The Indigenous Performing Arts Alliance (IPAA) and CAPACOA are proud to launch the Indigenous Performance Calendar. This calendar lists performances featuring Indigenous artists and organizations from across Turtle Island. It stands out from other events in listings because it automatically combines information from multiple open data sources.
Lots of Features and Links
Designed by the Jensen Group and the Artsdata team, the calendar has several exciting functionalities:
- Users can filter events by title, performer, location, and organizer;
- Users can see calendar statistics when filtering an event, showing the number of events in the calendar broken down by the number of performers, organizers, and locations;
- Each event image is pulled straight from the event’s original website rather than being stored on IPAA’s website – if no image is specified on the original website, the calendar pulls a photo of the artist from Wikidata;
- An “add to calendar” button, which will add the event to a personal calendar of the user’s choice (Google, Apple, Microsoft 365, Microsoft Teams, or Outlook.com)
Additionally, each event page contains lots of outbound links:
- A link to the event’s details on its original website;
- A map that links to the event’s address in Google Maps;
- Links to the Artsdata IDs for the performer(s), location, and organizer of the event;
- If the artist is an IPAA member, users can also browse to the artist’s member profile.
On top of these exciting display features, JSON-LD structured data has been injected into every event page, minimizing ambiguity for search engines and improving the visibility and discoverability of Indigenous artists online.
A Calendar Powered by Linked Open Data
The Indigenous Performance Calendar differs from other listings in multiple ways. First of all, it is entirely powered by linked open data. Second, it combines information from multiple open knowledge bases by using a technique called federated queries. Third, it is linked to IPAA’s member directory (which is in itself an open data source). In other words, the calendar uses decentralized strategies to provide a single source of event data featuring Indigenous performers.
This calendar will be of particular interest to presenting organizations in search of new Indigenous talent, as well as to the tourism sector, by aggregating and centralizing event data about Indigenous performances across Canada.
How to add More Performances to the Calendar?
If you represent a performing arts organization interested in having your events featured on this calendar, please reach out to CAPACOA’s Indigenous Librarian.
How to Reuse the Event Data in the Calendar?
The calendar’s data is available in multiple formats, including as an iCal or as a JSON-LD feed. For more information contact CAPACOA’s Indigenous Librarian.
Acknowledgements
Originally released by CAPACOA in honour of the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation 2024, the Indigenous Performance Calendar represents the culmination of years of collaboration between CAPACOA and IPAA. It builds off of IPAA’s Indigenous Data Sovereignty Strategy, as well as the Linked Digital Future Initiative on Indigenous Artists and Wikidata.
The Indigenous Performance Calendar was developed as part of the Artsdata project, which is funded by the Government of Canada and the Canada Council for the Arts.
