Go Nanaimo Blog

Fresh faced and ready to show the world! Graduation is steadily approaching and this year’s Vancouver Island University art students are thrilled to present a group exhibition titled Explorations, held at the downtown Nanaimo Art Gallery from March 20 to April 10, 2010. They welcome everyone to attend the opening reception between 7 and 9 pm on Friday, March 19, 2010. All exhibiting artists will be in attendance for this special event.

For many of these students this exhibition has been years in the making. Most have pursued visual arts through a minor in their undergraduate degrees. Typically, this accomplishment assists their chosen concentration and usually takes four years to complete. Explorations marks the end of their studies in the visual arts at Vancouver Island University.

As part of their curriculum, the graduating class must prepare and exhibit a selection of their most recent works. Usually, this takes place at the Nanaimo Art Gallery campus location. However, this year will be the first time the gallery’s downtown location, 150 Commercial Street, is hosting the event. The students are very excited about this new opportunity and hope it will entice the public to come out and join in.

Given the nature of the arts programs at Vancouver Island University, the selected works illustrate a wide range of mediums and techniques. Students develop their skills through exploration and challenge; continuously adopting new ways of approaching their art making. They are given the freedom to discover who they are as artists amongst peers. During the years of studies they work hard to find their own identity and hope to emerge with a well rounded perspective.

This year’s exhibit will showcase the scope of efforts from the current graduating art students. It gives the community an opportunity to see what talents have been locally culminated. There will be plenty of variety and plenty of excitement! Please join the gallery in welcoming the upcoming graduates into the Nanaimo art community. You could be the first to discover your next great investment piece! For more information call the gallery at 250-754-1750.

A mine operated by the Vancouver mining company Goldcorp Inc is arousing controversy. Residents near the Marlin Mine in Guatemala say toxic cyanide used to separate gold particles from the ore is creating health problems for their children.

Shakespeare meets Mendelssohn on Saturday, March 20, 2010, at 7:30 pm as the Vancouver Island Symphony, under the direction of Pierre Simard, presents A Midsummer Night’s Dream. All the characters from Puck to Oberon will be portrayed in a mindboggling presentation by Nanaimo’s own Maureen Thomas as the orchestra plays the musical score composed by Felix Mendelssohn. Also on the program is music by Robert Schumann in celebration of his 200th birthday, and Pangea by Vancouver composer Jeffrey Ryan, telling of a future together in unity. Tickets for this Port Theatre event can be reserved by calling 250-754-8550. There will be pre- and post-concert talks.

Also on Saturday, March 20, 2010, the symphony will present the NoteworthyKids Open Symphony Rehearsal, a free Port Theatre community event, from 12:30 to 1:30 pm. Directed by Pierre Simard, the VI Symphony will be rehearsing for their performance of A Midsummer Night’s Dream that evening. Donations are welcomed and will go towards the NoteworthyKids Music Fund for their free community program. For more information call the VIS at 250-754-0177.

Supporting Employment Transitions is hosting a Hiring Fair in downtown Nanaimo from 1 to 4 pm on Tuesday, March 23, 2010. Over 30 employers, representing a variety of job opportunities, will converge on the Vancouver Island Conference Centre on Commercial Street. Numerous industries will be represented including health care, finance, tourism, sales, security, retail, education, armed forces, RCMP, corrections, recreation, hospitality, human services, food and beverage, and trades. In addition, local post-secondary training institutions and service providers will be available to answer questions.

The Supporting Employment Transitions Hiring Fair is an ideal opportunity for those searching for employment to meet and talk with several prospective employers at one location. Come prepared by dressing for an interview and arrive with enough resumes to distribute to employers. Let this be your opportunity to make that important first impression. For more information call Janet McDonald at 250-714-0085.

How do you put some zing in the start of spring? By attending the Yellow Point Drama Group’s Spring Variety of One Act Plays and Music, of course. This series will be at Cedar Community Hall on March 11, 12, 13, 19, 20, 26, and 27, 2010. Each evening’s entertainment will begin with a musical presentation: Bob Harrison on March 11, Bobbi Schram on March 12 and 13, Mary Murphy on March 19 and 20, and Sarah Wood on March 26 and 27. Sarah is a noted composer and musician who may give her audience a sneak preview of some songs from her upcoming musical.

The musical performances will be followed by three one-act plays: Closet Madness by Murray Schisgal and directed by Barrie Baker; Two Crooks and a Lady by Eugene Pillot and directed by Armando dos Santos; and the world premier of The Morticians written and directed by local artist Richard Broad.

