She/Her
Darka Tarnawsky is founding president of Bottom Line Productions, an Alberta-based arts marketing firm, and has been involved in the industry as a performer, volunteer, supporter and professional manager for over 30 years. Her client roster has included Edmonton Opera; Edmonton International Jazz Festival; Royal Winnipeg Ballet; CKUA Radio Network; Alberta Ballet; Festival Place; Edmonton International Street Performers Festival; Catalyst Theatre; Cirque du Soleil; Cavalia; Brian Webb Dance Company; the Edmonton International Fringe Theatre Festival and Broadway Across Canada with their musical touring productions of Lion King and Wicked…. to name a few. Bottom Line’s main services include strategic marketing, event planning, development, communications, and media relations.
Darka holds a BSc with a specialization in Psychology from the University of Alberta (1987), and an Arts & Cultural Management Certificate from Macewan University (1989). She was the recipient of the 1998 Macewan Distinguished Alumni Award and won the Mayor’s Award for Promotion of the Arts in Edmonton in 2005. In 2015, Darka was chosen to be featured in Macewan’s Our People 2015-2017 recruitment campaign as a successful alumnist and faculty member.
Darka is a former Ukrainian Shumka Dancer, a Lifetime Honorary Member and current Executive Director of the organization. She served as president of Shumka leading up to and during its historic tour to Ukraine and Moscow in 1990.
From 1993 to 2001, Bottom Line Productions was contracted to handle all development/fundraising duties for Shumka including grantsmanship, donor campaigns, special events, and corporate sponsorships. Darka secured Shumka’s largest-ever corporate cash donation to that date, a $50,000 Royal Bank sponsorship of Shumka’s 1995 Absolutely Shumka tour. Bottom Line Productions has provided Marketing Direction on numerous Shumka national tours, local performances and general operations. Under Darka’s direction, the company was also co-producer of Shumka’s 40th Anniversary Canadian tour of Cinderella which took place in 2000.
Darka has volunteered as a board and committee member with a number of community arts organizations including Edmonton Arts Council, Alberta Council for the Ukrainian Arts, Alberta Ukrainian Dance Association, Arts Touring Alliance of Alberta, and the Professional Arts Coalition of Edmonton. Darka was a faculty member of the Arts & Cultural Management Program at Macewan University from 2003 – 2017, instructing courses including Publicity and Media Relations, Marketing Principles, Audience and Resource Development, and Performing Arts Management.
780.455.9559 ext. 102
executive.director@shumka.com
