Cultural Events supported by Vancouver 125
The City of Vancouver is proud to support dozens of Vancouver cultural organizations through
Vancouver 125 – the events below are all part of the 125th anniversary celebrations and
Vancouver’s year as a Cultural Capital of Canada. Visit CelebrateVancouver125.ca for updates
on the calendar of events during 2011.
PuSh International Performing Arts Festival
January 18 - February 6, 2011
Various venues city-wide, including: Performance Works, 100 Water St. in Gastown, Vancouver
streets, Studio T and Fei & Milton Wong Experimental Theatre at SFU Woodward's.
An expanded version of the PuSh Festival, the 125th Anniversary Series explores the idea of
‘cityness.’ The main program involves 18 shows, 110 performances and 11 venues. Highlights
include La Marea, a free site-specific work co-presented with Boca del Lupo in Gastown, 100%
Vancouver, a community–engaged performance of 100 everyday Vancouverites, Cartographic
Exploits, a 1-day symposium on mapping as a creative practice, Portraits in Motion, a
‘flipbook’ of images projected onto large screens, and more. www.pushfestival.ca
La Marea
January 18 – 22, 2011, (7-9pm)
Vancouver's Gastown, (0-100 block of Water Street)
At night and in real time in Gastown’s streetscapes, Boca del Lupo Theatre Society presents
nine different secret stories in La Marea. Whether on the pavement, in storefronts or on
restaurant patios, nine scenes are performed concurrently and repeated 10 times. Audiences
move between sections watching the action, and reading projected subtitles to reveal the
characters’ thoughts and life-stories. An investigation of the cityscape, La Marea reveals the
intimate lives of individuals amidst the collective hustle of a seemingly anonymous urban
experience. La Marea is free and audience is welcome to come and go as they please. Dress
warmly. www.bocadellupo.com
Counter Mapping
January 18 – 29, 2011
Roundhouse Community Arts and Recreation Centre, Gerry Thorne Exhibition Gallery
As part of the PuSh International Performing Arts Festival, Urban Crawl presents Counter
Mapping. This visual art exhibition appropriates mapping technologies and disrupts the
authority of maps to flatten and deaden the complex social worlds of Vancouver. Working
across disciplines, artists deploy a range of tactics in their rewriting of the urban landscape. In
Counter Mapping, we move from tracking individual lines of inquiry through GPS to
impersonating tour guides in offering alternative histories of the city. We work from animating
Vancouver 125 – Cultural Events
CelebrateVancouver125.ca
1
walking as a creative process and means of urban navigation to restaging the archive to
publicize the private. From acoustic ecology to staged spatial disruptions, assembled works
tender sensory narratives that constitute this unwieldy entity that we collective know as
Vancouver. http://pushfestival.ca/shows/counter-mapping/
PodPlays 12.5
January 21 - February 6th, 2011 (Fri, Sat, Sun). More dates to be announced
Vancouver site specific street locations
Presented by Neworld and PTC, PodPlays 12.5 is a series of 12.5 performance pieces
incorporating recorded sound, text and site-specific locations. Following specific routes
through the streets of Vancouver, audience members listen to pre-recorded plays on portable
media players. These one-of-a-kind 15 minute plays mingle the reality of everyday street life
with theatrical narratives. The series will present alternative visions of the city, highlighting
Vancouver’s historic and rapidly changing neighbourhoods and the citizens’ relationships to
these locations. www.neworldtheatre.com
Hard Core Logo: Live
January 26- February 6, 2011 at the PuSh Festival
Rickshaw Theatre @ PuSh Festival
A partnered presentation with the PuSh Festival, November Theatre, Theatre Network and
Touchstone Theatre present a rockin' stage adaptation of Hard Core Logo. Based on the cult
classic book by Michael Turner, film by Bruce McDonald, and screenplay by Noel S. Baker;
featuring original music by D.O.A.’s Joe “Shithead” Keithley, Hard Core Logo: Live is the story
of Joe Dick, the fast talking, hard rocking, gutter punk idealist who had his moment of glory
fronting a legendary but now defunct Vancouver band. Living somewhere between East
Hastings and a dream, Joe decides it’s time to drag the band back together for one last, illfated tour. www.novembertheatre.com
Roy Arden: UNDERTHESUN
January 27, 2011 (publication launch)
To be distributed at the Contemporary Art Gallery and selected sites across the city
In tandem with Roy Arden’s solo exhibition UNDERTHESUN, the Contemporary Art Gallery is
publishing an artist’s bookwork. The book focuses on Vancouver’s modern industrial history,
represented by Arden’s archive of images taken from the turn of the 20th century to the
present. This book reveals Vancouver’s history of industrialization, changing landscape and
unique pop culture history. Copies will be printed and widely distributed free to the public.
