What’s On at the Gallery?
Artists and artisans managed a record number of events, opening the year with one of the best: Donna Balma’s retrospective show at the Gibsons Public Art Gallery (GPAG) and continuing with January’s Friends of the Gallery show when 98 artists took part in the Arts Centre’s annual gathering.
Jan Poynter had a good year teaching art on a cruise ship and later designing a colourful coin for the Royal Canadian Mint. Banners went up in Sechelt and Gibsons, thanks to coordinators Devon Blean and Connie Johnston respectively. Artists were popping up all over as in several taking over the Zocalo store in February, and later, many more occupied a pop-up show at a warehouse in Wilson Creek. Ginny Vail and Leif Kristian Freed combined to show their abstract work at the Arts Centre. A roaming photographer, Tim Van Horn, took photos of many local people.
Fibreworks in Madeira Park put on a great show of forest-inspired textiles in April, and Roberts Creek’s Kim La Fave showed his artistic prowess with boats in June. The Refraction art show in Sechelt during Pride Week was a chance to show some new work from the LGBTQ community. Many turned out for the Squamish people’s cultural show at GPAG in early July and the Chief led an interested crowd on a walk to Squamish lands. Gordon Halloran turned a tree damaged by forest fire into a dedication to the late John Phare and other firefighters.
Hackett Park, the giant among craft fairs, attracted visitors in August. Across the street at the Arts Centre, woodworkers on the Coast displayed their craft. Some of them gathered in September for more artistry during the one-day Wood Expo. Motoko opened a show of new art in Garden Bay, while Tyler Gentry showed his fantasy paintings at the WOW Gallery in Gibsons. Later in the year Elizabeth Evans displayed her new style of painting at WOW. The Eleven Equal Artists were not shy in showing the Power of Paint at the Seaside Centre in the heat of August.
It was the Sunshine Coast Arts Council’s 50th year anniversary and they celebrated in style with music, art and literary events. (See: www.sunshinecoastartscouncil.com/events). The Mental Health show, Seeing and Being Seen, in September was one of the unique exhibitions that the Arts Council supported.
October saw another successful Art Crawl with 35,000 studio visits over the three-day weekend. Lynda Manson took one of her paintings, a scene of Davis Bay, to a Paris show. In Gibsons a new collaborative gallery, the Kube, opened, while Harbour Gallery in Pender Harbour continued to showcase local artists. In October an unusual symposium drew visitors from around the world – all of them interested in using dye from fungi to colour fibre. The show of their fibre art in Madeira Park involved Fibreworks Gallery and the Painted Boat Resort. The Gibsons Landing Gallery closed its doors at the end of November, but assured everyone that it would continue as the Sunshine Coast Artists Co-operative.
Highlight: The Gibsons Public Art Gallery held two art auctions this year, both for good causes. The first was organized to raise funds for two families of Syrian refugees; the second was to help Habitat for Humanity. Once again the many artists in our community subsidized the auction in part with their generous contributions. GPAG volunteers Patricia and Murray Drope were honoured for their work at a volunteer celebration of excellence.
Literary Leaps
Junco Jan (Janice Williams) published her multi-genre book Mental Case 101: Trussed Issues in January and it motivated a hard look at the need for certification for counsellors.
Coast writers got together in February at an event organized by a provincial writers’ federation and The Writers’ Union of Canada for readings, workshops and general schmoozing. A history of Gambier appeared in Island of Dreams, authored by Derek Grant.
Three Coast publishers were nominated in the BC Book Prizes in 2016: Harbour Publishing, Nightwood Editions and Caitlin Press. Poet Marion Quednau and her lyrical colleague Heidi Greco made sure that April, poetry month, was celebrated at the Gibsons Library. Author Blair McDowell from Gibsons published her fifth romantic suspense book, Where Lemons Bloom, while another author, Maggie Rayner, who had grown up in Gibsons, generated controversy with her book, In Polygamy’s Shadow.
Students of School District No. 46 expressed themselves in an annual version of Coastal Voices, a collection of their stories and poems. Three non-fiction titles were wildly diverse, yet all with Coast connections: Boats in My Blood by Barrie Farrell, No Horseshoes in Heaven by Carole Herder and The Velvet Rope by Brent Lymer. Not to be outdone, the novelists took up the pen. Robert MacDonald of Gibsons launched his book, The Red Thread, Bernadette Calonego’s fourth novel, Stormy Cove, was an exciting read, and Joan Haggerty wrote a nostalgic, complex novel, The Dancehall Years, about Bowen Island. Marion Crook’s helpful book on adoption was published in summer, while travel writer Judi Lees turned her attention to novel writing in Lester’s Gift.