The Morticians or How to Make a Dime on Another Man’s Demise is an original black comedy. Michael Hamper portrays Bartholomew, a sophisticated, yet devious mortician, while Vincent Wells is Cyril, a low life scum of a mortician, and Albert Seibold is The Body. The Morticians takes us into an 1800’s bedroom where competition for profitably burying the recently demised is reaching feverish heights (or lows). The play expounds on a human condition replete with darkness, a fight scene, and a few timely laughs.

The artistic producer and stage manager of The Morticians is Meldy Wilton whose Wilton-Broad Players production of Parlour Games by Brian March won awards for Best Overall Play, Best Actress (Evelyn Applin), and Best Director (Meldy Wilton) at the 2009 Vancouver Island One Act Play Festival.

Don’t miss these fine musical performances, followed by three very distinct one-act plays, at Cedar Community Hall, 2388 Cedar Road, Nanaimo, across from the graveyard. The doors open at 7 pm and the performances start at 7:30 pm. For reservations call 250-722-3067. Tickets ($15) are also available at the door, while they last. The Saturday, March 20, 2010, performance includes a decadent buffet ($30).

Headliners School of Performing Arts, 165 Fraser St. beside Mrs. Riches Restaurant, Nanaimo, formerly known as the Blues Underground/Sky High Productions, is presenting a Sidewalk All-Star Rock Showcase at 7 pm on Friday, March 5, 2010. This fabulous show will be at the Nanaimo Entertainment Center, 46 Nicol Street, aka the Caprice Theatre.

This event will conclude the forth term of the Sidewalk All-Stars School of Rock Program. The school is pleased to offer a line up with bands which sound absolutely fantastic. See CoalTown, Short & McWade, Echo Chamber, Fender Bender, and Foreign Influence live at this all ages event. Performers in the bands range from ages 12-23. The music will include rock classics such as Led Zeppelin, Rolling Stones, AC/DC The Who, The Beatles, Kansas, Blues Oyster Cult and many more. This term the performers created music videos that will be premiered at the theatre on the big screen for this finale event. The performing bands will be seeing these videos for the first time.

Headliners is currently taking registration for its next term and this show is a great way to see what their programs are all about. This is going to be a lot of fun with the premier of their music videos shown in the old theatre. Join the bands for a night of high energy rock and roll at the Caprice Theatre! Tickets are $5 at the door. For more information call Manda Chelmak at 250-753-2323 or 250-616-6242.

Nanaimo Chamber Orchestra

The Nanaimo Chamber Orchestra is presenting 18^th Century Musical Genius – wise, witty, soul-stirring classics served up fresh and a-live at 7:30 pm on Friday, March 26, 2010, at Brechin United Church, 998 Estevan Road, Nanaimo. And if that feast of music just isn’t filling enough, there’s a second serving on Saturday, March 27, at 2 pm, just a short ferry ride away at the Gabriola Island Community Hall, 2200 South Road. The program includes Tomaso Albinoni’s Concerto a Cinque for Oboe and Strings – played soulfully by Gabriola Islander Toby Macklin; Symphony No. 77 by Joseph Haydn; Water Music by George Frideric Handel; and Piano Concerto No. 27 by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart being performed by Nanaimo’s Rie Okamura. Featured performers include soloist Toby Macklin on oboe and guest artist Rie Okamura on piano, under the musical direction of Karl Rainer. Admission is $20 adults, $10 students, and under 12 free. Nanaimo tickets are available at the Port Theatre Ticket Centre 250-754-8550, while Gabriola tickets are sold by the Village Liquor Store, 575 North Road.

Nanaimo’s Western Edge Theatre has announced that its production of Copper Thunderbird, originally scheduled for late March, 2010, will be postponed to October, 2010.

“This is a result of the provincial government’s cuts to the arts — specifically, the loss of gaming funding,” says Western Edge artistic producer Frank Moher. “In our case, we lost $10,000, or 20% or our annual budget. We had hoped we might be able to make up the amount with funding from the Canada Council, but that application was recently turned down. The postponement will allow us to further fundraise for the production — and, hopefully, the provincial government will reverse itself on its decision to severely cut arts funding, and our gaming funding, along that of many other organizations, will be restored. We’ll begin to know more about that after the budget speech on Tuesday.”

