Art Beat

Geomatic Attic Downtown features art and music

Monday, 08 November 2021 15:48 Richard Amery

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).

MIKE SPENCER WITH A TARRYN FLORAI SCULPTRE AND STEVE COFFEY PAINTINGS IN THE NEW GEOMATIC ATTIC DOWNTOWN SPACE. PHOTO BY RICHARD AMERY

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.

Nikka Yuko Japanese Gardens opens new Bunka centre

Wednesday, 27 October 2021 13:13 Richard Amery

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 Nikka Yuko Bunka will be open for the Festival of Lights, Nov. 26. Photo by Richard Amery

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.

Arts Days features music and outdoor events

Tuesday, 21 September 2021 11:58 Richard Amery

It looks like Arts Days will be blessed with good weather for Arts Days this week.

Makiisma Plays Arts Days, Sept. 24. Photo by Richard Amery

It’s not like a couple years ago when we had snow,” said Allied Arts Council Projects manager Tara Gillanders, noting due to Covid , most events will be outside this year.

“We’re working hard to ensure that everything is safe. So we had planned to move as much as we could outside even before the current restrictions came into effect,” she continued.

Lethbridge’s annual celebration of the arts begins on Thursday, Sept. 23 with local artists painting the outside windows of of several downtown local businesses including Classique Dance Works, The Allied Arts Council shop, Casa and Sill and Soil.

“It’s an excellent opportunity for people to stop and chat with the artists about their work,” Gillanders said.

The musical portion of ArtsDays begins on Friday, Sept. 24 with doom folk band Makiisma and local garage rock/new wave band Body Lens, who perform on Rotary Square outside Casa from 7 -9 p.m.

Casa celebrates Southern Alberta Art with Inside Outside

Friday, 02 July 2021 18:10 Richard Amery

CASA reopens with a bang as new exhibits “Inside Out” and “Summer Salon” opens July 3, showcasing a burst of creativity for 74 Southern Alberta artists .

Darcy Logan is excite to have Inside Out featuring 74 local artists opening at Casa, July 3. Photo by Richard Amery

“ It”s been seven or eight months since we had an exhibit here,” said Casa curator Darcy Logan.

“Originally it was just going to be an outdoor exhibit, because we didn’t know what was going to happen at this time, but we put together a great team to make it work,” Logan said, noting they put out an artists call in May, which southern Alberta artists answered in force.

“ None of it is directly related to the pandemic,” he said.

“ There’s a wide range of works in all sorts of mediums. There‘s abstracts and realism. And we have works from all kinds of artists from teens to well respected professionals,” he said, adding the main gallery focusses on paintings including a variety of subject matter including birds, landscapes, wildlife and a quirky submission of a horse riding another horse.

There are also several outdoor exhibits.

Troy Nickel and Michelle Sylvestre have larger installations in the kiosks.

More Articles...