Skip to content
Join our Newsletter

Arts news

ArtWalk needs more venues
66319_l

The Whistler Arts Council has its artists, oh yes, but it could certainly use more venues. It's reaching out to local businesses for help in hosting galleries and events during the annual ArtWalk.

"We're coming up with a lot of interesting initiatives to make it very vibrant this year but we really want more venues to participate. We found last year people were (getting involved) at the last minute, so we just want to hype it up more this year," said Magda Kwaterska, manager of marketing and communications at the WAC.

Art Walk will run from June 20 to August 31 and will feature artists from across the Sea to Sky. Businesses from the Village, Creekside and Function Junction are urged to apply.

Each "gallery" will provide a minimum of six metres of display space for exhibition. The application deadline for artists and businesses is Friday, April 15 at 4 p.m.

Meanwhile, the Whistler Blackcomb Foundation has donated $31,200 to WAC, which has been used for technical upgrades to Millennium Place. These new upgrades include a new DLP projector and projector screen for film screenings, a Midas Venice F audio console to enhance musical performances at the theatre, as well some arts supplies and equipment for workshops and community programming.

 

Become a karaoke idol in Squamish

Karaoke -the bane of unsuspecting patrons walking into the wrong bar on the wrong evening. It frees spirits and causes bleeding ears. It makes people superstars in their own minds and as such will be the highlight of every Thursday night at the Rock Bar and Grill at Chances Boardwalk for the next 10 weeks.

The "Rock Bar Rock Star" karaoke contest is American Idol for Squamish residents. Each night, five - ahem - "singers" will belt out renditions of "Brown Eyed Girl" or  "I Will Survive" or whatever, with one winner chosen by a panel of judges.

"We're searching out the best and the brightest in the karaoke community in the Sea to Sky corridor," says Bianca Peters, director of marketing for Chances Boardwalk Squamish.

The competition is for karaoke singers only, which means no instrumental accompaniment. A panel of "surprise" judges will pick one winner from each night, who will qualify for the semi-finals on June 4, followed by the finals on Saturday, June 11.

The winner will take home $500 cash and will be featured on a Mountain FM morning radio spot with Craig Stone and Karen Horak. Second and third-prize winners will take home $300 and $150 cash.

"We're inviting everyone from Sea to Sky to come down, absolutely," Peters says. "People from Whistler, Pemberton, Mt. Currie, we'd love for them to come down to Squamish."

As for who these "surprise" judges will be, Peters is keeping mum but she is really, really hoping that, given the massive Hollywood shoot currently gripping Squamish in a vampire fever, that one such judge may be Twilight-connected. Maybe.

"We put out a call on the front page of the Chief asking people from Twilight to come. We're getting our feelers out there so hopefully we'll have some people who are interesting judges," Peters says.

Vicious Circle receives grant

It may not seem like a lot of dough but $3,000 goes a very long way for the Vicious Circle.

The Whistler writing group recently received the funding through a BC Arts Council grant. Founder and organizer Stella Harvey said will be put toward the Whistler Readers and Writers Festival that will run October 14 to 16.

And make no mistake - three grand will go a long way to help fund an event that's budgeted at $15,000 on average every year.

"We put on the festival with a very little amount of money, mostly because there's no paid staff. All the money goes to the artists we bring in, the venues that we use and any travel costs," Harvey says.

The Arts Council funding will be dedicated to the festival's speakers. Harvey said that while the list of speakers is still being sorted out, she announced this year's writer in residence as Canadian author Sarah Selecky, whose debut short story collection  was shortlisted for the 2010 Giller Prize.

The Vicious Circle has applied for the grant every year since its inception and was passed over for the first time "in many, many years" in 2010 due to provincial funding cutbacks to the arts. Undaunted, Harvey applied for 2011 and, once again, received the grant.

The BC Arts Council approved almost $3.578 million in grants to 143 artists and arts organizations across the province. This latest round included awards for capacity and sustainability, community and professional arts festivals programming.

Best of VIMFF coming to Squamish

As if once wasn't enough, the Vancouver International Mountain Film Festival (VIMFF) has selected the best films from the festival and plans to bring them to the Howe Sound Brew Pub in Squamish.

Following five nights in Vancouver during the last week of March, VIMFF organizers will show five short films on April 7 and 8, starting at 8 p.m.

Four of the films are Canadian, while the remaining six are from the American, English, German and Kiwi filmmakers, all of which depict remote mountain adventures.

Festival organizers say they have mixed up the programming from the themed nights featured during the five-day Vancouver run.