If we can sum up 2016, it was a year of music, art shows and festivals — lots of festivals! — for the Tri-Cities.
Our picks for the year include Centennial secondary’s musical production of Shrek, the Coquitlam 125 legacy salmon project, the Port Moody Rotary Ribfest and the Jill and Matthew Barber show at Evergreen Cultural Centre.
To put things in perspective, we surveyed arts and cultural leaders around town about their highlights for the year.
Here’s what they had to say:
Johanne Dumas, directrice générale et artistique for the Société francophone de Maillardville: “Société francophone de Maillardville had great success in 2016. With Festival du Bois’ 27th edition and the 125th anniversary of Coquitlam, another great initiative was launched: A bilingual geocaching project was created to showcase Maillardville and its heritage.”
Claire Pinkett, president of Stage 43 Theatrical Society: “The best thing we saw was our Coquitlam 125-sanctioned event and Stage 43’s very first musical I Love You, You’re Perfect, Now Change! It was fast-paced, funny and beautifully choreographed.”
Carrie Nimmo, Port Coquitlam’s manager of cultural development and community services: “Our best exhibit was Jeff Wilson and Sarah Ronald’s Up Close: A Collection of Animal Portraits. The public, especially the kids, loved this exhibit because of the relatability of animals and vibrant colours.”
Janice Cotter, gallery manager for the Port Moody Arts Centre: “One of my favourite exhibitions at the Port Moody Arts Centre this year was a celebration of visual and performing arts in honour of Women’s Day titled Simorgh: Between Sky and Earth. All of the 26 participating artists were Iranian-born women who now call Metro Vancouver home. Their work explores diverse individual artistic styles, mediums and themes but the artists all share influences from the two cultures they now move between.”
David Mann, performing arts manager at Evergreen Cultural Centre: “Among the shows at Evergreen that really blew me away were the drama Late Company by Touchstone Theatre, the one-man show Nashville Hurricane by Chase Padgett and the unbelievable fiddling and step-dancing by the Fitzgerald family with Everything Fitz. All were very different but what they had in common was extremely high-quality performance.”
Joan McCauley, executive director for Place des Arts: “My favourite exhibit was at Place des Arts. Artist Ken Hughes’ In other Words was a series of acrylic paintings and collages that employed important sacred or secular texts as major elements. It was such a thought-provoking exhibit and kind of blew my mind. My favourite event? The Coquitlam 125th signature event, Kaleidoscope. This event was intended to be a celebration of arts and culture and it delivered just that. The event was high quality and truly inspiring. I was very Coquitlam proud that weekend.”
