Local Arts

Music, dance, original writing, film, theatre - the Showcase of the Performing Arts (SOPA) has it all. SOPA opens its fourth annual season at the Heritage Playhouse this July 8 with a gala event that gives the audience a taste of classical music.

Sechelt's Jessica Casey sits at her kitchen table almost every day to work on an art form that she finds peaceful and therapeutic - cedar bark weaving in the First Nations tradition.

It was during the war in Iraq that artist Helen Broadfoot first got angry. When she heard stories of the horrors of war she became even madder and wrote to the social activist Noam Chomsky to ask just what she could do.

At a garden party held last weekend, Lois Smith, past president and honourary board member of the Sunshine Coast Dance Society (SCDS) presented dance bursaries worth $500 each to local dancers, Georgina Hardman and Rebecca Gordon.

First, they were called the St. Bart's Artists, meeting to paint at the church of the same name in Gibsons.

Esteemed author Peter C. Newman appeared before an almost full house at Sechelt's Rockwood Pavilion last Saturday night. He began his talk with a lesson in the art of writing. It's not about the dollars, he said, or the glory, but about the reader.

It hasn't been an easy run this year, says Trish Thompson, co-ordinator of the Gibsons banner project, but in the face of delays, all of the artists involved have been supportive.

Foursight, a visual arts show, opens at the Seaside Centre in Sechelt today, (June 17) with a pleasant mix of watercolour and acrylic, scenery and abstract.

Acrylic paintings, pottery, video, fabric, even hand-blown glass, along with a student-written drama were all featured at Elphi's Fine Arts Night on June 9. The work of the many skilled teens proved rich in variety and talent.

Home Before Dark is a recently published teen adventure novel by local author Jo Hammond. It is a swift, tightly-written read designed for 12 year olds and up, and adults will find it entirely enjoyable, too.