www.contemporaryartgallery.ca
ARC Lines: Vancouver's Artist-Run Origins
February 2011 – ongoing
Online @ www.arcpost.ca
The Pacific Association of Artist-Run Centres’ project Origin Stories is an important on-line
publication documenting Vancouver’s Artist-Run Centres. Posted on the ArcPost: Artists and
Institution website, Origin Stories will identify each member centre and include significant
archival images, original mandates, history of founding artists and other materials pertinent to
the origins of Vancouver’s artist-run activity. Critical writing, online and print resources will
also be included. This online site will celebrate the history of artist-run movements in the city
and provide a resource for tracking the influence of these centres on Vancouver’s
contemporary art practices. www.arcpost.ca
In the House Performance Series - The Vancouver Special Edition
Vancouver 125 – Cultural Events
CelebrateVancouver125.ca
2
Feb 5th: 2260 E. 6th Ave; April 5th: 333 E. 13th Ave; May 5th: 595 E. Georgia St.; August 5th,
September 5th, November 5th, December 5th: Addresses TBA
For 2011, In the House Performance Series presents the Vancouver Special Edition. This series
of performances sets out to highlight Vancouver’s cultural identity by looking back on
Vancouver’s history. Performances will spotlight various ethnic and cultural groups that have
had an important impact on Vancouver’s history and culture. Selected performances include a
showcase of Blues music, a spotlight on the Vancouver’s Italian community and culture, a
screening of films by local artists, Iranian storytelling, an evening of choreography that
celebrates Vancouver, and more. www.inthehousefestival.com
Talking Stick Festival 2011
February 1 to February 13, 2011
Various venues throughout the city: Roundhouse Community Arts & Recreation Centre, The
Wise Hall, The Pond, Cafe Deux Soleils, Zawa Resturant, the Britannia Community Centre, The
Holiday Inn and Suites, and the Scotia Dance Centre. Community workshops at Point Secondary
School, Britannia Secondary School and MacDonald Elementary School.
The 10th annual Talking Stick Festival is a two-week celebration of Aboriginal performance and
art. Over the course of 13 days the Aboriginal community gathers together in a fusion of
cabaret, music, dance, theatre and storytelling. In venues across the city, the festival highlight
the talents of artists from as far as the Yukon, Ontario, and the United States and as near as
Vancouver’s own back yard! Everyone is welcome! Come and join presenters Full Circle for the
10th Annual Talking Stick Festival. www.fullcircle.ca
Vancouver Is Awesome presents Rain City Chronicles: Vancouver in Six Acts
February 1 (St. James Hall); March 30 (The Waldorf Cabaret); May 11; July 6; September &
November locations and dates to be confirmed
Rain City Chronicles: Vancouver in Six Acts, presented by Vancouver is Awesome. Your stories,
live! Part lo-fi community event, part voyeuristic encounter, Vancouver in Six Acts is a six-part
storytelling showcase for short and true tales on a changing theme, complete with home-baked
snacks and music. Come laugh, listen and be entertained by the most interesting strangers you
haven’t met. Yet. www.raincitychronicles.com
WE: Vancouver – 12 Manifestos for the City
February 12 - May 1, 2011
Vancouver Art Gallery
Vancouver Art Gallery’s WE: Vancouver exhibition and related programming will document the
range of practices, actions and ideas by designers, artists, architects, filmmakers, writers,
activists, and planners that shape and activate this city. The manifestos are based on twelve
calls to action, twelve movements, strategies and practices that fundamentally shape
Vancouver today: MOVE, ACTIVATE, CHOOSE, LISTEN, UNITE, REMEMBER, SEE, WASTE (not),
CONSUME, PROJECT, SHAPE, SURPRISE). FUSE and other Gallery programming events will
explore the many individual and collective ways in which Vancouverites creatively contribute
to the City. www.vanartgallery.bc.ca
the past to the present ... a Chris Randle retrospective
March 1 - 19, 2011
Roundhouse Community Arts and Recreation Centre, Exhibition Hall
For the 2011 Vancouver International Dance Festival, photographer Chris Randle has been
commissioned to enlarge 30 archival photos representing significant contributors to
Vancouver’s dance history over the past 3 decades. Noted dance writer Deborah Meyers will
Vancouver 125 – Cultural Events
CelebrateVancouver125.ca
3
contribute personal reflections on the photos to provide a personal/historical context to the
work. Exhibited at the Roundhouse Centre's large Exhibition Hall, these photographs and
Meyer's text will expand visitors' understanding of Vancouver's contemporary dance history. An
online version will be made available. www.vidf.ca
Yippies In Love - borrowed from a true story - by Bob Sarti
March 16 – 27, 2011
The Woodwards Sky Room, 131 West Hastings Street – 10th floor
Yippies In Love is an original staged musical. It’s an insider view of the turbulent counterculture days of Vancouver in the early 1970s. The Yippies were a movement with theatricality,
wide-ranging social critique that had a lasting impact on the grass-roots popular political
activity in Canada and US. The play focuses on a time of great civic involvement/ social
concern among the city’s youth. In a few short years, the Yippie movement left a legacy that
continues to this day. The issues addressed continue to enrich the lives of Vancouverites, and
2011 marks the 40th anniversary of events depicted in the play. This production celebrates the
often unsung/ misunderstood contributions of the individual, celebrating Vancouver as a place
where such contributions were and still are possible. www.theatreintheraw.ca
DiverCity: Celebrating Vancouver's 125th Birthday
April 2011
Edith Cavell Elementary School and Laurier Elementary School
Neighbourhood children, youth and community members come together to celebrate
Vancouver’s birthday with the West 1 Community Schools Team’s project DiverCity:
Celebrating Vancouver’s 125th Birthday. To celebrate this momentous occasion, pre-event and
event-day activities linked to Vancouver’s heritage, diversity and future have been scheduled.