Western Edge is the third Nanaimo arts organization to be hit by the cuts. In October, 2009, the Vancouver Island Children’s Festival ceased operation after 10 years when its gaming funding was pulled. In January, 2010 the Nanaimo Blues Society announced that it would not mount its popular Summertime Blues Festival in 2010, citing, among other factors, “the severe reduction in available arts funding.”

Moher says that, one way or another, the show will go on. “We remain committed to producing ‘Copper Thunderbird,’ he notes, “and hope this delay will just whet the appetite of our audience for this extraordinary theatrical biography of the late and great artist, and former Nanimoan, Norval Morrisseau.” Specific dates for the rescheduled production will be announced later in the year.

The Brant Wildlife Festival is celebrating it’s 20th anniversary during the 2010 International Year of Biodiversity. Events run from March 5 to April 28, 2010, while the Brant geese and other wildlife rest and feed on Vancouver Island shores on their way to their northern breeding grounds.

The 2010 Brant Wildlife Festival kicks off with the 20th anniversary opening night celebration from 7 to 10 pm on March 5, 2010, at the Quality Resort Bayside, 240 Dogwood Street, Parksville. The keynote speaker Marian Adair will talk about Biodiversity British Columbia – Taking Nature’s Pulse, followed by a discussion. Refreshments will be served at a no host bar. Pre-registration is $10 per person.

Saturday, March 6, 2010, is Brant in the Bay Family Day from 10 am to 1 pm at Parksville Community Park on Corfield Street North on the Parksville waterfront. You’ll learn about Brant geese and witness the amazing phenomena of spring migration with experts. Admission is free. From 10 am to 2 pm it’s Family Day in the Studio at the Oceanside Art Gallery Studio, 133 McMillan St. in downtown Parksville. Children aged six to 12 can create a masterpiece. Pre-registration is $20 per student (adults free with child). From 7 to 9 pm it’s Night Skies – Stargazers Astronomy Night. This event will take place only if there are clear skies; if overcast it will go be March 12. Pre-registration is $5 per person.

Sunday, March 7, 2010, from 10 am to noon there will be a Wild Shores Herring Tour Meet at the Parksville Community Centre, 132 East Jensen Avenue in downtown Parksville. You’ll take a tour along the coast with Guy Monty to see the spring migration in full swing and learn about the life cycle of Pacific herring. It’s $20 per person.

From March 8 to March 12, 2010, the Rathtrevor Provincial Park Nature House in the park three km south of Parksville on Hwy 19a will host a Kids Get To Know nature camp with Robert Bateman. Children will learn about their wild neighbours in the great outdoors and be able to express the natural world in art, photography, and daily journals. Pre-registration for ages 6 to 12 is $20 per day or $90 all five days (9 am to 3 pm).

On Saturday, March 13, 2010, from 6:30 pm to 9 pm, it’s Green Spaces and Wild Places at Beach Acres Resort, 25 Resort Drive near Rathtrevor Provincial Park, Parksville. Mountaineer Peter Rothermel will speak about connecting a network of wildlife corridors with protected parklands and wild spaces in Mount Arrowsmith, followed by a discussion and reception. Pre-registration is $10 per person (no host bar). For more information about any of the above events, call Donna Monty at 250-586-3838 or 1-866-288-7878 or visit www.brantfestival.bc.ca.

The Nanaimo Art Gallery has announced a limited Festival of Banners this year. The theme for 2010 will be The Best of Nanaimo and celebrates community spirit! The gallery, like many other arts organizations, is waiting to learn of decisions regarding funding by the provincial government. So until further notice they are proceeding carefully. Thanks to some of their sponsors they are now able to get started on what they hope is the first phase of this years festival. This may be expanded as they hear about their funding and other various art grants they have applied for.

At this point thanks to sponsors such as Canadian Heritage Building Communities through Arts and Heritage, Thrifty Foods, Nanaimo Port Authority, and the City of Nanaimo’s Festival Fund the gallery is able to offer the banner festival to the district high schools, some public schools, and for the first time ever, free of charge, to underprivileged children and youth through local community groups. The gallery is also currently able to make 50 banners available to be painted by the general public. The number available may be expanded based on future funding news in late spring and early summer.

As it costs approximately $100 to produce a banner, the Nanaimo Art Gallery is dependant on funding to present this festival. Costs to the general public are being held steady at $8 per entry. Banners can still be pre purchased for $25. Entry forms will be available at both gallery locations at 900 Fifth Street and 150 Commercial Street. For more information, call 250-740-6350.