Things to Do in Vancouver this Weekend: September 28, 2017

The Vancouver International Film Festival begins! Plan your upcoming weeks wisely to make sure and catch a few of the 300+ films from around the world. Also opening is a photography show about Vancouver activism, a Canadian painting exhibit, and there’s a whole bunch of music in town.

Friday | Saturday | Sunday | Ongoing

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Friday September 29

Vancouver International Film Festival
Where: Various locations
What: In addition to over 300 of the best films from around the world, VIFF expands the frame to incorporate and celebrate some of the exciting new aspects of visual story telling. This includes events such as the world’s largest showcase of elevated YouTube content by digital-first creators and the Kronos Quartet performing a live score to renowned filmmaker Guy Maddin’s latest film The Green Fog – A San Francisco Fantasia.  
Runs until: Friday October 13, 2017

City on the Edge: A Century of Vancouver Activism
Where: Museum of Vancouver
What: A photo-based exhibition exploring how protest demonstrations have shaped Vancouver’s identity from the Vancouver Sun and The Province newspapers’ photo collection. These photographs are exceptional historical records of intense and transformative moments in the lives of Vancouverites.
Runs until: February 18, 2017

Coldplay
Where: BC Place Stadium
What: Since March of this 2016, the “A Head Full Of Dreams Tour,” produced by Live Nation Entertainment, has played to 2.5 million people across Latin America, the U.S. and Europe. The show was created by the band alongside celebrated production designers Misty Buckley and Paul Normandale.

James Danderfer on Jazz Clarinet
Where: The Labyrinth at St. Paul’s (1130 Jervis )
What: As the seasons change and fall approaches, the cooler, darker evenings invite reflection. walk the labyrinth to the soothing, gentle melodies of jazz clarinet musician James Danderfer. Free admission.

IDS Vancouver
Where: Vancouver Convention Centre
What: The Pacific platform for all things design. Individual designers, artists, makers and design-centric brands have come together in Vancouver to showcase their current works, concepts and products. In addition to experiencing installations and features, there will also be opportunities to hear from some of the design world’s most notable and talented personalities and connect with a long list of world-class designers that either call Vancouver home, or call on Vancouver for inspiration.
Runs until: Sunday October 1, 2017

Austra
Where: The Imperial
What: Fun, dreamy Canadian electro.

Record Club: OK Computer
Where: HR McMillan Space Centre
What: The Record Club is a storytelling night that hits repeat on some of the best personal stories inspired by this essential album, told live. From stories of alienation, informational overload, to creativity on the road, and musical melancholy.

13: The Musical
Where: The Waterfront Theatre
What: Yanked from his New York City life after his parents’ divorce, 12-year-old Evan Goldman has a lot going on: he’s navigating the popularity pecking order at his new small-town school, and planning his epic Bar Mitzvah – all the while trying to fix his family left in disarray since his parents’ break up.
Runs until: Sunday October 1, 2017

Threads
Where: Chan Centre of the Performing Arts
What: Revealing accounts of hope and hardship, Kate Evans will recall her experiences at France’s Calais refugee camp as told in her acclaimed 2017 graphic novel Threads: From the Refugee Crisis. With projected images from her book as the backdrop, and live musical accompaniment by Iranian-Canadian hand drummer Hamin Honari, Evans will share a compelling reading. The evening will conclude with a thought-provoking moderated panel discussion on the power of art, both as a response to crisis and a means to inspire political and social movements.

Tanks and the Bangas
Where: The Fox
What: With guests, Breaks and Swells.

The New Pornographers
Where: The Commodore
What: Canadian indie rock who started up in the 90s.

Lush Gorilla Volume IV
Where: 536 Seymour
What: 14 interactive installations, including a life-size water tank-turned-hidden home and botanical-inspired room with scratch and sniff wallpaper, guests will be treated to an unparalleled sensory experience as they are taken on a journey through the stories that inspired these unique fragrances.
Runs until: Saturday September 30, 2017

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Saturday September 30

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Entangled: Two Views on Contemporary Canadian Painting
Where: Vancouver Art Gallery
What: An insight into two distinctly different modes of painting that have come to dominate contemporary painting in this country. The origins of both can be effectively traced back to the 1970s, to a moment when the continued existence of painting was hotly debated.
Runs until: January 1, 2018

Water’s Edge Day
Where: Vancouver Maritime Museum
What: A full day of activities for the entire family that explore the shoreline including guided dragon boat tours, kayaking, First Nations canoe tours, arts and crafts workshops, touch tanks, children’s entertainers, and live music.

