The first weekend of Lunar New Year is upon us! Join in the celebrations hosted all around the city, but don’t forget to give some love to the other events: concerts, comedians, and cabarets abound this weekend, and the PuSh International Performing Arts Festival is in full swing.
Friday | Saturday | Sunday | Ongoing
Friday January 24
Where: Stanley Alliance Industrial Stage
What: Noises Off, hailed as the funniest farce ever written, treats audiences to a hilarious peek at a second-tier acting troupe performing a show. With egos, insecurities, and tempers flaring backstage—and forgotten lines, missed cues, and misplaced sardines onstage—this cast threatens to strike the old adage “the show must go on.” Michael Frayn’s dizzying play-within-a-play classic is sure to leave you doubled over with laughter.
Runs Until: Sunday February 23, 2020
CAG Presents The Artist’s Studio is Her Bedroom
Where: Contemporary Art Gallery
What: The Contemporary Art Gallery is pleased to presentThe Artist’s Studio is Her Bedroom, a group exhibition challenging our society’s profound assumptions about where and by what means “serious” artwork gets produced. Taking place across CAG’s B.C. Binning and Alvin Balkind Galleries, the exhibition shares the perspectives of ten Canada-based artists whose practices are attentive to these assumptions, and to the very real temporal, spatial and monetary constraints that bind and shape their work. Their contributions to the show address a multitude of labours—whether physical, emotional, reproductive or otherwise—that are often inextricable from artistic production.
Runs Until: Sunday April 5, 2020
Where: Vancouver Playhouse
What: The oral history of the Inuit people is the inspiration for Unikkaaqtuat, a multidisciplinary work that combines the traditional practices of throat-singing, hunting and competitive games with circus arts. The 7 Fingers of Montreal joins forces with Artcirq of Igloolik, and Taqqut Productions of Iqaluit engaging Inuit and non-Inuit musicians and performers in a unique collaborative process.
Runs Until: Saturday January 25, 2020
Where: Historic Theatre
What: In O’wet, a woman falls through a black hole in her little blue house on the reserve. There, she meets her Granny Rose in the shape of a wolf, who guides her on a spirit canoe journey to retrieve her soul from the land of the dead. Musqueam writer and performer Quelemia Sparrow has created an unforgettable adventure story—an odyssey full of magic, beauty, and power
Runs Until: Saturday February 1, 2020
PuSh International Performing Arts Festival
Where: Various Venues
What: The PuSh Festival expands the horizons of Vancouver artists and audiences with work that is visionary, genre-bending, multi-disciplined, startling and original. The Festival showcases acclaimed international, Canadian and local artists and mixes them together with an alchemy that inspires audiences, rejuvenates artists, stimulates the industry and forges productive relationships around the globe.
Runs Until: Sunday February 9, 2020
Photo: Anna Tregloan
PuSh Festival – The Democratic Set
Where: Roundhouse Community Arts and Recreation Centre
What: This is not a performance—it’s a model for the way we could live. In The Democratic Set, members of the local community are invited to help make a movie. The process is one of collaboration, not leadership; egalitarianism, not hierarchy. The “set” of the title is an empty room, built and displayed in The Roundhouse. It can function as a dramatic setting, a virtual soapbox or whatever else the given participant wishes.
Runs Until: Saturday January 25, 2020
PuSh Festival – Berlin: The Last Cabaret
Where: Performance Works
What: This political cabaret celebrates the subversive power of art and offers a warning to those who would take freedom for granted. 1934: As Nazism tightens its grip on Germany, a satirical cabaret troupe faces physical danger and a moral crisis. Members have disappeared under suspicious circumstances; the five that remain have to decide whether to bend to intimidation or perform their work uncensored. With death looming in the air, the risks couldn’t be higher—and yet the desperate need for expression is still there…
Runs Until: Saturday January 25, 2020
Photo: Emily Cooper Photography
PuSh Festival: Skyborn – A Land Reclamation Odyssey
Where: Historic Theatre
What: A black hole, hungry ghosts, a Grandmother wolf—Quelemia Sparrow’s Skyborn is an epic odyssey grounded in Indigenous ancestral knowledge. Guided through the universe on a river made of stars, Sparrow makes a journey by canoe to recover her lost soul from the land of the dead. This adventure is deeply rooted in the cosmology and teachings of her Musqueam heritage. It invites the audience to bear witness to a reclamation of culture, land and self.
