Lake Country is in ‘Full Bloom’
Lake Country is taking ‘Life In Full Bloom’ to its literal sense this weekend as it welcomes ArtWalk 2022 with a vibrant palette of activities, workshops, and other live events to colour the canvas of our lives, inspire our imagination to flourish, and take life into full bloom.
I spoke with festival chairperson Sharon McCoubrey about the twoyear gap and how excited and ready her team are to welcome everybody back.
ArtWalk is a Multi-Arts Festival held at Lake Country Community Complex, George Elliot Secondary School, 10241 Bottom Wood Lake Rd., and the new École H.S. Grenda Middle school that links to the complex by a bridge, just over the river.
McCoubrey chatted with me about the special events that surround this excitement to include “The Paint Off,” where a group of selected artists have 15 minutes to create a painting, all given the same subject.
“What comes out of a creative individual is exciting and quite a crowd pleaser,” McCoubrey explained.
This event is happening inside the middle school courtyard on both days, the first being at 11 a.m. and repeated at 1 p.m.
She also said there is a Peace Garden created exclusively inside the drama department of the school that brings the outdoors inside – this special place will welcome all who enter through a live floral gateway that was created by a local artist. Inside the garden will also be contributed paintings and handmade bird houses from well-known artists for the public to purchase. This garden is part of a fundraising initiative for an orphanage in Ukraine, and the funds raised will be donated to that cause. Inside the courtyard will be a gathering space of food trucks and tables for people to rest and meet other like-minded event goers.
Live music will be performed continuously on the four stages situated in areas around the festival site. There are just too many contributing artists to mention, so I advise going on the website, lakecountryartwalk.ca where you can also find a full roster of names and where to find each artist as well as a schedule of timed events. There is also a printed schedule upon arrival, once you pay your $2 entrance fee.
As for parking and getting there, I recommend parking the car at the
recreation centre, 9830 Bottom Wood Lake Rd, then taking the ArtWalk shuttle bus to be dropped off right at the entrance. The first bus leaves at 11 a.m. then every half hour or less, after that.
——— Tonight, is opening night of Kelowna Actors Studios opulent gift to local theatre, Amadeus.
This musical play is a fictional story that follows the meeting of – and the inevitable rivalry between – Antonio Salieri (performed by Peter Church) and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (Chad Abrahamson).
As legend has it, the jealous rivalry led to Mozart’s assignation with fingers pointing to Salieri. A fake story invented by Pushkin (Mozart and Salieri) and perpetuated in this Peter Shaffer play.
KAS will transport ticket holders to Vienna, the city of drama and intrigue, where this particular scandal is abuzz.
Director Randy Leslie has pulled out the stops when it comes to opulent set design, to include a baby grand piano, over 1,000 metres of draped velvet and 250 metres of gold trim. I am looking forward to seeing this set!
Tickets at KelownaActorsStudio .com or by calling the box office at 250-862-2867. Kelowna Actors Studio is located at 1379 Ellis Street. Kelowna.
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There are still a few more tickets left for the Indoor house concert of Braden Gates, hosted by The Lantern Folk Roots Music Society, happening September 10 at 7:30 p.m. Braden will perform music from his latest album Kitchen Days that has already won the 2022 Canadian Folk Music Award for Traditional Album of the Year. Purchase your Tickets at $20 each, online through: lanternfolk.ca.
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Pause in Plight is a touring exhibition making its way across Canada with a brief residency at Kelowna’s Rotary Centre for the Arts, 431 Cawston Ave., from Sept. 9 to Oct. 29. Artist Kerri Parnell has curated and created a series of modern images depicting wartime prejudice that led to the interment of more than 8,000 men, women and children, primarily of Ukrainian and Eastern European
descent, deemed as “enemy aliens.”
This is not a finger pointing slap on the hand, but an exhibition to promote social awareness to historical injustice for us to change our thinking and shift the course of history forever.
With the support from Canadian First World War Internment Recognition Fund (CFWWIRF), the exhibition is laid out in five different sections: War Posters, Light Installation, Emotional Interpretation Series, Old Eyes Series, and To Hell with the Alien Enemy.
As an immigrant myself and brought up in Kelowna with my parents, I had no idea this went on here. Canadians studied what Hitler’s Germany did but seemed to leave out the secret sins that are finally being uncovered right on our native land. There is no time like the present to keep creating conversation that all men are created equal and should be respected as such.
Internment operations were authorized by The War Measures Act (Aug. 22, 1914) and continued until June 1920, nearly two years after the Great War with the Armistice (Nov. 11, 1918).
The Vernon Internment camp closed on Feb. 20, 1920.
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Sunday is Comedy Night at The Broken Hearts Club at the Crown and Thieves Winery, 3887C Brown Rd. in West Kelowna, with New Yorker, Mike Dambra. Known as the smartass King of Comedy and for keeping his act fresh and with variety. Tickets through: eventbrite.ca/e/comedynight-the-broken-hearts-club-withmike-dambra-tickets387664694537?aff=ebdssbdestsearch.
——— Penticton is Jazz Hot this weekend with the Pentastic Music Festival based at Penticton Trade and Convention Centre, 273 Power St., as well as other contributing venues around the city. There’s a huge line up of New Orleans style jazz Book your tickets through pentasticjazz.ca where they also have suggestions for accommodation and restaurants.
To gain a little insight, visit vimeo.com/741187724/e392ed6f5d