Local Arts

A retired art teacher from Coquitlam's Centennial secondary school has a new book out with a poet. Eighty-two of Don Portelance's paintings are featured beside the poems of Candice James.

Professional artists wanting to become a three-month resident at Port Coquitlam's Leigh Square Community Arts Village next year have until Jan. 31 to apply.

A concert due to be staged at Coquitlam's Evergreen Cultural Centre on Thursday to benefit a Port Coquitlam charity has been postponed. The show with Juno-award nominee Shawn Hook will be held now in the spring.

Next week, while many families are winding down their school programs and preparing for the Christmas break, 60 kids from a Coquitlam-based choir will be hunkered into front of their televisions to catch themselves perform with an international super

More public art is gracing civic institutions in the Tri-Cities after two major pieces were installed last week.

For the past two decades, Coquitlam's Barry and Merle Rector have sung a holiday classic with the Vancouver Bach Choir (VBC). This year is no exception. On Saturday, the tenor and alto will perform The Messiah with the 130-voice symphonic group.

Mary Hatch (playing the role of Cari Andrews) and Blaine Halina (George Bailey) appear in Farside Theatre's It's A Wonderful Life - The Radio Play, running Wednesday to Saturday at Northside Church (1460 Lansdowne Dr., at David Avenue, in Coquitlam).

If you're looking to treat the kids to a Christmas show before Santa Claus arrives, the Tri-Cities has three concerts to keep the young - and the young-at-heart - happy.

Seventeen young Tri-City dancers are cast in Motus O's A Christmas Carol, on stage next week at the Evergreen Cultural Centre in Coquitlam.

Three youth bands will rock a Port Moody high school next week for Project Theo. The Student Enterprise Club, a philanthropy and business group at Heritage Woods secondary, will raise funds for HeritageForHumanity and Project 24.