Runs Until: Saturday February 1, 2020
Photo: Allison Collins
Where: Western Front
What: Six dancers, some very distinctive costumes and a set of unspoken rules; those are the basic elements of this performance, but listing them doesn’t begin to do justice to its humour, sophistication and originality. Idealverein is a game of sorts; it’s played in teams of three, and it involves a mixture of improv and strict rules. There are moments of grace, moments of awkwardness, and moments that may elicit a guffaw.
Symphonie Fantastique: Märkl Conducts Berlioz, Ravel, Saint-saëns
Where: Orpheum Theatre
What: Audience-favourite Maestro Jun Märkl returns with a program tracing the evolution of the French sound: lush and masterful orchestration, cyclical forms, and great thematic cohesion. Young Hungarian cellist István Várdai brings his famed “Du Pré-Harrell” Stradivarius, built in 1673, to tackle Saint-Saëns’ beloved Concerto No. 1.
Runs Until: Sunday January 26, 2020
Yuk Yuks presents Tyler Morrison
Where: Yuk Yuks
What: Tyler Morrison is quickly emerging as one of the most talked about comedians from Canada with his hilarious brand of working-class comedy.
Runs Until: Saturday January 25, 2020
Where: Doug Mitchell Thunderbird Sports Centre – UBC
What: Irish singer-songwriter folk/rock musician Dermot Kennedy is coming to Vancouver. His latest single ‘Outnumbered’ is now sitting on BBC Radio 1’s A-list and has been steadily climbing the UK charts since its release, currently sitting at #20 in the Official Chart—proving him to be one of the most exciting global stories of 2019.
It’s Just Drag! Starring: Brooke Lynn Hytes and Monet X Change
Where: Commodore Ballroom
What: Expanding on TFD’s focus on local drag sensations, this year features a travelling cast featuring ten Canadian drag sensations and starring, from RuPaul’s Drag Race, Brooke Lynn Hytes (Season 11) and Monet X Change (Winner All Stars Four). Our travelling cast will join ten in-town drag stars in Vancouver, and five in Victoria for a big, curated celebration of Canada’s best drag! This year’s It’s Just Drag three-day showcase will wrap with the newest event under its banner: It’s Just Drag: BRUNCH, featuring our esteemed travelling cast and local spotlights.
Celebrate Lunar New Year at Metropolis at Metrotown
Where: Metropolis at Metrotown
What: To usher in the 2020 Lunar New Year, Metropolis at Metrotown will be hosting over 2 weeks of family-friendly festivities along with a popular Instagram-worthy lantern display. Each weekend, Metropolis will be hosting a series of activities including traditional & modern Chinese, Vietnamese and Korean dance performances, live music performances, paper craft & cookie decorating workshops, fortune telling workshop & consultations, and Travel through Asia photo booth.
Runs Until: Sunday February 9, 2020
My Playlist Lip Sync Contest 2020
Where: Scandinavian Centre
What: Do you have your favourite song saved to your phone? Do you sing along to the radio in your car? Is there a song that sometimes you just can’t get out of your head? Here is a chance for you to get that song out of your head. Finland House Society is hosting My Play List Lip Sync Contest, so you can lip sync to your favourite song, or get your friends together and sing as a group.
Vancouver Short Film Festival 2020
Where: VanCity Theatre
What: This year’s festival showcases the best our BC film community has to offer – from moving dramas, to stunning animations, to hard-hitting documentaries. We are featuring 46 amazing films across multiple programs, including our popular “After Dark” Screening! We’re even bringing back some of the greatest hits of our first ten years in our opening night “10 Year Retrospective”.
Runs Until: Sunday January 26, 2020
Saturday January 25
21st Annual Divers’ Weekend at the Vancouver Aquarium
Where: The Vancouver Aquarium
What: Celebrate the 21st anniversary of Divers’ Weekend at the Vancouver Aquarium on January 25th and 26th. This much-loved event offers ocean lovers an opportunity to take an in-depth look at the fascinating underwater world. Divers and non-divers alike enjoy riveting dive demonstrations, intriguing exhibits, and informative presentations, inspiring them to explore and protect our vast oceans. This year’s theme is Citizen Science, showcasing how citizens can contribute to scientific research. Don’t miss the Speakers Series, where experts will discuss how diving and science meet, and how divers of every ability can get involved with essential research.