The celebrations at Edith Cavell and Laurier Elementary Schools will include readings, video
presentations, and student music and dance performances reflecting distinct cultural traditions
within Vancouver. In addition to the day of celebration, participants will also publish a book of
wishes for the city, a video contest on themes about Vancouver, and the creation of an
environmental legacy project. www.vsb.bc.ca
Founding Neighbourhood Founding Community: We Are The People
April 7 – April 10, 2011
Ukrainian Hall
We Are the People is an original musical celebration commemorating 125 years of laughter and
tears in the Downtown Eastside-the heart of our city. Presented by Vancouver Moving Theatre
Society, this special concert of songs of “struggle and loss, celebration and perseverance”
showcases the home-grown creativity of this inner-city community and reflects the Downtown
Eastside’s cultural diversity and urban aboriginal residents. We Are The People features a
talented team of professional musicians and Downtown Eastside residents and emerging artists,
and premieres the week of Vancouver’s birthday at the venerable Ukrainian Hall in
Strathcona/Downtown Eastside. www.vancouvermovingtheatre.com
Tour of Vancouver and Vancouver’s 125th Birthday Party
April 2011
Around Vancouver and Little Mountain Neighbourhood House
To celebrate Vancouver’s 125th anniversary, Little Mountain Neighbourhood House (LMNHS) will
organize two events: a tour of the city and a Birthday Party. LMNHS will rent a tour bus and
invite community members to a three-hour tour of the city. The tour will include an
orientation at City Hall and visits to popular attractions, neighbourhoods, and distinct cultural
communities. Participants will be encouraged to take pictures during the tour and these
Vancouver 125 – Cultural Events
CelebrateVancouver125.ca
4
photos will be placed on display at the Birthday Party at LMNHS. Food from different cultures
will be offered at the party in order to emphasize and embrace the diversity and cultures that
exist within our community and Vancouver. www.lmnhs.bc.ca
The French Presence in Vancouver: Lectures/Conversations and Walking Tours
Lectures/Conversations will be held on six consecutive Wednesdays from April 6th to May
11th, 2011 (7-9PM). Weekend walking tour dates TBA.
Lecture/Symposia-SFU Harbourfront Campus (classroom to be confirmed); Walking Tours
The French Connection Culture Association of B.C. in partnership with The City Program at
Simon Fraser University presents six weekly lectures held at SFU's downtown campus. This
series will discuss and document the French cultural and historical presence in Vancouver, as
well as explore the impact of the city on diverse communities. The French Presence in
Vancouver: Lectures/Conversations and Walking Tours will be supplemented by weekend
walking tours, local radio broadcasts and Internet podcasts throughout the year.
http://fccabc.org/
Gong! The Vancouver Gamelan Festival
April 15-17, 2011 (dates of education events TBA)
Fei & Milton Wong Theatre, SFU Woodwards
Vancouver has become a centre of gamelan activity outside of Indonesia, and the only city in
Canada to have gamelan groups performing in all three major traditions. The origins of this
history began during a six-month residency of Indonesian gamelan performers at Expo '86. In
2011, Vancouver Community Gamelan Society’s annual Gamelan Extravaganza will expand into
a mini-festival to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the first Gamelan Festival held during Expo
'86. This festival will feature concerts of traditional works and newly created pieces, dance
performances, a shadow play, workshops and lecture-demonstrations.
www.gamelanmadusari.com
Community Voices Issue
April 11, 2011
Magazine to be sold on the streets of Vancouver by homeless and low-income vendors
Megaphone Magazine’s special Community Voices Issue celebrates voices from Vancouver’s
Downtown Eastside and inner-city communities. This issue will include residents’ articles,
poems, stories, artwork and photos, and will focus on the neighbourhood's positive community
elements. This special publication will be launched at a Downtown Eastside community event
where contributing authors can present public readings of their work. As part of this special
project, Megaphone will hold seven writing workshops for interested contributors with partners
Portland Hotel Society Community Services Society and the City of Vancouver.
