Arts Cuts: Make Your Voice Heard

The BC Liberal Government has proposed massive cuts to arts funding over the next few years. If you are an artist, have artistic children, or if the arts in any form have enhanced your life PLEASE contact your MLA and encourage your tribe to do so too.

Be informed, check out the Stop Arts Cuts website: http://www.stopbcartscuts.ca/

Apparently ‘ink’ petitions are more powerful, so get out your pen and write right now! This blog has some great guidance: http://stopbcartscuts.wordpress.com/

I can’t even begin to articulate how opposed to the cutting of 92% of the funding allocated to Arts in BC over the next few years I am. At the Wrecking Ball, an fund raising event put together by the vibrant theater community, the statistics were presented so colorfully and humorously. In the new year the government is going to be making some big budget related choices, NOW IS THE TIME TO CONTACT YOUR MLA. I don’t feel like reiterating the facts, I just want to remind you that your voice counts and now is the time to speak out.

If you Twitt follow these great tweeps:
http://twitter.com/AllianceArts
http://twitter.com/stopbcartscuts

May BC remain a colorful province. May artists everywhere be victorious. :: Creativity Counts ::

 

88 blocks: Art on Main

88 Blocks: Art on Main

There is another wacky fun art initiative happening in Vancouver. The Main Street corridor is hosting a public art program which has been kicked off with A BRIGHT FUTURE by Instant Coffee, Vancouver/Toronto based artist collective that has been keeping me in the know for a few years now. The fun installations will be comprised of temporary works on display until April 30th with some permanent displays. Blanket Bus: Imagine a random number 3 trolley bus covered in bright afghan blanket patterns. Instant Coffee 500: Walk inside another trolley and see artworks commissioned by Instant Coffee from artists in North, Central, and South America as well as Europe, in the place of paid advertisements. You can use your preferred choice of media (text 604.779.0008 or online www.instantcoffee.org) and vote on your favorite piece. The winner will be announced at the event launch this Saturday, January 17th from 7-10PM at the launch’s co-host VIVO 1965 Main Street, and will get to grace the full exterior of a third number 3 bus.

Other works you will see adding some spice to Main Street is a bus shelter on Main and 20th suited with S.A.D. lights! I could use a little light therapy right now… (Instant Coffee Light Bar Bus Shelter installation). Say Nothing in Bright Colours will permanently adorn sandwich boards bearing hand painted slogans installed on the sidewalk at my old stomping grounds; Main and 22nd as well as Main and 20th.

afghan wrapped buses!

May contemporary art swell up in this city and invade a street corner or public transit device on a more frequent basis.

On my stove top: a pot of water boiling fresh ginger and turmeric with a few cardamon pods.

 

creative weave

On the eve of yet another beautifully intense, round, life-provoking full moon I found myself unable to stay home after a long day of work and meetings, so I rounded up Sarina & Solen, my infamous young apprentices, and headed down to the cultural beacon here in Vancouver, the VAG. I make a point of going to galleries when I visit a city, and make a point of staying current with the major galleries of the city I live in and a few smaller favorites as well.

Jeff Wall’s work is being exhibited and I felt drawn to see his works again. I have seen his works and attended an artist talk a few years back in my days of involvement with the CAG, but was very excited to see him in the gallery this evening. He was giving a private tour to some of the subjects of his photographic works, a collection of homeless/street youth, it was a very special event. As there was a crowd around him it was easy to stand in the back with other gallery folk and listen to his engaging talk. I enjoyed serendipitously running into his little tour of the exhibition at the beginning and having the chance to hear him speak about his creative process as he brilliantly fuses the creative with the technical. I think what I enjoy about his works, aside from the brilliant light coming from behind the images, is that he treats his works as if they are a movie, there is a production involved. His images always have such a story to tell, and much to say about the world we live in. And the city I live in.

I also enjoyed Kai Althoff’s exhibition, especially the collaborative instillation: The Weaving Place showcasing the work of San Fran artist Travis Joseph Meinholf, inventor of the Laser-Loom! The room was filled with weaving projects that you can work on, a modified handloom, woven fabrics, spindles, quilts and more! I was in heaven. Art and hand made textiles all under one roof! The instillation examines alternative methods of producing goods and really showed the beauty of fabrics made by hand, there is no comparison for me.

Equally as impressive was Evelyn Roth’s Environment for Reading Recycled from 110 Sweaters, 1974, a part of the WACK! Art and the Feminist Revolution exhibition. A tipi-like structure was knit from the yarn of old sweaters with a light hanging from the middle. It was a beautiful work in alternative/sustainable media transforming the environment within the gallery.

Sarina and Solen’s favorite was Martina Minujin & Richard Squires’ Soft Gallery, 1973. Imagine a room created out of many mattresses and you could bounce freely or chill and watch a movie playing on the suspended tv. Or take a nap as one patron did. Solen polished his great somersault in the air move.

youth appreciating the arts

I am off to drink some tea and have a good conversation with the moon that is full. Weaving my kaleidoscopic-like roles that I have back into my heart.