Knit City, a Modern Fibre Event
Where: PNE Forum
What: A fibre arts festival and marketplace.
Runs until: Sunday October 1, 2017

Billy Bragg
Where: The Commodore
What: An English singer, songwriter and left-wing activist.

BC Culture Days: Free Guided Outdoor Tours
Where: Museum of Anthropology
What: This 30-minute tour features the museum’s outdoor sculpture complex, including two Haida Houses and totem poles by some of the finest contemporary First Nations artists of the Northwest Coast.

Ben Folds
Where: The Vogue
What: Throughout his career, Folds has created a body of genre-blending music that includes pop albums as the front man for Ben Folds Five, multiple solo rock albums, as well as unique collaborative records with artists from Sara Bareilles and Regina Spektor, to Weird Al and William Shatner.

The Vancouver Cheese and Meat Festival
Where: Roundhouse Community Centre
What: With the recent boom in artisan shops across the Pacific Northwest, the Cheese and Meat Festival will exhibit both international and local cheese and meat in an experiential tasting format.

Ravine Moon Festival
Where: Renfrew Park Community Centre
What: A festival that celebrates the full moon and harvest abundance, while honouring diverse cultural traditions. The festival will highlight art, music, environmental stewardship, and community participation.

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Sunday October 1

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Feist
Where: The Vogue
What: A Canadian indie pop singer-songwriter and guitarist, performing solo artist today, though she is also a member of the indie rock group Broken Social Scene.

Steve Earle and the Dukes
Where: The Commodore
What: American rock, country and folk singer-songwriter, record producer, author and actor.

Nickleback
Where: Rogers Arena
What: Love them, hate them, or love-to-hate them, these divisive dudes are touring with Cheap Trick.

BC Culture Days: Free Guided Outdoor Tours
Where: Museum of Anthropology
What: This 30-minute tour features the museum’s outdoor sculpture complex, including two Haida Houses and totem poles by some of the finest contemporary First Nations artists of the Northwest Coast.

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Ongoing

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Shipyards Night Market
Where: Lonsdale, North Vancouver
What: Food, art, music, entertainment, shopping, a beer garden, and you can bring your dog!
Runs until: September 29, 2017

Japanese Problem at Hastings Park
Where: Hastings Racecourse
What: A performance about the time of WWII that invites an audience into a stall, which residents have turned into a temporary home and place of wonder, as they are filled with the uncertainty of their next destination. The piece exists in the contemporary moment simultaneously, where evidence of Hastings Parks’s former tenants has been erased, where survivors are uncertain if they want their names included in a memorial; and where refugees to North America are being treated in a fashion that is terrifyingly familiar.
Runs until: Saturday September 30, 2017

Interrupting the Interface | David Wilson
Where: Kimoto Gallery
What: In building this body of work, Wilson scanned thousands of photographs on Instagram and selected the images he felt compelled to work with. Then it was a matter of copying, pasting, further filtering for his own painting references. Most of the selected images identified with water or fluidity, a pervasive theme throughout Wilson’s work.
Runs until: Saturday September 30, 2017

ZimCarvings
Where: VanDusen Botanical Garden
What: Patrick Sephani along with visiting artist Peter Kananji will be showcasing works from over 30 Zimbabwean stone sculptors on the beautiful garden grounds and carving stone sculptures on site.  All works will be available for purchase.
Runs until: Saturday September 30, 2017

Downtown Eastside Women’s Summer Fair
Where: Downtown Eastside Women’s Centre
What: Over twenty-five vendors and artisans from within the community, entertainment from local performers, an area for children to play, information booths about the different resources available in the community, and a wide variety of goods and services for purchase.
Runs until: Saturday September 30, 2017 (Saturdays)

Lush Gorilla Volume IV
Where: 536 Seymour
What: 14 interactive installations, including a life-size water tank-turned-hidden home and botanical-inspired room with scratch and sniff wallpaper, guests will be treated to an unparalleled sensory experience as they are taken on a journey through the stories that inspired these unique fragrances.
Runs until: Saturday September 30, 2017

