Photo: Tourism Vancouver / Andrew Chin Photography
This weekend check out over 50 floral installations in downtown Vancouver by Fleurs de Villes ROSÉ, gather your wizarding bubble and bring some magic back to your life with Wings and Wizards, head to Sea to Sky Gondola in Squamish to support their reopening, and have some fun at the PNE’s Playland.
Until further notice, in line with the public health order, non-essential travel into, within, and out of BC is not recommended. BC residents, let’s do our part by continuing to stay within your health region and support local in accordance with the latest guidelines.
Photo: Sea to Sky Gondola
Sea to Sky Gondola Reopening to the Public
Where: Squamish
What: The Sea to Sky Gondola is located on Highway 99 just south of Squamish, a scenic 45 minute drive from downtown Vancouver. A 10 minute gondola ride will take you up to a truly magical place with some of the most spectacular views you will ever see and activities for all interests and ages. As you rise from the water’s edge on the valley floor, the view opens up before you: the bright blue water of Howe Sound, dotted with green islands and backed by the steep mountains of the Coast Range; the majestic Stawamus Chief; and a bird’s eye view of the town of Squamish with the rugged, snow-capped mountains to the north.
Open daily 9:00am – 5:00pm
Photo: Wings and Wizards
Where: BC Place Stadium
What: ‘Welcome, wizard apprentice…We have been waiting for you!’ Wings and Wizards is an interactive, touch-free exhibit that merges world-building, art, tech, storytelling, and design to create a truly sublime magical adventure that promises to bring a little magic back into the lives of the young and young-at-heart! Gather your wizarding bubble and join for an adventure full of magic and mystery.
Runs until September 6, 2021
Photo: PNE
Where: Pacific National Exhibition
What: Vancouver’s favourite amusement park is open for another season of family fun, thrills, games, attractions, and good mood food! Enterprise, Scrambler, and Hell’s Gate will be part of this season’s ride offering! Playland will continue to make safety its top priority. Operating with significantly reduced capacities, physical distancing, enhanced cleaning procedures, and masks will be required on rides and in all queue lines.
Runs until September 11, 2021
Photo: Fleurs de Villes
Where: Downtown Vancouver
What: Vancouver is invited to enjoy Fleurs de Villes ROSÉ – a fresh floral trail supporting breast cancer research. This stunning showcase of floral talent will be freely open to the public and will feature over 50 floral installations, created by some of Vancouver’s favourite florists. Supported by the Downtown Vancouver and Robson Street business associations, Fleurs de Villes ROSÉ will be freely open to the public, and visitors will be able to safely walk through this self-guided trail through the downtown core. Visitors can pick up a map or scan a QR code at 800 Robson Plaza, on the South side of the Vancouver Art Gallery, to begin the trail.
Runs until June 20, 2021
Where: Strathcona
What: Strathcona’s galleries are coming together to bring a diverse selection of contemporary art from Indigenous and Canadian artists to the streets through five billboards along East Hastings. Art Walk Strathcona is a self-guided experience that invites people to take a walk, discover the public billboard images, and enjoy a change of perspective.
Runs until June 14, 2021
Photo: Forbidden Vancouver
Forbidden Vancouver: The Dark Secrets of Stanley Park Tour
Where: Stanley Park
What: Discover the jaw-dropping beauty – and sinister stories – of Stanley Park. Behind those majestic forests, picturesque gardens and stunning beaches lies a history of hidden graveyards, shocking crime scenes, and the ghostly lore of Deadman’s Island.
Runs every Saturday & Sunday
Where: Container Brewing
What: Stretch out your weekend with East Van Yoga and Container Brewing! Starting this summer on Saturday mornings. You’ll be guided through a 60 minute gentle Hatha style class that includes a light warm up, a few flow sequences and deep stretching. Followed by a post class beer, what better way to start the weekend? The $25 ticket includes a post class beer on the patio.
