2010 Olympic and Paralympic Games
Whistler: Another Games legacy takes shape
If construction wraps up at Whistler Olympic Plaza (also known under the Games-time moniker of Celebration Plaza) in the spring, the community will have a new arts and cultural hub at its disposal next summer. Doti Niedermayer, executive director of the Whistler Arts Council (WAC), envisions the new site opening up a “whole new world [...]
Vancouver’s unsung post-Olympic public art
On this hot August morning, five months after the 2010 Winter Games have left town, Olympic Plaza is a lively place. At one end of the public square, located at the corner of Manitoba Street and Athletes Way, bicyclists in racing stripes psych up for a hard ride. At the other end, in front of [...]
Arts Partners in Creative Development hands out last of funding for new work
Two large new artworks by Ken Lum, a hip-hop musical, and a heartfelt theatrical ode to a dying mother are just some of the recipients of the final funding handout from the Arts Partners in Creative Development. The multilevel partnership of funding bodies dispersed $800,000 for its last installment. It has given a total $6.2 [...]
Vancouverite nabs Canadian design prize
Vancouver designer Omer Arbel has captured the Ronald J. Thom Award for Early Design Achievement from the Canada Council for the Arts. The $10,000 prize, handed out every two years, is given to an emerging designer in Canada who demonstrates creative talent as well as a sensitivity to arts and crafts, the decorative arts and [...]
Golden: Province to support community festivals
The Province of British Columbia will be granting $3 million to be given to more than 150 communities across the province. In support of arts and cultural festivals, a community can be provided with up to $50,000 (dependent on the size of community) which will be used towards community festivals in February for the celebration [...]
Vancouver: Gallery to showcase photography of inner-city residents: “Random Perspectives: February 2010″ running June 25-30 at the Gathering Place community centre
In February and March, a dozen inner-city Vancouver residents took to the streets armed with digital cameras, basic photography skills and decidedly different perspectives in a town buzzing with Olympic excitement. The Gathering Place, a community centre primarily for low-income people, had provided them with six Canon Powershot 8480 digital cameras and a handful of [...]
ARTrageous Adventures offers arts and culture tour to British Columbia
ARTrageous Adventures is “Going for the Gold” this fall, announcing a five-day guided art and culture tour to Vancouver, B.C., Sept. 26-30. The tour, “ARTful Vancouver BC: A Cultural Journey of Olympic Proportion,” showcases Vancouver’s visual and performing arts, culture, and the Olympic legacy that has transformed the city. The reservation deadline is Aug. 1. [...]
Vancouver: Art Surfacing
A new public artwork explores False Creek’s marine life. Fiona Bowie’s new installation, Surface, will transmit the submarine activity of False Creek via a camera mounted under an aquabus. The live stream will function as an abstract mix of colours and impressions until crustaceans or fish swim by. After dusk, Surface takes on a more [...]
Olympic legacy not measured solely on economic benefits say Liberals
The B.C. Liberals say the Olympic games were about more than making money, while the opposition maintains that the government failed to take full advantage of the opportunity. The Olympic’s economic impact may not be fully felt for more than a decade according to a new report released by PriceWaterhouseCoopers, one of the largest auditing [...]
Cultural Olympiad: The lure and the legacy
What will be the legacy of the Cultural Olympiad? Some effects will be tangible and immediate, such as its impact on the International Olympic Committee and other Olympic Games organizing committees. Others will be more intangible and may take months or years to come to fruition. “I don’t want to put words in (the IOC’s) [...]
Stuff’s in store for wordsmith Shane Koyczan
Shane Koyczan is actually enjoying some relative quiet when the Straight reaches him at his Penticton home. This is his only interview for the entire day. In 24 hours, he’ll head to Toronto and back into the hot glare of the international media blitz sparked by his stirring, gold-medal performance of the spoken-word piece “We [...]
These shows are not about being disabled: People are just people and we just want to show what regular people are up to,’ creator of Spine says
Spine is about a guy going through a midlife crisis. Rick is about a teenager who likes to fish. Spatial Theory is about the diverse influences on an artist. They are not, their creators stress, about being disabled. The Paralympic Games begin tomorrow, and art exploring the disability experience is very much in evidence in Vancouver’s continuing [...]
Nelson Moody carving out a niche Coast Salish carver showcases craft to the world, and Sea to Sky, during Olympic and Paralympic Games
Canada’s First Nations people made it pretty clear at the Olympic opening ceremonies that they welcome other cultures onto their territory. And during the Paralympic Games, Squamish Nation carver Aaron Nelson Moody will continue to welcome people to his traditional territory, while teaching them about his people’s history and culture. The 43-year-old artist began training [...]
Vancouver Art Gallery Sets New Attendance Record: Nearly 100,000 Visitors
The 17 days of the 2010 Olympic Winter Games were the most highly attended in the Vancouver Art Gallery’s history. With line-ups that wrapped around Robson Square , the Gallery welcomed more than 95,000 visitors through its doors between February 12 and 28. “From Leonardo da Vinci: The Mechanics of Man to Visions of British Columbia: [...]
Olympic visitors also lined up to view art
The Vancouver Art Gallery drew 95,000 visitors over the 17 days of the 2010 Olympic Winter Games, the highest attendance in its history. Visitors were lured by free admission, courtesy of the B.C. government, and two blockbuster shows — Leonardo da Vinci: The Mechanics of Man and Visions of British Columbia: A Landscape Manual. Lineups [...]
