Nicola Valley Community Arts Council

Whet the Palette opens this Friday and will feature paintings by the former Coquihala Middle School Art Teacher, Fame Mackney. A painter whose influences include studies in the metaphisical arts, her love of nature, and the love shared between people, her work shows her wonder at the mysteries she is helping to unfold. Using rich colours, mystical and magical forms, her paintings aim to Whet your Palette

In her biography, Fame says,”Art is who I am; not what I do. I caught the bug early, the moment I picked up a red lipstick and improved my parents’ virginal white walls.” Her great grandmother (Clara Pottinger) was also an artist and was taught by Victoria’s own Emily Carr. Fame graduated from UVIC’s education program (with distinction) majoring in art and English.

In Maple Ridge, she chaired the A.R.T.’s (Artists Round Table) for a year, and contributed to Cythera House’s Art Melodique for three years. Currently, she is a middle school art teacher, headed for MSS in the fall. Fame paints, tattoos, and create murals when she isn’t teaching her classes at the middle school.

“Whet Your Palette” will open Friday, May 11 and run through June 9. A reception for the artist will be held Saturday, May 19, from 4-6pm and the public is invited to attend.

Gallery hours are: Thursday 4-8pm Friday and Saturday noon to 6pm. The Courthouse Gallery is open to the public at no charge and is operated by the Nicola Valley Arts Council. If you have questions regarding the shows please contact us at: kathi.courthouse.gallery@gmail.com or give us a call at 250-378-6515

When: Sat, May 5 @ 6pm
Where: Culture Club (2058 Granite Ave)

Join the Navy Cadets as they fundraise for their programs and activities! Saturday’s event will also be a farewell party to the Brigden’s who are leaving the sunny Nicola Valley. Tickets are $15/each (adults only) and will include a wonderful fish & chips dinner and entertainment.

Sunday at the Culture Club come out for some good ol’ entertainment with Canadiana Roots & Country Singer Tim Hus, who is making a stop in Merritt. Tickets must be purchased in advance and are available at Country Bug & Books, NV Medical Center or by calling 250-315-5673. Show starts at 7pm. To hear Tim Hus to go www.timhus.ca

The Nicola Watershed Community Round Table and the City of Merritt are jointly sponsoring & organizing a Water Festival to take place on June 8 at Rotary Park from 1 to 8pm.

The Water Festival will include activities for young and old, displays and demonstrations. Including Linda’s Dance Studio performing and local musicians.The Merritt Centennials will provide the concession and there will be as salmon BBQ supper. Tickets for the BBQ will be sold at Brambles Bakery and Coffee Shop prior to June 8 and also at the event.

The Water Festival will also have a costume contest. Open to young and old, the winner will be selected from those who come to the event in the most colourful and imaginative costume on a water theme. Information about the contest can be found in the Water Festival brochure, available at the Civic Centre, Baillie House and the Merritt Library.

Among the displays will be one showcasing the artwork of local residents. The artwork will have a water theme to compliment the Water Festival. Artists of all ages and in all media are invited to showcase their talent by picking up a canvas from selected locations and painting or drawing a picture or making a collage or mounting a photo on the canvas. The canvas is a piece of hardboard which has been painted with primer. A 5” X 7” (13cm X 18cm) hardboard piece may be picked up at the
following locations: City Hall, Baillie House, Merritt Library, Creative Company, Brambles Bakery and Coffee Shop and Courthouse Art Gallery.

To be shown at the Water Festival, the artwork must be dropped off at Baillie House no later than June 6, 2012. All artwork should have a water theme and must be no larger than 5” X 7” (13cm X 18cm) and painted or mounted on the hardboard provided. The artwork must be signed and dated on the back of the hardboard piece. There is no cost to participate and this is not a juried art show. All artwork that meets the criteria will be displayed at the Water Festival on June 8.

For more information, please contact Liis Jeffries at 250-378-8820

click here for image source

Help us kick off BC Arts & Culture Week with our Opening Reception of the Artist Trading Card Show. This show was created by community members that participated in our ATC Workshops and features locally created Art cards (size of the cards are 2 ½ by 3 ½ inches), light refreshments will be served. Reception is from 6-8pm at the Courthouse Gallery 1840 Nicola Ave.

The Peachland Art Group would like to invite you to their
52nd Annual Art Show and Sale held at the Peachland Community Centre from 10:00 am to 4:00 p.m. Sunday May 27th this year.

The exhibition will include close to 300 works, all individual in their subject, size, style, and character.

As well, the Show will focus on inviting all attending to participate in a Paint-By-Number activity titled

“You Can Paint Too!”…thus this year’s theme!