Runs Until: Sunday January 26, 2020
Chinese New Year Celebration at River Rock Casino Resort
Where: River Rock Casino Resort
What: Join us on Saturday, January 25th at 5:45 pm to celebrate the Year of the Rat and the start of the Lunar New Year. River Rock Casino Resort is proud to present a number of traditional Chinese dances and ceremonies including a dragon dance, lions dance and a blessing ceremony. Admission is free!
CAG Artist’s Roundtable | The Artist’s Studio is Her Bedroom
Where: Contemporary Art Gallery
What: Join us for an informal conversation with all ten exhibiting artists in The Artist’s Studio is Her Bedroom, discussing artistic practices can be carved out of unlikely times and spaces, and how generative questions arise from constraints. No reservation required, simply just turn up!
CAG Family Day | Leisure Studio
Where: Contemporary Art Gallery
What: On the last Saturday of every month, CAG invites all ages to drop-in for short exhibition tours and free art-making activities that respond to our current exhibitions. For this very special Family Day, artist duo Leisure leads a public activation of their installation, Conversations with Magic Forms. At the same time, through the artists’ activity String Game, participants will stretch, weave and tie ropes across CAG’s North Gallery in a collective action. All ages and abilities welcome!
Where: Massey Theatre
What: The Massey Theatre is thrilled to again present International Guitar Night – an evening of exquisite guitar music highlighting the diversity of acoustic guitar. This musical performance showcases the individual style of each of guitarist by playing solo and then teaming up together in duets and quartets creating an unforgettable evening of glorious guitar music.
Lunar New Year Celebrations at Parq Vancouver
Where: Parq Vancouver
What: For the next month, luck, good fortune, sweet treats and the colour red will take centre stage at Parq Vancouver as the resort is transformed to celebrate Lunar New Year. Guests are encouraged to gather under a blossoming cherry tree to enjoy dumplings, noodles, rice and other traditional new year dishes with family and friends. Come and see the traditional lion dance move through Parq Casino to bring wealth and prosperity for the New Year and test your luck at the Tree of Good Fortune by selecting a red envelope with a surprise offer inside. Come and check out the world of additional décor and programming options, including Afternoon Tea at Honey Salt.
Runs Until: Sunday February 16, 2020
Where: The Warehouse at ESS
What: Eternal as the universe all around us, is queer folks’ love for astrology. We want to celebrate. Our first astrology show last January was a soaring good time, and to usher in this new year and new decade, we’re serving you Next Chapter realness, to shower our coming queer future with all the glitter and stardust in the cosmos!
Smash Comedy Fest: Homo-Normative, A Comedy Drag Show
Where: Little Mountain Comedy Department
What: Smash Comedy Festival 2020 is going out with a bang, featuring a drag show-slash-dance party featuring the city’s best drag performers and comedians, all curated and hosted by the amazing Homo Hardware (They/Them Pronouns)! Heteronormativity, a term coined by queer theorists in the 90s, is the belief that heterosexuality is the norm or default. The closing show of an amazing weekend aims to break down this concept with a drag show celebrating queerness all around us. Challenge your assumptions one chuckle at a time! Learn through laughter!
Where: Vancouver Playhouse
What: The oral history of the Inuit people is the inspiration for Unikkaaqtuat, a multidisciplinary work that combines the traditional practices of throat-singing, hunting and competitive games with circus arts. The 7 Fingers of Montreal joins forces with Artcirq of Igloolik, and Taqqut Productions of Iqaluit engaging Inuit and non-Inuit musicians and performers in a unique collaborative process.
Runs Until: Saturday January 25, 2020
Photo: Anna Tregloan
PuSh Festival – The Democratic Set
Where: Roundhouse Community Arts and Recreation Centre
What: This is not a performance—it’s a model for the way we could live. In The Democratic Set, members of the local community are invited to help make a movie. The process is one of collaboration, not leadership; egalitarianism, not hierarchy. The “set” of the title is an empty room, built and displayed in The Roundhouse. It can function as a dramatic setting, a virtual soapbox or whatever else the given participant wishes.