www.megaphonemagazine.com
Taikotroniks
May 3, 2011
Vancouver Playhouse Theatre
Taikotroniks reconsiders the traditional parameters of art practice and Japanese taiko
traditions within the canon of Canadian music. This Vancouver New Music Society production
will showcase the growth of Vancouver’s taiko music scene and launch the community-based
ensemble Vancouver Electronic Ensemble. This production will engage the audience in the
dialogue of old and new traditions, and in Vancouver’s contemporary music practices. In
addition to a final performance, Taikotroniks will include a series of workshops and open
rehearsals. www.newmusic.org
Vancouver 125 – Cultural Events
CelebrateVancouver125.ca
5
Bhangra.me: Vancouver’s Bhangra Story
May 5 to October 23, 2011
Museum of Vancouver
Vancouver’s Bhangra is a mash-up of South Asian music and dance traditions, pop culture
influences and global Bhangra beats. Arising out of a joint desire of the Museum of Vancouver
and the Vancouver International Bhangra Celebration Society to document and reflect on this
vibrant living art form, this exhibition looks at the relationships between Bhangra, identity and
Vancouver. Bhangra.me is a space where the cultural, social, political and artistic stories of
Bhangra intersect, contradict and are shared. www.museumofvancouver.ca
Spotlight on Vancouver
May 6 – 15, 2011
Various venues at the 2011 DOXA Documentary Film Festival
DOXA Documentary Film Festival’s Spotlight on Vancouver will feature films that capture the
city's mythologies, images, and people through the distinct perspectives of filmmakers, both
past and present. Three different programming streams, including a retrospective on the late
filmmaker Allan King, a selection of films devoted to First Nations filmmakers, and archival and
contemporary views of the city itself, will give rise to dialogue about the changing nature of
place and will offer a fully realized portrait of Vancouver. www.doxafestival.ca
Vancouver 125! A Choral Celebration of our City’s 125 th Birthday
May 7, 2011
SFU Woodwards Centre, Fei and Milton Wong Theatre
The Jubilate! Chamber Choir will present a concert of new Canadian choral music, featuring
the winning submission from its competition, open to professional composers across Canada.
Each entry, drawing on works by prominent local poets, lyricists, writers, will celebrate aspects
of Vancouver's landscape, history, cultural diversity. Potentially, the scores of the best works
will be produced, and made available for distribution. www.jubilate.ca
Identity-Ancestral Memory
May 12 - 14, 2011
Stanley Industrial Alliance Stage, Revue Stage
Yayoi Theatre Movement Society presents Identity-Ancestral Memory, a multi-media dance
project that celebrates the life of the late Japanese Canadian Roy Kiyooka. Identity, which
combines the dance form of Noh mask theatre and Butoh dance, uses Kiyooka’s struggle with
dual Japanese and Canadian identities to reflect on contemporary issues of integration of
Canadian and non-Canadian cultural values. www.yayoihirano.com &
www.yayoitheatremovement.com
Performance Materials for Chinese Musical Instrument
May 21, 2011 - Gala Book Launch and Reception
Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Classical Chinese Garden
The B.C. Chinese Music Association's publication Performance Materials for Chinese Musical
Instruments focuses on the distinctive technical characteristics and performance techniques of
Chinese musical instruments, based upon the rich history of Chinese music in Vancouver.
Written in English, but cross-referenced with Chinese characters throughout, this book will
facilitate the transfer of knowledge and preservation of specific instrumental traditions from
the older generation of musicians to the younger, and particularly to the non-Chinese speaking
generation. The book will act as an inter-generational bridge, enabling the next generation to
Vancouver 125 – Cultural Events
CelebrateVancouver125.ca
6
document their musical stories and this unique aspect of Vancouver's cultural heritage.
www.bccma.net
Turntable Turning: The Roundhouse Then and Now
January - May, 2011, with celebration on May 22, 2011
Roundhouse Turntable and surrounding neighbourhood
The Roundhouse Community Arts and Recreation Society presents Turntable Turning: The
Roundhouse Then and Now, a series of interdisciplinary art projects that explore and celebrate
the history of the Roundhouse neighbourhood and its significance as the terminus of the
Canadian Pacific Railway. Programmed events include a ghost mapping of the original
Roundhouse neighbourhood complex in chalk, an aerial dance project exploring immigration
and change, a celebration of the 1887 CPR Engine 374’s first arrival into Vancouver, and the
official opening of the renovated Roundhouse Turntable Plaza. www.roundhouse.ca
Inspiring Art
May 30 - June 5, 2011
Various Locations on Granville Island
Inspiring Art is a new initiative by the Vancouver International Children’s Festival. Visual artists
Cheryl Hamilton and Michael Vandermeer of i.e creative, Nicole Dextras, and Haruko Okano
will create sculptural works that reflect and embrace the celebration of Vancouver’s 125th
anniversary. The sculptures will be exhibited in various locations on Granville Island and
include participatory elements throughout the Festival. www.childrensfestival.ca
The Vancouver Issue
June 2011 Issue launch
Publication
The Vancouver Issue is a special issue of Poetry is Dead Magazine covering the historical
background and influence of Vancouver’s diverse range of poetry and poets. This issue will be a
composite of Vancouver poetry, reviews, interviews, and will include five commissioned pieces
discussing the influence and historical perspectives of Vancouver poetry. In addition, previously
unpublished poetry by low-income and marginalized communities will also be included, as well
as artwork by Vancouver artists and photographers. A panel discussion on Vancouver’s influence
on Canadian poetry will be held at the publication launch. www.poetryisdead.ca
home sweet home
June 1 - 11, 2011
The Cultch
home sweet home – presented by The Cultch and created by subject to_change – is an
installation show in which each audience member has the opportunity to personalize a house of
their choosing and become part of a perfectly-formed, miniature, cardboard community. The
development boasts a number of services to help individuals settle in, including a local radio
station, postal service and notice board. Over the course of 10 days, participants will build
homes in the style of the Vancouver Special, then work together to build a collective identity
that requires thoughtful civic participation. They can make decisions on street names and other
community issues. On the final day a street party will bring together all the residents as they
socialize before taking their miniature house back to their life size dwelling.
www.thecultch.com & www.subjecttochange.org.uk
Halleyluia!
