It’s my favourite place in the city, perhaps it is yours as well, but did you know that there’s a non-profit society that collaboratively takes care of its conservation and education programs? With Giving Tuesday coming up on December 1st, I’m running a fundraiser for the Stanley Park Ecology Society (“SPES”).
Continue reading this post ⟩⟩Four companies, three nights, one theme. Upintheair Theatre presents The Array, the second in its annual series, to muse on the theme of First Contact through four new short works will be streamed for audiences.
When: December 3-5, 2020 at 7:30pm
Where: Online
Tickets: Available online now, pay what you choose $10-$40
Commissioned interdisciplinary art groups—House of Rice, Hunters, Tricksters & Mystics, Popcorn Galaxies, and rice & beans theatre—are developing these 15-20 minutes works in a two month span to take on board different perspectives and investigate a range of possible futures unfolding from 2020.
First Contact between humans and aliens is a long-standing trope of sci-fi and speculative fiction, often as a veiled metaphor for the ongoing impacts of Western colonization. This year’s theme comes with added significance in these socially distanced times as we dream of a post-pandemic future where we can once again freely socialize with our fellow human beings.
Continue reading this post ⟩⟩While we missed the giant Circle Craft Holiday Market this year at the convention centre, you can still shop the original, the one and only Circle Craft on Granville Island. They’ve kicked off a new campaign to help you #ShopYourCircle by doing all your holiday gifting from creators and businesses within a 50km radius of your home.
Where: Circle Craft in the Net Loft on Granville Island
When: Open 10:00am to 5:15pm in November, 6:00pm in December
Featuring the work of more than 130 artisans across British Columbia, you’ll find unique gifts you just won’t find anywhere else — including one-of-a-kind glass ornaments, custom ceramic mugs, stunning jewelry, and hand-carved wooden homewares.
By shopping handmade and one-of-a-kind gifts made from local artisans, you can feel good knowing that you are directly supporting people in your own community.
Find a wide selection of gifts that range from $20 upwards in the Circle Craft Gallery, including everything from handcrafted jewelry, homegoods, ceramics, and more. And don’t forget, parking is free on Granville Island all season long!
I have a $50 gift card to give away so you can shop Circle Craft! Here’s how you can enter to win:
I will draw one winner at random from all entries at 12:00pm on Wednesday, November 25, 2020. UPDATE The winner is Pauline!
UPDATE: Due to the latest COVID restrictions, this event has changed. New West Farmers Market will continue with a different model. Full details can be found here.
The New West Farmers Market and New West Craft have come together to host the New West Holiday Food and Craft Market over one weekend in December. This outdoor market will feature 30 food vendors and artisan vendors.
When: Saturday, December 12 and Sunday, December 13, 2020
Where: New Westminster City Hall (6th and Royal)
Admission: By donation. Limited capacity in the market will be enforced. Free parking available.
Rain, snow or shine–this market will be a chance to support local, buy handmade and enjoy a fun and safe holiday experience. COVID-19 Health and Safety protocols will be in place.
Shop local with inspiration from the New West Craft holiday gift guide, and at one of their holiday pop-ups November 28-29 and December 19-20 at Royal City Centre.
The New West Farmers Market features farm-fresh produce, plants, quality crafts from local artists and artisans, gourmet prepared foods, community information, and more. Their winter season has been cancelled so the holiday market will be a unique shopping experience.
The Canada Council for the Arts has announced that Margaret Grenier, choreographer, dance artist, Executive and Artistic Director of Dancers of Damelahamid, and Producer and Director of the annual Coastal Dance Festival, is the winner of the 2020 Walter Carsen Prize for Excellence in the Performing Arts.
The $50,000 prize, administered and presented by the Canada Council for the Arts, recognizes the highest level of artistic excellence and distinguished career achievement by a Canadian professional artist in music, theatre or dance.
“I am deeply compelled as an artist by the desire to impact a shift in our collective consciousness that values and upholds all dance forms,” says Grenier. “Receiving this award, as a traditionally trained Indigenous dancer from the Northwest Coast, is a great honour and gives recognition to the depth of this art form and to the dedicated efforts that revitalized these dances.”
Born in Prince Rupert, BC, and currently based in Gibsons, BC, Grenier is of Gitxsan and Cree ancestry. Having trained from a very young age in traditional Gitxsan dance by her parents, Kenneth and Margaret Harris, 2019 Dance Collection Dance Hall of Fame inductees, Grenier has worked as a professional dancer since 1991 performing with the Dancers of Damelahamid – the company she now leads as Executive and Artistic Director. Dancers of Damelahamid, an Indigenous dance company, emerged in the 1960s out of an urgency to ensure that the knowledge of their ancestors was not lost.
Grenier is also the Producer and Director of the annual Coastal Dance Festival, established in 2008. The festival has formed a community that reaches throughout the Northwest Coast, as well as nationally and internationally.
Grenier’s vast choreographic achievements include Setting the Path (2004) and Sharing the Spirit (2007), which toured to New Zealand (2008) and to the 2010 World Expo in Shanghai China, and Visitors Who Never Left (2009). Margaret choreographed the multimedia productions Spirit Transforming (2012), Flicker (2016), and Mînowin (2019).
“I have witnessed and experienced an immense shift in the world of dance as a result of our collective struggle to create space for our Indigenous dance practices and overcome colonial barriers. It is my hope that every achievement opens new possibilities and breathes strength into one another and our arts,” adds Grenier.
Presented for the first time in 2001, the Walter Carsen Prize for Excellence in the Performing Arts was created as a result of a generous donation of $1.1 million to the Canada Council by Toronto businessman and philanthropist Walter Carsen. The prize is awarded annually on a four-year cycle: dance, theatre, dance, music.
Grenier is the 19th winner of the prize; previous winners have included such Canadian luminaries as R. Murray Schafer, composer; Veronica Tennant, principal dancer, producer-director; John Murrell, playwright; dancer, Peggy Baker, choreographer and teacher; Menaka Thakkar, artistic director, dancer and choreographer; Rodney Sharman, composer; and Bill Coleman, dancer and choreographer; among many others.
Grenier holds an M.A. from Simon Fraser University and a B.Sc. from McGill University. She has programmed with the Bill Reid Gallery and directed the HR MacMillan Space Centre’s production Sky Stories. She was a sessional instructor for Simon Fraser’s course Foundations in Aboriginal Education, Language, and Culture (2007) and at the Banff Centre’s Indigenous Dance Residency (2013). Grenier presented at the World Indigenous Peoples Conference on Education in Australia (2008), Peru (2011), Hawai’i (2014), and Toronto (2017). She received the Reveal Award in 2017. Grenier serves on the board of the BC Alliance for Arts and Culture.