Claude Monet’s Secret Garden
Where: Vancouver Art Gallery
What: The most comprehensive exhibition of French painter Claude Monet’s work in Canada in two decades, Claude Monet’s Secret Garden will trace the career of this pivotal figure in Western art history. This exhibition will present thirty-eight paintings spanning the course of Monet’s long career from the unparalleled collection of the Musée Marmottan Monet, Paris.
Runs until: Sunday October 1, 2017

Stephen Shore: The Giverny Portfolio
Where: Vancouver Art Gallery
What: Twenty-five photographs by contemporary American photographer Stephen Shore produced during several visits to Impressionist painter Claude Monet’s famous gardens at Giverny, France. Showing concurrently with the exhibition Claude Monet’s Secret Garden, Stephen Shore: The Giverny Portfolio offers a contemporary perspective on the tranquility originally captured in Monet’s iconic paintings.
Runs until: Sunday October 1, 2017

Feast on the Fraser
Where: Various Locations, New Westminster
What: 10 days of signature culinary experiences from tastings and cocktail parties to neighbourhood food tours and long table dinners, the menu includes a Mad Men Mixer at the retro-cool Mid-Century Modern Home store, a Speakeasy Prohibition Gala, a Beauty and the Beast Tea Party and a Canada 150-themed dinner on the Fraser River.
Runs until: Sunday October 1, 2017

 

Knit City, a Modern Fibre Event
Where: PNE Forum
What: A fibre arts festival and marketplace.
Runs until: Sunday October 1, 2017

Persistence
Where: Vancouver Art Gallery
What: Persistence draws together three recent contemporary installations to explore the surprising and creative ways that technologies, physical objects and natural processes endure and transform.
Runs until: October 1, 2017

Definitely Dali
Where: Oakridge Centre’s West Gallery
What: A public Salvador Dali exhibition highlighting Dali’s original seven-foot tall bronze sculpture called the Dance of Time l. The installation will also include 12 gallery-sized Dali sculptures, and 10 Dali artworks on the walls.
Runs until: Sunday October 1, 2017

Elad Lassry
Where: Vancouver Art Gallery
What: Investigating the nature of perception with a special focus on the photographic image within the digital era, the exhibition includes more than seventy works—films, photographs and sculpture—produced by Lassry over the last decade.
Runs until: Sunday October 1, 2017

IDS Vancouver
Where: Vancouver Convention Centre
What: The Pacific platform for all things design. Individual designers, artists, makers and design-centric brands have come together in Vancouver to showcase their current works, concepts and products. In addition to experiencing installations and features, there will also be opportunities to hear from some of the design world’s most notable and talented personalities and connect with a long list of world-class designers that either call Vancouver home, or call on Vancouver for inspiration.
Runs until: Sunday October 1, 2017

13: The Musical
Where: The Waterfront Theatre
What: Yanked from his New York City life after his parents’ divorce, 12-year-old Evan Goldman has a lot going on: he’s navigating the popularity pecking order at his new small-town school, and planning his epic Bar Mitzvah – all the while trying to fix his family left in disarray since his parents’ break up.
Runs until: Sunday October 1, 2017

The Christians
Where: Pacific Theatre
What: After taking his church from a meager storefront to gleaming megachurch, Pastor Paul overturns one of the most sacred tenents of his congregation’s beliefs, sending them reeling towards schism. As they grapple with the mysteries of faith, certainty, and what happens after we die, they must also face the reality of loving those whose beliefs have made them into sudden strangers.
Runs until: Saturday October 7, 2017

Mount Pleasant Farmers Market
Where: Dude Chilling Park
What: Amble over and pick up some afternoon picnic supplies, groceries for the week, and Sunday dinner fixings from 25+ farms and producers. Each week you’ll find a fresh selection of just-picked seasonal fruits & veggies, ethically-raised meats & sustainable seafood, artisanal bread & prepared foods, craft beer, wine, & spirits, handmade craft, and coffee & food trucks.
Runs until: Sunday October 8, 2017

Angels in America
Where: Arts Club Theatre
What: Witness the soaring conclusion to the acclaimed play that asks us what we do for those we love. Perestroika is a revolution against the politics and prejudice in the 1980s as the AIDS epidemic rages on, and the characters wrestle with their ideologies and an angel looking for an answer. In the centre of it all is Prior Walter, a man in a world of peril who chooses to live in his light.
Runs until: Sunday October 8, 2017

