The 33rd BC Interior Jazz Festival, April 8 - 10, 2010, includes middle and high school jazz bands, choirs, and combos from the Central and Southern Interior, Lower Mainland, Vancouver Island and Washington State.  More than 65 groups will be performing this year.  The festival includes adjudicated performances, free workshops for the public, and two evening concerts.  

The featured guest artist for the Friday evening Jazz Masters' Concert is Sunny Wilkinson, and the Michael Garding Big Band will play. The Showcase Concert on Saturday evening has the best of the competing groups performing.

Kelowna Community Theatre
April 8, 9, 10 throughout day - Jazz bands and choirs
April 9, 7:30 p.m.  Jazz Masters' Concert featuring Sunny Wilkinson and guests.  Tickets $25 plus service charge available at selectyourtickets.com, 250 762-5050, and the box office at Prospera Place.
April 10, 7 p.m.  Showcase Concert & Awards Ceremony $5 at the door.

Rotary Centre for the Arts
April 8 all day - Junior, Intermediate, and Senior Combos - adjudicated performances - FREE
April 9 and 10 all day  FREE WORKSHOPS OPEN TO THE PUBLIC
Bring your voice and/or your instrument.

For details visit www.jazzfestbc.ca

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08 Mar 2010

Photo: Cottonwoods resident Mary holds a paper flower that  ArtzZone student volunteer Jade made for her. The flowers and drawings  that were created during the art sessions are displayed in residents rooms and often become conversation pieces for residents, visitors and staff.

Kelowna's ArtzZone Studio has launched a unique new program – Creative Kids At Cottonwoods - in which students aged 6-13 have an opportunity to volunteer at the extended care facility in Kelowna for one hour twice per month. Students work with the senior residents one-on-one creating art that is inspired by interacting and telling stories.

The program is the brainchild of Beverly Rein, the director of ArtzZone Studio and Kellie Schonfeld, a recreational therapist at Cottonwoods. Together, they plan and supervise the activities. The program is open to all students currently taking classes at ArtzZone studio.

The next creative sessions are scheduled to take place at Cottonwoods March 5, April 9 and 23, 2010. The art projects will include card-making using methods of drawing, collage and painting along with creating small sculptures with found objects.

The Creative Kids At Cottonwoods program is meant to encourage intergenerational communications and to contribute to the well-being of both the residents and volunteers. The children benefit from the interaction and exposure to seniors. They gain an awareness of where many seniors live, some of their disabilities and the daily life of elderly people in our community. They also have an opportunity to express themselves and develop self confidence. The senior residents benefit from the interaction and personal attention from the children. They are mentally stimulated by the conversation and the art making tasks. Everyone enjoys the creative process, exchange of life stories and laughter.

Children benefit from engaging in the creative process of making art whether it be through drawing, painting, sculpting, printing or any other art or craft form. They learn technical skills that build visual-spacial abilities and develop an array of mental habits not emphasized elsewhere in the school curriculum. The capacity to be reflective, the willingness to experiment and learn from mistakes, the ability to work on projects for a sustained period of time and to persevere through frustration are all important life lessons. Through art making a child finds her or his own personal voice and learns to express ideas and emotions in healthy ways. Self confidence and a sense of accomplishment are positive outcomes of participating in visual arts programs.

ArtzZone offers both a unique facility and a series of arts instructional programs - tailored to the needs of adults and children - that contribute to the cultural life of Kelowna and the Okanagan.

The ArtzZone Studio exists to provide high quality visual arts instruction to people of all ages in a comfortable environment that encourages creative exploration and personal expression. The studio is a spacious, stimulating, creative space where experimentation is encouraged.

The ArtzZone Programs for both children and adults offer students a solid base in traditional art-making practices, all the while encouraging them to think creatively and to be experimental with art materials and ideas. ArtzZone provides a variety of art workshops and classes for beginners as well as those with years of art making experience. There is a dynamic exchange between participants and instructors in an environment of encouragement and exploration. There is no more dynamic way for children of all ages, and adults, to discover their creative selves.

Beverly Rein, Director of ArtzZone, is an enthusiastic art teacher who loves to share her knowledge and skills with students of all ages. She studied drawing and printmaking at the University of Lethbridge, Art Foundations and 3D studies at Emily Carr University of Art & Design, Art Education at UBC, Painting at the University of California, Hayward, Sumi-e painting in Chiba, Japan and Pastel Drawing at University of Nevada, Las Vegas. She holds a Bachelor of General Studies from SFU and a BC Professional Teaching Certificate. She has many years experience leading art classes with children. She has led many workshops for seniors and has taught classes in Acrylic, Encaustic, Sumi-e and Mixed Media painting at her Studio, at the Kelowna Art Gallery and the Vernon Community Arts Centre. She is on the board of the Arts Council of the Central Okanagan and is a member of the Okanagan Institute's ArtsCare program.

