From violin to viola and beyond

Marina Thibeault, a UBC School of Music professor and Juno Award-nominated violist, will be performing a selection of pieces from Canadian-based women and non-binary composers Ana Sokolović, Dorothy Chang and Melody McKiver. Presented by the Chan Centre, Thibeault’s solo performance will take place on April 9. “This program very much emerged from my second album…

Celebrating resilience through performing arts

Dancers of Damelahamid will be holding the 14th annual Coastal Dance Festival online in celebration of Indigenous arts. The virtual video program will feature the world premiere of a short dance in honour of the late Elder Margaret Harris by Dancers of Damelahamid. Performances and stories by the Dakhká Khwáan Dancers, Git Hayetsk Dancers, Git…

Angst, but the show must go on: a digital production

Shane Koyczan will share his passionate and empathetic observations of humankind in an online performance via the Chan Centre on March 12. Backed by his band during the show, the Penticton-based author and spoken word poet will lead a heartfelt and earnest performance around topics of social isolation, depression, social media and other challenging themes.…

Arno Kamolika – An unlikely Bharatanatyam dancer

“Dance is an expression of community, and the performer brings something to the performances based on their experiences,” says Arno Kamolika. A Bangladeshi-Canadian architect-turned-dancer, Kamolika is bringing her latest performance, Parasakti, to audiences on March 19, 2021 at UBC’s Chan Centre for the Performing Arts. Growing up in Dhaka, Bangladesh, Kamolika, who comes from an…

Human connection through storytelling

Zee Zee Theatre presents Virtual Humanity, this year’s online edition of their annual Human Library project, from Mar. 6–28, which involves seeking out storytellers with a diversity of personal and cultural backgrounds, and ensuring said conversations flow smoothly. “I truly believe that this project is playing a role in our future. Communicating experience-based stories and…

The Journey of Navarana: from Nunavut to BC

Navarana Tretina Igloliorte, a filmmaker and artist completing a residency at Griffin Arts Project in Vancouver, draws her primary artistic inspiration from caribou, and her concern for their dwindling population. “We can learn from how everything is interconnected in nature,” she says. Igloliorte’s journey — from her hometown of Baker Lake, Nunavut to Sheshatshiu, Labrador…

Adrian Verdejo: a digital solo guitar recital

Vancouver New Music (VNM) presents an online concert of works for solo guitar performed by Adrian Verdejo, Vancouver-based contemporary guitarist, streaming Feb. 20 to 28, 2021. A recorded sequence concert adapted and reimagined from a live performance scheduled last May but postponed because of the pandemic, the concert will showcase the works for solo classical…

The art of tanning -Turning fish skin to leather

The Museum of Vancouver (MOV) is offering a two-part online workshop by local artist, maker and educator Janey Chang about fish skin tanning on Feb. 20 and Feb. 27. Fish skin tanning is a process of turning raw fish skins into beautiful and durable textiles that can be used to make anything one would use…

Finding flowers

The late Mi’kmaq artist Mike MacDonald (1941–2006) planted a number of butterfly gardens across Canada to bring awareness to people about habitat destruction and the impacts on wildlife and medicinal plants. Many of his pieces focused on his surroundings, especially nature, and one of his main projects was the series Butterfly Gardens. He drew inspiration for…

Catalogue Baby: a memoir of infertility

A book is only words. There are so many emotions that cannot be described with words, says Myriam Steinberg, author of Catalogue Baby, a graphic novel, that tells the story of an indomitable young woman’s ordeal to get pregnant. “One would need too many words to really explain the range of thoughts and feelings going through…

Soul and Dreamers: digital jazz performance

Jazz singer Magos Herrera will reunite her smooth and soulful voice with Brooklyn Rider string quartet for an online performance on Feb.12, presented by the Chan Centre. The show sees Herrera and Brooklyn Rider revisit their 2018 collaboration, Dreamers, an album which brings a jazzy and cámara (chamber music) twist to Ibero-American classics. “I think one of my…

Inaction yearns for a critical mass of solidarity

The Richmond Art Gallery’s upcoming exhibition, Inaction by Brendan Fernandes, features the Canadian premiere of the two-channel video Free Fall: for Camera that was created in response to tragic events at the Pulse nightclub in Florida in 2016. Co-produced with the Ezra and Cecile Zilkha Gallery at Wesleyan University, Inaction runs from February 12–April 3.…

Claire Huang, an artist inspired by architecture

Born and raised in Shanghai, China, Claire Huang moved to Vancouver with her husband in 1999. Previously an architectural designer in both Shanghai and Vancouver, Huang switched careers and decided to pursue her love for the arts. In 2005, Huang graduated from the Emily Carr Institute of Art & Design with a Bachelor of Fine…