June 3 – 4, 2011
Christ Church Cathedral
Vancouver 125 – Cultural Events
CelebrateVancouver125.ca
7
The Vancouver Children's Choir, in partnership with Good Noise Vancouver Gospel Choir and
Christ Church Cathedral Choir, perform together in Halleyluia!, a special project celebrating
Vancouver's 125th Anniversary. The highlight for this 3-choir extravaganza will be a newlycommissioned work by Grammy Award-winning composer Paul Halley. 125 singers will “lift the
roof off” of one of Vancouver's oldest and most beautifully renovated spaces, Christ Church
Cathedral (established in 1888). www.vancouverchildrenschoir.ca
The Changing Faces of Vancouver’s Chinatown
June 4 - July 3, 2011
Museum at the Chinese Cultural Centre of Greater Vancouver
The Changing Faces of Vancouver’s Chinatown exhibition celebrates the City of Vancouver’s
125th Anniversary by exploring Chinese Canadian history, culture and community in the city.
The project organized by the Chinese Cultural Centre of Greater Vancouver documents the
Chinese Canadian experience and influence vis-à-vis Canadian history, and how the community
has responded to shared environments, including areas shared with First Nations people. In
addition to looking back at the past, this exhibition examines the current issues at stake in the
community, as well as celebrates contemporary Chinese Canadian presence in the city, and
considers the community’s future impact. www.cccvan.com
First United Anniversary Celebrating 125 years in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside
June 6, 2011
400 block Gore Street between Hastings and Pender Streets
First United Anniversary Celebrating 125 years in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside celebrates
the presence of the First United Church in Vancouver since the city’s founding, and the
Downtown Eastside community's past and present. This free public celebration will be held on
Gore Street next to the church. This day of festivity invites the public to experience and learn
more about the Church and the community. Planned events and exhibits include historical
displays, artwork by local Downtown Eastside artists, history walks, food booths, displays by
organizations, arts and crafts booths, story sharing, family friendly activities, street animation
and music performances. www.firstunited.ca
Art in the Court 2011: Envisioning the Past, Present and Future of Vancouver
June 7, 2011 onwards (tbc)
Robson Square Provincial Court
For this year’s Art in the Court exhibit in the Robson Square Provincial Court, the Justice
Education Society of B.C. will feature a theme dedicated to Vancouver’s 125th Anniversary. Art
in the Court 2011: Envisioning the Past, Present and Future of Vancouver will be composed of
artworks submitted by students from 18 Vancouver secondary schools. Youth from across
Vancouver will be encouraged to reflect on ideas of community, and express their
interpretations on the past, present and future of the city. www.justiceeducation.ca
The PEAK's Vancouver 125 Festival
June 30, 2011
Location TBA
To celebrate Vancouver’s 125th Birthday, Music BC Industry Association and 100.5 The PEAK FM
propose to challenge the PEAK Performance Project Top 20 artists for 2011 to write and record
20 songs about Vancouver. In June 2011, these artists will perform their Vancouver songs live
as part of The PEAK’s Vancouver 125 Music Festival. www.musicbc.org
The Untold Story of Powell Street (1900-1941)
Vancouver 125 – Cultural Events
CelebrateVancouver125.ca
8
July 2011
Vancouver Japanese Language School and Japanese Hall
The Untold Story of Powell Street (1900-1941) is a research and exhibit project developed
between the Vancouver Japanese Language School (VJLS) and the Japanese Canadian National
Museum. This special project will focus on Japanese Canadian people, lifestyle, and businesses
during the period of 1900-1941, the heyday of Powell Street and the Japanese community. A
permanent exhibition will be mounted in the VJLS’ lobby—bringing attention to the building’s
particular significance to the history of Japantown. Founded in 1906 as a Japanese language
institution, it was the only Japanese-Canadian owned property to be returned to the Japanese
community after WWII. www.vjls-jh.com and www.jcnm.ca
Jukkai: Documenting Ten Years of Spatial Poetics
July 2011 (TBA)
Location TBA
Jukkai (literal translation Ten Times) is a commemorative publication of the Powell Street
Festival Society's annual Spatial Poetics event, which celebrates its 10-year anniversary in
2011. For Jukkai, past Spatial Poetics artists reflect back on their original performance to
create a new work based on their memories of their collaboration, process and performance.
These new works comment on the concept of 'documentation' and the kinds of memory-work
done to recall the now fading memories of such spontaneous and improvised performances,
often created in the whimsical spirit of the Powell Street Festival.
www.powellstreetfestival.com
Dancing on the Edge is Dancing in the Streets
July 7 - 16, 2011
Gore Street between Cordova Street and Hastings, Queen Elizabeth Park, and TBA.
