Thursday, September 13, 2012

An art-filled weekend in St. Catharines coming up

The return of some cooler weather in September often brings with it some interesting outdoor and indoor events that take your mind off the leisurely days of summer when the beach is often the most-desired destination.  So it is this weekend in St. Catharines when the first annual Art City takes place downtown on Saturday from 12 noon to 10 pm.  This is part of the Niagara Nights of Art initiative that has grown out of the designation of Niagara as the Cultural Capital of Canada in 2012.

You might remember the late, lamented Night of Art held in October for a few years, sponsored by the St. Catharines and Area Arts Council.  I attended several of those before the council folded over a year ago, taking the Night of Art with it.  This will have a somewhat similar theme, although it is on a Saturday rather than a couple of hours on a Friday evening, and a lot of it will take place during the daytime on Saturday to hopefully make this a more family-friendly event.

There will be a number of workshops at several locations downtown, including Silver Spire Church on St. Paul Street, Ryson's Studio of Music on Court Street and Bansaree Indian Cuisine on St. Paul Street.  Outside events will be largely centred on St. Paul Street between Court and Carlisle Streets.  The workshops range from hip hop dance or jazz dance workshops to bucket drumming workshops, among other events.  There will also be something called a mask petting zoo, put on by Theatre Beyond Words which sounds really interesting.

Art installations include interactive rug hooking at Wally Wemnants on St. Paul Street with Alexa Fraser and at the CRAM gallery on James Street, Family Album by my neighbour, Sandy Middleton where you can visit the past through old family photos.

Performances range from Aaron Berger at Out of the Past on St. Paul Street and The Lucky Ones at Liberty Bikes on Bond Street to the St. Catharines Chamber Music Society at Silver Spire Church.

The best part of all, these events are all free throughout the day this Saturday from 12 noon to 10 pm.   For more information go to www.mydowntown.ca.

Also tied in with all this activity is a performance by Great Lakes Swimmers tonight (Thursday) at Centre for the Arts, Brock University at 7:30, and A Walk Through History twice daily through to Saturday at Victoria Lawn Cemetery at 5 and 7 pm.  The Great Lakes Swimmers will perform free of charge; the walks at Victoria Lawn are $ 8, and you can register by calling 905-984-8880.

So all in all, this is a lot more activity than we used to have on that Friday evening in October up until a couple of years ago, so let's hope people come out and support this ambitious initiative.

Also tied in with the weekend is the annual Season Launch announcement of seven Niagara Performing Arts Companies at the Sullivan Mahoney Courthouse Theatre put on by the Downtown Alliance for the Performing Arts (DAPA) on Saturday evening.  This is not open to the public but I will be attending and reporting on the evening in this space in the near future.  The DAPA announcement each September is one I always look forward to, as it involves a lot of great creative minds in the area, all working out of the Courthouse Theatre.  Notably missing this year will be Lyndesfarne Theatre Projects, which has moved operations to downtown Niagara Falls this year.

There have been a lot of events already in the Region tied in with the Niagara 2012 Cultural Capital of Canada designation, including the first annual Mount Carmel Fine Arts Show held last weekend in Niagara Falls.  Look for more in the future, too, as we continue to celebrate the arts in Niagara throughout the year.

Should be a fun weekend in downtown St. Catharines!

September 13th, 2012.

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