If you are having trouble seeing the Newsletter please view it here
| |||||||||
|
discover the best of bc |
MAY 2008 | ||||||||
| |||||||||
The Arts and Cultural Guide celebrates its 10th Anniversary
Cultural Tourism has grown by leaps and bounds in the past ten years and we are proud to have played a part in this rapidly growing sector of the province. The mission of the Guide has always been to shine the spotlight on BC's unique cultural communities – so when, on March 6th of this year, the Province of BC announced an unprecedented investment of $209 million to support arts and culture across British Columbia – we beamed! At last, the arts and cultural industries of our province are beginning to get the recognition and support they deserve. Along with this year being BC's 150th Birthday, there truly is much to celebrate! Anniversary Edition Features Our 10th Edition of the Arts and Cultural Guide to BC is the most expanded to date, with over 160 pages and more communities than ever before! We are pleased to have BC's Mountain Playground – the Kootenay-Rockies—participating in eight full pages in this Anniversary Guide. We are also pleased to be partnering again with Tourism Vancouver Island to produce the Island's very own 32-page Arts and Cultural Guide.
The 7th Annual BC Cultural Crawl kicks off BC Day
As an arts leader, you are the key to a successful Cultural Crawl in your community. We are working hard to create a comprehensive toolkit to help you plan a successful August crawl and get the word to out local media. Join the over 70 communities who took part last year. Please contact us if you would like to receive a FREE BC Cultural Crawl toolkit. Our 2008 media partners include: channel m, VanNet newspapers, the Vancouver Sun, Roger's Radio BC Group and more.
Explore BC: Tales from Haida Gwaii True Stories from BC's modern-day explorers Last summer my husband and I embarked on our very first trip to the Queen Charlotte Islands. We are both believers that it is not only the natural beauty, but the unique history and culture of our province that make BC such a treasure to explore. DAYS 1 & 2: We rode the ferry to Nanaimo and headed up the coast through Parksville and Qualicum Beach stopping for a delightful lunch at the Kingfisher Inn and Spa which gave us the sustenance we needed for the hard drive up to Port Hardy. We boarded the Northern Adventurer out of Port Hardy bound for Prince Rupert at 7:30 AM the following day. It was a spectacular all-day sailing with an arrival time of 11 PM in Prince Rupert. DAYS 3 & 4: We spent some time in small and
funky Cow Bay enjoying the galleries, small eateries and the
Museum
of Northern BC before taking a float plane to Massett on the Queen
Charlottes. Upon
DAY 5: We took a
Moresby Island Explorers tour
for a day long zodiac adventure around Princess Louise Island. The
highlight was visiting the village of Skidans, an abandoned Haida
village which used to house some 500 people. We approached the Skidans
site from the water onto a gently arching beach, about 250 meters in
length, where a number of totems in varying stages of uprightness stood.
They were slowly decaying into the earth from which they came, close to
100 years ago.
DAY 6: We visited the
Haida
Gwaii Museum, only 5
minutes from the ferry terminal in Skidgate. The museum is
comprised of modern long houses along a sandy white beach facing Hecate
Straight. The museum was 85% complete on our visit and is to officially
opened this Spring, 2008. The long houses
Days 7-11: We returned by float plane to Prince
Rupert with stunning views of Rose Spit separating Hecate Straight from
Dixon Entrance with the long arc of North Beach sliding by. We drove up
the Skeena River through Terrace to New Hazelton where a
guide took us through the Ksan longhouses. Inside each was an audio-visual
display giving us a very real feeling of village life. The smell of cedar
---- C&T Kmiec, New Westminster, BC
421 Richmond Street, New Westminster, BC V3L 4C4 Canada
| |||||||||
This month the
Guide goes Virtual! In addition to the
printed guide, art enthusiasts can now 'turn the pages' of the Arts and
Cultural Guide pages from the comfort of their own home. This means more
guide accessibility, exposure to your business and less waste.
The BC Cultural Crawl took home the
'Best Marketing
Campaign' award at the 2008 Tourism British Columbia Awards.
arrival
we rented a car and drove to Old Massett where we discovered an
amazing Gallery gift shop beside a burned out long-house belonging to the
artist. Continuing on towards Charlotte City we passed through Tlell
– this was when we knew we were in the Queen Charlottes! The views
along the coast were magnificent. We made a number of stops at artist
studios and galleries we discovered along the coast. There was no need for
appointments here! People were happy to have us stop in and share their
unique artworks with us.
are
made of metal and glass with traditional cedar beams: a splendid blending
of old and new. Facing the water are 6 totem poles carrying images of
ravens, eagles, bears, killer whales, frogs and mythical creatures that
have the appearance of being frozen in the light of day. One almost
expects them to climb down off their poles in the night to roam the earth,
only to be caught again immobile in the light of the dawn. You can easily
spend a day at the Museum. One of the long houses was the Performing House
which up on entering gave us the feeling of what the long houses at Skidans
must have been like. The performing house had the traditional two beam
structure with a sunken tiered seating area around a fire pit. Here around
the fire the Haida shared the events of their day. After visiting the
serene yet somewhat devoid site of the Skidans, the Museum with its long
houses filled with artifacts and Haida crafts people demonstrating their
skills enabled us, in some small way, to imagine ourselves in the Haida
culture. Understanding the Haida Gwaii no longer seemed so distant to us,
visitors from hectic Vancouver!
smoke
and the warmth of the fire was very welcoming as were the natives. After a
return cruise on the Northern Adventurer we were back in Port Hardy and
soon on our way to the
