WE’VE COME A LONG WAY – GOING STRONG SINCE 2001!

HOW IT ALL BEGAN

~ With an ODD bunch

Dawson City has always been a place for the unconventional—a remote town in Canada’s North where the odds are good, but the goods are odd. It was in this spirit that, in the spring of 1998, a group of local artists envisioned a future where Dawson could be home to a thriving arts scene. They formed the Dawson City Arts Society (DCAS), a non-profit organization dedicated to enriching the quality of life in the Yukon through the arts and fostering an art-based economy. Their vision? A space for creative education, performance, and exhibition across visual, performing, media, and literary arts.

That space took shape in an old fraternal hall—once home to the Odd Fellows, a secretive society that, like many organizations of its time, carried exclusionary legacies. But rather than shy away from this past, KIAC reclaimed it, transforming the building into a vibrant, inclusive hub for artistic expression. The name ODD lives on in the ODD Gallery, a reminder of both the building’s origins and the wonderfully eccentric, unexpected nature of Dawson’s creative community.

By December 1999, the Klondike Institute of Art and Culture (KIAC) was in full swing. Two years later, in August 2001, the Yukon Riverside Arts Festival was born, originally held during Discovery Days. A highlight of that first festival was the grand opening of the KIAC Artist Residency, housed in the Parks Canada-owned Macaulay House. Over time, the festival evolved into a celebration of summer, unfolding along the banks of the Yukon River and across town, bringing together artists and audiences for a uniquely interactive and immersive experience.

What began as a bold idea among a small group of artists has flourished into a cornerstone of the Yukon’s cultural landscape—one that embraces the odd, the unexpected, and the wildly creative.