Is the appetite for First Nations art getting bigger? First there was the theft of Bill Reid artifacts at the UBC Museum of Anthropology last May. Now comes word from the Langley RCMP of a break and enter at the Fort Langley National Historic Site overnight on Monday (September 1), in which five pieces of Kwantlen First Nations Art were taken from a glass case: three masks, a drum, and a basket with a combined value of $5,500.

Tom Durrie, founder of the Save the York Theatre Task Force and former manager of the Pacific Baroque Orchestra, got a shock August 27 when he looked out his window and saw workmen entering the York Theatre, more recently known as the Raja Theatre, and removing pieces of its interior. “A truck pulled up and guys were going in and out with masks on and loading, carrying things out, and throwing them in the truck,” Durrie recalled in a phone conversation with the Straight.

Anger is mounting across the country among politicians and arts advocates over the federal government’s axing of $45 million in arts and culture funding.

Dancer James Gnam has been nominated for a Dance Centre Isadora Award for his performance in last November’s Elemental Brubeck. The winners of the annual will be announced September 13 at the Scotiabank Dance Centre’s open house.

With a lineup of 68 groups giving more than 500 performances, from the Dada-esque to the therapeutic, the 24th annual Vancouver International Fringe Festival is as likely to move audiences to tears as it is to make them bust a gut laughing.

The spirited UBC Opera Ensemble singers performed a condensed version of the cautionary tale of an incorrigible lothario whose unrepentant debauchery leads to a nasty end. What they lacked in polish they made up for with passion.

In his nonfiction debut, Almost Green, the writer documents his transformation from skeptical journalist to born-again green crusader and his poorly planned efforts at building a 280-square-foot "eco-shed" on Bowen Island.

Have purveyors of raw fish been playing sashimi-scoffing gourmands as fools?

Word on the street—and in various media reports—is that the RCMP paid money to secure the return of last two missing Bill Reid pieces, a gold eagle brooch and a carved argilite pipe, that were swiped from the Museum of Anthropology in an overnight heist on May 24.

The Museum of Anthropology’s groundbreaking new Internet research hub will link its collection of Pacific Northwest objects with other Pacific Northwest collections in museums around the world.

Recent cuts by the federal government could jeopardize Canada’s high-profile involvement in an internationally recognized craft festival held in South Korea, the executive director of the Crafts Association of B.C. says.

Festival Vancouver devotees will have to invest in new memorabilia next year: after eight years, the annual summer event is changing its name. Come January 1, it will officially be known as MusicFest Vancouver.

In-person sales of tickets for the Vancouver International Fringe Festival, which runs September 3 to 13, began yesterday, and would-be ticket buyers are being given an incentive to book their seats ahead of time: this year’s organizers have decided not to hold back any tickets for sale at the door. Tickets cost $14 in advance, or $12 at the door.

Heracles would have approved of the performances of the lyrically sensitive Lawrence Wiliford and the playful Suzie LeBlanc in the final concert of the Vancouver Early Music festival.

Tickets and passes go on sale in person on Wednesday (August 20) for the 24th annual Vancouver International Fringe Festival, where over 500 performances by more than 68 groups will take place September 3 to 13.

Tickets and passes go on sale in person on Wednesday (August 20) for the 24th annual Vancouver International Fringe Festival, where over 500 performances by more than 68 groups will take place September 3 to 13.

The Vancouver East Cultural Centre’s executive director is defending the extensive renovations under way at the historic site. The 99-year-old building at Venables Street and Victoria Drive, which was originally the Grandview Methodist Church, was stripped of its interior, without a roof, and held up by scaffolding at press time.

Flutist Mark McGregor and pianist Rachel Kiyo Iwaasa have reason to celebrate. The debut CD by the pair, who perform as Tiresias, has been nominated in the outstanding classical recording category in this year’s Western Canadian Music Awards. Delicate Fires includes a number of works by the late Vancouver-based composer Barbara Pentland, as well as premiere recordings written especially for Tiresias by local composers Rodney Sharman, Jennifer Butler, and Jocelyn Morlock.

The Western Front has released the schedule for its fall 2008 season, which includes two new concert series, En Masse and Stand Alone, as well as a visit from accordionist and electroacoustic new-music pioneer Pauline Oliveros. En Masse will explore the ways musicians perform together, while Stand Alone will consist of solo performances. Oliveros, in her first Vancouver visit in 15 years, will perform November 28 at the Vancouver Art Gallery as part of FUSE.

The young and energetic group set the bar high with a program featuring the world premiere of String Quartet No. 2 by Okanagan-based composer Imant Raminsh.

Just days after news broke that the federal government is axing the $4.7-million PromArt program, which provides cultural travel grants through the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade, comes word that yet another cultural grant program is getting the hook.

Just days after news broke that the federal government is axing the $4.7-million PromArt program, which provides cultural travel grants through the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade, comes word that yet another cultural grant program is getting the hook.

Last February, the federal Conservatives came under fire after it was discovered that Bill C-10, an omnibus tax bill, would allow the federal Heritage minister to deny tax credits for films and TV shows that were deemed offensive.

Music in the Hall of Mirrors: Entertaining the Duke of Mantua

Despite the July 31 announcement of the creation of a National Maritime Centre Society, North Vancouver’s plan to build a National Maritime Centre for the Pacific and the Arctic (NMC) is still awaiting the federal stamp of approval that would secure the project’s future.