Runs Until: Saturday January 25, 2020
PuSh Festival – Berlin: The Last Cabaret
Where: Performance Works
What: This political cabaret celebrates the subversive power of art and offers a warning to those who would take freedom for granted. 1934: As Nazism tightens its grip on Germany, a satirical cabaret troupe faces physical danger and a moral crisis. Members have disappeared under suspicious circumstances; the five that remain have to decide whether to bend to intimidation or perform their work uncensored. With death looming in the air, the risks couldn’t be higher—and yet the desperate need for expression is still there…
Runs Until: Saturday January 25, 2020
Yuk Yuks presents Tyler Morrison
Where: Yuk Yuks
What: Tyler Morrison is quickly emerging as one of the most talked about comedians from Canada with his hilarious brand of working-class comedy.
Runs Until: Saturday January 25, 2020
Jillian Fargey, Andrew Wheeler, Kimberly Ho, and Darian Roussy | Photo by Matt Reznek
Firehall Arts Centre presents: House and Home
Where: Firehall Arts Centre
What: Jennifer Griffin’s biting, comic take on Vancouver’s current real estate crisis. Hilary, a waitress/poet turned social worker, and Henry, a Butoh dancer turned lawyer, didn’t know how lucky they were when they managed to escape bad roommates and buy a house before the real estate market skyrocketed. Finding themselves house rich and cash poor they abandon their values and plunge into the world of short-term rentals. How far can they go to keep their house?
Runs Until: Saturday January 25, 2020
Where: 43 W Hastings
What: Voted the Number 1 drag show, Absolut’ly Dragulous is a drag show mix of classic glamour to punk rock to legendary ballads. Hosted by Vancouver’s own legendary Queen of the West End Carlotta Gurl.
Runs Until: Saturday January 25, 2019
Sunday January 26
Photo: Stoo Metz Photography
PuSh Festival: Old Stock: A Refugee Love Story
Where: Frederic Wood Theatre
What: Wild, witty and wonderfully inventive, this fusion of concert and drama tells the true tale of Chaim and Chaya, Jewish refugees from the pogroms of Romania. They meet in 1908, while awaiting medical inspection in Halifax’s Pier 21 immigration centre; the story moves forward to their lives as a couple in Montreal and backward to the horrors of the Continent.
Runs Until: Thursday January 30, 2020
Where: Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Classical Chinese Garden
What: We’re ushering in the Year of the Rat at our annual Temple Fair celebration with joyful noise and family fun. In Chinese culture, the rat is a sign of wealth and surplus; associated with success, but also simple contentment. A rat year welcomes change and new beginnings and is especially encouraging for creative endeavors.
Yuk Yuks presents Laughs For Sharon
Where: Yuk Yuks
What: Laughs for Sharon Local comedian, Steve McGowan recently lost his mother to a battle against cancer. Like so many, he wants to help give back to those who did so much to help him and his family. Laughs for Sharon is a fundraiser for the Langley Hospice Society with proceeds donated in honor and name of Sharon Ann McGowan.
2020 Vancouver Chinese New Year Parade
Where: Chinese Cultural Centre of Greater Vancouver
What: Come see Vancouver’s Bak Mei / Yin Ping Association perform at the 2020 Chinese New Year celebrations in Vancouver’s Chinatown! There will be Lion Dances and Bak Mei Kung Fu demonstrations along the entire route.
Symphonie Fantastique: Märkl Conducts Berlioz, Ravel, Saint-saëns
Where: Orpheum Theatre
What: Audience-favourite Maestro Jun Märkl returns with a program tracing the evolution of the French sound: lush and masterful orchestration, cyclical forms, and great thematic cohesion. Young Hungarian cellist István Várdai brings his famed “Du Pré-Harrell” Stradivarius, built in 1673, to tackle Saint-Saëns’ beloved Concerto No. 1.
Runs Until: Sunday January 26, 2020
Vancouver Short Film Festival 2020
Where: VanCity Theatre
What: This year’s festival showcases the best our BC film community has to offer – from moving dramas, to stunning animations, to hard-hitting documentaries. We are featuring 46 amazing films across multiple programs, including our popular “After Dark” Screening! We’re even bringing back some of the greatest hits of our first ten years in our opening night “10 Year Retrospective”.
