Birds are singing, flowers are blooming…spring is here! Head outside this weekend and enjoy the season of rebirth and renewal. Haven’t made your plans yet? Here are some things you can do. Give some love to your local attractions, explore the city from above, get inspired at one of the art galleries or simply enjoy rediscovering different neighbourhoods! If you aren’t one of the lucky ones to have tickets for Imagine Van Gogh’s exhibition this weekend, take some time to book your tickets for this summer as the dates have been extended until the end of August!
Photo credit: Imagine Van Gogh
Imagine Van Gogh: The Immersive Experience
Where: Vancouver Convention Centre West
What: In this exhibition, visitors of all ages discover a new way of reconnecting with the work of this great master. The very concept of Imagine Van Gogh is grandiose: visitors wander amongst giant projections of the artist’s paintings, swept away by every brushstroke, detail, painting medium and colour. Immersed in an extraordinary experience where all senses become fully awakened, viewers will be truly moved by such spectacular beauty. Visitors discover more than 200 of Van Gogh’s paintings, including his most famous works, painted between 1888 and 1890 in Provence, Arles and Auvers-sur-Oise.
Runs until August 29, 2021
Photo credit: Tourism Vancouver/Patio
Where: Various locations (NEW location added at Vancouver Art Gallery North Plaza)
What: Tourism Vancouver has launched a new free outdoor public activation for Vancouver residents to enjoy in a safe and distanced way throughout the month of March. In partnership with the Downtown BIA, Robson BIA and the Sheraton Vancouver Wall Centre Hotel, this new unique passive outdoor experience, #LoveVancouver Bubbles, will include light and dance performances projected and at a distance at various sites around the downtown core.
Runs until March 27, 2021
Photo credit: Harbour Air
Where: Vancouver Harbour Flight Centre Seaplane Terminal
What: Ever wonder what’s at the end of the rainbow? Hop aboard and find out! Get a change of scenery this Spring Break while staying safe and close to home. Panorama tours depart daily at the downtown Vancouver location. The excitement of flying on floats is just as fun for the kiddos as it is for the grownups. Plus, your kids will have a reason to stop saying “I’m bored” (at least for a little while)!
Photo credit: Grouse Mountain
Snow Activities and Bird Watching
Where: Grouse Mountain
What: As the advent of spring approaches a few of the migrant bird species beginning to return to Grouse Mountain! It is a fun time of year as each day brings new arrivals and familiar calls. Be sure to get out to see the old friends arriving! Additionally, you can still enjoy the winter activities like skiing, snowshoeing, have fun at sliding zone and skating pond. Grouse Mountain had 89 cm of fresh snow over this past week!
Photo credit: VanDusen Botanical Garden
Guardians of the Garden: Bee Strong Challenge
Where: VanDusen Botanical Garden
What: Help us build a kinder environment for our hardworking pollinators by becoming a VanDusen Guardian of the Garden. Join us this spring for the Bee Strong Challenge to learn more about our pollinator friends, and how we can do our part to protect them. Complete the Bee Strong Challenge and collect your Bee Strong badge and reward for your hard work! Suitable for children ages 4 to 10 (but all ages are welcome), participants will earn their first Guardians of the Garden badge. Capes and pollinator costumes are encouraged.
Runs until April 5, 2021
Photo credit: Vancouver’s Farmers Markets
Riley Park Winter Farmers Market
Where: 50 E 30th Avenue & Ontario Street
What: 70+ farms and producers, food and coffee trucks.
Runs on Saturdays until April 24, 2021
Hastings Park Farmers Market
Where: Hastings Park Centregrounds
What: 35+ farms and producers. food and coffee trucks.
Runs on Sundays until April 25, 2021
Photo credit: Vancouver Art Gallery
Where: Vancouver Art Gallery
What: Sun Xun is a mid-career Chinese artist who works in a range of mediums including painting, drawing, animation, video and installation. In his highly imaginative video installation Mythological Time (2016), Sun takes viewers on a journey through his hometown of Fuxin in northern China, a coal-mining centre facing the depletion of its economic lifeblood. Sun’s video installation from the Gallery’s collection will be presented alongside a major 30-metre ink painting, being shown for the first time.
