On the 13th and final day of Norouz celebrations we have Sizdah Be-Dar. This is a day when families and friends gather and picnic in a park near a body of flowing water.
As part of this tradition, each person ties a knot in the sabzeh (sprouted wheatgrass), makes a wish, and tosses the sabzeh in the river. This symbolizes letting go of the old, and welcoming in the new (a very common theme in our Norouz tradition). Visit the FB event page to learn how to grow your own sabzeh to bring along.
Sizdah Be-Dar falls on a Wednesday this year, but we have opted to gather on the following Sunday, April 6, to make it easier for folks to attend.
Traditionally this is a day to picnic together in the park. Folks are encouraged to make their favourite dish to share and/or bring a donation to contribute.
Tag: art exhibition
GPAG: ROSE CLARKE | STORYBOARDS (mixed media)
to Mar 30. Beginning from the understanding that life is full of complexity, Rose Clarke aims for her works to ignite a creative spark and curiosity within the viewer. Each collage painting in this exhibition is a Storyboard, a tale told in a multitude of ways from a multitude of perspectives. Some can be described literally, some are poetic and suggestive, and others resist interpretation and must be allowed to just be. Clarke practices intuitive image-making, allowing her visual language to emerge from a realm that gets covered over in the business of daily living.
Interested in this exhibition or the processes behind Clarke’s work? Keep an eye out for an upcoming workshop with Rose Clarke at GPAG in April.
GPAG: SHOUT OUT! 2025 Youth Art Exhibition
to Mar 30th. One of our most popular annual exhibitions, Shout Out! features the work of Sunshine Coast youth aged 2 – 18. In addition to offering an inspiring body of work that represents the creativity of our community’s youth, this exhibition is also an opportunity for young people to experience what it is like to be a professional exhibiting artist at GPAG. Featuring drawing, painting, photography, mixed media, sculpture, and much more, visit and be inspired by the creativity, individuality, and vibrancy on display throughout the exhibition.
During this exhibition, we will be open every day and will have a free drop in crafting station set up for all ages. Join us for the Opening Reception of Shout Out on Sat., Mar 15th, 2pm – 4pm. All are welcome to join us!
Art Exhibition: SC Arts Centre – Group Show: Not in the Public Interest
to March 15th. The legal principle of ‘public interest’ is best understood by the idea that if you stopped ten people on the street: would the issue matter to them. Would they care? In British Columbia a legal ruling from an investigative documentary on Indigenous deaths in custody established that there is no public interest to be found.
In response, people from around the world have created original art to tell stories of injustice and demonstrate that Indigenous lives matter. That people do care.
Art Exhibition: SC Arts Centre – Crystal Ali: Black Lines
to March 15. Black Lines aims to illuminate the intricate stories and experiences of black individuals, navigating the complexities of assimilation in Western societies. Five compelling pieces are featured that, together, challenge traditional perceptions and celebrate the beauty and strength of black identity. This series by Crystal Ali aims to foster a deeper understanding and appreciation of the unique experiences of black individuals.
Crystal Ali paints using acrylics and oils. She is a Nigerian immigrant whose work is rooted in the rich narratives of black identity. With a modern contemporary approach, Ali draws from suprematism and constructivism abstract theories, focusing on the portrayal of black people and their stories.
GPAG: Opening Reception | Cuesta & Baker, T. Owens Union, & Tzaddi Gordon
Join us for the Opening Receptions of three exhibitions on Saturday, February 15th, 2pm – 4pm. All are welcome!
This Opening Reception is for three different exhibitions; Parallels by Claudia Sageele Cuesta & Bill Baker in the Main Gallery; Stories That Still Need to Be Told, an exhibition honouring Black History Month in the Eve Smart Gallery by T. Owens Union; and In the Thick of It by special invitation to Joe’s Lounge by Tzaddi Gordon. Learn more about these three exhibitions online at www.gpag.ca; and check out upcoming Artist Talks & Workshops by these artists throughout February!
