Tuesday February 11 2025
Monday December 9 2024 at 10:00 | updated at January 17 2025 16:51 Events

Cultural Calendar

Cultural Calendar
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The holiday season has arrived, and 2024 is quickly drawing to a close. I hope this year has treated everyone well. Take time to enjoy the festive spirit and make some cherished memories with loved ones. Bundle up and explore some of the exciting events and shows happening this month. Wishing you all the best – see you in the new year!

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Divya Mehra: Live Laugh Love

Now until Jan. 12, 2025

www.cagvancouver.org/exhibition/Divya-Mehra

The work of Divya Mehra melds critical precision with biting wit to produce disarming, deceptively complex meditations on difficult subjects. With a canny visual language and piercing concision, Mehra’s works give unexpected form to trenchant observations on themes spanning racial violence, colonial theft, displacement and grief, deftly layering nuanced critique with an acerbic humour. In Live Laugh Love, Mehra presents a pair of new works aimed at the social landscape of the Pacific Northwest. On the walls of the B.C. Binning Gallery, a monumental monochrome painting anchors the exhibition. Offering a wry critical counterpoint to the work of late American artist Robert Ryman, Mehra renders in white-on-white a racist poster that circulated in suburban Vancouver last year, producing a ghostly space at once seemingly empty and laden with the ways whiteness operates, occupies and subsumes. In the gallery opposite, Mehra has constructed a child-sized play structure assembled from nearly 1,000 yoga blocks. Modeled on a castle from Nintendo’s original Super Mario Bros, the sculpture rehearses references familiar to the region – leisure, wellness, safe spaces, tech – while asking to whom the benefits of these cultures might primarily accrue and, more pointedly, who might require safety from whom in this landscape.

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Ruth Beer: Seep | Swell

Now until Feb. 9, 2025

www.evergreenculturalcentre.ca

The Art Gallery at Evergreen in Coquitlam and the Burnaby Art Gallery co-present the exhibition Ruth Beer: Seep | Swell, an exhibition in two parts. Taking place across the two galleries concurrently, this exhibition contemplates Beer’s artistic research on the entwined relationships between humankind and our industries. For decades, Ruth Beer has used sculpture to explore the depictions, constructs and myths of landscape. Her dynamic practice revolves around an ecological examination of our rapidly transforming Pacific Northwest region. Beer’s early explorations of minimalist abstract and elemental forms have evolved into an interest in materials and their relationship to culture and society. In the artist’s hands, raw natural materials are shaped through the cultural and sociopolitical forces that harvest them. Through an array of materially seductive artworks – glistening copper weavings, tapestries, bronze and ceramic stones, woven photographs and prints on paper – Beer offers timely reflections on themes related to belonging, human-land relationships and the pressing climate crisis.

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Music for the Winter Solstice

Dec. 11–12, 7:30 p.m.

www.musiconmain.ca/event/music-for-the-winter-solstice-2024

At the most crucial point of the winter in Vancouver, when the rain is constant and darkness comes too early, Music on Main brings light to Heritage Hall, transforming the gloom of the season into a celebration of the Winter Solstice. Music for the Winter Solstice is Music on Main’s beloved annual tradition that is anything but conventional. Described as “calm and contemplative” and “intimate, warm and welcoming” (STIR) the seasonal performance is all about being together, having a nice glass of wine and listening to some enchanting music. Experience pianist Rachel Kiyo Iwaasa, vocalist Amanda Sum, violinist Karen Gerbrecht and cellist Olivia Blander whose music will uplift your spirits and infuse the season with magic and joy.

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Make It: The Handmade Revolution in Vancouver

Dec. 12–15

www.makeitshow.ca/vancouver

Since 2008, Make It has grown to become one of the most popular and well-attended craft fairs in Canada, with biannual shows in Vancouver and Edmonton. This massive growth would have never been possible without the support, enthusiasm and love from the amazing community. Each year, more and more conscious shoppers buy from Makies, which in turn allows them to do the work they love. From Dec. 12 to 15, the show will be at the PNE Forum with hundreds of your favourite Makies and their clothing, accessories, art, home decor, gourmet goodies and more!