Runs until September 6, 2021
Photo credit: Polygon Gallery
Where: Polygon Gallery
What: Feast for the Eyes explores the rich history of food as one of photography’s most prevalent and enduring subjects. In an age where sharing images of food has emerged as a unique facet of contemporary culture, this exhibition offers a look at the timeless ways in which things we eat shape us and our perceptions of the world.
Runs until May 30, 2021
Photo credit: The BC Sports Hall of Fame and Museum
Paddles Up! The Canadian International Dragon Boat Festival Exhibit
Where: The BC Sports Hall of Fame and Museum
What: Paddles Up! The Canadian International Dragon Boat Festival Exhibit explores the festival’s history since the sport’s arrival at Expo 86. Discover unique artifacts, including two full-sized dragon boats, hear stories from athletes of all backgrounds, and learn about the festival’s cultural heritage.
Runs on Fridays and Saturdays until May 31, 2021
Photo credit: Bill Reid Gallery
Where: Bill Reid Gallery of Northwest Coast Art
What: This solo exhibition by Luke Parnell is a powerful exploration of the relationship between Northwest Coast Indigenous oral histories, conceptual art, and traditional formline design. Indigenous History in Colour’s playful juxtapositions and bold commentary are inspired by history, pop culture, and Bill Reid. Parnell’s multidisciplinary analysis of the shifting perspectives of Northwest Coast art in modern history challenges contemporary discourse on notions of reconciliation, repatriation and representation today.
Runs until May 9, 2021
Photo credit: Stefano Benazzo
Where: Vancouver Maritime Museum
What: Silent Witness features a collection of photographs by Italian photographer and artist Stefano Benazzo who has spent decades seeking shipwrecks from some of the most remote locations around the globe. His work narrates the scenes of these wrecks with light and portrays the soul of the abandoned vessels. The photographs in Silent Witness tell the story of decay for these ships, capturing their architecture and presenting them as sculptures embedded in the landscape.
Runs until July 18, 2021
Photo credit: Museum of Anthropology
A Future for Memory: Art and Life After the Great East Japan Earthquake
Where: Museum of Anthropology at UBC
What: The exhibition coincides with the 10th anniversary of the 2011 triple disaster that saw a 9.0 magnitude earthquake, tsunami and nuclear meltdown hit the eastern region of Japan. A Future for Memory highlights nature’s destructive impact on humans and its regenerative potential, and explores how humans live in harmony with nature. It also examines how new connections and relationships have developed in the aftermath of this tragic event.
Runs until September 5, 2021
Photo credit: Museum of Vancouver
Where: Museum of Vancouver
What: The Museum of Vancouver and the University of British Columbia proudly present a new feature exhibition, A Seat at the Table, Chinese Immigration and British Columbia. This exhibition explores historical and contemporary stories of Chinese Canadians in BC and their struggles for belonging. It looks to food and restaurant culture as an entry point to feature stories that reveal the great diversity of immigrant experience and of the communities immigrants develop.
Runs until January 2022
Photo credit: Le Centre Culturel Francophone de Vancouver
Exhibition “Aquatika” Sylvie Peltier
Where: Le Centre Culturel Francophone de Vancouver
What: Sylvie Peltier’s exhibition “Aquatika” explores the richness and complexity of nature, which is so much more than a mountain, a sunset, a forest, or a lake. Recently she has been experimenting with the interplay of lily pads, reeds, and water and the mysterious abstract motifs they create.
Runs until April 22, 2021
Photo credit: North Van Arts
Where: CityScape Community ArtSpace
What: What is motherhood? What does it mean to be a mother? These questions are explored in Mother Tongue, the upcoming exhibition at North Van Arts. Artists Sara Khan, Laura Rosengren, and Katherine Duclos address the complex range of emotions and practices inherent in the life-changing transformation motherhood brings. This exhibition draws together multiple mothers’ narratives by creating a visual language of their experiences, challenging the notions of motherhood. We invite viewers to experience the joyful, chaotic, loud, incredible, and surreal elements of being a Mother.
Runs until April 10, 2021
Photo credit: Griffin Art Projects
Whose Chinatown? Examining Chinatown Gazes in Art, Archives, and Collections
Where: Griffin Art Projects
What: Whose Chinatown? Examining Chinatown Gazes in Art, Archives, and Collections,” brings together an art history of Chinatowns and their communities by historical and contemporary Canadian artists such Emily Carr, Unity Bainbridge, Yucho Chow, Fred Herzog, Paul Wong, Mary Sui Yee Wong, Morris Lum, and aiya哎呀, among others.