Runs on Saturdays until August 28, 2021
Photo: Fraser Discivery Centre
Where: Fraser River Discovery Centre, New Westminster
What: Come and learn about the biodiversity, commerce, and culture of the Fraser River on the guided Quayside Walking Tour! Join the river educator Mike Hoyer and take a stroll down the New West boardwalk to learn some fascinating facts about BC’s longest river. Quayside tours take place outdoors, rain or shine, so dress for the weather. Suitable for all ages.
Runs on Saturday & Sunday
Photo credit: Maan Farms
Where: Maan Farms & Estate Winery
What: Come check out some fun activities, Mama Maan’s country kitchen, and the petting zoo. There are goats, sheep, bunnies, chickens, turkeys, peacocks, and guinea fowls to visit.
Open 9:00 am – 6:00 pm every day. Last entry 5:00 pm
20th Annual UBC Farm Farmers’ Market
Where: UBC Farm
What: Check out the 20th Annual UBC Farm Farmers’ Market! Don’t miss the 20th year of Vancouver’s only multi-vendor farmers’ market located on a working farm! In addition to certified organic and farm-fresh produce, fruits, herbs, and free-range eggs from the UBC Farm, the Saturday Multi-vendor Farmers’ Market also features a variety of other local vendors selling meat, cheese, mushrooms, fruit, vegetables, nursery plants, baked goods, alcohol, and prepared foods, alongside food and coffee trucks.
Runs on Saturdays until November 17, 2021
Kyrstle Coughlin Silverfox, Royal Tease, 2020
Where: The Polygon Gallery
What: After a monumental pandemic year, The Polygon is grateful to offer the work of 22 significant artists in an online auction in support of its 2021 Exhibition Program. Featuring Derya Akay, Sara Cwynar, Andrew Dadson, Sarah Davidson, Hannah Dubois, Emily Hermant, Gabrielle L’Hirondelle Hill, Russna Kaur, Landon Mackenzie, Evann Siebens, M.E. Sparks, Parviz Tanazoli, Steven Shearer, Kyrstle Coughlin Silverfox, Howie Tsui, Elizabeth Zvonar, and more.
Runs until June 18, 2021
Photo credit: Bill Reid Gallery
Where: Bill Reid Gallery of Northwest Coast Art
What: Hands of Knowledge is a collaborative exhibition featuring six contemporary Indigenous women artists, developed by Ts’msyen curator Joanne Finlay. Women can be powerful matriarchs, important knowledge keepers, cultural connectors, and the foundation of the family. Each artist celebrates traditional knowledge through contemporary works that explore sight, time, supernatural energy and spirituality. Many are connected to personal and family history and stories passed down to them as part of their lineage. Using insight, awareness and reflection, the artists look to the sights and times of their mothers, grandmothers and great-grandmothers, to view how women have influenced their work.
Runs until September 26, 2021
Courtesy of the Artist: Whess Harman
Vancouver Special: Disorientations and Echo
Where: Vancouver Art Gallery
What: Vancouver Special: Disorientations and Echo will be the second in what is envisioned as a series of exhibitions intended to provide an expansive look at contemporary art in the Greater Vancouver region. For the 2021 version of Vancouver Special, primary emphasis is on recent works that hold a particular resonance for this time and place that have not been previously exhibited in Vancouver. The exhibition will reflect the activity of both artists at an early point in their career and more established artists whose practices span several decades. Encompassing a variety of media, scale and modes of presentation, the artworks that comprise the exhibition address themes that include cultural resilience, the articulation of suppressed histories, the performance of identity and embodied knowledge.
Runs until Sunday, January 22, 2021
Photo credit: Andréa Saunier
“Street of India” Exhibition by Andréa Saunier
Where: Le Centre Culturel Francophone de Vancouver
What: A multi-talented artist, filmmaker, photographer, and writer, Andréa Saunier will exhibit her photographic series named “Street of India” at Le Centre Culturel. “Suspended moments captured. Inspired, unexpected, spontaneous. India soothed me. This is what lingers with me from this country, the connection with self to connect more deeply with the external world. Letting go. An invitation to silence. A bubble of tenderness”.
