Contracted landscaping work will be occurring at the Quail’s Nest Arts Centre at 5840 Airport Street, beginning the week of April 22 – 26.
PJR Contracting Ltd. has been hired by the Oliver Community Arts Council to remove the chain link fencing and weed trees along the northern perimeter of the property and the remaining fence along the road on the eastern side north of the “Big Blue” Building. In addition they will also be placing, levelling and packing 3/4 crush gravel on the northern end of the property. This is a continuation of the landscaping project begun in the summer of 2012.
The arts council anticipates that this work will be completed within a maximum of two weeks, weather permitting. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause, especially in terms of noise or access. The council anticipates the latter to be minimal, with work confined to a small area within the property. Street parking is recommended during the day.
The fence and weed trees have been an ongoing maintenance issue at the arts centre, with the fence preventing removal of weed trees. The outcome will be a neater exterior with less weeding required for the council and its northern neighbours.
If you have any questions or concerns regarding this project, please contact the Oliver Community Arts Council at OliverCAC @ gmail.com
Thank you to our new Operations team of Betty Lou Trimmer Bahnsen and Bob Parker for their work on this project. Look for more projects later in the year, including painting the exterior of the smaller Studio Building, and some design elements added to the doors of both buildings.
Contracted landscaping work will be occurring at the Quail’s Nest Arts Centre at 5840 Airport Street, beginning the week of April 22 – 26.
PJR Contracting Ltd. has been hired by the Oliver Community Arts Council to remove the chain link fencing and weed trees along the northern perimeter of the property and the remaining fence along the road on the eastern side north of the “Big Blue” Building. In addition they will also be placing, levelling and packing 3/4 crush gravel on the northern end of the property. This is a continuation of the landscaping project begun in the summer of 2012.
The arts council anticipates that this work will be completed within a maximum of two weeks, weather permitting. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause, especially in terms of noise or access. The council anticipates the latter to be minimal, with work confined to a small area within the property. Street parking is recommended during the day.
The fence and weed trees have been an ongoing maintenance issue at the arts centre, with the fence preventing removal of weed trees. The outcome will be a neater exterior with less weeding required for the council and its northern neighbours.
If you have any questions or concerns regarding this project, please contact the Oliver Community Arts Council at OliverCAC @ gmail.com
Thank you to our new Operations team of Betty Lou Trimmer Bahnsen and Bob Parker for their work on this project. Look for more projects later in the year, including painting the exterior of the smaller Studio Building, and some design elements added to the doors of both buildings.
Gardeners everywhere are looking at seed catalogues and dreaming of the day when they can start planting their gardens. The fun of planning just doesn’t compare with the smell of fresh earth and the feel of soil in your hands and the sun on your back.
Workshops and presentations for gardeners of all ages will be the big focus at this year’s Annual General Meeting of the Oliver Community Garden Society. “Of course we also have raised-bed garden boxes available for rent,” says Luke Whittall, president of the Garden Society. “Not everyone has the space to build a garden. Our raised beds are easy to access and easy to work. You can have tomatoes growing in no time.”
Flowers, peppers, herbs, peas, beans, and pumpkins, have also done well in the past at the Community Garden. “Any crop suitable for raised bed gardening will work great here,” says Whittall. “Our plan this year is to provide totally automatic irrigation for the whole garden site. If you’re away for a couple weeks on vacation, you won’t have to worry about your garden getting watered.”
We have big plans for the Oliver Community Garden this year! Not only do we want to make it lusher and greener and more of the enchanted space we’ve been dreaming of over the winter, but we want to awaken the sense of community a garden can bring.
The Oliver Community Garden Society will be holding its Annual General Meeting on Monday, March 12th at 7 pm at the Quail’s Nest Arts Centre, Studio Building on Airport Street which has also been the location of the Garden since the 2011 growing season. Though it is less visible than the previous location on Main Street, Whittall does not see it as an issue. “It’s makes for a much more serene gardening experience. On Main Street, it was loud with all the traffic noise and there was no shade. At the Quail’s Nest, it’s much more quiet and we have great shaded areas.” The society welcomes all to attend and contribute to the discussion of what you would like to see the Community Garden do this summer and over the coming years. We are already planning a number of workshops and welcome your input on their topics.
The community garden willl be holding monthly workshops on second Saturdays of each month starting in May as well as getting the youth of the community more involved and educated in the wonders of gardening. The kickoff is a great big Plant Sale and Garden Warming Party on Saturday, May 26th at the Oliver Community Garden at the Quail’s Nest Art Centre.
During the last week of June, the South Okanagan’s RipOff Artists attracted media coverage and crowds of curious onlookers with their fourth annual exhibit, “ripping off” Group of Seven’s Lawren Harris and his iconic Mount Lefroy. During a weeklong demonstration and exhibit, each of the ten artists in the collective interpreted the famous painting in their own medium.
Leo Pedersen’s 3-D woodworking installation in progress.
Encaustic artist Thea Haubrich recreates Mount Lefroy in hot beeswax.
JoAnn Turner turns a CD cabinet into a work of art. Can you see the drawer knobs? Or are they surreal snowballs and mountain rocks?
3-D artist Kurt Hutterli adds the finishing touches to an elaborate installation. Painted egg cartons on the floor give the illusion that his artwork is at the “pinnacle” . The whimsical climbing figures added to Harris’ landscape are adapted from a famous period photograph of Rocky Mountain alpinists.
Kurt Hutterli discusses his tongue-in-cheek demo piece with OCAC member Dot Cranston. Mount Lefroy is painted on the hood of a rusted car, cruched in the shape of a mountain peak. Hutterli wonders (with a twinkle in his eye, of course) if the car perhaps once belonged to Lawren Harris himself?