Runs on Saturdays until May 1, 2021
Photo credit: Zee Zee Theatre Company
Zee Zee Theatre presents Virtual Humanity – Online
The deeply personal, immensely popular, one-on-one experience adapts the company’s annual Human Library project into the digital space, where participants can ‘check out’ a human for a candid conversation about their life experiences, culture and beliefs – including such titles as Porn Actor, Two-Spirit Foster Child, The Taxidermist’s Son, and more. The online edition will feature an array of new and returning ‘Virtual Humans’ – with a particular emphasis on representation from BIPOC individuals – available for 20-minute loans over the course of four weekends. The project is designed to shatter preconceived notions about otherhood, to challenge our biases and misunderstandings and to put a human face to difference as a means to foster empathy.
Streaming on Saturdays and Sundays until March 28, 2021
Photo credit: North Van Arts
North Shore Art Crawl – Online
Are you ready for an art crawl? With over 60 artists participating in this year’s North Shore Art Crawl, everyone can discover some amazing art. Visitors can scroll and swipe their way across the North Shore with artist webpages showcasing studio practices and exhibitions. The North Shore Art Crawl is an opportunity for local audiences and remote browsers to explore these creative, talented, and passionate North Shore artists. Encounter new artists and learn more about the inspiration, technique and practices behind their works. Whether you’re looking for west coast landscapes, florals, textiles, photography, glasswork, portraits, pottery, nature scenes, abstract, gift ideas or more, this crawl has it!
Runs until April 12, 2021
Photo credit: Le Centre Culturel Francophone
Folk Concert with Véronique Trudel & Mat Bergeron – Online
Veronique Trudel is a self-taught multi-instrumentalist. Her work is eclectic and creative, mainly in the intimist style of folk music, but without being confined to a particular style. Mathew Pellerin Bergeron, aka Mat Bergeron, is a singer-songwriter-composer from Squamish, in British Columbia. It is now nearly two decades since Mat Bergeron starting composing songs and shifted from one style of music to another: from hip hop to rock, with an interlude of blues, to finally end up as a folk artist. Enjoy a folk music concert from home with Veronique Trudel and Mat Bergeron! They will present their very first solo albums.
Saturday, March 27, 2021 at 8 pm
Chinatown Speculative Futures with Linda Zhang – Online
Join Linda Zang, professor in the School of Interior Design at Ryerson University in Toronto ON, live over Zoom to learn about the story and process behind her recent project ChinaTOwn, a multi-player board game that prompts participants to put their heads together to negotiate what is worth including in a community space. Centred on questions of heritage preservation within the community, ChinaTOwn asks players to have a conversation about what is important to them and the future of their community, a topic that is relevant now more than ever as Chinatown’s across the country face unprecedented challenges and change.
Sunday, March 28, 2021 at 1 pm
Photo credit: Chan Centre
Chan Centre’s Spring 2021 Dot Com Series – Online
The Chan Centre’s Spring 2021 Dot Com Series features eight all-new performances which will be delivered 100% online and recorded around the globe—from Mexico to Montreal to our very own Chan Centre stage. Additional Performances launched every two weeks.
Runs until May 31, 2021
Photo credit: Vancouver Opera
Vancouver Opera – The Music Shop – Online
In this brilliant comedy (that is great for the family!), a meek husband desperately searches a music shop for a song requested by his wife. But if only he could remember the title or the tune of the song! His Wagnerian wife appears in a series of hilarious hallucinations during his mad scramble through the ill-fated music shop. If you enjoy opera, music theatre, musicals like Into the Woods, and zany comedy you’ll love this opera. A Canadian premiere performed and directed by the Vancouver Opera Yulanda M. Faris Young Artists Program participants.
Runs until April 12, 2021
Photo credit: Festival of Ocean Films
Festival of Ocean Films – Online
The Georgia Strait Alliance’s Festival of Ocean Films is back for its 11th year. This year, celebrate your connection to the ocean with Pacific Northwest documentaries and live conversations with filmmakers from the comfort of home. The festival will take you into the depths of collaboration, conflict and sustainability regarding water, wild salmon and whales—some of the region’s most pressing environmental issues.
Runs until March 31, 2021