Art Exhibition: GPAG Eve Smart Gallery – T. OWENS UNION | Stories That Still Need to Be Told
An exhibition honouring Black History Month in the Eve Smart Gallery, describing aspects of African American culture and history. The lack of a fully realized historical portrait of this community in American society has regularly resulted in invisibility and suppression. T. Owens Union uses the past to inform a present voice for ancestors who too often were silenced.
T. Owens Union is a career scientist who also holds a degree in Fashion Marketing from Parsons School of Design based in rural south-central Pennsylvania. To learn more about the artist and her exhibition, join us for an Artist Talk on Friday, Feb 14th, 2pm – 3pm; and for the Opening Reception of her exhibition on Saturday, Feb 15th, 2pm – 4pm. These events are free to attend and all are welcome!
GPAG: Artist Talk with Claudia Sageele Cuesta & Bill Baker
Join us on Saturday, February 22nd, 2pm – 3pm for an Artist Talk with Claudia Sageele Cuesta and Bill Baker. This event is free to attend and all are welcome to join us!
Claudia Sageele Cuesta & Bill Baker’s exhibition Parallels is on display in the Main Gallery Feb 13th – March 9th. Learn more about this exhibition online at www.gpag.ca
Art Exhibition: GPAG Joe’s Lounge – TZADDI GORDON | In the Thick of It
to Mar 9 – Joe’s Lounge. After spending many years constrained by the demands of caregiving for her husband with early-onset dementia, Tzaddi Gordon sought ways to make art in the cracks; to wedge a few moments of creativity into days that felt less and less like her own. One of these ways is working in the genre of found poetry. Using vintage books as her source Gordon creates new meaning from outmoded or dogmatic text and imagery through a process of redacting, cutting, or rearranging text, the act of removing and rewriting pages echoing the memory changes she has witnessed in her husband. An exhibition in Joe’s Lounge running Feb 13th – Mar 9th.
Join us for the Opening Reception of this exhibition on Saturday, Feb 15th, 2pm – 4pm; and for a FREE Intro to Blackout Poetry Workshop on Tues. Feb 18th, 2pm – 4pm.
Art Exhibition: GPAG – CLAUDIA SAGEELE CUESTA & BILL BAKER | Parallels (mixed media)
to Mar 9th. A selection of artwork from the past 10 years that represents the artists’ journeys. Although different in materiality, Cuesta and Baker share in their art practice a passion for that which cannot be seen. Bill Baker looks at architectural structures and forms, creating works on paper with charcoals and oil pastels. Claudia Sageele Cuesta’s work is fluid and contemplative, based in three dimensional installation and performance art. Cuesta & Baker’s exhibition Parallels is on display in the Main Gallery Feb 13th – Mar 9th.
Join us on Sat. Feb 15th, 2pm – 4pm, for the Opening Reception of this exhibition; and for an Artist Talk on Saturday Feb 22nd, 2pm – 3pm. Both events are free to attend and all are welcome!
PR – Dwight Hall: Powell River Quilt Show
Inspired by Tradition…a Celebration of Today’s Quilts. Presented by the Timberlane Quilters’ Guild with support from Qathet Art. Approximately 200 quilts on display PLUS: Refreshments, Quilting/Sewing Vendors, Quilts for sale in the boutique, Raffles, Door Prizes.
Calling all youth artists! SHOUT OUT 2025 is coming up in March
Drop off your submissions March 6th – 9th, 11am – 4pm. Sunshine Coast youth aged two to eighteen are invited to submit their artwork of any size or medium for display at the Gallery during our annual youth exhibition Shout Out, running March 15th – 30th, 2025. Find more information and submission forms online at www.gpag.ca/submissions.
Teachers, schools, and other youth group leaders: Class/group art projects are welcomed! Please contact the Gallery at info@gpag.ca to arrange custom display details or to request pickup of student art.