Runs Until: Sunday January 26, 2020
21st Annual Divers’ Weekend at the Vancouver Aquarium
Where: The Vancouver Aquarium
What: Celebrate the 21st anniversary of Divers’ Weekend at the Vancouver Aquarium on January 25th and 26th. This much-loved event offers ocean lovers an opportunity to take an in-depth look at the fascinating underwater world. Divers and non-divers alike enjoy riveting dive demonstrations, intriguing exhibits, and informative presentations, inspiring them to explore and protect our vast oceans. This year’s theme is Citizen Science, showcasing how citizens can contribute to scientific research. Don’t miss the Speakers Series, where experts will discuss how diving and science meet, and how divers of every ability can get involved with essential research.
Runs Until: Sunday January 26, 2020
Burnaby Art Gallery presents ‘Echoes’
Where: Burnaby Art Gallery
What: As an echo reflects and repeats between entities, this exhibition considers communication between bodies which may be thought to be eclipsed. Here, the bodies of water and the physical remnants of stone, plastic, and land become the houses for the historical traces of change and continuity. Selected artworks contemplate the physical and embodied ways in which memory reappears and continues to resonate within the individual and across generations.
Runs Until: Sunday January 26, 2020
Courtesy of The Capilano Suspension Bridge Park
Canyon Lights at Capilano Suspension Bridge 2019
Where: Capilano Suspension Bridge Park
What: Re-capture the feeling of wonder and excitement of the holiday season and be amazed by the hundreds of thousands of lights throughout the park. The suspension bridge, Treetops Adventure, Cliffwalk, the rainforest and canyon are transformed into a world of festive lights and visual enchantment. Once again the 30-ton Douglas firs of Treetops Adventure will receive star treatment. Treetops Adventure is a series of seven suspension bridges attached to eight 250 years old Douglas-firs with viewing platforms, reaching up to 110 feet above the forest floor. These magnificent Douglas firs will be lit above and below the collars, making these trees the eight tallest Christmas trees in the world!
Runs Until: Sunday January 26, 2020
Ongoing
Photo: Stoo Metz Photography
PuSh Festival: Old Stock: A Refugee Love Story
Where: Frederic Wood Theatre
What: Wild, witty and wonderfully inventive, this fusion of concert and drama tells the true tale of Chaim and Chaya, Jewish refugees from the pogroms of Romania. They meet in 1908, while awaiting medical inspection in Halifax’s Pier 21 immigration centre; the story moves forward to their lives as a couple in Montreal and backward to the horrors of the Continent.
Runs Until: Thursday January 30, 2020
Chinatown Dumpling Masterclass
Where: Say Hey Cafe
What: Everyone loves dumplings! We will learn how to make authentic Chinese dumplings with creative ingredients. This dumpling-making class will include a 1-hr sneak-peak of Chinatown, followed by 2 hours of prep, learning how to make dumplings, then eating them. You will learn secrets to making perfect dumplings and you’ll get a recipe to take home with you.
Runs Until: Thursday January 30, 2020
Where: Historic Theatre
What: In O’wet, a woman falls through a black hole in her little blue house on the reserve. There, she meets her Granny Rose in the shape of a wolf, who guides her on a spirit canoe journey to retrieve her soul from the land of the dead. Musqueam writer and performer Quelemia Sparrow has created an unforgettable adventure story—an odyssey full of magic, beauty, and power
Runs Until: Saturday February 1, 2020
Photo: Emily Cooper Photography
PuSh Festival: Skyborn – A Land Reclamation Odyssey
Where: Historic Theatre
What: A black hole, hungry ghosts, a Grandmother wolf—Quelemia Sparrow’s Skyborn is an epic odyssey grounded in Indigenous ancestral knowledge. Guided through the universe on a river made of stars, Sparrow makes a journey by canoe to recover her lost soul from the land of the dead. This adventure is deeply rooted in the cosmology and teachings of her Musqueam heritage. It invites the audience to bear witness to a reclamation of culture, land and self.
Runs Until: Saturday February 1, 2020
Pacific Theatre presents: Gramma
Where: Pacific Theatre
What: Korean-born Maki is excited to begin her new life in a Regina basement suite, but her elderly landlady seems determined to treat her as nothing more than a servant. Playwright and actor of Suitcase Stories Maki Yi returns to Pacific Theatre with a poetic new tale of human connection in the loneliest of circumstances. What does it mean to connect?