Traces of Words: Art and Calligraphy from Asia
Where: UBC Museum of Anthropology
What: Words and their physical manifestations are explored in this insightful exhibition, which will honour the special significance that written forms. Varied forms of expression associated with writing throughout Asia is shown over the span of different time periods: from Sumerian cuneiform inscriptions, Qu’ranic manuscripts, Southeast Asian palm leaf manuscripts and Chinese calligraphy from MOA’s Asian collection to graffiti art from Afghanistan and contemporary artworks using Japanese calligraphy, and Tibetan and Thai scripts.
Runs until: Monday October 9, 2017

Richmond Night Market
Where: Richmond, BC
What: There’s a dinosaur park! Anamatronic dinosaurs! Also – live performances, carnival games, over 200 retail stalls and over 500 food choices from around the world.
Runs until: October 9, 2017

Vancouver International Film Festival
Where: Various locations
What: In addition to over 300 of the best films from around the world, VIFF expands the frame to incorporate and celebrate some of the exciting new aspects of visual story telling. This includes events such as the world’s largest showcase of elevated YouTube content by digital-first creators and the Kronos Quartet performing a live score to renowned filmmaker Guy Maddin’s latest film The Green Fog – A San Francisco Fantasia.  
Runs until: Friday October 13, 2017

Aileen Bahmanipour: Technical Problem
Where: Grunt Gallery
What: An exhibition of mixed media drawings by Vancouver-based, Iranian-born artist Aileen Bahmanipour that explores cyclical political power and cultural identity.
Runs until: Saturday October 14, 2017

Amphibia
Where: Centre A
What: Amphibia, Tromarama’s first solo exhibition in Canada, will transform Centre A into a hybrid physical and digital space using five newly commissioned works, ranging from site-specific pieces to pulse-sensing technologies that interact with our own physical, individual bodies.
Runs until: Saturday October 14, 2017

Onsite / Offsite Tsang Kin-Wah
Where:  Vancouver Art Gallery
What:  This large-scale composition transforms English texts to form intricate floral and animal patterns. The work draws from discriminatory language that appeared in newspapers and political campaigns in Vancouver during the 1887 anti-Chinese riots, the mid-1980s immigration influx from Hong Kong and most recently, the heated exchanges around the foreign buyers and the local housing market.
Runs until: Sunday October 15, 2017

West End Farmers Market
Where: 1100 Comox St
What: Located in the heart of Vancouver’s busy West End, this laid-back Saturday market looks onto beautiful Nelson Park and adjacent community gardens. Each week, shop for the best in local, seasonal produce, artisanal bread & prepared foods, craft beer, wine, & spirits, ethically raised meat, eggs, & dairy, sustainable seafood, wild crafted product, and handmade craft. Hot food & coffee on-site as well.
Runs until: Saturday October 21, 2017 (Saturdays)

Trout Lake Farmers Market
Where: Trout Lake
What: This is where you’ll find the vendors who have been doing it since the beginning; what started as 14 farmers ‘squatting’ at the Croatian Cultural Centre back in 1995 has grown into Vancouver’s most well-known and beloved market. Visitors come from near and far to sample artisan breads & preserves, stock up on free-range and organic eggs & meats, get the freshest, hard-to-find heirloom vegetables and taste the first Okanagan cherries and peaches of the season.
Runs until: Saturday October 21, 2017 (Saturdays)

Kitsilano Farmers Market
Where: Kitsilano Community Centre parking lot
What:   A great selection of just-picked, seasonal fruits & vegetables, ethically raised and grass fed meat, eggs, & dairy, sustainable seafood, fresh baked bread & artisanal food, local beer, wine, & spirits, and beautiful, handmade craft. Kids and parents alike can enjoy entertainment by market musicians, a nearby playground and splash park, and coffee and food truck offerings each week.
Runs until: Sunday October 22, 2017 (Sundays)

Contemporary Iranian Cinema Series
Where: The Cinematheque
What: Acclaimed and accomplished new films from Iran are in the spotlight in this new monthly showcase.
Runs until:Thursday October 25, 2017

The Lost Fleet Exhibit
Where: Vancouver Maritime Museum
What: On December 7, 1941 the world was shocked when Japan bombed Pearl Harbour, launching the United States into the war. This action also resulted in the confiscation of nearly 1,200 Japanese-Canadian owned fishing boats by Canadian officials on the British Columbia coast, which were eventually sold off to canneries and other non-Japanese fishermen. The Lost Fleet looks at the world of the Japanese-Canadian fishermen in BC and how deep-seated racism played a major role in the seizure, and sale, of Japanese-Canadian property and the internment of an entire people.
Runs until: Winter 2017