Ballet B.C.’s participation in the inaugural Ballet Expo Seoul, which runs August 15 to 23 at the Yong Theatre in Seoul, South Korea, is just one element in the dance company’s plan to increase its exposure in the Asia-Pacific region, according to executive director Susan Howard.

It’s enough to make you wonder if there’s something in the B.C. air: last week, three young singers from our shores scored big wins. On July 27, 21-year-old UBC School of Music student Simone Osborne was announced as a cowinner, with Pennsylvanian baritone Edward Parks, of the Marilyn Horne Foundation Vocal Competition at the Music Academy of the West in Santa Barbara, California.

String theory The Spectacular String Quartets series may be packing three concerts into a single day (August 10) at Christ Church Cathedral, but that clearly hasn’t dampened the zeal of die-hard chamber music lovers. According to Festival Vancouver program director George Laverock, button sales—the festival’s version of a series pass—are strong.

Public funding of programs by independent arts organizations should not take the place of arts education at school, according to Irene Lanzinger, president of the B.C. Teachers’ Federation. On July 22, the provincial government announced a $167,000 grant to Arts Umbrella for an ongoing outreach program that delivers visual and performing arts workshops of up to 10 days to vulnerable children and youth in a variety of locations throughout the province.

After two years without a general manager, the Firehall Arts Centre has appointed Amy Benson to the task. Benson, who previously worked in theatre administration at the Vancouver East Cultural Centre and, most recently, at the Centennial Theatre in North Vancouver, fills the gap left by Jessica Schneider in 2006.  

The American Alliance for Theatre and Education has honoured David Diamond, artistic and managing director of Headlines Theatre, with its 2008 Distinguished Book Award. The award, presented July 26, is for Diamond’s Theatre for Living: The Art and Science of Community-Based Dialogue—the first self-published book to win the award.  

Local artist Mary Taylor has spent thousands of hours researching more than 250 victims of heinous, incomprehensible acts of violence for a searing installation at the Pride in Art Festival.

After a long history of stops and starts, Vancouver city council is ready to breathe new life into a proposal for a major new arts complex downtown.

After 22 years in the green house at 1885 Venables—which is on land slated to be redeveloped as part of the Vancouver East Cultural Centre’s extensive renovations—Green Thumb Theatre has been forced to find new administration and rehearsal space. The task has proven difficult, according to general manager Ivan Habel.

Langara College has announced the creation of a new Centre for Art in Public Spaces, featuring artist-in-residence programs, classes, and a speaker series. The centre was formed to meet the city’s public-art requirement for new developments by the college, which recently completed a new library and is constructing a student-union building. “It’s quite an innovative approach to the public-art requirement,” Lorna Brown, the new centre’s program facilitator, said.

Three B.C. residents have joined the cast of Canadian playwrights in the running for the $100,000 Elinore & Lou Siminovitch Prize in Theatre. Michele Riml of North Vancouver, Carmen Aguirre of Vancouver, and Marie Clements of Galiano Island have been nominated for awards, which get handed out in October.

Partiers in the Bacardi B-Live Dance Tent at this weekend’s Pemberton Festival might be surprised to find themselves face to face with members of Vancouver’s classical-music scene, complete with jackets and bow ties, come Sunday evening.

A total of $1.5 million in funding for the creation of 16 new works by B.C. arts groups was announced yesterday (July 17) by Arts Partners in Creative Development.

A total of $1.5 million in funding for the creation of 16 new works by B.C. arts groups was announced yesterday (July 17) by Arts Partners in Creative Development.

A representative of the Museum of Anthropology at UBC says she’s confident the institution’s artifacts will be safe when it shuts its doors to the public over a six-month period starting this fall.

A representative of the Museum of Anthropology at UBC says she’s confident the institution’s artifacts will be safe when it shuts its doors to the public over a six-month period starting this fall.

The City of Vancouver’s new video-screen advertising program is garnering mixed reviews from members of the local arts community. On July 9, the city announced it was launching a program that will offer local nonprofit arts and cultural organizations free time for 10-second promotional messages on a pair of video monitors on a building at the corner of Robson and Granville streets.

The City of Vancouver’s new video-screen advertising program is garnering mixed reviews from members of the local arts community. On July 9, the city announced it was launching a program that will offer local nonprofit arts and cultural organizations free time for 10-second promotional messages on a pair of video monitors on a building at the corner of Robson and Granville streets.

Vancouver isn’t the only hot spot this summer. With all of the activity taking place across the region, from North Vancouver’s Party-at-the-Pier to White Rock’s Spirit of the Sea Festival, you're spoilt for choice.

A draft arts strategy for New Westminster has received a lukewarm reception from an arts advocacy group in the city.

Vancouver city council gave its blessing Tuesday (July 8) to a community initiative that wants Vancouver designated a UNESCO City of Literature.

The executive director of Early Music Vancouver has been awarded the Order of Canada for his work in promoting early period music. José Verstappen, who has worked with Early Music Vancouver for more than 25 years, said he was surprised to hear that he had been recognized with the country’s highest civilian honour. The news came July 1, but was overshadowed by the controversy surrounding Henry Morgentaler’s appointment to the order.  

A lack of funds has forced the downtown branch of UBC’s Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery, where graduate students in critical and curatorial studies curated shows, to leave its home at 555 Hamilton Street after five years. At the end of August, the Belkin Satellite will make way for the Or Gallery, which will take over the space.

When mental health is left out of the classroom, young people glean information from misleading sources, which only amplify the stigma of mental illness.

B.C.’s health officer is standing by Gardasil, the HPV (human papillomavirus) vaccine used to protect against cervical cancer, amid mounting public concern over its safety.