An appeal to save an arts venue in Vancouver is unfortunately becoming all too common. This time it’s the Beaumont Studios near Mount Pleasant. The future of The Beaumont Studios, a vital creative hub for Vancouver’s arts community, is in jeopardy of closing due to soaring real estate costs and the financial impacts of the pandemic.
Save the Beaumont Studios in Vancouver
The Beaumont was established in 2004 by artist Jude Kusnierz, as an open and supportive environment for a wide variety of creative professionals.
Since 2019, the organization has been facing severe financial challenges, with rent and property tax obligations increasing by an overwhelming 20% in just three years. The pandemic lockdowns exacerbated already difficult financial constraints, leaving The Beaumont Studios with staggering overhead and debt.
To keep its doors open and continue providing vital physical space and community support to thousands of creators, The Beaumont Studios is urgently seeking support from the community. With over 100 full-time professional artists and a diverse range of creators, The Beaumont has become a collaborative mosaic of artists and creators that have become a family.
The organization has developed a comprehensive fundraising strategy, which begins with a GoFundMe campaign aimed at stabilizing its financial situation, creating a safety net, to continue providing a thriving creative space and robust programming in the community.
“The Beaumont Studios is more than just a building; we are a modern-day inclusive community center; a living and breathing entity that once experienced cannot be easily forgotten,” says Jude Kusnierz, founder, executive and creative director of The Beaumont Studios. “We take an incredible amount of pride in the community that we have built together. We urgently seek your support to keep our doors open. Our creative community depends on it, and time is of the essence. We don’t want to become one of the 150 artist buildings lost in the past decade.”
The organization is developing long-term strategic planning that includes a call for partnerships with local donors, contributors, sponsors, developers and engaging with the city council and staff to create sustainable solutions.
National Canadian Film Day (CanFilmDay) is celebrating its 10th anniversary on April 19, 2023. This year’s programming spotlight will showcase one hundred titles: a broad and diverse cross-section of Canadian films, with ten films in each of the ten categories. You can stream online (free), host a watch-party, or visit screening events in theatres.
Across the country there will be screenings at film festivals, cinemas, libraries, community centres, schools, friendship centres, retirement residences, art galleries, military bases and more. There will also be a tribute to groundbreaking Mi’kmaw filmmaker Jeff Barnaby, whose passing in 2022 shook the film community in Canada and beyond.
National Canadian Film Day in Vancouver
From March 17 to #CanFilmDay on April 19, VIFF will host a series with some of the most acclaimed new dramas to hit the festival circuit, as well as several revelatory local documentaries.
Anthony Shim’s semi-autobiographical Riceboy Sleeps (from March 24) charts the travails of a South Korean immigrant family in a Vancouver suburb in the ‘90s, was named Best Canadian Film at VIFF, and scored TIFF’s prestigious Platform Prize; Sophie Jarvis’s Okanagan-set Until Branches Bend (from March 24) melds social realism, an acute psychological study, and sinister, surreal undercurrents; and, from Nova Scotia, Ashley McKenzie’s marvelous, surprising Queens of the Qing Dynasty (from March 17) delicately sketches the friendship between a neuro-diverse teen and a queer Chinese volunteer caregiver. Finally, Tenzin (from March 18), the first feature made in collaboration with Ontario’s Tibetan community, is a Buddhist soul-searcher about a young man struggling to make sense of his brother’s suicide.
On the documentary front, Nisha Platzer’s locally made, deeply personal back home (from April 14) also unpicks the heart-rending aftermath of a sibling’s decision to end his life, sifting the loving remembrances of friends and family for solace and insight. Leslie D. Bland and Harold C. Joe’s A Cedar Is Life (from March 31) and Alexi Liotti’s Rematriation (April 22) are two more BC-produced documentaries, both focusing on the spiritual significance of our forests and the emerging coalition between the First Nations and environmentalists. Finally, on a lighter note, Brian D. Johnson’s The Colour of Ink (from April 7) looks at what goes into artisanal inks, which is to say, almost anything, from berries and grapes to industrial rust to mollusc milk, blood, sweat, and tears. If we only look for it, there is an entire spectrum right in our own backyard. Look for further announcements of filmmaker Q&As and National Canadian Film Day programming soon.
CanFilmDay with VAFF
The Vancouver Asian Film Festival is hosting a screening of Riceboy Sleeps at the Cineplex Odeon International Village Cinemas on April 19th.
