An oft-heard refrain at arts events on the Sunshine Coast is “There’s so much going on, and usually at the same time.”
In 2023, Coast communities — our vibrant patchwork of nonprofits, ad hoc associations, galleries, festivals, impresarios and artists — bounded back from the cautious hesitancy of the COVID years.
It was a year to take stock of the past, often while celebrating significant milestones.
The Gibsons Public Art Gallery celebrated its 20th anniversary, stoking creativity through workshops. The Sechelt Arts Festival also marked two decades of provocative programming. One of its fixtures, the annual Celebration of Dance, actually started 10 years before the festival began.
Beachcombers fans finally gathered for a fitting 50th anniversary reunion. The Squamish Canoe Family arrived on the Gibsons foreshore to share songs and stories of their 30-year-old watercraft. The Rockwood Pavilion — the heart of the Festival of the Written Arts — turned 35.
Meanwhile, cultural leaders are building foundations for the future.
The Lovolution movement was publicly launched at a comedy show by Lizzie Allan. Coast Cultural Alliance co-founder Linda Williams, now the organization’s executive director, prioritized the Alliance’s planning for succession and sustainability. Weavers from the shíshálh Nation are creating ceremonial regalia, restoring what was destroyed through cruelty and ignorance.
On a coast where cedar strips become treasured raiment, transformation itself is connective tissue.
Beyond the crowded calendar of exhibitions, screenings, readings, crawls and prowls, something deeper is afoot.
“It is only with the heart that one can see rightly,” says the canny fox in Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s The Little Prince. “What is essential is invisible to the eye.”
January
• The Sunshine Coast Hospice Society hosts its annual Lighting of the Memories ceremony at Mission Point on New Year’s Day. Cardboard ornaments inscribed with the names of lost loved ones are committed to the flames of a beach fire.
• Gibsons comedian Sophia Ballantyne organizes a comedy show at the ‘Postrophe Cabaret and resolves to expand her Coast Comedy brand into a regular feature of Highway 101 communities. Ballantyne plans to showcase female comedians and local talent.
• Former Pender Harbour resident Rick Scott performs for vociferous tots at Roberts Creek Community Hall for Family Literacy Day. Scott invites local schoolchildren to send him letters and promises a handwritten reply.
• The Pender Harbour School of Music holds its first Coffee House of 2023, featuring musical artists Joe Stanton, Garth Bowen and Jon Ochsendorf. Due to ongoing kitchen repairs, patrons bring their own coffee.
• Jon Van Arsdell, an Ohio-born objector to the Vietnam War draft who moved to Garden Bay in 1970, publishes his memoir No Longhairs: The Odyssey of a Vietnam Draft Dodger. Van Arsdell performs at the Gibsons Public Library seven months later, plucking folk tunes on his mandolin alongside his band, The Road Apples.
February
• The Tetrahedron Outdoor Club packs almost 800 film buffs into the Elphinstone Secondary School gymnasium for the Coast’s best-attended cultural event of the year: the Banff Centre Mountain Film Festival World Tour.
• The One Flower One Leaf gallery in Gibsons hosts The Love Exhibition, highlighting artworks from a dozen contributors. “It’s been a few years, and the world is a little broken right now,” says gallery owner Grace Unopia. “People are disconnected. So now feels right.”
• The Gibsons Public Art Gallery marks Black History Month by hosting an exhibition of works by Nigerian-African multi-disciplinary artist Teri Ejere. At the Gibsons Public Market, chef Iyabo Olaniyan and members of the Sunshine Coast Black History Month Committee serve a traditional African feast.
• Boudoir Rouge Burlesque stages two adult-only shows in Roberts Creek, with proceeds benefitting the Sunshine Coast Community Services Society. “Our goal with our dancers is to help empower them to show them how powerful they are, and to heal whatever parts they need to heal,” says Boudoir Rouge co-founder Eileen Wright.
• Undeterred by a prodigious snowfall, the Sunshine Coast Writers and Editors Society gathers to honour 100 years of local authors with readings at the Sunshine Museum and Archives.
March
• A two-year series of workshops dedicated to sharing Coast Salish weaving practices concludes. The Weaving a Gathering Place series fostered truth, healing, and traditional woven cedar practices under the direction of master weaver Jessica Silvey. “It’s been this amazing place of connection for women and children, a safe space that promotes healthy opportunities and love,” says Silvey.
• An original script by Peter Hill (Any Luck?) seems to be the swan song for the popular Off the Page play-reading series. Despite fears of its demise due to the retirement of series coordinators Wanda Nowicki and Janet Hodgkinson, Off the Page returns in the autumn under new leadership.
• One hundred and sixty young artists contribute works to the Gibsons Public Art Gallery’s annual Shout Out! exhibition. For the first time in its history, the show engages a student curator, painter Athena Qureshi.
