City of Kelowna Arts & Culture March Update
Upcoming dates:
- March 2: Okanagan Screen Awards
- March 7: Heritage Grant Program
- March 8: International Women’s Day
- March 8: Stories & Art: No Longer Hidden
- March 8-9: Wonder(ful) Women of the Okanagan
- March 8: #I am Remarkable
- March 9: Heartfelt: An evening of ballads
- March 14 & 16: Wreckonciliation
- March 19: Ballet Kelowna – taqəš and Other Works
- March 22: Black Cat 10 Minute Play Competition & Cabaret
- March 22-24: KFX 2024
- April 6: REIMAGINE Conference
- April 8: Ballet Kelowna’s In Motion Spring Term
- April 10-14: Pacific Contact 2024
Workshop for non-profits: A few spots left!
It isn’t too late to register for REIMAGINE: Following your vision, building your future!
Join us on April 6 from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. for a non-profit capacity building workshop that is sure to give you tips, tricks and concrete solutions to advance your organization.
Learn from local experts by choosing from a variety of express sessions in subjects that matter most to you. Network with other non-profit leaders, build capacity and create a brighter future for your organization and our community.
This event is over 80% full, so get your tickets today!
Learn more at kelowna.ca/culture.
Cultural Plan Highlight: Boost Vitality at the Street Level
This month we are featuring Cultural Plan Strategy 6.5 Increase the number of new and innovative artistic experiences offered in Kelowna.
Initiatives that support this strategy will encourage the creative sector to experiment with new ways of offering services, lead to the creation of new ideas and opportunities and shift the community’s perspective on the creative sector.
Here are some ways you can support this strategy:
- Take a risk with a new program offering.
- Fund risky, new initiatives in the creative sector.
- Try a new cultural activity that you are curious about.
- Check out our new Artist in Residence below and learn more about his project coming to parks this fall!
Artist Spotlight – Lucas Glenn
Meet our 2023 Artist in Residence
Lucas Glenn (b. 1992, Winfield, BC) is a writer and emerging artist working in installation, digital media, and drawing. Glenn is interested in taking nature-dominating tools and repurposing them as objects for ecological support and care.
His work retools imagery, waste, and industrial equipment to create sporty irrigation systems, rugged compost shelters, and detail-rich dioramas. He attributes his resourceful, D.I.Y. approach to his upbringing in small-town BC.
Glenn received his BFA from University of British Columbia and his MFA from University of Victoria, where he received awards from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council and the British Columbia Arts Council. He continues to exhibit independent and collaborative projects throughout Western Canada.
To learn more about Lucas and his Artist in Residence project visit massivekelowna.com.
Arts and culture events:
Driven, Daring and Dynamic Women!
Want to learn more about local women who challenged social norms and broke barriers during a time where society attempted to keep them in boxes?
Join the Okanagan Heritage Museum as they showcase everyday heroes all the way to the biggest celebrated personalities of the Okanagan.
When? Friday, March 8, 5:30 – 6:30 p.m.
Saturday, March 9, 11 a.m. – 12 p.m.
Where? Okanagan Heritage Museum
Admission by donation.
International Women’s Day
Celebrate fierce women power at Kelowna’s International Women’s Day 2024. Gather to empower, inspire, and uplift each other!
When: Friday, March 8Where: Innovation Centre
Tickets available online.
New exhibition opening March 2
Immerse yourself in Significant Forms, an installation-based group exhibition that will highlight the transformative spaces that artists create.
When: March 1 – June 9Where: Kelowna Art Gallery
WRECKONCILIATION
Mezzo soprano Marion Newman, of Kwagiulth and Stó:lō First Nations with English, Irish and Scottish heritage; Métis soprano Melody Courage, and Algonquin director Yvette Nolan, have teamed up with Opera Kelowna for an evening that upends expectations and invites everyone to take up the joy, and the work, of building a better future together.
When: March 14 & 16
Where: Mary Irwin Theatre
Tickets available at rotarycentre.com
taqəš and Other Works
The taqəš and Other Works program features a stunning lineup of signature works from Ballet Kelowna’s contemporary ballet repertoire. With Cameron Fraser-Monroe’s powerful and compelling taqəš [tawKESH], Guillaume Côté’s mesmerizing Bolero, and Fraser-Monroe’s satirical The Cowboy Act Suite, this high-energy program promises to please a wide range of spectators.
When: March 19
Where: Creekside Theatre
Tickets available at ticketseller.ca
Capacity building and grant opportunities:
Heritage Grant Information Session
Is your property on the Kelowna Heritage Register? Considering an exterior conservation or maintenance project? Please join us for this free public information session on the City of Kelowna’s Heritage Grants Program. Everyone is welcome to attend.
When? Thursday, March 7, 6:30 – 7:30 p.m.
Where? Reid Hall, 2279 Benvoulin Road
Registration is required as seating is limited. Please RSVP by emailing Lorri Dauncey at ldauncey.cohs@telus.net.
For more information, visit kelowna.ca/heritage.
BC’s annual showcase conference for the performing arts
Pacific Contact 2024 will be held from April 10 to 14 and will take place for the first time in Kelowna at the Rotary Centre for the Arts, Kelowna Community Theatre, Metro Hub and the Laurel Packinghouse.
Pacific Contact attracts 250 delegates each year, approximately 100 of these are presenter delegates from BC, across Canada and the US. Delegates include festivals, schools, facility managers, artists, agents, managers, funding partners and industry representatives.
For a list of Showcase Artists and registration information bctouring.org.
Each month, we feature a piece from a local creative youth who shares their words and art as part of our Creative Youth Perspective series. Emily Brolund and Daisy Smith are 2 outstanding local youth creatives who will each contribute content as representatives for the Creative Youth Perspective program.
Daisy Smith shares their inspiration for the piece of art below:
This piece was inspired by a lovely experience I had with my dearest friends under the clear August moon of the beautiful Okanagan valley. There was a meteor shower, and we all decided to do a group voice call online while we looked up at the shooting stars, all while talking about our feelings and recounting stories. We made our own constellations and got excited as the others found them, too. That night, and many others, are ones I fondly look back on when I need assurance and comfort. I value friendship, and my friends, more than anything else. I wholeheartedly adore them all, and I appreciate all they have done for me, and I can only hope to reciprocate that friendship. I feel that modern society has disregarded platonic affection too much in favour of romance, with romance being seen as the only “true” non-familial love. I couldn’t disagree more. I think that not only are romance and friendship much closer than people think, they are of equal importance; if not friendship being more important. It certainly is to me. I owe everything to my friends, they were there for me when I was facing mental health struggles and I know that they will be there for me if it gets to that point again. I think friendship is one of the most beautiful human experiences out there. I wish it was more normalized to tell your friends that you love them, because that really is what friendship is; it’s love. Thank you for reading, and remember to let your friends know how much they mean to you.