National Canadian Film Day is a worldwide campaign presented by REEL CANADA, a charitable organization that promotes the diversity of Canadian film and its power to spark important conversations about what it means to be Canadian. Through its core programmes — Our Films in Our Schools, Welcome to Canada, Reel Opportunities, and National Canadian Film Day (CanFilmDay) — REEL CANADA has reached millions of students, new Canadians, and general audience members.
A new BC Ferries app is now available, designed to make it easier to make bookings, manage trips, check-in seamlessly at the terminal and find travel information with fewer clicks.
New BC Ferries App
Last year there were nearly three million bookings through the BC Ferries website.
Customers can check schedules and current conditions quickly on their favourite routes. The new Express book feature adds speed and efficiency for users booking the next available sailing from a saved travel preference. Features and enhancements include:
Travel Preferences: Allows customers to save travel details for quick access to schedules and current conditions and make faster bookings on frequently travelled routes.
Current Conditions: Route sailing status and estimated deck space will be easier to view with the updated app layout.
Making and Managing Bookings: New designs and personalized travel preferences will enable easier bookings. Customers can quickly jump to the next available sailing with the new Express book feature, and manage existing bookings on-the-go.
Schedules: Enhanced features on daily and seasonal schedules and the introduction of travel preferences will make it easier to trip plan.
Alerts: Gives customers the option to receive timely push- notifications for service notices and upcoming sailing reminders on their device.
Seamless check-in: Customers can find their upcoming trips on their app dashboard to access the booking barcode for seamless check-in at the terminal.
Customers can login with their existing account, or create a new account on the BC Ferries website before downloading the app for access to the travel preferences, express bookings and alerts.
This is BC Ferries first release and the company already has plans for new features and functionality. The app will also continue to evolve based on feedback from customers and evolving digital trends.
Experience the incredible scenery from the 10-storey Malahat Skywalk on Vancouver Island this spring as kids 17 and under get in free (with an accompanying adult or senior ticket). Start your visit with a walk through arbutus trees on the TreeWalk, take in the views of Inlet waters, mountains, and islands from 250 meters above sea level.
Malahat SkyWalk Photo credit Malahat SkyWalk
Spring Break at the Malahat Skywalk
When: March 11 to 31, 2023
Where: 901 Trans-Canada Hwy, Malahat, BC
Tickets: Kids 17 and under visit free with purchase of one adult or senior ticket online using code SPRING23. Tickets can be purchased online.
Take in the view of Saanich Inlet, Gulf Islands, San Juan Islands, Mount Baker, and more, from every level of the 10-storey Spiral Tower. Step out onto the 84-meter mesh Adventure net, suspended high at the top of the tower, take a 20-meter spiral slide down, and walk through the elevated TreeWalk amongst the Arbutus and Douglas Fir forest as you learn about the nature, history, and culture of the area.
Join your friends and family at the outdoor fire pit to sit back and enjoy each others company around the campfire. Keep your eyes out for birds, frogs, and other critters in the forest as well as peeled driftwood art installations of owls, cougars, and blue herons.
Just a short 35-minute drive north of Victoria, Malahat SkyWalk is Vancouver Island’s newest premier year-round attraction and is accessible for all guests, providing a connection to nature like never before.
For more information and the latest news on the Kids Visit Free offer, follow Malahat SkyWalk on Instagram, and connect on Facebook.
Led by playwright and performer Shayna Jones’s own experiences of small-town living, Black & Rural digs deep into the lives and hearts of Black Canadian’s living in the countryside and intersperses the voices of real interviewees with music and generative mythology about Black life in agrarian communities.
Pictured: Shayna Jones. Photo Credit: Louis Bockner
Pi Theatre Presents Black & Rural
When: March 31 to April 15, 2023
Where: Pacific Theatre (1440 W 12th Ave, Vancouver)
Tickets: Pay-what-you-can preview March 30 at 8:00pm. For regular tickets $37.50 call (604) 731-5518 or buy online. Accessible $15 tickets available for every show.
A guest Production from Pi Theatre, presented in Pacific Theatre, Black & Rural is a world premier with original music composed and performed by Rufus Cappadocia and direction from Pi’s artistic director Richard Wolfe.
Black & Rural weaves Afro-centric folklore (including tales by Shayna Jones) with explorations of Black life in the countryside. Intermingled with Jones’s own story are recordings from her compatriots, spanning generations of Black Canadians building lives far from urbanity. Exploring everything from the isolation of being the only Black face in a White community to the power and autonomy derived from working with the land you live on, Black & Rural illuminates a community separated by thousands of miles, but with an undeniable bond of shared experience and hopes.