The 23rd edition of the Dancing on the Edge Festival takes to the streets with an expanded
program of dance commissions, workshops and presentations for 2011. Highlights include a new
extension of Joe Ink’s Move It!, a multi-generational set of community workshops beginning in
January and culminating in a performance at the 2011 festival’s Street Dance party, and a new
set of site-specific dance commissions created for Queen Elizabeth Park and historic sites
within the Downtown Eastside during the 2011 Festival. www.dancingontheedge.org
Collision
July 13, 14, 15, 16, 2011, an off-site production of the Dancing on the Edge Festival
The Roundhouse Community Arts and Recreation Centre
Presented by Karen Jamieson Dance Society, Collision is an interdisciplinary dance production
that centres on the Roundhouse as a symbol of cultural and creative collision. Currently a
centre of creativity, the Roundhouse was once the western terminus of the Canadian Pacific
Railway. This work will explore the historical, geographical and cultural history of the building
and territory, including First Nations’ heritage and the various immigrant relationships to the
railway and its construction. Collision will incorporate dance, photography, film, music, and
First Nations cultural contributions. www.kjdance.ca
Bollywood Wedding
July 13-31, 2011
Italian Gardens, Hastings Park at the PNE
Bollywood Wedding is a collaborative, site-specific interdisciplinary creation set outdoors in
the Italian Gardens at Hastings Park. Audience members partake as guests in this dramatic
staged presentation of an Indian wedding where different scenes of the play take place at
Vancouver 125 – Cultural Events
CelebrateVancouver125.ca
9
different locations within the Italian Gardens. Created to resemble a live Bollywood musical,
this lavish spectacle merges Indian culture with Western theatre. South Asian Canadian actors,
musicians and dancers perform in this Bollywood-style melodrama, appealing to a wide range
of audience members. The South Asian wedding season is brought to life! Presented by the
South Asian Arts Society and New Works in partnership with the Pacific National Exhibition.
www.southasianarts.ca
Queer History Celebration
July 23 - August 21, 2011
Various locations in Vancouver
During a month-long showcase of film and media art, visual art exhibitions, public art
installations and community dialogue, the Vancouver Queer Film Festival presents a unique
opportunity for the queer and allied communities to come together and celebrate their
valuable contributions to Vancouver’s history and identity. www.QueerFilmFestival.ca
Paradox in Harmony: How Building a Garden Shaped the Future of a City
mid-July 2011 - first screening
CBC TV, with possible screening at other venues
In 2011, Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Classical Chinese Garden will celebrate its 25th anniversary and
produce a one-hour documentary. This historical documentary focuses on how Vancouver’s
Chinese community worked with the city’s social elite to construct the first classical Chinese
garden outside China. It addresses the challenges in overcoming inherent cross-cultural,
political and social difficulties, and speaks to the future of Vancouver. The documentary
weaves a collage of voices, images and ideas that paint a picture of the past and set the stage
for the future of cross-cultural relations in Vancouver. Directed by Mina Shum and produced by
Laurie Cooper. www.vancouverchinesegarden.com
Saltwater City for Youth: 125 Years of Chinese Vancouver
early July to middle of August 2011
Central Vancouver (including visits of local historic sites)
Saltwater City for Youth is an innovative cultural summer camp that educates 13-14 year olds
on the role of Chinese Canadians in the historic development of Vancouver. This youth camp
developed by the Chinese Canadian Historical Society of B.C. will also highlight this cultural
group's continued influence on the city's current demographics and civic formation.
Programming includes local community and academic speakers and visits to historic sites. At
the end of the six-week program, students will create and present community artwork to the
general public. www.cchsbc.ca
Art and Heritage Walking Tours in the Gardens of Mole Hill
August 20, 2011
Mole Hill Community Housing - block of Pendrell, Bute, Comox and Thurlow
The Mole Hill Community Housing Society will host a community arts festival in the gardens and
laneways of the Mole Hill neighbourhood. The festival will feature the visual, literary and
performing art works of tenants who live in Mole Hill, as well as other artists in the city. In
partnership with the Vancouver Heritage Foundation, docents in period costumes will provide
heritage walking tours of this neighbourhood consisting of 28 restored Victorian and Edwardian
heritage houses in the city's West End. www.mole-hill.ca
A Celebration of Youth, Community and Music
Fall 2011
Vancouver Public Library Atrium
Vancouver 125 – Cultural Events
CelebrateVancouver125.ca
10
Western Front New Music partners with Vancouver Symphony Orchestra and the Vancouver
Public Library to celebrate Vancouver’s 125th Anniversary with a free public youth concert.
Included in the musical program is a special commission that tells the story of Dzunukwa, a
venerated figure from Kwak’wala mythology associated with bringing wealth to the community.
Alert Bay musician/composer William Wasden contributes to Scott Good's score composed
especially for members of the VSO and lower mainland school children. In addition to the
musical performance, outreach activities such as aboriginal storytelling will precede the event.
www.front.bc.ca
Celebrations of the City’s 125th Anniversary and the 30th Anniversary of The Seniors’
Research Group of Chinese Opera and Music
September 4, 2011
Norman Rothstein Theatre
To celebrate both the city’s 125th anniversary and the 30th anniversary of The Seniors’
Research Group of Chinese Opera & Music, a full-scale opera show including seven famous
Chinese episodes will be presented at the Norman Rothstein Theatre. The project will combine
professional actors, musicians and make-up artists with community actors and musicians. This
spectacular large-scale event will include the presentation of seven well-known Beijing Opera
episodes including, Drunken Beauty, A Small Banquet, Second Visit to the Palace, Lian-JinFeng, Five Families Hill, the Empty City Trick and West Chamber Story.