Admission is by donation.

We put on a fabulous luncheon! Everyone is welcome. We hope to see you there!

Contact:
Jan Topp
Chair/Advertising Committee, Peachland Art Group
P: 250 768 1159 E: janshirl@shaw.ca

Theatre is back in Merritt! With the first show of the season, Merritt Live Theatre Society is hosting it’s first one woman show, Under the Mango Tree at NVIT Theatre.
Show times: April 20 at 8pm & 22nd at 2pm
Tickets are $20 per person and available at Country Bug & Books and City Furniture (and at the door). Come out and support Live Theatre!

Under the Mango is about Timal is a precocious girl who relishes her life under the mango tree. She misses her mother, but still has her grandmother and her beloved Bappu, who she waits excitedly for at the end of each workday.
Then, one day, Bappu tells Timal that he is leaving for Canada, a far off country where he will try to build a better life for them both. Timal cannot go, but he promises to write, and that soon they’ll be reunited.
Under the Mango Tree is a powerfully affective one woman show that looks at an immigrant experience through the eyes of those left behind. Through Timal and Bappu’s letters we see Canada from afar, as a land of hope, as the home to an alien culture, and as a void that can swallow someone whole.
Even better, we get a vivid sense of life in Timal’s Fiji village. Warm lighting, a simple set, and evocative props bring Timal’s home vibrantly enough to life to make us wonder why anyone would leave. The real magic here, however, is in Veenesh Dubois, who performs each of the five characters with riveting grace and confidence – this woman radiates emotional truth. Theatre at its best! – CBC

This is a widely popular new art form which features original and unique handmade art trading cards (ATC).  If you have been looking for something new, exciting, and different, then stop looking.  Artist, Alexandra Edmonds, will be bringing this new art form to the Courthouse Gallery with three workshops which will cumulate in a show based on the work of the community artists.  Cards are 2 ½ X 3 ½ inch or 64 X 89 mm card stock and will feature pencil, watercolor, collage and so many other fun forms of  art!

Opening reception for the ATC is April 21st from 6-8pm. For more Arts & Culture Week events check out: http://bcartsweek.org

For further information or if you have questions, please contact Kathi at:
Kathi.Courthouse.Gallery@gmail.com or klassicalart7@hotmail.com
or at the Courthouse Gallery at 250-378-6515

The new gallery hours are: Thursdays 4-8pm and Friday and Saturday from Noon – 6pm

Multi-instrumentalist, singer-songwriter, and story-teller, Ed Peekeekoot is a skilled and seasoned performer. He has a timeless kind of cool that appeals to audiences of all ages. Here is information about his upcoming performance and a sample of his work:

April 13, 2012
Civic Centre
7:30pm
Tickets available at Blacks Pharmacy, Baillie House and at the Door tickets are $22 (adults)
$17 (Senior/Students)

Another great song:

Click here for image source

Coming to the Courthouse Gallery in April- ATC (Art Trading Cards)
People are always coming into the gallery looking for something new and different in art. If you have been looking for something new, exciting, and different, then stop looking. Coming to the Courthouse Gallery, in April is the newest rage in the art world, Art Trading Cards.

Artist, Alexandra Edmonds, will be bringing this new art form to the Courthouse Gallery beginning April 2nd. There will be 3 workshops and a 2 week show of the work with a trading session at the end of the show.

The dates of the workshops are as follows and will be held from 6-8pm:
April 2: Dry media (pens, pencils, pens, markers)
April 9: Wet Media (watercolour, acrylic, ink)
April 16: Paper Media (collage, paper cuts, folded paper, recycled materials).

There will be a drop-in fee of $20 for each workshop and there will be room for 20 in each workshop date.

Some Background on Art Trading Cards:Artists from all over the world are creating, and now selling these little masterpieces in different mediums and pertaining to several different subjects. Mediums used include, Watercolor, Oil, Acrylic, Coloured Pencil, Pastels, Pyrography, Pen and Ink, Sketching, and Collage. Many different styles such as Abstract, Surrealism, Outsider Art, Impressionism, Expressionism and more, are being created. This is extremely collectable Pocket Art.

M. Vänçi Stirnemann is credited in many circles with popularizing the modern artist trading card in 1996, holding trading sessions in Zurich, Switzerland. This resurgence of interest of Artists trading cards has spawned the popular ACEO (art card editions and originals) movement.

For further information or if you have questions, please contact Kathi at:
Kathi.Courthouse.Gallery@gmail.com or klassicalart7@hotmail.com
or at the Courthouse Gallery at 250-378-6515

The new gallery hours are: Thursdays 4-8pm and Friday and Saturday from Noon – 6pm