products from artists and makers from the region including woodwork, textiles, jewellery, pottery, books and more. And, Jenkins says, plans are in the works to include a cafe/art gallery in the mix as well.

The artisan shop at 62 Broadway features a range of products from local crafters and makers.

Expanding on the vision to build capacity in the local arts sector, Laughing Heart Music has also recently launched the new website NLVenues.com, a searchable database of performing arts venues in Newfoundland and Labrador. The website is free to use and accessible to arts workers and artists of all disciplines to support the planning of live performances. (Click here if you would like to add a venue to the NL Venues database.)

Currently, Jenkins says, they're working on phase two of the database, which will assist with booking tours for artists in the province.

"The plan is to create a user-friendly interface that can help streamline communications and file sharing so that venues, artists, and their teams can book more performances in the province with less friction and admin time required."

For more information, visit NLVenues.com.

To learn more about 62 Broadway, visit 62broadway.ca.