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. 

New West Holiday Food and Craft Market

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.

Margaret Grenier Awarded Walter Carsen Prize for Excellence in the Performing Arts

“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.

The second annual Dine Strathcona initiative, taking place November 18-30, 2020, will see Strathcona’s hospitality community come together to showcase the neighbourhood’s vibrant culinary scene while raising money to provide support for vulnerable individuals in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside.

Dine Strathcona

First launched in 2019 by the Strathcona Business Improvement Association (“SBIA”) as ‘Dine Railtown’, the neighbourhood initiative has now expanded to encompass restaurants, cafés, and breweries across the larger Strathcona area. Dine Strathcona will see participating dining establishments such as Ask For Luigi, Dosanko, and The Garden offer a feature dish throughout the two-week event period, with $1 for each dish ordered donated to WISH Drop-In Centre.

For almost 40 years, WISH Drop-In Centre has been a refuge and an essential point of contact for street-based sex workers who have been made vulnerable due to poverty, homelessness, trauma, violence, stigma, and a lack of access to supports and opportunities. It is the largest organization in Canada supporting sex workers and the only drop-in centre in the region supporting them 365 nights a year. Money raised during Dine Strathcona will help fund the critical services and resources WISH provides, including its 24-hour drop-in centre where they serve over 9,000 meals a month, its emergency shelter, Mobile Access Project Van, and WISH’s capacity building programs.

“Small businesses and organizations like the WISH Drop-In Centre are at the heart of this neighbourhood and it’s more critical now than ever to show our support for them,” says Theodora Lamb, Executive Director of the SBIA. “Dine Strathcona allows residents and visitors alike to do just that — make a positive impact in the lives of those who live and work in the district while also enjoying safe dining experiences at the many incredible cafés, restaurants and small businesses that call Strathcona home.”

Participating Businesses

Participating locations have implemented extensive safety and distancing measures to keep their customers safe. Many of the feature dishes are also available for take-out and delivery for those who wish to support Dine Strathcona from the comfort of home.

UPDATE December 7, 2020: Unfortunately the event is cancelled for 2020.

I’m thrilled to share that Heritage Christmas at Burnaby Village Museum is NOT CANCELLED this season and you will be able to enjoy the dazzling lights, sights, and sounds of Heritage Christmas for the holidays!

Heritage Christmas at Burnaby Village Museum

• When:
  • November 21 to December 18, 2020 (closed Monday/Tuesday)
    • Wednesday to Friday, 1:00pm to 5:30pm
    • Saturday & Sunday 1:00pm to 9:00pm
  • December 19 to January 1, 2021 (closed December 24 & 25)
    • Daily 1:00pm to 9:00pm
• Where: Burnaby Village Museum (6501 Deer Lake Ave)
• Tickets: Admission is FREE but advance reservations are strongly recommended.
  • Reserve by calling (604) 297-4565 during office hours (Monday to Friday 9:00am to 4:00pm; Saturday and Sunday 1:30pm to 8:30pm)
  • One reservation (for up to six people) per call. Do not leave a voicemail.

Please note the Carousel and gift shop are closed.

Miss604 is the proud Blog Sponsor of VGH & UBC Hospital Foundation in 2020. The following has been contributed by their team:

High Five Worthy Research Supports Women’s Heart Health

In just a few short weeks the philanthropic community has helped High Fives for Health Care, a fundraising campaign by VGH & UBC Hospital Foundation in support of the most urgent needs of its hospitals and health care centres, reach extraordinary heights.

Donor funding supports key research and patient areas – like the Leslie Diamond Women’s Heart Health Clinic. For years, women’s heart attacks were misdiagnosed. Not only do women often report slightly different symptoms when experience a heart attack, but the cause is often different as well.

“These symptoms are not the typical crushing chest pain that are popularly portrayed, and that is because women tend to have blockages not just in the larger arteries surrounding the heart, but in the micro blood vessels instead,” says Dr. Tara Sedlak, Cardiologist and Director of the Leslie Diamond Women’s Heart Health Clinic.

“Not understanding these key differences can lead to disaster.”

Know the Signs

Women can display different heart attack symptoms than men. These include:

• Neck, jaw, shoulder or back pain
• Pressure or tightness in the chest
• Indigestion and dizziness

Donor funding supports vital research and more personalized care, resulting in better outcomes for all cardiac patients.

“Because of the generosity of these wonderful individuals in the community, patients at Vancouver General Hospital and UBC Hospital are able to be cared for by the best teams who have access to state-of-the-art equipment utilizing treatments based on the latest research,” says Angela Chapman, President & CEO, VGH & UBC Hospital Foundation. “And it’s not over yet.”

You can join VGH & UBC Hospital Foundation for a broadcast event taking place this Saturday, November 14th. Listen live on CKNW 980 at 2:00pm and/or watch Global TV at 5:00pm.

The Global broadcast will feature more of Denise’s story as well as insights from Dr. David Wood on the improvements made to cardiac care thanks to donor support.

If you donate today, your gift will be doubled as John and Sherry Floren, Djavad Mowafaghian Foundation, Noordin and Nancey Nanji, Alan and Gwendoline Pyatt Foundation, Juggy Sihota-Chahil, TELUS and anonymous donors are matching every High Fives for Health Care donation up to $250,000.