More than 50 Sunshine Coast and area artists and performers will bring together their varied talents from October 16 to 26 for the 11th annual Sechelt Arts Festival.
“The festival features painters, sculptors, videographers, photographers, glass artists, carvers, musicians, actors, dancers and storytellers,” said Diana Robertson, co-producer of the fest.
“For this year’s event, we have developed a cross-cultural and collaborative approach, which included engaging our local First Nations artists.”
The festival theme, based on director Gordon Halloran’s stage presentation entitled “Body of Light,” will take festival participants on a journey of “discovery and collaboration” combining Mind, Body and Soul. A series of workshops and special performances over the ten-day festival will also pick up on this concept including The VAMS Concert, an adapted music concert and a Healing of Song workshop at the Sunshine Coast Arts Centre.
The festival’s featured art exhibition, entitled Mind Over Matter, will explore six unique artistic collaborations between fourteen artists of both aboriginal and non-aboriginal heritage working in various mediums to explore stories about community, journey, grief, heritage, love and connection.
“It’s a story they create about their collaboration,” said Robertson.
On Saturday (Oct. 18) the fest’s performance schedule kicks off with a special concert presenting a multi-lingual “evening of song” at the Ravens Cry Theatre called Sprit of Song. Singers, musicians and storytellers slated for the evening include Echo Aleck, Blue Star, Candace Campo, Andy Johnson, Jean Pierre and Yvette Makosso, throat singers Chris and Tim Niebergall and Simon Paradis.
“Spirit of Song is about the uplifting emotional high that comes from singing,” said Robertson.
On October 25, the Ravens Cry Theatre is also the venue for the theatrical stage premiere of Body of Light, a look at the mystery and transformative nature of physical and spiritual “healing.”
In addition, the Tems Swiya Museum in Sechelt will be open and hosting the fest’s heritage exhibit, Totem Tales: The art and storytelling of the Coast totem poles. The special ten-day exhibit combines professional photography, videography, and totem miniatures collected from local archival groups and private collections from Gibsons to Powell River.
“We also have more than 10 free workshops, and other concert performances,” said Robertson. “And the annual art crawl weekend happens on Oct. 18 and 19, so it is a great time to come to Sechelt to experience the arts.”
For more information on the festival or for a full schedule of events, go to secheltartsfestival.com.
