Culture Days to showcase rural community art in Maple Ridge and Pitt Meadows

Culture Days will run from Friday, Sept. 18 to Sunday, Oct. 4, with arts and cultural events planned across B.C., including a range of activities in Maple Ridge and Pitt Meadows. This year’s theme is art in rural communities.

BC Culture Days program director Nazanin Shoja said the program will include farm-inspired painting workshops, community choir singalongs, pumpkin carving, harvest fairs and herbal crafting. She said rural and remote communities often lack the arts facilities available in cities, encouraging creative, land-inspired ways to connect with residents.

The province’s arts and culture ambassador this year is Métis artist Michelle Bucholtz of Langley. Bucholtz said experiencing arts and culture in rural spaces can invite people to slow down, connect with the earth and experience wonder, recalling Indigenous turtle teachings. She said creativity and curiosity can counter the effects of modern-day stressors.

The program also includes free or pay-what-you-may hands-on arts, culture and heritage events for families, including African cultural dance, traditional Persian marbling, open symphony rehearsals, knitting, stitching and film screenings.

In Pitt Meadows, free offerings include “Roll the Dice” at the Pitt Meadows Museum and Archives, 12294 Harris Road, from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. each Wednesday, Thursday and Sunday. The program examines how people entertained themselves before electricity and the history of popular board games. Pitt Meadows Art Gallery, 10932 Barnston View Road, will present contemporary Indigenous art by the Cedar Sage and Sweetgrass Art Collective from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Tuesday through Sunday. A Pop-up Pitt Meadows Art Gallery at City Hall, 12007 Harris Road, will exhibit work by illustrator, painter and potter Wing Yee Wong during weekday hours of 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

Pitt Meadows Public Library, 12099 Harris Road, will host Magic: The Gathering for people aged 10 and older on Saturday, Sept. 19, from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. The library will also offer an adult beeswax-collage program for beginners on Thursday, Sept. 24, from 5:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.

Maple Ridge events include Créatrices d'images, a solo exhibition by Vancouver artist Laurence Belzile at The ACT Art Gallery, 11944 Haney Place. The exhibition centres on five large-scale abstract paintings inspired by Betty Goodwin, Faith Ringgold, Georgia O'Keeffe, Francoise Sullivan and Marlene Dumas. The gallery is open 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Wednesday and Friday and Saturday, and until 8 p.m. Thursday.

The ACT Arts Centre will host Community Canvas from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 19, with free hands-on experiences led by Maple Ridge Artists in Residence and other local artists, public-art engagements with the Guildhouse Project, and a 2 p.m. performance of traditional Indian dance, Trei, by Vidya Kotamraju at The ACT Art Gallery.

Maple Ridge Artist in Residence Alex Neff will lead a community mural activity at Maple Ridge Public Library, 22470 Dewdney Trunk Road, from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 26. Ben P. Collins and other local artists will perform popular piano music there during Blue Moon Afternoon: Art Tour and Piano Bar, from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 3; attendees are invited to enjoy a zero-proof drink.

The library will also host a Tiny Art Show Display. People of all ages can pick up a four-inch-by-four-inch canvas beginning Thursday, Sept. 17, while supplies last, and return their work by Thursday, Oct. 1. The display runs Oct. 1 to 16 and will be open during Culture Days from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 1; 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Friday and Saturday, Oct. 2 and 3; and 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 4.

More than 1.4 million B.C. residents took part in 795 Culture Days events in 58 communities last year.