This Friday, Sept. 30, the Sunshine Coast Arts Council celebrates their 50th anniversary with a night of music. Featured are four musical groups. The eclectic mix of performers includes some who have a history of performing that goes back 30 years, while others are just starting out. All can list performances at the Arts Centre as part of their resumes. The musical genres are also varied, ranging from jazz to spiritual, folk to rock and classical to popular selections.
The seven women of Java Jazz love to sing the jazz standards. Gingersnaps and Shortbread are three young fiddlers who met in 2011 as part of the Coast String Fiddlers. They started performing their particular brand of Celtic/folk music under their current moniker in 2015. Paula Seward and the Reflections Choir will be performing their heartfelt renderings of classical, folk, spiritual and popular selections. The evening includes Sounds of the Sound. Under the direction of musician and past Arts Council president Steve Wright, a group of his students from the Sound will be performing some of their original songs. Set up in an informal coffee house format, the kitchen will be serving Treats by Trish and past Arts Council board member and Coast arts maven Linda Williams will be MC for the evening. The evening is a fundraiser for the Sunshine Arts Council and members thank the evening’s performers for donating their performances. Tickets are $10. Doors open at 7:30 p.m. at the Arts Centre, 5714 Medusa (at Trail) in Sechelt. For more information, contact 604-885-5412 or see www.sunshinecoastartscouncil.com
Tina Turner tribute show
Sechelt Legion hosts Hope Beyond Thunderdome, a Canadian military post-tramautic stress disorder (PTSD) awareness tour. Luisa Marshall as Tina Turner has just toured 48 shows across Canada, raising awareness and funds for PTSD issues. She notes that 39 first responders and 12 military members died by suicide in Canada in 2015. First responders, including police, firemen and ambulance paramedics, are the first to attend horrific accidents or murder. Unfortunately, they usually suffer silently with tragic endings, but there are more organizations coming forward to help. Marshall titled the tour Hope Beyond Thunderdome because she performed for the United Nations Peacekeeping Force in a gruelling show tour that included war-torn Bosnia and later Israel and Egypt. The most requested song on both tours was “We Don’t Need Another Hero (Thunderdome),” a metaphor of the state they were in at the time. She has committed $5 of each ticket to the PTSD program with the Sechelt Legion. So far the tour has raised over $26,000 and a lot of awareness. The Tina Turner Tribute Show is at the Sechelt Legion on Saturday, Oct. 1 (showtime 8 p.m.) and at the Gibsons Legion on Saturday, Oct. 15. Tickets can be purchased at either Legion or at www.brownpapertickets.com
Billy Hillpicker
The Billy Hillpicker band will be at Persephone Brewery Oct. 1 starting at 2 p.m. Come on out and tap your toes while you try one on tap. The boys promise a whole lotta fun. Warning: banjos will be played!
Dark Horse
A Sundance winner, Welsh-based documentary Dark Horse recounts the inspirational journey of a long shot. In a beleaguered former coal mining town, one barmaid rallies a group of friends to pool £10 per week each to breed, raise and train a racehorse named Dream Alliance. This is a vision of beautiful horses and class consciousness, dreams and determination. Sechelt: Oct. 1, Raven’s Cry, 2 p.m. Doors open at 1:30. Gibsons: Oct. 3, 7:30 p.m., Gibsons Heritage Playhouse. Doors open 7 p.m. Tickets are $5, $9 for single-event members. See www.scfs.ca for details and upcoming films.
Fall Faire
The One Straw Society is happy to bring you the ninth annual Fall Faire on Sunday, Oct. 2. From noon to 5 p.m., visit the market and from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m., enjoy a stone soup potluck at the Roberts Creek Community Hall. If you would like to be a vendor, donate baked goods for the kitchen, or are interested in volunteering, email James at [email protected]
Brave Mike 5
Junco Jan’s Brave Mike 5 returns Thursday, Oct. 6, 7 to 9 p.m. There is no charge; bring your own snacks and moxie. Bravely read from your work, sing, tell jokes, blow your kazoo! Strict five-minute limit.
On the top floor of Gibsons Cinema, upstairs on the hotel side, park on Home Hardware side.
Fashion show
The Landing Clothing Co. presents a Fall Fashion Show at 6 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 7 at St. Bart’s Church Hall (corner of North Road and Gibsons Way). It’s a fundraiser for the St. Bart’s Food Bank. Events include door prizes, draws, raffles, silent auction and refreshments. Tickets are $15 at Laedeli (Sunnycrest Mall) and Landing Clothing Co.
Gunnars lectures
Abstract Painting in Canada: The First Hundred Years is a series of lectures from Kristjana Gunnars every Tuesday from Oct. 4 through Nov. 1. She traces the story of non-representational painting in Canada from its early stirrings at the beginning of the 20th century to the blossoming practice it is today. Who are the artists? What are they painting? Why are they painting this way? And what makes the Canadian painters unique in the world?
Gunnars is professor emeritus of the University of Alberta and has lectured and written extensively on art, literature and aesthetics for over 30 years. Her previous lectures on the arts were popular and informative (kristjanagunnars.com). The series is at Gibsons Public Art Gallery, 431 Marine Dr. in Gibsons, on Tuesday, Oct. 4 (covering 1920s and ’30s), Oct. 11 (’40s and ’50s), Oct. 18 (’60s and ’70s), Oct. 25 (’80s and ’90s), and Nov. 1 (2000 to present) from 7 to 8:30 p.m. Cost of series is $60 ($50 for members) with a drop-in cost of $15 ($12 for members). Call Michael Aze at 604-886-0531 for more.
HA! show
The HA! returns to Roberts Creek on Oct. 6, 7:30 p.m., at the Legion. After giving an unforgettable show to an overflow house at the Gumboot last October, musician and performer François Le Roux of South Africa and Joke De Baere, poet and spoken word artist of Belgium, bring the HA! Show back to the Creek. Tickets are $15 at the door.
Noon deadline
Send your notice of arts events by Tuesday at noon for Friday’s newspaper to [email protected] or phone 604-886-4692.
