Register Now
This year you can also register in person at the Gabriola Arts and Heritage Centre. If you plan to pay by cash or cheque, you’ll need to register in-person. More details on in-person registration can be found here.
This year you can also register in person at the Gabriola Arts and Heritage Centre. If you plan to pay by cash or cheque, you’ll need to register in-person. More details on in-person registration can be found here.
While on Gabriola, Diane Conrad, Professor at the University of Alberta, will be writing a book about her Applied Theatre Research; and on Sunday she will offer a free community presentation, sharing stories of how theatre strategies have been used to analyze and explore participants’ experiences and search for solutions to areas of concern.
Diane will be sharing details from her 20-year research program using applied theatre with marginalized youth in alternative school settings, in a youth jail and with street-involved youth in the Edmonton area.
In case you missed her blurb in the last newsletter, applied theatre is term that describes theatre practices outside of traditional theatre contexts, most commonly with participants who have little or no theatre experience, but who have an interest in the issues being explored.
Applied theatre is focused more on process than on theatrical performance; its intention is to examine the world and our experiences, to raise awareness and to generate change.
In my presentation, I’ll share images and stories from the projects I worked on with youth. The image above, for example, is from a scene we created for a project with street involved youth. We called the project Uncensored. Its aim was to educate service providers who worked with the youth about the youths’ experiences in order to better meet youths’ needs. The scene, “Labels,” was based on youths’ experiences of feeling seen by service providers only as the labels that were applied to them from their files; they did not feel seen or heard as individuals who were struggling and deserving of assistance.
I hope to connect with a youth group while I’m here on Gabriola to explore their perspectives on whatever topic they deem relevant.
I hope to see you at my presentation.
Diane
Gabriola’s biggest art event of the year is here – the Thanksgiving Studio Tour. Gabriola artists will open their studios and their hearts to visitors from far and wide to share their talents and creativity. There is something for everyone on the Tour – from pottery to paintings, jewellery, photography, sculpture, glassblowing, mixed media, leatherwork, metalwork and more!
This year we are celebrating our 26th year and expecting more than 1,500 visitors – what fun!
October 8-10th 2022. Studios are open from 10am-5pm on Saturday, Sunday and Monday of Thanksgiving Weekend.
Studio Tour is FREE.
You can tour studios at your own leisure throughout the weekend. Visit as many artists as you’d like – their doors are all open from 10am-5pm.
65 artists, in 56 studios, all members of the Gabriola Arts Council. Learn more about each studio here.
Beautiful Gabriola is only a 20 minute ferry ride away from Nanaimo, BC. Check the Gabriola ferry schedule here. You also have direct access to Gabriola from Vancouver (downtown and YVR South) thanks to Gulf Island seaplanes.
Coming from afar? No worries, we’ve got many great B&Bs and places to stay here on Gabriola. Our friends at the Haven have beautiful oceanfront rooms available for rent.
Use this handy digital map to help you plan your route or pick up a brochure at Tour Central. You are welcome to start at any Studio you wish – this is a choose-your-own adventure crawl, so don’t be shy – start wherever you’d like.
Visit Tour Central where you can preview artwork from each of the participating studios. Tour Central is located in the Village, not far from the grocery store. We’ll be upstairs inside Nova Art and Craft Boutique. 575 N Rd, Gabriola, BC V0R 1X3
Tour Central hours:
Stop by Tour Central in the village, where you can see artwork by each of the participating Studio Tour artists.
Grant Lawrence, CBC broadcaster and author, is bringing his West-Coast style Vinyl Cafe live show on the road and will be visiting Gabriola in September. Grant Lawrence and Friends: an evening of stories and songs.
“In his inimitable, high-voltage style Lawrence interweaves the rich and harrowing history of the Desolation Sound area with his own experiences of life on the coast.” CBC.ca
You may remember Grant from his well-received show at the Cultivate Festival in Aug of 2018. He has recently released new book “Return to Solitude“, a sequel memoir about spending summers in Desolation Sound.
Here are some links where you can see – or rather, hear – more of Grant’s work:
CanadaSound
CBC.CA
Watermark Project
Event information:
Note: All ticket proceeds go to the artist and production. If you wish to support the Gabriola Arts Council in bringing more acts like these to Gabriola, please consider making a donation to cover our administrative costs.