Although several Asian-themed festivals exist in Vancouver, he emphasized that the New Asia Film Festival, which includes films from Asian and Asian Canadian filmmakers, is one that Richmond can call its own.

Note: Watch for a full recap of the awards ceremony in the May 5 issue of the Richmond News, which is one of the event’s sponsors.

The optical illusion is the handy work of contemporary British artists Patrick Hughes, who lives and works in London.

His creation, Doors of Knowledge, is the latest work to be installed in Richmond as part of the Vancouver International Biennale. It has found a temporary home in the grassy area outside the Minoru Seniors Centre. Doors of Knowledge consists of 24 wooden panels, each measuring seven feet high by three feet wide. Hughes has painted a partially open door on one side, and a bookshelf stacked with colourful books on the other side of each panel.

This year’s selection panel is comprised of 2009 winner for Artistic Innovation, artist Margaret Dragu; Richmond Arts Coalition board member and last year’s winner for Volunteerism, Janice Froese;  Richmond Chamber of Commerce board member Lisa Wong; and Teresa Takeuchi, artist and  administrator for the City of Richmond.

The Richmond Arts Awards was developed in partnership with the Richmond Arts Coalition and is sponsored by the Richmond News.

Oppenheim is one of several artists with work displayed in Richmond as part of the Vancouver Biennale with the circular Arriving Home located at the Vancouver International Airport.

Oppenheim has been an influential figure in contemporary art for decades. He produced a series of works between 1970 and 1974, using his own body as a site to challenge the self.

In 1981 he began his machine pieces—complex constructions which he used to create a metaphor for the artistic process. By the mid-’80s his sculpture was based on the transformation of everyday objects and since that time his work has become larger scale and permanent, fusing sculpture and architecture.

Born in 1938 in Electric City, Wash., Oppenheim received an MFA from Stanford University and has exhibited his works internationally in galleries and museums.

ART AT WORK is full day of professional development workshops and networking especially for you. Learn how to write an effective media release, get a handle on social media (Facebook, Twitter, etc.), re-jig your promotional materials, figure out which expenses are tax deductible, and much more.

The cost per person is $45 and includes lunch and a post-symposium reception. And if you are a member of the Richmond Arts Coalition, you pay only $35. (RAC membership is $5 and available at www.richmondartscoalition.com)

Deadline to register: April 9, 2010. Space is limited, so register early to avoid disappointment.

The loss of an expected $5,000 gaming grant from the province proved the last straw for the association, which was already clinging to life due to a decline in membership and the looming impact of the harmonized sales tax.

“I know that we have an enthusiastic and dedicated core of subscribers, and they are not going to be very happy about this,” said Audrey Coutts, board president and artistic director for the association.

Concert-goers were given the news at Saturday’s presentation of the Vancouver Welsh Men’s Choir, which attracted between 300 and 350 people. (Gateway Theatre has 540 seats.)

The association is a not-for-profit group run by volunteers. It presents five concerts each season at Gateway Theatre. Shows have included classical, jazz, folk, comedy, dance and choral music, with a strong emphasis on Canadian artists. Two of the most popular recent shows have been the Arrogant Worms and the Vinyl Cafe with Stuart McLean.

Keeping ticket prices down and staying ahead of rising costs proved too big a hurdle for the association when it discovered its provincial funding had been cut.

“If our audience was bigger, then that would pick up the slack. But if we’re not close to filling the theatre, we need to get help from somewhere else,” said Coutts.

Coutts said she was planning for a multicultural season for the association’s 26th year—despite not seeing a cultural mix in its audience.

“The community as a whole didn’t pick up on it,” she said, of the association’s concert offerings.

Awards will be presented in six categories:

• Business and the Arts
• Arts Volunteerism
• Cultural Leadership
• Artistic Innovation
• Arts Education
• Youth Arts

Three finalists in each category will be announced on April 9, 2010.

I hope you will participate by nominating artists, organizations and educators that deserve recognition, as well as supporters like board members, sponsors and volunteers. The Richmond Arts Awards program is a great way to let the people “behind the scenes” know how much you appreciate their ongoing support.

If you do not already have a nomination form, you can download one at www.richmond.ca/culture/artists/art-awards.htm

This year, we are delighted to partner with the Vancouver Biennale to present two of the three speakers in our 2010 Lulu Series: Art in the City line-up, which is as follows:

Thursday, March 25: Barbara Luecke (Seattle, WA) manager of the Sound Transit Art Program will discuss a new program whereby the signature work of 30 artists has been incorporated into Sound Transit’s new light rail line from downtown Seattle to SeaTac International Airport. Preceding her talk will be a short performance by former Canadian and Vancouver SLAM poetry champion, Brendan McLeod.