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Lionel Bart’s Oliver!

Dec. 12, 2024–Jan. 4, 2025

www.gatewaytheatre.com/events/oliver

The award-winning musical adaptation of the classic Dickens novel, Oliver! springs to life with some of the most memorable characters and songs ever to grace the stage. Join young Oliver Twist as he navigates the Victorian London underworld, searching for a home, a family and – most importantly – for love. Oliver, a malnourished orphan in a workhouse, becomes the neglected apprentice of an undertaker, then escapes to find acceptance amongst a band of pickpockets led by the conniving Fagin. When Oliver is captured for a theft he did not commit, the benevolent victim, Mr. Brownlow, takes him in. Fagin, fearing the safety of his hideout, has Oliver kidnapped, threatening the boy’s chances of discovering the true love of a family.

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Vancouver International Black Film Festival

Dec. 13–17

www.vancouverblackfilmfest.com

The Fourth Vancouver International Black Film Festival is back with a hybrid version (in-person and online) to amplify the voices of Afro-descendants in British Columbia. The in-person screenings and events will take place at the VIFF Vancity Theatre and Studio Theatre. The opening night is a red carpet event happening on Friday, Dec. 13 at 7 p.m. and opens with Matthew Leutwyler’s powerful film, Fight Like a Girl, at the Vancity Theatre, a film about a young Congolese woman who rebuilds her life by joining a renowned all-women boxing club in the border city of Goma, where she discovers resilience, community and the strength to reclaim her future. For tickets, showtimes and more information, check out the festival’s website.

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Cinderella! A Traditional British Pantomime!

Dec. 13, 2024–Jan. 5, 2025

www.metrotheatre.com/cinderella-a-traditional-british-pantomime

You are cordially invited to Cinderella! A Traditional British Pantomime! Metro Theatre’s yearly holiday tradition is back for the 39th time, with the same creative team that brought you last year’s big success, SINBAD! This fairytale family favourite is sure to please young and old, prince and princess alike with exciting musical numbers, games, and laughs galore. Discover why the British Pantomime is a Christmas staple across the UK, and maybe start a family tradition that will last a lifetime. This Christmas, the magic is in the shoes!

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Solicitude: Music to Shine in the Darkest Winter

Dec. 14, 7:30 p.m.

www.musicaintima.org/solicitude

Solicitude will feature the music and voice of Lil’wat composer and singer Russell Wallace as he explores what winter means to him through his Indigenous musical traditions and perspectives, paired with music that reflects the season from our own and different cultural traditions by Wallace, Reena Esmail, Saunder Choi and Rebecca Dale. Join Solicitude in the warm and welcoming acoustic of Kitsilano Neighbourhood House, a decommissioned church and start your new holiday tradition!

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Goh Ballet’s The Nutcracker

Dec. 19–22

www.gohballet.com/the-nutcracker

A holiday classic and a favourite Vancouver tradition, Goh Ballet’s annual production of The Nutcracker provides aspiring dancers with an exceptional performance opportunity, bringing together the best local talent and principal dancers from world renowned professional companies on the stage at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre. Experience Clara’s dream come to life as she embarks on a magical journey through the Land of Snow to the Kingdom of Sweets where she is greeted by the enchanting Sugar Plum Fairy. An unforgettable adventure awaits as her gallant Nutcracker battles the evil Mouse King and his army of mischievous mice. This heart-warming production is sure to delight audiences of all ages with more than 200 dancers, actors, gymnasts, glittering costumes, dramatic sets and valuable lessons – all danced to Tchaikovsky’s memorable score performed live by members of the Vancouver Opera Orchestra.

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Someone Like You

Jan. 9–Feb. 9, 2025

www.artsclub.com/shows/on-tour/2024-2025/someone-like-you

Open-hearted Isabelle is a lifelong romantic, but modern love isn’t like a pop song or an old novel–or is it? When her best friend, Kristin, embarks on a rebound romance, things get complicated as Isabelle’s “wingman” duties cross the line. This charming new comedy launches the mistaken identities of Cyrano de Bergerac into 21st-century Vancouver with millennial manifestos, dating apps and the quest for self-love. For more information, check out the Arts Club website.