Spring in Vancouver - an Arts & Culture Round-Up
Credit: Kazutoshi Yoshimura, Chilliwack Tulip Festival
Spring has sprung and Vancouver’s arts and culture scene is in full bloom! Here is a list of some festivals and events you can enjoy this season:
Bloom Abbotsford Tulip Festival
April 15, 2019 - May 17, 2019
Spring is here and our tulips are in bloom. Pack a tasty picnic basket, or visit one of our convenient food trucks on-site and enjoy a fun-filled day with family and friends. Besides a covered picnic area, Bloom is also home to photo cut out boards and a children’s play area. That’s on top of acres upon acres of rainbow-colored fields that are every bit as impressive as they are decorative.
For tickets and more information please visit their website
Chilliwack Tulip Festival
April 10, 2019 - May 5, 2019
Tulips of the Valley started in 2006 in partnership with Onos Greenhouses Ltd, who owns and grows the tulips on the fields. The product from these fields that Onos Greenhouses uses are the tulip bulbs. These bulbs are used in their greenhouse operation to produce cut Tulips that are sold throughout western Canada and the Northern States.
The festival has now grown to become Western Canada's largest and most recognized Tulip Festival!
Early Bloom: April 10 – April 18
Full Bloom: April 19 – May 5 (with possible extension)
Open 7 days/week throughout festival
Saturday, Sunday, and Holidays 9:00am to 7:00pm
Monday – Friday 10:00am to 7:00pm
For more information and to purchase tickets please click here
Vancouver TheatreSports Presents: Throne and Games - The Last Laugh
April 26, 2019 - June 15, 2019 at The Improv Centre
A lonely Queen sits atop the Iron Throne, but her kingdom is under threat from all sides. The final fight between the Lannisters, Starks, and Targaryens is about to go down and everyone will probably die…laughing.
Vancouver TheatreSports™ (VTS) is thrilled to present Throne and Games – The Last Laugh at The Improv Centre on Granville Island every Thursday, Friday, and Saturday at 7:30pm from Friday, April 26 to Saturday, June 15, 2019. This marks the last ‘season’ in VTS’ comedy trilogy, which began in 2015 with Throne and Games – Laughter is Coming and continued with Throne and Games – A Chance of Snow in 2016.
The satirical parody, loosely based on HBO’s popular TV series, will feature some familiar characters along with a myriad of unexpected plot twists as suggested by the audience. Because of this key element, no two performances can be the same. As in its TV inspiration, the audience has no idea what to expect next…and neither do the improvisers.
For more information and to purchase tickets please click here
Spring at the Vancouver Art Gallery
FUSE: Gestures
When: Friday, May 10, 2019, 7:30 PM – 12:00 AM
Where: Vancouver Art Gallery, 750 Hornby Street
Admission: $29 Regular/$15 for Members
Tickets available at vanartgallery.bc.ca and in limited quantities at the door
The spring edition of the city’s best-loved, late-night art party is here. FUSE: Gestures takes over the Vancouver Art Gallery on Friday, May 10, from 7:30 PM until late. For this signature event, guests will step into an electrifying evening of visual art, music, and performance harnessing the power of gesture in various creative forms and expressions.
In dialogue with the Gallery’s spring exhibitions, FUSE: Gestures features artists who alter perceptions and awareness of body and self through diverse experiences and encounters.
Opening FUSE in the forecourt, hip-hop, rap, and soul artist Missy D will light up the night with her exciting blend of old and new school urban music with jazz. As seen at South by Southwest Conference in Austin and JUNOFest, Missy D is a “femcee” whose music draws from a mix of African cultures.
In the first floor rotunda space, Jesse Award-nominated artist Munish Sharma will perform in dialogue with the exhibition Moving Still: Performative Photography in India, which confronts themes of gender and sexuality from a South Asian perspective. Sharma will be presented in Danceboy: Shots Edition, a one-person show he wrote, directed by Gavan Cheema, with sound design by media artist, composer, and musician Kiran Bhumber. This piece follows a boy’s journey into becoming his best self while pursuing his passion for dance.
Kiran Bhumber will also share her own response to Moving Still, as she moves through the galleries outfitted in her self-made, reactive bodysuit, exploring how cultural memory is transmitted, stored and retrieved through the body.
Danielle Wensley is an artist with a disciplinary background in dance whose work oscillates between static and active forms. At FUSE, Wensley will address themes around feminism, body politics and rhythm as they relate to the exhibitions Displacement and Views of the Collection: The Street.
In partnership with New Forms Festival, known for assembling cutting-edge electronic acts, the FUSE Artist Bar will become a hotspot of immersive sound as well as captivating visual projections by local acclaimed media artist Nancy Lee. Founded in 2000, New Forms Media Society is a non-profit society and media arts organization that nurtures and connects Vancouver's creative scenes with artists, thinkers, practitioners, and audiences from around the world through the annual New Forms Festival. The FUSE Artist Bar will kick off with a queer-friendly, hip-hop and rap-infused set by DJ Softieshan, and conclude with a headlining performance by Evy Jane. With her “femme-forward” sets, Softieshan has quickly become one of the city’s favourite DJs and event producers. Evy Jane is the songstress on label NinjaTune, best-known for her 2012 EP King Deluxe.
Tours of the second floor exhibition Mowry Baden will be offered throughout the night. With educators on hand to share insight into the mind of this innovative artist, guests will be encouraged to test out Baden’s participatory works, from reconfigured industrial devices to purpose-built rooms in which ping-pong balls ricochet off the walls.
FUSE: Gestures is curated by Simranpreet Anand and Stephanie Bokenfohr.
During the evening, all four floors of the Gallery’s exhibitions will be on view:
French Moderns: Monet to Matisse, 1850 – 1950
Affinities: Canadian Artists and France
Mowry Baden
Displacement
Moving Still: Performative Photography in India (Opening April 19)
Views of the Collection: The Street (Opening April 19)
Tickets available online at vanartgallery.bc.ca
Exhibitions:
Affinities: Canadian Artists and France (March 1, 2019 - May 20, 2019)
Displacement (March 2, 2019 - June 9, 2019)
French Moderns: Monet to Matisse, 1850-1950 (February 21, 2019 - May 20, 2019)
French Moderns: Mowry Baden (March 2, 2019 - June 9, 2019)
Vikky Alexander: Extreme Beauty (March 2, 2019 - June 9, 2019)
For more information please visit the website
Counternarratives: Watercolour Paintings by Archibald Fairbairn
February 13, 2019 - June 2. 2019
Bill Reid Gallery of Northwest Coast Art, Vancouver BC
The sublime watercolor paintings of Archibald Fairbairn (1888-1979) document the beauty of totem poles and communities during the early 20th century. This exhibition juxtaposes an idealistic painter’s postcolonial gaze with critical discourse from contemporary indigenous voices.
For more information, please visit here