The City of Vancouver is a lovable place which is why people write songs that praise its glory and create artwork, t-shirts, and crafts that share its wit, charm, and practicality. From Vancouver-themed Valentine’s Day cards and Vancouver We Love You shirts, to my friend Preston’s isometric Vancouver design series as seen in my blog’s header. I browsed Etsy, the popular e-commerce website for handmade and vintage items, to find more nifty products that boast the goodness of the 604:
10 Cool Vancouver Gift Items on Etsy
Seller: Smash Transit
Description: Love Vancouver? Love our multi-award winning airport? Love planes? This is the shirt for you.
Seller: truche
Description: I have the same type of necklace but in the shape of John’s home state, Iowa. I absolutely love it and have barely taken it off in over a year. This one of BC is definitely a keeper as well.
Seller: JonShawPaintings
Description: Alleys, street signs, traffic signals, and iconic neon. These prints depict the grittier side of the city in a beautiful way with unique angles and points of view.
Seller: JoanneHastie
Description: Original artwork, acrylic paintings on paper. I love “Aquabus II” and other scenes from around BC. Colourful, playful, and so very West Coast.
Seller: LeanneSpanza
Description: Bold, bright, happy. These mini canvas prints feature local landmarks and familiar scenery.
Seller: jennasuemaps
Description: City line art posters featuring minimalist maps of cities like Vancouver. Customizable orders and colours available.
Seller: Ole Originals
Description: A big, bold Vancouver “V” along with a skyline featuring the Harbour Centre and Vancouver Lookout. The Tofino shirt with a wave is pretty cute too.
Seller: UrbanDecal
Description: A little bit of protection for your laptop combined with showing off the Vancouver skyline.
Seller: UrchinBags
Description: Whatever happened to all those wraps and banners from the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics? Well this seller has turned them into shopping bags.
Seller: NicholasBrancati
Description: Unique greeting cards feature Vancouver views like the Lions Gate Bridge and Lighthouse Park.
If you’re in Vancouver, you can find more great local gifts at shops on Main Street, Commercial Drive, and in Gastown but the benefit of Etsy is its worldwide reach. Prices listed are not guaranteed, they are from the day the screenshot was taken. Listing here is not an endorsement for the seller. I just thought these were all pretty neat!
NOTE: Prices were captured in 2014 and may not reflect the most up-to-date price for each item. The seller’s price is always the correct/accurate price.
It’s easy to love Vancouver and people have no problem sharing their feelings on the matter, as evidenced by the number of love-themed photos I was able to collect for this special day:
21 Photos of Love Around Vancouver
Ballet BC presents Grace Symmetry in collaboration with Turning Point Ensemble from February 20th to February 22nd, 2014 at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre. Featuring live music by Turning Point Ensemble, Grace Symmetry includes World Premieres by Kevin O’Day and Medhi Walerski, plus the return of In Motion by Wen Wei Wang, an audience favourite from the 2010/11 dance season.
Alexis Fletcher and Gilbert Small. Photo by Michael Slobodian for Ballet BC.
Ballet BC’s Artistic Director Emily Molnar says, “We are thrilled to present this collaboration with Turning Point Ensemble, one of Canada’s leading chamber orchestras, alongside three brilliant choreographers and the artists of Ballet BC. Both Kevin O’Day and Medhi Walerski return with two stunning new works, adding to the diversity of the Company’s repertoire as well as the reprisal of Wen Wei Wang’s gorgeous In Motion. All three pieces will be performed to live music and promise a spectacular treat for dance and music lovers alike.”
This World Premiere by American-born Kevin O’Day, Artistic Director of Kevin O’Day Ballett Nationaltheater Mannheim, couples his sophisticated understanding of music and movement with his creative spirit, inspiring daring, risk-taking dance that complements the innovative style and vision of both TPE and Ballet BC. For this creation, O’Day will work with New York-based composer and long-time collaborator John King on a new composition for the TPE orchestra. O’Day has danced with the Joffrey Ballet, Frankfurt Ballet, American Ballet Theatre, New York City Ballet and Baryshnikov’s White Oak Dance Project. He has created more than 50 works, including Face to Face which Ballet BC premiered in 2010.
Tickets for Grace Symmetry can be purchased through Ticketmaster at 1-855-985-2787 (855-985-ARTS) or online and range in price from $22.25 to $70.00 (plus service charges).
Win Tickets to Ballet BC Grace Symmetry
If you would like to attend, I have a pair of tickets to give away for the performance on February 21st. Here’s how you can enter to win:
- Leave a comment on this post (1 entry)
- Post the following on Twitter (1 entry)
I will draw one winner at random from all entries at 12:00pm on Monday, February 17, 2014. Follow Ballet BC on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram for more information.
Combining classical integrity with a contemporary sensibility, Ballet BC is a company of 18 talented dancers from Canada and around the world that is committed to the ballet of today. Solidly grounded in the rigour and artistry of classical ballet, with an emphasis on innovation and the immediacy of the 21st century, the company presents a distinct and diverse repertoire of the most sought-after Canadian and international contemporary ballet choreography.
