The Guerrilla Art Collective is excited to deck the walls of the Owl Acoustic Lounge.

It is just one of many opportunities get shopping out of the way and buy locally for Christmas.

“The first show was a last minute show,” said Guerrilla Collective founder, Amy Arsene.

“I wanted to expand my network and meet other artists so we could exchange ideas and keep motivated,” she continued.

“It’s been over  three years since we formed. We didn’t expect them to do so well,” she said.

“We usually invite guest artists to participate, but not for this show. Hopefully for the next one,” Arsene said.

 The Guerrilla art Collective’s show is Saturday, Nov. 20 from 6-9 p .m.

 It will feature works by Amy Arsene, Heidi Sherman, Russel Jensen, Dave Bullied and Keeley and Brandy Kulcsar.

“It’s a huge space, almost as big as the Owl Acoustic Lounge upstairs. Mel Dominguez and Steve Foord were nice enough to set it up and clean it for us. It’s a gorgeous brick wall with edifices. It will be a great place for the Collective to  display our works,” she said.

The Geomatic Attic is taking advantage of a small  window of opportunity to put up a pop up gallery/ venue downtown next to Bread Milk and Honey (#427 – 5th Street South).

They held a successful jazz show last week with ES:MO and are looking forward to welcoming Shaye Zadravec and Guitarist Tim Leacock with  Bailey Kate and Joel Stretch opening the show on Wednesday, Nov. 10 at  8 p.m.

“It’s called the Geomatic Attic Downtown pop up art gallery and music and events space,” described the Geomatic Attic’s Mike Spencer, noting the new space is going to be leased by somebody else as of Jan. 1.

“The Geomatic Attic is a big proponent of supporting  the downtown and downtown businesses so this is an opportunity to collaborate with them,” Spencer continued, noting the Geomatic Attic is taking advantage of the next couple of months  to hold  some special events including a collaboration with  Lethbridge Living on a Film Festival during the week of Nov. 16-18.

“We’re still working out the details for the festival. Admission will be by donation There will be short films and also a film about Steve Coffey and his art, Spencer said.

 The brick walls are adorned by works by southern Albertan artists Steve Coffey, whose works are also on display at the Geomatic Attic’s main venue, and sculptor Tarryn Forai, U of L graduate Raymond Theriault as well as prints from John Snow.

 All of the works are for sale, and will be  replaced with new works as they sell.

The Nikka Yuko Japanese Gardens is proud to reopen their new building The Nikka Yuko Bunka Centre after six years of hard work, planning and collaboration.

“ We could not have done this without the co-operation with the city,” said Lethbridge & District Japanese Garden Society president Brad Hembroff.

 The new building will be officially completed and open in time for the Nikka Yuko Festival of Lights on Nov. 26.

“We’ll be opening it in three phases,” Hembroff continued, adding the first phase is Nov. 26 after final  pieces like inside doors to the main room and office carpeting will be completed. It will feature the opening of the café, gift shop and large event space.

The second phase features the opening of the programming spaces in the spring, weather permitting. 

The final phase will be the official grand opening for Nikka Yuko Japanese Gardens’ 55th anniversary celebrations, July 14 next year.

 The new building features a front desk and gift shop greeting visitors. Right behind that will be a room dedicated to costumes, so people can come and dress up and tour the gardens in costume if they wish.

 There will be a café and coffee shop, next to a big set of windows showcasing the gardens themselves.

 There is a bigger room for special events and presentations and smaller rooms for special cultural activities including bonsai tree creation, cosplay and Sumo wrestling.