• Feeling financial pressure from COVID’s long shadow, owners of the High Beam Dreams performance venue weigh whether to continue offering live entertainment. Later in the year, Vineet Miglani and Nidhi Kamboj rally by attracting enthusiastic supporters to hear world-class touring artists.
• Mr. Cuddles the Evil Octopus, operated by Sunshine Coast ventriloquist Damien James, competes on Season Two of the national variety show Canada’s Got Talent. The ill-tempered cephalopod (with an appetite for world domination) is eliminated during the show’s semifinals.
April
• The 49th annual Sunshine Coast Festival of the Performing Arts presents more than 200 unique performances by instrumentalists, vocalists, actors and choirs. Adjudicators select high-achieving artists aged five to 25 for participation in the B.C. Provincial Festival.
• The Driftwood Players perform The Garage Sale, one of playwright David King’s most-decorated works, at the Heritage Playhouse. The theatre company dedicates one night’s entire proceeds to the Sunshine Coast Community Services Society in support of its campaign to build a housing complex for people struggling to find affordable housing.
• The Sunshine Coast Museum and Archives hosts a wool weaving workshop led by Tsawaysia Spukwus of the Skwxwú7mesh Nation. “Weaving teaches us patience,” said Tsawaysia Spukwus, “and it also teaches us respect for nature that produces the wool.”
• CBC Television cracks open its Beachcombers vaults, adding four episodes of the storied television series (filmed in Gibsons) to its CBC Gem streaming service. “It hasn’t been easy, but we got four, so let’s stream the hell out of it,” says series star Jackson Davis.
• The Suncoast Phoenix Community Choir and the Coast Messiah Choir combine to perform Antonio Vivaldi’s Gloria and Concerto for Two Violins. The sensational concert is directed by cellist Sarah Poon.
May
• Animator Zac Harding takes first prize in the inaugural Art Battle at The Kube gallery, besting four other painters under daunting time constraints.
• Gibsons painter Elizabeth Evans becomes an associate of the Federation of Canadian Artists at a ceremony on Granville Island. Last year, Evans was named Artist of the Year by the Nature Trust of B.C.
• Members of the Sunshine Coast Quilters Guild hold a two-day quilt show. The extravaganza (restarted after a COVID hiatus) draws hundreds to admire works inspired by the theme “Coast Inspired.”
• The Sunshine Coast Festival of the Performing Arts concludes with a highlights concert at the Heritage Playhouse. Forty-eight prizes and scholarships are awarded to participants, based on adjudications from 10 professional artists.
• Longtime music educators Lynne and Reg Dickson organize a Uke for Hospice gala at Chatelech Secondary School. Their corps of nearly 100 musicians raises almost $8,000 for the Hike for Hospice fundraiser.
June
• A Pride Month march and festival in Davis Bay marks 45 years since the first Pride Parade was held in Canada. A month-long art exhibition at the Gibsons Public Art Gallery features work by LGBTQ2+ artists. “There’s a good vibe of all sorts of flavours of queer,” says Curt Lewchuk, organizer of pride dances at Roberts Creek Community Hall.
• Waldorf Ballet of Sechelt presents a high-flying version of Aladdin, aided by 16-year-old alumna Natalie Martin, who returns from a year of professional dance training in Philadelphia.
• Gibsons Dance Centre pupils keep dancing when the lights go out during a year-end recital at the Gibsons Heritage Playhouse. As a falling tree severs power lines, 25 dancers are performing a piece titled Rooted.
• The 27th anniversary of the Gibsons Landing Jazz Festival and Beyond begins with an opening performance by the 10-piece powerhouse band Soulstream.
• Sechelt archivist Ann Watson receives a Lifetime Achievement Award from the BC Heritage Federation. The 90-year-old tennis and pickleball player mulls retirement.
• Sechelt’s Coast Academy of Dance telescopes its 250-member company into a year-end spectacular (Dancing With the Stars) featuring 40 acts. “Who are the stars? Every one of the dancers is a star,” says studio owner Julie Izad.
• The annual syíyaya Days tradition kicks off with events celebrating Métis culture and Indigenous-led filmmaking.
July
• The second-annual Sunshine Coast Pottery Prowl features more than a dozen ceramic artists from Langdale to Earls Cove, who welcome visitors at no charge.
• Television executives Blair Peters and Nick Orchard announce that Slap Happy Cartoons, a Vancouver-based animation studio, will develop, finance and produce an animated version of the Beachcombers TV series.
• The outdoor labyrinth at St. Hilda’s Anglican Church is repainted through collaborative efforts by unhoused people temporarily residing in the church’s annex.