Spinner and weaver Barb Levant recreates Mount Lefroy into an outfit a sherpa or alpinist would be proud to wear. She carefully chose colours and banded patterns to match Harris’ original painting.
Quilter Dianne Birne adds the last finishing stitches to her fabric interpretation of the painting.
Enid Baker reinterprets the masterpiece in watercolours.
Photographer Russell Work cleverly reimagines Mount Lefroy as “two-two-two Mounts in one!” His photo installation rotates (much like some modern billboards) to switch from the Lefroy painting to a photo of artist Harris at work on Mount Lefroy.
Collage artist Marion Trimble painstakingly glues strips of fabric and paper onto her piece.
And now for the finished exhibit! Marion Trimble, Enid Baker, Barbara Levant, Russell Work, JoAnn Turner, Terry Irvine (knitter), Diane Birnie, Leo Pedersen, and Thea Haubrich. Missing from photo: Kurt Hutterli.
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Juno award winner Shari Ulrich sings about finding her son in her new release ‘Find Our Way’. She is touring the Okanagan with a stop in Oliver. Be sure not to miss this amazing performer! You will be in for a treat!
Wed. May 26th, 7:30 pm,Quails Nest Art Center34274 – 95th St. (past the RCMP Stn.)Tickets $22.50Available at Handworks Gallery, Main St., Oliver, B.C.Or call 250-868-8255 to charge by phone
Joining Shari on tour are special guests daughter Julia Graff (violin, piano, accordion, mandolin, vocals) and partner Bill Runge (piano, bass, accordion, soprano saxophone).
Originally a California girl, BC Entertainment Hall of Fame Inductee and Juno award winner Ulrich’s career took her through the Pied Pumkin and The Hometown Band to become a Canadian solo artist who continues to inspire audiences, and set the bar for two generations of female singer/songwriters.
The multi talented singer, songwriter and instrumentalist is now joined on her solo shows by her 19 year old daughter Julia on violin, piano, guitar and vocals along with partner and Jazz great Bill Runge. She continues to tour and record with the Pied Pumkin, Ulrich Henderson Forbes, and recently with Barney Bentall and Tom Taylor. She also composes for film and television and produces the Vancouver Bluebird North concert series for the Songwriters Association of Canada.
In August of 2007, Juno-winning recording artist Shari Ulrich spontaneously signed up for one of those web sites that helps reunite adopted children with their birth parents. Within 48 hours, she was talking on the phone with the son she had handed over at the unwed mother’s home 39 years earlier. She had been barely 16 at the time. The joyful reunion is chronicled on “By the Grace of Goodbye,” one of the highlights of Ulrich’s new CD, Find Our Way—her seventh solo album and her first ever fully self-produced project. Best of all, the May 7th CD release concert at the Rogue Folk Club will see the whole family perform together for the first time—including son Mike Magee, who, it turns out, plays percussion.
A member of the B.C. Entertainment Hall of Fame, Ulrich has absolutely nothing to prove as a singer, musician or composer, so to say that Find Our Way maintains the consistency of her previous recordings is a compliment of the highest order. That she achieves this having taken control of the production for the first time is a toast to both her skill and—she says—to the influence of the producers she worked wit along the way.
Ulrich, who has always been exceptionally generous about sharing her personal joys and sorrows with her fans—whether in her lyrics, on her web blog, or in her public advocacy for survivors of assault—offers more glimpses into life and family on Find Our Way, sharing thoughts and stories that countless others will be able to relate to. “(Now You’re) Gone” is inspired by her daughter Julia’s leaving home to go to university. “Life Goes On” and “Everlasting Great Regret” are reflections on life’s unexpected turns. “What She Left for Us” is a tribute to her late mother. Then, of course, there’s “By the Grace of Goodbye,” a moving number that avoids both sentimentality and melodrama while tackling a subject that has been surprisingly under-sung-about.
The arrangements on Find Our Way are a true family affair, with violin parts performed by Ulrich’s daughter, Julia Graff, and piano and bass lines provided by her partner, jazz legend Bill Runge. Ulrich herself plays guitar, mandolin, fiddle, piano, cello and accordion. Additional contributions come from friends Barney Bentall (harmonica), Karen Savoca (percussion) and David Celia (guitars), among others. The classic roots instrumentation provides a tasteful backdrop for Ulrich’s voice, which is every bit as pure and expressive as it was in the 70s, when, as a member of Valdy’s Hometown Band, she first won audiences over with her rendition of Joe Mock’s “Flying.”
Transplanted from San Rafael, California during the height of the flower child era, Ulrich made a name for herself in Canada as a member of the seminal West Coast folk outfit, Pied Pumkin. Her breakthrough came when she joined the Hometown Band, with whom she won a Juno for Most Promising Group. She went on to release two solo albums with A&M Records and one with MCA, earning a second Juno—for Most Promising Female Vocalist of the Year—and two subsequent nominations for Best Female Vocalist. When the majors released her from her contract in the wake of corporate mergers, Ulrich began recording as an independent artist, while also pursuing a wealth of other projects. She produced segments for Sesame Street, wrote and hosted CTV’s Inside Trax, co-hosted Futurescan with David Suzuki and composed for film and television. Ulrich has recorded three independent albums and released a Best Of compilation. She is also a member of the folk supergroup UHF, along with Bill Henderson and Roy Forbes. Most recently, she has been recording and touring with Barney Bentall and She Stole My Beer’s Tom Taylor.