Runs Until: Saturday February 1, 2020
BBQ, Fried Chicken & Brewery Tour
Where: Meet Inside Waterfront Station
What: Now in our 7th year with Dine Out Vancouver Festival, we’ve handpicked three of our favourite businesses in Vancouver for this satisfying tour. What’s included? Lots of meat! Each tour includes a meal and beer at Juke Fried Chicken, meal at Memphis Blues, along with a flight of beer at Container Brewing. Optional drinks can be purchased at each restaurant. Full transportation is also included with the Vancouver Brewery Tours bus including pick up and drop off, and our knowledgeable and fun beer guides will lead the brewery tour at Container Brewing.
Runs Until: Saturday February 1, 2020
Hawksworth Long Table Dinner Series
Where: Hawksworth Restaurant
What: Hawksworth Restaurant is pleased to present Hawksworth Long Table Dinner Series in our private dining space, The York Room. Offering a 5 course BC tasting menu paired with local wines, guests will be able to enjoy this experience guided by Chef Antonio Sotomayor and Wine Director Bryant Mao. Fresh and vibrant carefully sourced organic and oceanwise ingredients are conjured into enticing and wholesome dishes by our talented and highly skilled culinary team.
Runs Until: Saturday February 1, 2020
UBC Theatre presents: The Changeling
Where: Telus Studio Theatre, Chan Centre for the Performing Arts
What: A tale of hidden sexual desires, bloody deeds, and characters who realize their intentions are less than pure, Thomas Middleton and William Rowley’s The Changeling is one of the darkest and most sensual of the 17th century English tragedies. The beautiful Beatrice falls hard for Alsemero, who shares her feelings, but Beatrice’s marriage to Alonzo de Piracquo, approved by her father Vermandero, is planned. Being a Jacobean tragedy, the solution turns to murder.
Runs Until: Saturday February 1, 2020
Where: Jade Dynasty Restaurant
What: Whether this is your first time of you have been enjoying Dim Sum for years, this entertaining activity will answer questions and take your enjoyment of Dim Sum to a deeper level. Your host, Thomas Robson, is a longtime resident of Vancouver’s historic Chinatown. Thomas is a retired chef and author. He was host of the Emmy-nominated cooking series, “Entree To Asia” so guests will enjoy an exclusive introduction to Dim Sum through his expertise
Runs Until: Saturday February 1, 2020
Where: Various locations
What: Dine Out Vancouver Festival has grown from humble beginnings into Canada’s largest food and drink festival. Today, the festival brings together hundreds of chefs, more than 200 restaurants, wineries, craft breweries, suppliers and more for 17 days of dining, food-forward events and experiences designed to give local and visiting culinary enthusiasts the opportunity to taste the best flavours of the city.
Runs Until: Sunday February 2, 2020
Where: 901 West Cordova Street
What: Beer and good food go hand and hand. Join the team at Canadian Craft Tours as we venture to three of our favorite Vancouver Breweries and pair beers with a few hidden gem snacks along the way. Cheese goes well with Wine, but have you tried award-winning cheese with the right beers? There are a few special treats along this tour as well as a tasty dessert. Tour includes 3 flights of beer (3 Flights of 4x4oz) and snacks at each venue. Yes, there is an option to purchase a little more food along the way for those who want a full tummy-filling meal.
Runs Until: Sunday February 2, 2020
Coffee Roast & Delightful Bites Tour
Where: 901 West Cordova Street
What: Join Canadian Craft Tours to explore why Vancouver’s Coffee Scene is seen as top tier on the world stage. Throughout the minibus tour, we learn about the Roasting process, how different drinks are made as well as try a few of our favorite drinks with paired snacks.
Runs Until: Sunday February 2, 2020
PuSh International Performing Arts Festival
Where: Various Venues
What: The PuSh Festival expands the horizons of Vancouver artists and audiences with work that is visionary, genre-bending, multi-disciplined, startling and original. The Festival showcases acclaimed international, Canadian and local artists and mixes them together with an alchemy that inspires audiences, rejuvenates artists, stimulates the industry and forges productive relationships around the globe.