Re-Live Vancouver
September 15-25, 2011
Various locations throughout Vancouver, TBA
Re–LIVE Vancouver will take a consciously critical stance to revisiting performance art history
by looking at the current trend and discourse around re-performance in a uniquely local way
that both examines the profound history of avant-garde Vancouver performance art and invites
the participation of our exciting emergent art community. For this occasion we will invite
emerging Vancouver artists to respond to historically significant performance milestones
created in this city over five decades by visionary and radical senior Vancouver artists.
Presented by LIVE Biennale of Performance Art Society in partnership with Satellite Gallery.
www.livebiennale.ca
Vertical Orchestra 2011
October 2011 (dates TBA)
Downtown Vancouver Public Library Atrium
Presented by Redshift Music Society, Vertical Orchestra 2011 is a free, public concert,
featuring the Vancouver Bach Choir, the Vancouver Bach Children’s Chorus, and the Negative
Zed Ensemble. In this concert, musicians are dispersed through the gallery’s seven levels of the
downtown Vancouver Public Library’s atrium, and unsuspecting visitors are hailed by
disembodied sonorities. For 2011’s theme of UTOPIA, music will be composed by six BC
composers, reflecting upon the potential to embrace ethnic and cultural diversity and to aspire
to better understand our neighbours and environment. www.redshiftmusic.org
Vancouver 125 Legacy Books Project
October 2011 (publishing and launch date)
The Association of Book Publishers of British Columbia with Vancouver Poet Laureate Brad Cran
will coordinate with its member publishers to reprint 10 lost classic Vancouver books selected
by an advisory committee. In addition, we will celebrate and market 10 or more BC books that
remain in print and which also represent the literary culture of Vancouver. Together these
Vancouver 125 – Cultural Events
CelebrateVancouver125.ca
11
books will comprise the Vancouver 125 Legacy Books collection. The lost classic book collection
will be announced in February and the books will be available for purchase in October 2011.
www.books.bc.ca
City Full of Sound: the Music of Intercultural Vancouver
October-November 2011 (dates TBA)
Locations TBA
City Full of Sound: the Music of Intercultural Vancouver is a multi-faceted celebration of two
anniversaries - Vancouver's 125th and the VICO (Vancouver Inter-Cultural Orchestra)’s 10th.
VICO, Canada's first and only professional intercultural orchestra presents a series that
showcases diverse musical traditions and genres (choral, instrumental, classical, world music)
in adventurous cross-cultural collaborations. City Full of Sound will launch in October with an
informal lecture-performance presentation, followed later in October by a joint concert with
Orchestra Armonia; the series will culminate in November with a Gala Concert featuring two
world premieres performed by the VICO with Orchestra Armonia and Laudate Singers.
www.vi-co.org
Places That Matter: Historic Vancouver Places, People and Events that have Made a
Difference
Public nomination day at the Salt Building on February 26, 2011; installation of plaques at
125 sites around Vancouver;
January – February: public nominations; March – April: selection process;
October – November: Manufacturing and Installation of the plaques;
December: Launch of on-line map
We all have our favourite place in Vancouver. Whether it be the home where we grew up, the
family business, a beautiful natural setting, or a public structure, these locations are all places
of value. Places That Matter is a 125th Anniversary project created by the Vancouver Heritage
Foundation that recognizes historic places, people and events that have shaped Vancouver.
The project involves the installation of plaques at 125 publicly nominated sites. The nominated
locations and selected plaque sites will be posted on an online map available to the public
through www.placesthatmatter.ca/com (website will launch later this year).
City in Mind – Living History in Vancouver
November 5, 2011 Public Screening
Mount Pleasant Neighbourhood House
Mount Pleasant Neighbourhood House's project City in Mind-Living History in Vancouver
celebrates the living history of Vancouver by engaging diverse seniors and youth in the creation
of digital stories that commemorate the experience of living and growing up in Vancouver. The
series will document the diversity, cultural traditions and personalities that make up our
community, and a public screening event on November 5th, 2011 will serve as a jumping off
point for seniors and youth to discuss civic issues and explore the importance of belonging,
civic identity and community through interactive activities. www.mpnh.org
Falling in Time
November 5 - 12, 2011
Performance Works, Granville Island
Screaming Weenie Productions, Vancouver's professional Queer theatre company, will produce
the world premiere of C.E. Gatchalian's Falling in Time, directed by Seán Cummings. This
significant new work has been in development with such national partners as PTC (Playwrights
Theatre Centre), the Firehall Arts Centre, Toronto's Factory Theatre and the Stratford
Shakespeare Festival. Set in Vancouver in 1994, the play examines a clash of identity, culture
Vancouver 125 – Cultural Events
CelebrateVancouver125.ca
12
and sexual orientation which has been set in motion by the Korean War. Due to be published by
Scirocco Drama, Falling in Time will also present ancillary events about Queer Asian writing
and the Korean War in partnership with UBC's Departments of Asian Studies and History.