Update The winner is Monique!
It’s encouraging to see more public art on display in Vancouver, especially since I began my tenure as a West End resident almost a decade ago. Sculptures dot the landscape, breaking up the (albeit gorgeous) blue of the sea and the green of the parks, capturing your eye and starring in many visitors’ photographs. The latest piece of public artwork will definitely be hard to miss as artist Janet Echelman installs a 745-foot aerial sculpture on Vancouver’s waterfront.
Early Conceptual Rendering from entrance of Vancouver Convention Center.
The massive sculpture will stretch from the rooftops of the Fairmont Waterfront Hotel and the Vancouver Convention Centre from March 17, coinciding with the start of the 30th annual TED conference in Vancouver. “It’s more than triple the length of any sculpture I’ve created,” Echelman said, noting the project is an engineering feat in addition to its massive creative expression. Echelman, one of this year’s TED speakers, took three years to create the work, choosing its site on the harbour because it had the desired energy she wanted.
But the project has not been without its challenges: Before the sculpture could go ahead, Echelman needed permission from federal aviation, Port Metro Vancouver and the city and provincial government. Echelman’s work is sponsored by design software company Autodesk, which has developed custom engineering software to model and test the design feasibility, structural integrity and wind loads on the sculpture.
The sculpture will include interactive lighting, resulting in a “crowd-controlled visual experiment on a massive, floating canvas,” according to her website. Echelman is also collaborating with Google and the Burrard Arts Foundation, a non-profit that has a mission to bring public art projects to Vancouver, which is helping to raise funds for the installation costs. [Source: Vancouver Sun]
Collaborating artist Aaron Koblin is also designing an incredible interactive component that will enable the public to choreograph the lighting through physical gesture via their mobile phones.
Another piece by Echelman, Water Sky Garden, was placed outside the Richmond Olympic Oval and her other works appear in cities around the world like San Francisco, Amsterdam, Sydney, and Phoenix.
Water Sky Garden. Photo credit:
popejon2 on Flickr
You can support this 745-foot aerial sculpture by backing the project on Kickstarter.
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This project is co-presented by Burrard Arts Foundation, a non-profit that that aims to bring awesome public art to the City of Vancouver.
The Vancouver Heritage Foundation is celebrating BC’s Heritage Week by offered a full lineup of events that focus on this year’s theme: Heritage Afloat. Around here, our waterways have shaped our history through transportation, connecting industry, recreation, and more.
1940-1948 – Coal Harbour and Vancouver skyline. Photographer: Burns Miller. Archives# CVA 1376-76.
Vancouver Heritage Week
Here’s what the Vancouver Heritage Foundation has planned:
Monday, February 17, 2014 – National Heritage Day
On this day you can join John Atkin for “Baseball, the Olympics and an Arboretum”, a look at the Riley Park neighbourhood from 10:00am until 12:00pm.
Register online.
National Heritage Day in Canada this year celebrates “Places Made for Play” and we are exploring the very diverse Riley Park neighbourhood. From the former rock quarry that is now Queen Elizabeth Park to 62 years of baseball at Nat Bailey, it’s an eclectic look at this neighbourhood. As a special bonus, we’ll get to peak inside Nat Bailey Stadium.
Saturday, February 22, 2014 – Up the Coast and Overseas
A short history of shipping in Burrard Inlet with John Atkin from 1:30pm until 3:30pm.
Register online.
From the earliest lumber schooners to the Trans-Pacific liners and coastal ferries, Burrard Inlet has been an important factor in the city’s growth. On this tour we’ll be looking at the history and evolution of the downtown waterfront between Burrard and Main Streets.
Sunday, February 23, 2014 – Sunday Morning at Hinge Park
Coffee and history in Vancouver’s industrial heritage from 9:00am to 11:00am.
Register online.
Hinge Park is a newly designed public space which combines a century of industrial heritage with the creation of a naturalized wetland in Southeast False Creek. Join us at the new JJ Bean location nestled in the heart of this historically significant area for a morning of coffee and history. The morning includes a JJ Bean specialty coffee and baked good, a coffee tasting led by JJ Bean founder and owner John Neate, and a talk about the cafe’s design by Brady Dunlop, Associate Architect with DIALOG. Derek Lee of PWL Partnership Landscape Architects will then talk about the industrial history of Southeast False Creek and lead a guided tour of Hinge Park.
Sunday, February 23, 2014 – The Kitsilano Shoreline
A history of the Kitsilano shoreline with Amy Adams from 1:00pm to 3:30pm.
Register online.
Following the Kitsilano shoreline from False Creek along English Bay to Trafalgar Street, this walk will explore how the water and land have changed over time, influenced by each other and the people living on the shores. Hear about the people who have called this area home, find out what could have dramatically altered the area, and about when smelt were so plentiful they sounded like bacon sizzling in the waves!