Upcoming ArtzZone Programs:
1. Children: Afterschool art classes, School break art camps, and classes for home schoolers.
2. Teens: Drawing and painting, Anime and Manga, and Portfolio classes and workshops.
3. Adults: Encaustic, Mixed media painting, Watercolour, Sumie Painting classes and workshops.

More information about the Creative Kids at Cottonwoods program is available at the ArtzZone website: www.artzzone.ca

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04 Mar 2010

Ken Smedley & The George Ryga Centre present “The Return of El Mariachi” - a “fiesta of music ” from Ol’ Mexico! Direct from their return engagement to the prestigious International Festival of Mariachis(in Guadalajara, Mexico) EL MARIACHI is a festive musical ensemble that will literally transport audiences into the warmth and joy of Mexican culture. EL MARIACHI’s “return” is anchored once again by former Okanagan resident Terence “Diego” Smedley-Kohl(son of Ken Smedley and Dorian Kohl).

Tickets are now available for “The Return of EL MARIACHI” on the following dates:

Tuesday, March 9 – Zion United Church Hall, Armstrong – 8 p.m.
Tickets at The Final Touch Gallery, Armstrong – Ph. 250-546-1949

Wednesday, March 10 – Minstrel Café & Bar, Kelowna
Dinner: 6 p.m. Show: 8 p.m. Reservations – Ph. 250-764-2301

Thursday, March 11 – Lorenzo’s Cafe, Ashton Creek
Dinner: 6 p.m. Show: 8 p.m. Reservations – Ph. 250-838-6700

Friday, March 12 – Kal Lake Campus Theatre, Vernon
Tickets at The BookNook – Ph. 250-558-0668

Saturday, March 13 – Centre Stage Theatre, Summerland
Tickets at Martin’s Flowers, Summerland(next to Nester’s) – Ph. 250-494-5432
and The Dragon’s Den(Penticton) – Ph. 250-492-3011

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27 Feb 2010

Prominent 2010 Olympiad Artist Rafael Lozano-Hemmer, creator of the "Vectorial Elevations" searchlight artwork in the Vancouver night sky, says BC arts cuts are "9/11 for the arts."
 
Rafael Lozano-Hemmer lives and works in Canada and Mexico. Born in Mexico, he is a Canadian citizen. Now based in Montreal, he at one time lived in Vancouver. His artwork Vectorial Elevations, a highly visible public work involving searchlights in the Vancouver sky, is part of the Cultural Olympiad (the arts component of the 2010 Winter Olympics) and has become one of the most popular of the Olympiad artworks.
 
During a Q&A after his keynote speech at CODE: Dialogues, a 2010 Cultural Olympiad conference, Lozano-Hemmer told an audience that when he learned BC arts funding was to be cut by 90% after the Olympics, he felt that in this context his artwork was "obscene," and said he was dismayed by BC politicians' lack of vision.
 
He expressed a faint hope that the key and visible role of the arts in the Olympics would induce politicians to change their minds. He also said he hoped it would induce Vancouverites to ask themselves  "what is it about these [art] projects that are making this moment special?" He went on to ask "And what if people get used to that and they demand that of their city, to have that kind of vibrancy and cultural stimulation and so forth? What if the politicans were to be [shown] that this is important not just economically, because culture brings in a net worth, but also in terms of quality of life?"
 
A number of Olympiad artists have, despite contract clauses limiting free speech, spoken out about the arts cuts, but not all of them have Lozano-Hemmer's international stature. Lozano-Hemmer represented Mexico at the 52nd Venice Biennale and his work is in the collection of NY MoMA and the Tate Modern and many other key museums worldwide.
 
YouTube video and full transcript of his remarks are here:
http://stopbcartscuts.wordpress.com
Explanation of the "9-11" remark in the video clip: Before Vectorial Elevations was launched, its energy use wasn’t fully understood and the piece was accused of being “an environmental 9-11.” In fact, for its entire month-long run, the artwork uses the same amount of power as only 10 hockey games.
 
For more information please contact Lindsay at Stop BC Arts Cuts: (604) 313-7744 or email: stopbcartscuts@paarc.ca

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23 Feb 2010

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Icons and Idioms

SNOWSELL ON APPLES
» Thursday 18 February 2010 | 5 pm
» The Bohemian Café, 524 Bernard Avenue
An informal afternoon hour showcasing ideas and people in the Okanagan creative economy. Join us as professor and writer Colin Snowsell explores the nature of political and social power in the Okanagan through the story of his family, and launches his chapbook On Apples.

