Metro Vancouver arts
Maple Ridge: Sidewalk art marks history
The next time you’re walking through Maple Ridge, look down: you may be stepping on a piece of history. Two artists are using the downtown sidewalks as canvasses to create four colourful mosaic tiles – each one paying tribute to Maple Ridge’s unique history. Vancouver artists Bruce Walther and Ann Wilson have already completed two [...]
Langley: New arts festival starts Friday
They’re looking to put more bums in the seats, but they’ve got to take care of the seats part of the equation first. Starting Friday, Port Coquitlam’s Second Storey Theatre will play host to its inaugural Summer Heat Arts Festival, a three-day fundraiser featuring comedy, one-man shows, improv theatre, musicals and a rock opera. Organized [...]
Maple Ridge: Get front of line access to ACT
Beat the line by becoming an Arts Centre Theatre VIP. Launched last week by the Maple Ridge Pitt Meadows Arts Council, the new program, gives “Very Important Patrons” front of the line access to purchase tickets before anyone else. “We’re introducing this new program as a bonus to our very important patrons and to offer [...]
Burnaby: New Heights mural gets finishing touches
The latest mural to grace the Heights business area is all about whimsy. The work by Capilano University fine arts student Emily Zimmerman is being readied for its official unveiling on Wednesday, Aug. 11 at 10:30 a.m. Located on the back laneway side of the building on the southeast corner of Willingdon Avenue and Hastings [...]
Port Coquitlam: Artists not letting injuries stop them
Each of the six artists behind the Colourwheels exhibit at Leigh Square may have a different way of expressing their talents, whether with a brush on canvas or behind a camera lens, but they have at least one significant thing in common — none have let a spinal cord injury prevent them from doing what [...]
Surrey: Choral arts program holding auditions
The Surrey Choral Arts Project Society wants you to join the Surrey Children’s Choir family of choirs for our 2010/2011 season. Auditions are now being held for all voices, ages six to 70, for places in the Junior and Intermediate Training Choirs, Senior Children’s Choir, Chamber Choir, 2008 CBC Choral Competition Prize-winning Youth Choir and [...]
New Westminster: Massey shutdown could ‘end some arts groups’
If the proposed move for the Massey Theatre was as easy as switching the lights off in the old place and switching them on in the new one then, according to John Davies, there wouldn’t be would be a problem. But, he says, it isn’t that easy. “What concerns me is the new theatre is [...]
Burnaby/New Westminster: What is the value of the arts?
The power of the arts—its ability to inspire, spark change or, more simply, put a smile on someone’s face—is rarely questioned. But often, as positive as those characteristics may be, they are nebulous and the benefits to society can be difficult to quantify. That’s particularly the case in regards to the economic benefits—and this is [...]
New Westminster: Reaction to Massey plan mostly positive
Ed Harrington, who has spent thousands of hours directing musicals in the Massey Theatre, believes the best days of the facility are long past and it’s time to move on. “Sometimes it’s hard to say goodbye but we need to,” said Harrington, who served 16 years as the artistic director of the Royal City Musical [...]
Burnaby: Hotels pitch in for Burnaby Blues Festival
Two Burnaby hotels are giving back to the community by providing complimentary rooms to recording artists and those involved in the Burnaby Blues and Roots Festival. The hotels have also booked local blues acts to play in their entertainment venues during Burnaby Blues Week leading up to the festival, which is on Saturday, Aug. 14. [...]
Coquitlam: Magazine relaunch party this Friday
You can excuse Tracy Stefanucci for the difficulty she experienced in trying to encapsulate a wide-reaching mission statement in one word. The Port Moody native was in that boat four years ago when launching the first incarnation of her arts and culture magazine, which ended up being called one cool word magazine. Fast forward four [...]
Public art policy to keep PoCo pretty
Port Coquitlam is setting an artistic path for the city’s future by shaping its first public art policy. “The city and community had already been doing public art on an ad hoc basis for the last 10 years,” said Yvonne Chui, PoCo’s arts and culture co-ordinator. “So we felt it really was time to articulate [...]
Metro Vancouver Cultural Grants – Deadline July 26
Funding assistance applications from cultural organizations that operate region-wide programs and services will be accepted by Metro Vancouver until July 26, 2010. Metro Vancouver provides cultural operating grants to major metropolitan arts groups that serve all Lower Mainland residents. Specifically ineligible from regional funding are religious, ethnic, social service or sports organizations, local art institutions [...]
Burnaby: Discovery Day at Deer Lake this Sunday, Festival includes opening of new Spirit Square and unveiling of sculpture
Come and discover Burnaby at the city’s largest outdoor festival this weekend. The Discovery Day Festival takes place at Deer Lake Park on Sunday afternoon. It will be the official opening of the newly renovated festival space at Deer Lake. The event includes the official opening of the city’s Spirit Square, in front of the [...]
Surrey serves up cultural splendour: Two years of solid success are propelling it into an annual event
They say America arbitrarily got its name via an Alsatian clerk and cartographer who in 1507 mistakenly figured Amerigo Vespucci was here first, not knowing about Christopher Columbus’s earlier landfall. Frankly, we should be living in North Christopheria. By the same light, Englishman H.J. Brewer stood on the banks of the Fraser River one fine [...]