• Artworks by Tannis Hopkins and her father, Don Hopkins, portray the rich heritage of Hopkins Landing during an exhibition at the Gibsons Public Art Gallery.
• The Davis Bay Sandcastle Competition, organized by the Sunshine Coast Lions Club, attracts 29 multigenerational teams. Groups design frogs, orcas, and eagles as they vie for top prize before high tide.
August
• Robert Marion oversees successive painting days at the Roberts Creek Mandala as the colourful landmark is refreshed by barefoot contributors. “It’s like a temple for the community,” says Marion.
• The Art and Words Festival unveils original works by 30 writer-and-artist pairs, collected in a published anthology. Winners in a dozen categories are announced in the festival’s inaugural Sunshine Coast Book Awards for B.C.
• Jody Wilson-Raybould headlines the Sunshine Coast Festival of the Written Arts by delivering the annual Rockwood Lecture. Thirty other authors are featured at the festival, supported by a cadre of 100 volunteers.
• The eighth annual Rogue Arts Festival draws campers, artists and music lovers to the Clarke Farm in Wilson Creek. A Relaxation Station is added to the festival amenities.
• The Sechelt Artisan Fair fills Hackett Park with booths, craft demonstrations, and live performances on the amphitheatre stage.
September
• The McGarry family takes over operations of the Raven’s Cry Theatre in Sechelt and begins an aggressive revitalization campaign at the facility.
• At a red-carpet gala screening in Gibsons, William Baker, a Gibsons TV producer, premieres the pilot of a locally-filmed kids series: Reggie Rabbit and the Search for the Golden Carrot.
• The Sunshine Coast Arts Council honours five cultural leaders with awards: potter Betty Ackroyd, art gallery boosters Patricia and Murray Drope, collagist Nadina Tandy, and musician Cassidy Wieler.
• Cast and crew members of the Beachcombers TV series gather for an overdue 50th anniversary celebration in Gibsons. “We were showing the Canada that we hoped for, the Canada that we unfortunately were not,” recalls Beachcombers star Jackson Davies.
• Before a show by Gibsons-based mind reader Eric Samuels, the Coast Reporter arts writer accidentally upsets a glass jar readied for a jelly bean counting contest. Surveying the calamitous aftermath, the mentalist admits he never saw it coming.
October
• The Sechelt Arts Festival offers three weeks of performances, exhibitions and screenings, including a musical tribute to Joni Mitchell and a nascent film festival. A Halloween parade and carnival merge the Celtic Samhain tradition with Mexico’s Dia De Los Muertos.
• Hollywood giant Fox orders the first season of the crime drama “Murder in a Small Town” for its fall lineup, to be filmed on the Sunshine Coast in 2024. The series is based on the Karl Alberg novel series by author L. R. Wright.
• The Driftwood Players mount performances of Body and Soul, a supernatural comedy written by local playwright and puppeteer Elizabeth Elwood.
• Dancer Gabriel Ditmars and storyteller Jean-Pierre Makosso travel to the Republic of Congo for a cross-country tour to inspire creativity among young artists.
• The annual Art Crawl attracts a record-breaking 188 venues — including 57 new participants — for a weekend of open studios and galleries. “People were astounded by creativity in their own neighbourhoods,” says organizer Linda Williams of the Coast Cultural Alliance.
November
• The Landing Artists cooperative disbands after a final exhibition at the Gibsons Public Arts Gallery. An earlier show (in August) at the Sunshine Coast Botanical Garden heralded sunset on the group’s 26-year history.
• The Suncoast Phoenix Community Choir presents Mozart’s Requiem mass over the Remembrance Day weekend.
• The world premiere of the s-yéwyáw / Awaken documentary by Charlene SanJenko, Alfonso Salinas, Ecko Aleck and veteran filmmaker Liz Marshall (filmed on the shíshálh swiya) earns it the People’s Choice Award at the Planet In Focus International Environmental Film Festival in Toronto.
• The musical theatre triumvirate of Sylvain Brochu, Sara Douglas and Tom Kellough announce auditions for a March 2024 run of Gilbert and Sullivan’s operetta Pirates of Penzance.
December
• Dancers from Sunshine Coast studios appear in two unique productions of Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker ballet. Waldorf Ballet and the Sunshine Coast Youth Dance Association altogether present 14 performances of their versions to capacity audiences.
• Bev Shaw, the charismatic owner of Sechelt’s Talewind Books, is honoured following her sudden death from cancer. Nearly 500 people congregate for Shaw’s celebration of life in the gymnasium of Chatelech Secondary School; hundreds more watch online.
• St. Bartholomew’s Anglican Church launches its first-annual dramatized Nativity at the Gibsons Heritage Farm. The cast includes a garrulous angel, a dastardly Caesar Augustus, and a Bethlehem-bound donkey named Pickles.