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» $2 at the door. Refreshments are available at a modest cost.
» Seating is limited, please reserve yours HERE

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Writer Follows in Family Tradition of Outspoken Commentary

Who remembers that Kelowna's mayor from 1930 to 1939 was a furniture dealer named O.L. Jones? And that Kelowna voters sent Jones to Ottawa three times - in 1948, 1949 and 1953 - as the CCF candidate for the riding of Yale? Who remembers that his campaign manager was named Snowsell? The Snowsells once owned and operated over 100 acres of orchard land in the Glenmore Valley. This is not, except in the distance cast by history and forgetfulness, their most significant contribution. The Snowsells' greater influence on the Okanagan was in their socialism, in their activism, and in their support of the CCF and the NDP. If they pioneered anything, it was BC socialism.

The Snowsells would be horrified to know history had remembered them as landowners. Their life was spent in struggle against the propertied classes, and from the 1930s to the 1960s they were known for the courage and pigheaded tenacity with which they fought to keep the valley, the province, and the country out of the clutches of conservatives. It just so happened that their struggle was against the two most powerful politicians the province has known.

On Thursday, February 18th at 5 pm the ongoing weekly Okanagan Institute Express series at the Bohemian Café presents Icons and Idioms: Snowsell On Apples. Join us as professor and writer Colin Snowsell explores the nature of political and social power in the Okanagan through the story of his family, and launches his chapbook On Apples.

When you're driving down Snowsell Street - as the old portion of Glenmore Road will be named, as soon as the Glenmore Bypass is operational - you'll be driving down a street named after the one local family that came within a hair of upsetting the conservatives' rise to power. That's the message of On Apples, a chapbook by Colin Snowsell, a writer and professor of Communications at Okanagan College and the great grandson of Edwin and Felicia Snowsell, the pioneer Glenmore orchardists who arrived in the Okanagan in 1925.

"When the city announced it was renaming Glenmore Road, my students started asking me if I was one of THOSE Snowsells," said Snowsell. "What bothered me wasn't that they didn't know who the Snowsells were anymore - Kelowna's a pretty big city now and the name's not that common - but that the city didn't seem to know who the Snowsells were either. Did they own orchards? Yes. But so what? It's what the family did in the community, not so much what they owned, that should be remembered."

Both Felicia Snowsell and her son Frank, former head of the provincial NDP/CCF and one-time MLA for the now-defunct provincial riding of Saanich, opposed W.A.C. Bennett on the ballot in tightly contested races. In the essay - part lament, part revisionist history - Snowsell speculates how Kelowna, and the province, might have looked, had the contests gone a different way.

The novelist Caterina Edwards describes Snowsell, who is also a fiction writer whose novella, entitled The Frollett Homestead, is scheduled for release in March, as "more than a promising writer: he is a full-blown talent."

Colin Snowsell holds a MA in Communications Studies from the University of Calgary. He is finishing a PhD through the Department of Art History and Communication Studies at McGill University.

Snowsell's essays have been published in This Magazine, Maisonneuve and PopMatters. Earlier versions of Snowsell have appeared on MuchMusic (in the role of Calgary alt-indie impresario), obtained a journalism diploma from the Southern Alberta Institute of Technology and worked in corporate communications at Greyhound Canada's head office in Calgary.

Prior to joining the Communications faculty at Okanagan College, Snowsell taught professional communication at the University of Saskatchewan.

FOR MORE INFORMATION AND TO REGISTER ONLINE CLICK HERE

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Icons and Idioms: Snowsell On Apples takes place at the Bohemian Café. This marks the 126th event the Okanagan Institute has held since the Express series got underway in July 2007.
Express has played host to many Okanagan luminaries, including former deputy secretary general of Amnesty International Derek Evans, artists Lee Claremont and Gary Pearson, BC Book Award nominee Don Gayton, CBC Literary prize winner poet Harold Rhenisch, distinguished editor and author Jim Taylor, poet laureate and professor John Lent, animator and filmmaker Jim Cliffe, community activist Don Elzer, dancer David LaHay, architect Jim Meiklejohn, culinary artist and writer Heidi Noble, broadcaster Marion Barschel and many others from a wide range of creative fields.

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The Okanagan Institute is a group of creative professionals that has gathered around the goal of providing events, publications and services of interest to enquiring minds in the Okanagan. We partner with individuals, organizations, institutions and businesses to achieve optimal creative and social impact.
Our mission is to ignite cultural transformation, catalyze collaborative action, build networks and foster sustainable creative enterprises. We invite the participation by all members of the creative community.

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12 Feb 2010