Thursday, April 15: Dennis Oppenheim (New York City, NY) the famed and influential artist and sculptor behind the 2005-2007 Vancouver Biennale installation, Device to Root Out Evil (aka, “the upside down church”) will discuss his most recent work. Presented in partnership with the Vancouver Biennale, Oppenheim’s circular Arriving Home is currently located at YVR International Airport arrivals terminal. Preceding his talk will be a short performance by Mint Records recording artist, Kellarissa.

Thursday, May 20: Hema Upadhyay (Mumbai, India) will introduce the audience to her works that address the urban issues of migration and displacement drawing on her surroundings and personal history. Presented with the Vancouver Biennale, she will also create Loco-Foco-Motto at the Aberdeen Centre, a series of elaborate chandeliers made out of unused wooden matchsticks which will remain through 2011. She is also one of five artists included in the Richmond Arts Gallery’s spring exhibit, In Transition: New Art from India. Preceding her talk will be a short performance by acclaimed folk/rock singer-songwriter Babe Gurr.

All events will be held at Richmond City Hall Council Chambers, 6911 No. 3 Road, from 7:00‑9:30 p.m. They are free to the public and seating is limited. Please RSVP at lulu@richmond.ca 

For instance, there’s Mike Puhallo, the cowboy poet from Kamloops who has written six books of poetry and writes a popular Meadow Muffins column for three regional papers.

He said he’s “just a country poet not prone to fancy verse” and his tales are “plain and honest” like the “children of the soil — farmers, ranchers and cowboys — whose work is honest toil.”

Cowboy Mike said his poems aren’t read in “fancy theatres where they shed champagne and wine,” so he’s completely at ease entertaining folk at the little tent village that is BC Street in the parking lot next to Richmond’s city hall on No. 3 Road.

Monk, a collaborative artist, is another personality on the street. Her real name is Penelope Linda Hiebert, from Vancouver Island, and she spends a lot time painting in Cathedral Grove outside Parksville.

Monk loves to let people help her paint pictures. One of her works involved a single-brush stroke contribution from more than 2,000 children.

On top of the communist leader`s noggin is a small Mao Zedong with breasts.

The provocative sculpture, “Miss Mao Trying to Poise Herself at the Top of Lenin’s Head,” has literally stopped traffic at a busy intersection in this Olympic host city, where almost half the population is Chinese-Canadian.

“Everyone is very passionate about it,” said Miriam Blume, the media representative for the Vancouver Biennale, the group organizing the public art exhibition that includes the sculpture. It will remain on display until 2011.

At first, she said there were complaints that the sculpture may be a memorial to the controversial Communist leaders. But she said other people thought it was “fabulous.”

“It’s proof that in Canada we have free speech and it’s a democracy and our politicians don’t pick public art,” she said.

The City of Richmond presents annual awards in six categories: Business and the Arts, Arts Volunteerism, Cultural Leadership, Artistic Innovation, Arts Education and Youth Arts in order to recognize the artistic achievements and contributions to the arts community by City residents, artists, educators, organizations and business leaders. For details about eligibility and to download the 2010 nomination form , visit the Richmond Arts Awards page.

Deadline for nominations: March 19, 2010

There was something of a rumble in the jungle Wednesday morning when passers-by witnessed workmen slicing Miss Mao off Lenin’s head and then a crane and cables being hooked onto the famous former Communist leader’s giant chrome bust.

Several onlookers at the Elmbridge and Alderbridge ways intersection site paused from their daily routine, believing the City of Richmond and organizers of the Biennale temporary public art exhibition had bowed to public pressure to remove the controversial artwork.

The truth was very much to the contrary.

The Community Arts Council had requested $22,297 to help promote and nurture Richmond’s rich crop of artists. But it was given a big fat zero by the city, which claimed there were service duplications with other arts organizations in the city.

It was the second year in a row that the CAC had been denied a grant from the city.

On Friday morning, Miss Mao Trying to Poise Herself at the Top of Lenin’s Head was also sporting a crude sign of skull and crossbones and another with the letters “NWO.”

Vandals also wrapped the sculpture with red construction tape, covering Lenin’s mouth, and the ground was scattered with red carnations.

The letters NWO are known to represent “New World Order,” a theory that the powerful elite are conspiring to create a one-world government.