Art shows on the west side: St. Mary’s Kerrisdale, Lookout Gallery, St. Anselm’s

Art Spirit Community, Life Lines Art Show, What Sustains Us, Art and Spirit Lecture Series: we have a rich selection of art shows and lecture series to choose from over the next few weeks – all on the west side of town. For the first couple you’ll have to act promptly though.

 

 

Art Spirit Community is a two-day art show at St. Mary’s Anglican Church in Kerrisdale. The church is welcoming submissions of art work from the community, which will then be put on sale at the church. Artists are invited to an opening night event this Thursday evening (February 12), and the general public is invited the next two days.

 

Organizers say this about Art Spirit Community:

 

Back in 2011 the clergy and representatives of the Anglican parishes of St. Philips (Dunbar); St. Helen’s (West Point Grey); St. Anselm’s (UBC); Holy Trinity (South Granville); St. Augustine’s and St. Faith’s (Marpole); and St. Mary’s (Kerrisdale) got together to plan a celebration of the arts. They wanted to reach out to their communities, bring people together and demonstrate that the link between spirituality and the arts was alive and well and living in Vancouver. . . .

 

Over 60 artists will be showing their work: paintings, etchings, drawings, photographs, ceramics, woodwork, quilt making. Most of the artists are from Vancouver, but artists from Ladner, Richmond, Burnaby and Port Moody will also be showing their work.

 

 Lookout Gallery: Life Lines Art Show

 

The bad news is that the last day for the Life Lines show is Thursday (February 12), at 5 pm. It’s well worth the visit if you can make. This Lookout Gallery show (at Regent College) features WeMakeStuff artists Caitlin Ambery, Cara Bain, Brian Liu, Adam Back, Britta Fluevog and Lindsay Schroeder.

The good news is that the art featured at the show can also be found in the second volume of WeMakeStuff, a beautiful book that “documents and affirms the vocation of artists and innovators from British Columbia [mainly Metro Vancouver] who share a common pursuit of living a life that embodies the teachings and spirit of Jesus Christ.”

The show runs February 19 – March 19, with an opening reception on the first day, from 4:30 – 7:30 pm.

 

While you’re at Regent, take some time to visit some of their permanent art installations.

Speaking of Regent College . . .

The current issue of The Regent World features an article by Eileen Li (Shum), a pastor at North Shore Pacific Grace Mennonite Brethren Church. Following is the introduction to Doing Liturgical Arts Together:

In this generation, there are many temptations to reduce corporate worship to a private experience that avoids any substantial connection with others. One way to resist this isolation and individualism is to integrate aesthetics into corporate worship. Good liturgical arts can provide a balance of unity and diversity by helping a congregation embrace differences in various talents and gifts, while affirming a community’s spiritual centre in God.

To explore this idea, I gathered eight members from a local church who were committed to meeting as a group to share the joys and challenges of worshiping together using the arts. We held six sessions, during which we worshiped through songs, visual arts, sharing and praying together. We focused our sessions on four acts of worship: lament, confession, praise and supplication.

For the rest go here.

Switching gears to literature for a moment, poet Luci Shaw will be featured at an Evening Soirée – For Love of the Word February 21.

St. Anselm’s: Art and Spirit Lecture Series

Not far from Regent College on the UBC campus, St. Anselm’s Anglican Church will be hosting the Art and Spirit Lecture Series, every Wednesday evening between February 25 and March 25. Only one evening is focused on the visual arts, but all should be interesting.

 

The series will feature five prominent Vancouver artists: Karen Jamieson February 25 (dance); Landon Mackenzie March 4 (painting); Christopher Gaze March 11 (drama); Jane Coop March 18 (music) and Kate Braid March 25 (writing). They will share their thoughts on the importance of ‘spirit’ in their artistic processes.

 

The series, which is part of the parish’s renewal and revitalization process, has been several months in the making. A team of three parishioners, along with Rev. Canon Dr. Harold Munn, wanted to organize a speaker series for Lent to provide both insightful dialogue and increase the parish’s presence in the local community.