Circle Craft Christmas Market Preview Exhibit
Where: Net Loft building on Granville Island
What: Circle Craft Gallery’s Fall exhibit will give Circle Craft Christmas Market lovers a sneak peek. Exhibitors in the Preview exhibition are: East Van Jam, G Ceramic & Co, Ludviks Designs, Lulu Fiedler, Market Canvas Leather, Misheo, Rosewell Woodworking, Susie Benes, and Yifat Jovani.
Runs until: Thursday November 2, 2017

Intangible
Where: Bill Reid Gallery
What: Contemporary Coast Salish art is embedded within a traditional cultural framework that includes community, ceremonial life, territory, history and innovation. Six artists challenge our expectations and illustrate Coast Salish art as a thriving art tradition – a dynamic one that demonstrates both continuity with the past and exploration of new ideas and technologies.
Runs until: Sunday December 10, 2017

Bill Reid Creative Journeys
Where: The Bill Reid Gallery
What: Celebrating the many creative journeys of acclaimed master goldsmith and sculptor Bill Reid (1920–1998), this exhibition provides a comprehensive introduction to his life and work.
Runs until: Sunday December 10, 2017

Entangled: Two Views on Contemporary Canadian Painting
Where: Vancouver Art Gallery
What: An insight into two distinctly different modes of painting that have come to dominate contemporary painting in this country. The origins of both can be effectively traced back to the 1970s, to a moment when the continued existence of painting was hotly debated.
Runs until: January 1, 2018

Amazonia: The Rights of Nature
Where: UBC Museum of Anthropology
What: MOA will showcase its Amazonian collections in a significant exploration of socially and environmentally-conscious notions intrinsic to indigenous South American cultures, which have recently become innovations in International Law. These are foundational to the notions of Rights of Nature, and they have been consolidating in the nine countries that share responsibilities over the Amazonian basin.
Runs until: January 28, 2018

Tin and Gold: A 10 Year Anniversary Show
Where: The Fall
What: Celebrate 10 years of alternative music, tattoo artistry, and multimedia events. The art show includes artists Megan Majewski, Jenn Brisson, Alison Woodward and more.
Runs until: February 1, 2018

City on the Edge: A Century of Vancouver Activism
Where: Museum of Vancouver
What: A photo-based exhibition exploring how protest demonstrations have shaped Vancouver’s identity from the Vancouver Sun and The Province newspapers’ photo collection. These photographs are exceptional historical records of intense and transformative moments in the lives of Vancouverites.
Runs until: February 18, 2017

Tasting History: The Traveling Tales of Tea
Where: Roedde House Museum
What: Tea is one of the most consumed liquids in the world, second only to water. But the beverage that brings much pleasure and calm to our 21st century senses is steeped in a turbulent history of politics and society. The exhibit will also feature stories from Vancouver’s modern-day tea community.
Runs until: March 2018

Emily Carr: Into the Forest
Where: Vancouver Art Gallery
What: Far from feeling that the forests of the West Coast were a difficult subject matter, Carr exulted in the symphonies of greens and browns found in the natural world. With oil on paper as her primary medium, Carr was free to work outdoors in close proximity to the landscape. She went into the forest to paint and saw nature in ways unlike her fellow British Columbians, who perceived it as either untamed wilderness or a plentiful source of lumber.
Runs until: March 4, 2018

Chief Dan George: Actor and Activist
Where: North Vancouver Museum
What: An exhibition exploring the life and legacy of Tsleil-Waututh Chief Dan George (1899- 1981) and his influence as an Indigenous rights advocate and his career as an actor. The exhibition was developed in close collaboration with the George family.
Runs until: April 2018

In a Different Light
Where: Museum of Anthropology
What: More than 110 historical Indigenous artworks and marks the return of many important works to British Columbia. These objects are amazing artistic achievements. Yet they also transcend the idea of ‘art’ or ‘artifact’. Through the voices of contemporary First Nations artists and community members, this exhibition reflects on the roles historical artworks have today. Featuring immersive storytelling and innovative design, it explores what we can learn from these works and how they relate to Indigenous peoples’ relationships to their lands.
Runs until: Spring 2019

What are you up to this weekend? Tell me and the rest of Vancouver in the comments below or tweet me directly at @lextacular

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