The books continued to pile up: The Banker and the Blackfoot by J. Edward Chamberlin was a fascinating historical account of some early Albertans. Escape from Rindorn was the first in a series of fantasy adventures from Bart Eriksson. A children’s book, Adventure on Whalebone Island, by M.A. Wilson has already found an audience among Coast kids. Coast cartoonist Jon Izen illustrated a book on prostate cancer authored by his brother Michael Izen, Finger Up the Bum.
The Rosetta Man is a sci-fi novel with likeable characters by Davis Bay author Claire McGague, while Stalking Geraldine by Land Rover aficionado Ray Wood was the final publication from Garden Bay publisher MW Books.
Highlight: Mary Burns’ book, The Reason for Time, is one of her best – written in the voice of her protagonist, an Irish immigrant in Chicago. Another winning book is Joe Denham’s Governor General’s Liter-ary Award nominated prose poem, Regeneration Machine. The true highlight of the literary scene is the long-running Festival of the Written Arts in August – always a good time, always laughter and tears.
Dance On
The Coast Academy of Dance (CAD) held its annual dance recital spectacular in June. Dancers from CAD shone in competition in Vancouver. The wee Highland Dancers from Danceworks Academy in Gibsons also did well at competition in May.
A young dancer from the Coast, Megan Doyle, was selected for a Team Canada dance competition in Germany. The Source Dance Company visited the Coast again to give a dynamic show involving local dancers. Dancing flash mobs sprang up everywhere – even the local Grandmothers and Grand-others got in on the act.
Highlight: After auditions and months of rehearsal, The Nutcracker once again brought stars to the eyes of young student ballet dancers. It was the fifth annual super lavish production from www.coastingalongtheatre.org.
Perfect Performances
The self-described Bipolar Princess, Victoria Maxwell, offered useful and productive workshops to build confidence in stage performance. Stickboy, an opera about bullying by spoken word artist Shane Koyczan, was performed at Chatelech Secondary by Vancouver Opera. At Elphinstone Secondary, some word savvy students memorized and recited memorable poetry for a national competition. Deer Crossing, the art farm, took up residence at Sunnycrest Mall in a pop-up project, involving puppets and art-making for many visitors of all ages.
The famous play Blithe Spirit was a hit for Driftwood Players in March. Driftwood Theatre School students celebrated 500 years since the death of William Shakespeare with their own show at the Heritage Playhouse in his honour. Langdale Elementary kids enjoyed a Glee performance on a carnival theme. A new musical theatre ensemble presented a junior version of Into the Woods in March. The Artesia Coffee House and Music in the Landing continued in the fall and summer respectively; they were joined by a new event, Slow Sundays in the Creek.
Pride Week in June put on many events, including a reading, a dance, a film and a march along the Davis Bay seawall. Miss Berni G and Susie Francis teamed up to put on a show at the Roberts Creek Hall that celebrated everything Canadian in music and story. The S.C. Museum and Archives went through some serious renovation in 2016 and one of its supporters, Dale Peterson, took folks on heritage walks in Gibson’s Landing.
An elder of the music community, Nikki Weber, arranged a talent showcase for youth in July. Some of the same talented kids showed up at Sea Cavalcade in Gibsons to sing and dance for the audience. The Rogue Arts Festival in its inaugural year put on a great show in August of music, performance, crafts, workshops and skits. An interesting collaboration of cultures – Filipino with First Nations – took place at the YMCA camp in a program called Babaylan.
The Sechelt Arts Festival put on ten days of a dynamic showcase that included recording artist Kinnie Starr, pianist/composer Nir Blu, the acappella group Vocal Intent, a contemporary music event organized by Steve Weave, an art exhibition on the theme of water at the Seaside Centre and a host of workshops and family oriented events. The Funtastics lived up to their name in November and took their amateur singing, dancing, joking production on a sentimental journey to the days of TV’s Laugh-In.