Runs Until: Sunday February 9, 2020
Celebrate Lunar New Year at Metropolis at Metrotown
Where: Metropolis at Metrotown
What: To usher in the 2020 Lunar New Year, Metropolis at Metrotown will be hosting over 2 weeks of family-friendly festivities along with a popular Instagram-worthy lantern display. Each weekend, Metropolis will be hosting a series of activities including traditional & modern Chinese, Vietnamese and Korean dance performances, live music performances, paper craft & cookie decorating workshops, fortune telling workshop & consultations, and Travel through Asia photo booth.
Runs Until: Sunday February 9, 2020
Arts Club Theatre Company presents: The Shoplifters
Where: Granville Island Stage
What: Meet Alma, a career shoplifter who prefers the “five-finger discount” over any senior citizen’s deal. When a grocery store theft goes awry, her elaborate life of petty crime is halted by an overzealous security guard and his affable mentor. With sharp-witted comic observations, Morris Panych has expertly drawn a cast of misfit characters that will leave you rooting for all sides to come out on top.
Runs Until: Sunday February 9, 2020
Where: Stanley Alliance Industrial Stage
What: Noises Off, hailed as the funniest farce ever written, treats audiences to a hilarious peek at a second-tier acting troupe performing a show. With egos, insecurities, and tempers flaring backstage—and forgotten lines, missed cues, and misplaced sardines onstage—this cast threatens to strike the old adage “the show must go on.” Michael Frayn’s dizzying play-within-a-play classic is sure to leave you doubled over with laughter.
Runs Until: Sunday February 23, 2020
Vancouver Art gallery presents Transit and Returns
Where: Vancouver Art Gallery
What: Transits and Returns presents the work of 21 Indigenous artists whose practices are both rooted in the specificities of their cultures and routed via their travels. These forces of situatedness and mobility work in synergy and in tension with one another, shaping the multiple ways of understanding and being Indigenous today. Within the exhibition, these dual realities are explored through themes of movement, territory, kinship and representation, with many artworks inhabiting multiple categories.
Runs Until: Sunday February 23, 2020
Where: 1100 West Georgia Street
What: Vienna-based artist Erwin Wurm alters and re-envisions recognizable forms in order to challenge our psychological perceptions of what is well known, including our bodies and familiar architectural forms. This 19th installation in the Vancouver Art Gallery’s Offsite series will incorporate three sculptural works from Wurm’s oeuvre that highlight his wry sense of humour and his ongoing interest in the body. Throughout the duration of the exhibition, local artist Mike Bourscheid will develop a series of performative interventions.
Runs Until: Sunday February 23, 2020
Being Punjabi: Unfolding the Surrey Story
Where: Museum of Surrey
What: The first major exhibition in Canada to shine a spotlight on Surrey’s Punjabis, showcasing their stories of struggle and success. The exhibition is intended to be a catalyst for discussion and sharing, while also documenting histories of this diverse community.
Runs until: February 23, 2020
Vancouver Hot Chocolate Festival
Where: Various Locations
What: When it launched in 2011, The Vancouver Hot Chocolate Festival was the first city-wide festival of its kind in the world. This January it returns for its 10th year, bigger and better than ever, with Vancouver’s best chocolatiers, pastry shops, bakeries, cafes, gelato and ice cream makers coming together to make the humble hot chocolate hotter than it has ever been before. In the damp and gloomy days of our Westcoast winter, you’ll find our motto to be true: “Hot Chocolate Makes You Happy!”
Runs Until: Saturday February 29, 2020
Where: The Polygon Gallery
What: Elizabeth Zvonar is a Vancouver artist who works extensively with collage techniques and sculpture. Zvonar draws material from a broad spectrum of sources to produce savvy, sardonic, and often comical juxtapositions that critique socio-cultural norms. Her works—vivid, colourful, and alluring—are examinations of subliminal power dynamics and ideologies in visual culture. Her exhibition, I Spy, features two new large-scale murals and recent photographic collages that allude to how we look at and make sense of photographs.
Runs Until: Sunday March 1, 2020
Where: Squamish Lil’wat Cultural Centre
What: Ambassadors, the first exhibition of its kind at the Squamish Lil’wat Cultural Centre, celebrates the staff family and faces of the Cultural Centre while highlighting their strong sense of connection to their land, their cultures, and each other. Visitors to the exhibit will learn about our Ambassadors’ deeply-rooted connections to our immersive Cultural Centre, and the passion they share in belonging to Sḵwx̱wú7mesh Lil’wat7ul.