GPAG: Introduction to Blackout Poetry Workshop with Tzaddi Gordon
Join us for a free workshop on Feb. 18th with In the Thick of It artist Tzaddi Gordon. In this workshop we’ll transform book pages into unique blackout poetry compositions. You’ll learn how to use book pages as your poetic muse, and explore a variety of mixed media techniques.
Free; gallery donations of $5-$20 suggested. All are welcome!
GPAG: Artist Talk with T. Owens Union
Join us for an artist talk with T. Owens Union, the artist behind Stories that Still Need to Be Told; an exhibition in honour of Black History Month in the Eve Smart Gallery.
Stories That Still Need to Be Told, by T. Owens Union in the Eve Smart Gallery, describes aspects of African American culture and history. The lack of a fully realized historical portrait of this community in American society has regularly resulted in invisibility and suppression, and in this exhibition the artist uses the past to inform a present voice for ancestors who too often were silenced. T. Owens Union is a career scientist who also achieved an AAS degree in Fashion Marketing from Parsons School of Design (The New School), from rural south central Pennsylvania.
GPAG: RICHARD CHARTER | Vertical Human Horizontal World (mixed media)
Musician and artist Richard Charter uses thread and ink to translate musical scores into visual artworks, creating symbolic representations of music notations. Charter’s works, without the production of any actual decibels of sound, allow the viewer to engage with and intuit their own narrative from musical scores, fulfilling an act that is entirely musical in nature whether the viewer is a trained or untrained musician or a hearing or non-hearing person. The abundance of straight layered lines and the contrast of the vertical and horizontal in Charter’s work provides reflection on both the significance of the line in musical notation and on our sense of self in relation to our landscapes.
Join us for the Opening Reception Saturday, Jan. 18th, 2pm – 4pm. All are welcome!
GPAG: TROCH, BRIAN BAXTER, ALAN SIRULNIKOFF, ALANNA WOOD | Unshuttered: From Lens to Print (photography)
Four local Sunshine Coast photographers with diverse approaches and individual philosophies unite to explore photography as an art form. Photographs, which are so common in our everyday life, become an art form rather than a form of advertisement or entertainment because of their content, the photographer’s mindset, the message, and the composition. Using a variety of techniques, tools, and processes, troch, Brian Baxter, Alan Sirulnikoff, and Alanna Wood illustrate the diversity of photography as an artistic medium. The photograph as an exhibited object challenges the viewer to stop, look, see and contemplate.
Join us for the Opening Reception on Saturday, Jan. 18th, 2pm – 4pm. All are welcome!
GPAG: Joe’s Lounge – LINDA MAY HENRI | Eat Your Veggies (painting)
Eat Your Veggies, an exhibition by Linda May Henri in Joe’s Lounge, explores foods’ modern symbolic space in relation to the human body. On the internet there are articles that compare women’s bodies to fruit in order to describe their body shape. Food emoticons are used to refer to body parts in texting. Henri’s anthropomorphic fruit paintings address this absurdity of comparing fruit and veggies with the human body by using bright colours and creating odd subjects. Reflecting on the commodification and consumption of the human body and of food by using the pinup art style, Eat Your Veggies questions our relationships with food through bright colours, subject matter, and repetition.
GPAG: Music & Art with Jess Hart
Join us for a special evening of music and art with local musician & exhibiting artist Jess Hart. All proceeds will benefit community arts and the local food bank.
Jess Hart is an artist living and working on the unceded lands of the shíshálh and Sḵwxwú7mesh peoples in Gibsons, BC. A veteran musician who has performed across Canada and toured in Europe, Jess Hart is an accomplished singer/songwriter who is appreciated for a refreshing combination of thoughtful lyrics and unique vocal and musical style. Her current exhibition at GPAG, Places I’ve Worked, features unique contemporary and abstract artwork illustrating coastal and urban scenes.
Tickets are $25 and include a glass of wine or beer (19+). Purchase your tickets online via Eventbrite or at the door. We hope you can join us!
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