David Short directed Mac Dodge, Bryan Carson, Tim Anderson and a dog called Montmorency in Three Men in a Boat, performed in October. Soon after, Short was back at rehearsal, this time directing the annual radio play, How the Grinch Stole Christmas. Richard Austin Borthwick offered his mellow voice to the radio play and to a rendering of Dickens’ A Christmas Carol at St. Hilda’s Church.
Highlight: There were so many good performances at festivals and theatres, but Tinkers takes the lead. This production put on by The Only Animal Theatre Troupe took place in the forest near Crystal Creek with the audience moving through the cleverly designed stage sets. It was unique and original. Kudos to Kendra Fanconi and the 35-member cast and crew.
Film Fest
The Sunshine Coast Film Society kicked off the year with a visit from a founding Raging Granny, Barbara Seifred, accompanied by a chorus of local Grannies at one of their many presentations.
The Green Films series continued to show films of environmental interest. Gordon Halloran, artist and filmmaker, presented his Body of Light film about art and healing in February. Synnove Godeseth of Grantham’s Landing won a grant from Telus’s Storyhive to work as a producer on a short film, Never Better: A Closure Comedy.
Highlight: David Roche and Marlena Blavin raised funds to make their documentary Love at Second Sight about their work in schools to help kids with acceptance of self and others. The film premiered in Vancouver and its launch was accompanied by tales from Coast story-tellers.
The Music Played On
Motet, a chamber ensemble, opened 2016 with their seasonal performance at St. Hilda’s Church. Joe Stanton and Simon Paradis, the folk/roots duo, demonstrated they were brothers in music, if not in life. The Chamber Music Festival brightened up January with a weekend of Brahms and Schumann in Madeira Park. Coast Recital Society continued their stellar season with the Vogler Quartet in February. The Pender Harbour Music Society put on monthly coffee houses and a concert series. The Creek Big Band held several concerts and dances throughout the year – the first was to celebrate the music of the late Dal Richards. The Heritage Playhouse produced some fine touring acts, beginning with Valdy and Gary Fjellgaard in February.
Joel Fafard launched his latest CD and DVD package, Fowl Mood, while Matthew Lovegrove took time from his Museum duties to show us his techno/folk side on his recording. The Festival of the Performing Arts opened with piano competition and helpful critique for young musicians. It closed with the Festival Highlights concert in early May.
A group of young fiddlers raised money the best way they knew how, by playing for the public at Persephone Brewing, and later they took their educational trip to Ireland where they learned more about their music’s origins. Janice Brunson led the Suncoast Concert Band in April’s presentation and announced her retirement as conductor. Edette Gagne, the Symphony Orchestra’s artistic director, brought the Vivaldi Chamber Choir to the Coast.
Young vocalist Jada McKenzie-Moore was helped by the community to raise money for her participation in Team Canada’s international competition. The Messiah Choir chose May for their presentation, and they were closely followed by a weekend of contrasting music, the Pender Harbour Blues Festival. The Gibsons Landing Jazz Festival didn’t let the rain stop the music or the dancing in the streets. Some of the jazz fans even paused to play at the public piano that appeared under the bus shelter in Lower Gibsons for the season. The Summer Choir gave an outstanding concert, while the Pender Harbour Jazz Festival featured a smorgasbord of jazz genres on the weekend and gospel music on Sunday morning. Steve Weave’s mash-up music drew lots of curious young people to his event during the Sechelt Arts Festival.
Young pianist Sophie Malcolmson earned gold from the Royal Conservatory of Music in provincial competition. Vocal Intent sang songs of peace on Remembrance Day.
The SCCO’s Christmas Magic concert drew a full house and all joined in on the traditional Sleigh Ride tune. They welcomed the new Suncoast Concert Band conductor, Tak Maeda. Many choirs joyfully sang songs of the season: A Cappella Strait, Choralations Children’s Choir, Suncoast Phoenix Community Choir, Pender Harbour Choir, JavaJazz, Music Makers Adult Choir and Arbutus Sounds Chorus.
Highlight: The Coast Chamber Strings under the direction of Sarah Poon joined the Sunshine Coast Community Orchestra (SCCO) family. At their spring concert, the SCCO fielded an unusual sight, four female conductors: Poon, Janice Brunson, Edette Gagne and Kathleen Hovey.
Happy New Year to all artists in every discipline and their supportive fans!