Runs Until: Sunday March 1, 2019
Vancouver Art gallery presents Cindy Sherman
Where: Vancouver Art Gallery
What: This major exhibition explores the development of Cindy Sherman’s work from the beginning of her career in the mid-1970s to the present day. Widely regarded as one of the world’s leading contemporary artists, Sherman (b. 1954) manipulates her own appearance by deploying material inspired by a range of cultural sources, including film, advertising, and fashion.
Runs Until: Sunday March 8, 2020
Where: Cypress Mountain
What: Pizza, S’mores, Fire Pits, Music and more! Bring the whole family up and hang out, every Friday night.
Runs Until: Friday March 27, 2020
MOA Presents Playing with Fire: Ceramics of the Extraordinary
Where: Museum of Anthropology (MOA) at UBC
What: Showcasing a group of 11 highly celebrated BC-based artists, this premiere exhibition of ceramic works, expresses strong opinions on urgent social issues and offers subtle perspectives on the state of our contemporary world. In Playing with Fire, the artists defiantly challenge the notion that all things made of clay are required to be functional; in their works, clay is released from this constraint and elevated into extraordinary works of art. Visitors are invited to explore the many layers of understanding each of these provocative works embody, boldly demonstrating clay’s myriad discursive possibilities.
Runs Until: Sunday March 29, 2020
Where: Cypress Mountain
What: Grab your skis and snowboards and get ready for some extra runs! Hours of operation have been extended until 10pm.
Runs Until: Tuesday March 31, 2020
CAG Presents The Artist’s Studio is Her Bedroom
Where: Contemporary Art Gallery
What: The Contemporary Art Gallery is pleased to presentThe Artist’s Studio is Her Bedroom, a group exhibition challenging our society’s profound assumptions about where and by what means “serious” artwork gets produced. Taking place across CAG’s B.C. Binning and Alvin Balkind Galleries, the exhibition shares the perspectives of ten Canada-based artists whose practices are attentive to these assumptions, and to the very real temporal, spatial and monetary constraints that bind and shape their work. Their contributions to the show address a multitude of labours—whether physical, emotional, reproductive or otherwise—that are often inextricable from artistic production.
Runs Until: Sunday April 5, 2020
Xuuya Gaada White Raven by Terri-Lynn Williams-Davidson
Bill Reid Gallery: Out of Concealment
Where: Bill Reid Gallery of Northwest Coast Art
What: Out of Concealment is a solo exhibition featuring the work of Haida artist, performer, activist, and lawyer Terri-Lynn Williams-Davidson. Female Supernatural Beings of Haida Gwaii are re-imagined through photomontages, film, and sound to convey origin stories and oral traditions from the Haida Nation. Passed on from generation to generation, these are important narratives that illustrate the Haida laws, values, customs, rituals and relationships with earthly and metaphysical realms.
Runs Until: Sunday April 5, 2020
Ingrid Koenig – Navigating the Uncertainty Principle
CAG Presents Ingrid Koenig | Navigating the Uncertainty Principle
Where: Contemporary Art Gallery
What: Navigating the Uncertainty Principle is a major solo exhibition by Vancouver-based artist and educator Ingrid Koenig, presenting large scale drawings across the gallery façade and off-site at Yaletown-Roundhouse station.
Runs Until: Sunday April 5, 2020
Photo – Pardeep Singh, Vancouver Art Gallery
Where: The Vancouver Art Gallery
What: Organized by the Vancouver Art Gallery and curated by Grant Arnold, Audain Curator of British Columbia Art, Rapture, Rhythm and the Tree of Life – Emily Carr and Her Female Contemporaries is on view from December 7, 2019 to June 28, 2020. Drawn primarily from the Gallery’s permanent collection, this exhibition presents an expanded view of the diverse creative practices of women in this region during the first four decades of the twentieth century. Presented in conjunction with Carr’s paintings of forest interiors are works by Indigenous creators such as Amy Cooper (Th’ewá:li), Mary Little (Nuu-chah-nulth), and Placida Wallace (Líl̓wat Nation).
Runs Until: Sunday June 28, 2020
What are you up to this weekend? Tell me and the rest of Vancouver in the comments.
