City of Kelowna Art’s & Culture Update
Culture is an important part of what makes Kelowna a great city. Here’s the latest arts, culture and heritage news and events…
Upcoming dates:
- November 15-18: New Vintage Theatre’s The Comeback of the Christmas Belles
- November 18: Ponderosa Fibre Arts Guild Annual Artisan Sale
- November 21: The Well-Read Leader Series: The Non-Profit Strategy Revolution Workshop
- November 22: UNDRIP: A Reading Circle for Reconciliation
- Now until February 18: Wolves: The Art of Dempsey Bob exhibition
- Now until February 19: Okanagan Heritage Museum’s La Nostra Famiglia Italiana: Our Legacy in Kelowna
The Well-Read Leader Series, wraps up its last session with the Non-Profit Strategy Revolution workshop led by professional non-profit consultant, Veronica Vinge and hosted by the City of Kelowna.
Just in time for the 2024 planning cycle, you’ll review the Non-Profit Strategy Revolution by David Lia Piana. Learn to clarify your competitive advantage; generate a strategy screen – criteria for evaluating strategies to be able to respond quickly; and handle the big questions.
Understand real engagement and participate in a strategic planning process and create a plan that helps to guide your organization to achieve your vision, mission, and goals.
- Tuesday, October 17, 11:30 a.m. – 1 p.m.
- City Hall, Meeting Room
Learn more and register online.
Join a Reading Circle for Reconciliation
The Truth and Reconciliation Commission made the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) the centerpiece of its Calls to Action. Its final report states that “the Declaration provides the necessary principles, norms, and standards for reconciliation to flourish in twenty-first-century Canada.” Both the Government of Canada and the churches that operated residential schools were called by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission to adopt the Declaration as the framework for reconciliation and to implement its principles, norms, and standards in their policies and programs.
Hosted by the City of Kelowna, and in partnership with the Next Steps to Walking the Reconciliation Path, the Reading Circle will enable participants to become familiar with the content of UNDRIP. Each participant will have the opportunity to read Articles of the Declaration using a virtual “circle” format.
- Wednesday, November 22, 11:30 a.m. – 1:30 p.m.
- Virtual (online) circle format
Learn more and register online.
Discover Kelowna’s Italian Canadian history
The Italian Canadian community has a long history in Kelowna. In the 140 years since Giovanni Casorso and Carlo Guaschetti arrived, Italians have contributed to shaping agriculture, industry, business and culture in the Okanagan. Their legacy remains an integral part of the region’s past, while new generations continue to enrich Kelowna today.
Co-created by the Kelowna Museums Society and the Kelowna Canadian Italian Club, the exhibition highlights the history of Italians in Kelowna. Displays lead visitors through four key eras of Italian immigration to the region. See artifacts, archival photographs, multimedia elements and personal stories at the Okanagan Heritage Museum‘s exhibition, on now until February 19, 2024.
For more information visit kelownamuseums.ca.
Don’t miss the amazing art of Dempsey Bob
The Kelowna Art Gallery is currently exhibiting Wolves: The Art of Dempsey Bob until February 18, 2024.
Wolves offers a personal encounter with Dempsey Bob, one of the leading carvers of British Columbia’s Northwest Coast, and an immersive experience of the Tahltan and Tlingit mainland cultures. It is the first-ever retrospective of Dempsey Bob’s remarkable career, spanning five decades from the 1970’s to today.
Audiences will have the rare opportunity to see a critical selection of masks, panels, wall sculptures, and vessels, complemented by the artist’s work in bronze casting, goldsmithing, printmaking, and vestment production.The exhibition is accompanied by a fully illustrated hard cover book featuring the artist’s life stories and legends entitled Dempsey Bob: In His Own Voice.
Learn more at kelownaartgallery.com/exhibitions
Get in the Christmas spirit with New Vintage Theatre
The Belles are back! After five long years and a worldwide shut down, fans have been clamoring for the vintage Christmas Belles’ return. But are the Belles ready to step back into the spotlight? The answer is a resounding yes!
Enjoy The Comeback of the Christmas Belles, November 13-15, featuring live music, and talents of local musicians and artists at the New Vintage Theatre.
More information and purchase tickets online.
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 two outstanding local youth creatives who will each contribute content as representatives for the Creative Youth Perspective program.
Daisy Smith is a 15-year-old West Kelowna based abstract artist, graphic designer, and transgender activist. She uses bold, geometric designs and light multi-media techniques to portray themes of love, friendship, healing, diversity, connectedness, and most of all, the culmination of all those things: humanity.
Daisy shares her art and thoughts on social change:
Dark synths, the feel of concrete, and everlasting hope is what I want you to imagine as you look at this street art inspired piece. To me, those are classic signs of protest; whether it be musically, politically, or socially. Historically, social change has often needed a driving force of passionate protestors to be the voltage of change for the complex circuit we all call life.
The image I sampled for this piece is one I took of a chalk drawing at a protest for my own human rights in October. The protest was a response to the loud negativity of an earlier demonstration, protesting the right for transgender children like myself to exist safely in school. “Think of the children!” they spout as they actively attempt to make the world more unsafe for millions of kids. It was truly inspiring to see how many people showed up in support of me and my fellow trans folk, and to meet people who could relate to experiences I’ve had as a result of my gender identity. What was beautiful about that gathering was that it was not just a protest; it was a demonstration of trans joy. Trans joy that lit up the city, and lit up the countless people there. No matter what, I will always be utterly and completely proud that I am trans, and that I can express myself so freely and share my experience with others.
Many think that I may wish I was born as a cis girl. While certainly others feel that way, I am glad I am trans. The experiences and feelings I have experienced before and during my transition have informed who I am so proud to be today. If I were to make a utopian world, trans people would still exist in it.
Back to the artwork, I was partly inspired by Tyler, the Creator’s groundbreaking 2019 album IGOR for the feel of it. The rough feel of the artwork reflects the rough synths and pitched vocals found on the record. As for the sayings, they are simple, yet effective and true. No matter how hard the naysayers try, trans people exist in the future. We exist in the past. And you better believe that we exist in the present. Trans joy lives here, and so do we, and that’s a wonderful thing!
Take care, reader, and remember that you are beautiful in every definition of the word.