Runs until July 1, 2021
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: Science World
Where: Science World
What: Arctic Voices takes visitors on a riveting journey over the tundra and into the world’s northernmost biome. Enjoy an immersive experience of the fascinating, changing Arctic through its many voices: its people, ecology, wildlife and way of life. Dance with auroras, hop on ice floes and learn just how deeply connected we are to the Arctic through this feature exhibition that will leave you awestruck and inspired.
Runs until September 6, 2021
Bill Reid carving the Skidegate Pole, 1976. Oil on canvas, by Chris Hopkins
Where: Bill Reid Gallery of Northwest Coast Art
What: Launched in July 2020, the exhibition is a centennial birthday celebration of Bill Reid, who was born in 1920. The exhibition tells the story of Reid’s creative journey through four distinct sections: Voice, Process, Lineage, and Legacy. Curated by Gwaai Edenshaw—considered to be Reid’s last apprentice—the exhibition includes audio narratives, literary excerpts, rarely seen sketchbooks and casting molds, and short films, as well as newly commissioned works by Haida artist Cori Savard and singer-songwriter Kinnie Starr. It also includes the addition of two new artworks—the Eagle and Beaver Pole (1980) by Haida carver Reg Davidson and an exquisitely carved cedar door, designed by Bill Reid and carved by James Hart in 1980—as well as the anticipated commemorative book: Bill Reid, To Speak With a Golden Voice.
Runs until September 6, 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: 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: 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
Gulf of Georgia Cannery National Historic Site
Waves of Innovation: Stories from the West Coast
Where: Gulf of Georgia Cannery National Historic Site
What: The exhibition features stories of adaptations and innovations in the commercial fishing industry and their effects on west coast communities. Four key areas of innovation will be highlighted – energy, fishing, preservation, and innovations of today. Quotes from the diverse fishing communities and examples of artifacts from each area of innovation will be featured, alongside interactive displays which will help visitors of all ages and backgrounds explore the question – What does innovation mean to you?
Runs until April 15, 2022
Courtesy of and Copyright by The Leon Polk Smith Foundation, New York City. Photo by Adam Reich.
Leon Polk Smith: Big Form, Big Space
Where: The Contemporary Art Gallery
What: The first solo exhibition in a public gallery in Canada by American artist Leon Polk Smith (1906-1996). Focusing on paintings and works on paper from the 1950s, the exhibition charts a critical moment in Smith’s artistic career in which the signature visual language of his work began to manifest, reflective both of prevalent trends of the time and an increasing engagement with the contexts of his upbringing and identity. Big Form, Big Space provides a timely opportunity to re-evaluate Smith’s place within art history, looking beyond the strict appreciation of his place within hard-edge modernist abstraction to encompass broader considerations of context, time and identity.
Runs until August 20, 2021
Vancouver International Children’s Festival – Online
Reimagine fun at the 2021 Vancouver International Children’s Festival with an extraordinary online line-up of world-class theatre, music, dance and storytelling created specifically for children. The reimagined 2021 Festival will offer Online performances with an extra 7 days of extended show viewing. Watch a show online from the comfort of home with Pay-What-You-Can pricing.
Runs until June 13, 2021
Photo credit: James Yip, David Cooper, World Ballet Competition
Discover Dance! Goh Ballet – Online
The exciting dancers of the internationally-renowned Goh Ballet perform for the digital June edition of The Dance Centre’s popular Discover Dance! series. Featuring members of the Goh Ballet Youth Company and Goh Ballet Academy’s Senior Professional Division, the performance will include award-winning solos by dancers who recently won top prizes at international competitions, in a performance celebrating classical repertoire, Chinese traditional dance and contemporary works.
Streaming until June 17, 2021
Kawaguchi + Takase 2014, Photo credit: Chris Randle
Vancouver International Dance Festival – Online
The Vancouver International Dance Festival celebrates its 21st season with 18 livestream contemporary dance performances. Broadcast from the KW Production Studio, the 2021 VIDF presents cinematic perspectives of contemporary dance streamed live to wherever you are. This weekend Vancouver’s Company 605 will present Brimming (April 29-30 & May 1). The new solo investigating the body as a container was created and performed by its co-artistic director Josh Martin.
Streaming until June 19, 2021