www.screamingweenie.com
Ill Repute
November 11, 2011
Helen Pitt Gallery (new location TBA)
Ill Repute is a critical reflection upon the checkered history of one of Vancouver's oldest artistrun centres, the Helen Pitt Gallery. The goal of the project is to unearth and explore the
stories behind the schisms, outrages and conflicts during the institution’s 35-year contribution
to Vancouver culture. Emerging artists and writers will create works and publications that
respond to the gallery’s pivotal moments that helped foster its “bad reputation,” including its
role as a site for punk concerts, exhibitions that attracted police attention and/or public
outrage, and other occurrences which may have been tactfully omitted from conventional
histories. www.helenpittgallery.org
Come and Dance: An Aboriginal Dance Festival
November 17 - 19, 2011
Scotiabank Dance Centre
Celebrating the Aboriginal heritage of Vancouver through the art of dance, Come and Dance:
An Aboriginal Dance Festival will build connections between the Aboriginal dance community,
contemporary dance artists and Vancouver dance audiences. Highlighting the importance of
dance as a vital component and creative expression in many Aboriginal cultures, dance artists
and companies will perform traditional and contemporary Aboriginal dance. In addition to
these presentations, Compaigni V'ni Dansi Society will also design a special program for youth
and children. www.vnidansi.ca
Safe Light Chamber Opera
December 2 - 4, 2011
Firehall Arts Centre
Safe Light is a new chamber opera developed and co-produced by Vancouver Pro Musica and
Tomoe Arts Society that explores the rich cultural history of Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside.
The opera is comprised of four episodes with music by local composers Dorothy Chang, Benton
Roark, Jennifer Butler, and Farshid Samandari and a new libretto by Vancouver poet Daphne
Marlatt. Using elements of Japanese Noh theatre under the direction of Colleen Lanki, Safe
Light recounts the dreams of a young runaway newly arrived in the city. During a night in
Oppenheimer Park, a performer appears in each episode to tell the boy about some aspect of
the neighbourhood's history. www.vancouverpromusica.ca and www.tomoearts.org
Vancouver Review's Publishing Project and Dialogue Series
Dates TBA
Magazines available on news-stands throughout 2011
Vancouver Review magazine will focus its curatorial and editorial lens in 2011 on Vancouver's
cultural sector. The magazine will commission and publish essays and visual art in its
exclusively city-focused issues of Vancouver Review. The "Vancouver Vignettes" writing and
photo contests will encourage citizen participation in both the organization's published and online formats. www.vancouverreview.com
Vancouver Live Performance Project
Symposium – TBA, 2011; Online Archive – ongoing
Vancouver 125 – Cultural Events
CelebrateVancouver125.ca
13
Vancouver Live Performance Project Symposium – at the Cultch's Vancity Culture Lab;
Vancouver Live Performance Project Archive - available online.
Wild Excursions Performance partners with Plank Magazine to create the Vancouver Live
Performance Project online archive, celebrating Vancouver’s accomplishments in theatre and
dance. This archive will include written and audio interviews of Vancouver dance and theatre
artists. The research will lead to a published booklet containing selected interview excerpts,
photos and Plank Magazine writings. A symposium in spring/summer 2011 will complete the
project. www.plankmagazine.com
KAMISHIBAI: Stories on Wheels
Dates TBA
Touring to festivals, libraries, schools and venues throughout the city
Pangaea Arts creates an original street theatre act inspired by the traditional Japanese form of
storytelling called Kamishibai (literally, paper drama). A marriage of oral storytelling and visual
narrative, the roving Kamishibai storyteller traveled from village to village on a bicycle
equipped with a small stage. Using narrative drawings or paintings, the storyteller would
entertain viewers with tales, news and myths. Pangaea Arts will create three original
Kamishibai stories based on interviews with early Vancouver residents. These stories will be
performed in a variety of venues, including parks, libraries, schools, and local festivals.
www.pangea-arts.com
Pioneers of Performance
Dates TBA
PAL Vancouver Studio Theatre
In the spirit of celebrating Vancouver's 125th and to reflect on our changing society, there is a
move within the arts to be more inclusive and accessible to all. One element of our diverse
society that must not be neglected includes our elders and pioneers, especially those who were
instrumental in establishing the arts institutions that we cherish today. PAL Vancouver Studio
Theatre Society will produce a series of three cabaret evenings. Each evening will be a unique
two-hour program, with different presenters and exhibitions each night reflecting, celebrating
and honouring the Pioneers of Performance in Vancouver. www.palvancouver.org
GROW
Dates TBA
South East False Creek area
Other Sights for Artists' Projects Association’s project GROW consists of a series of walks,
lectures, workshops and experiments focusing on Vancouver's growing identity as a sustainable
city. This program will explore various notions of sustainability through the site of Southeast
False Creek. Seasonally planned events include a series of walks in the area led by artist Holly
Schmidt, generative workshops on urban design and sustainable growing practices, and lectures
about ecological and social sustainability. www.othersights.ca
Vancouver 125 – Cultural Events
CelebrateVancouver125.ca
14