Metro Vancouver Release BC Culture Days 2024
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Sept. 4, 2024
Celebrate 15 Years of Culture Days Through a Vibrant Showcase of Community Arts and Activities in Metro Vancouver
The countrywide network of free and Pay-What-You-May arts, culture, and heritage events returns for three weeks this fall, offering activities in Vancouver, North Vancouver, West Vancouver, Richmond, Surrey, Burnaby, Delta, New Westminster, the Tri-Cities, Langley, Fort Langley, Maple Ridge, Pitt Meadows, and White Rock
VANCOUVER, B.C. – This fall, Culture Days is back with vibrant energy from Sept. 20 to Oct. 13, 2024, featuring a lineup of over 250 free and Pay-What-You-May music events, arts workshops, open studios, exhibitions, plus more across Metro Vancouver. Now celebrating 15 years, Culture Days continues to make art, creativity, and culture accessible to everyone across Canada. Participants can now plan ahead using new, easy-to-use web tools, browse and pre-register for activities, set reminders, and bookmark favourites. Discover more at Culturedays.ca/bc and follow @BCCultureDays on social media for more information.
For three weeks communities in Vancouver, North Vancouver, West Vancouver, Richmond, Surrey, Burnaby, Delta, New Westminster, the Tri-Cities, Langley, Fort Langley, Maple Ridge, Pitt Meadows, and White Rock will be able to connect with local arts and cultural groups, arts councils, creators, artisans, and businesses through Culture Days’ hands-on and interactive activities.
An exciting new theme for BC Culture Days’ 2024 programming is ‘Intercultural Celebration’—offering various arts activities for people across the province that explore creative connections between cultures. These events aim to uplift individuals, asking them to come together to share, learn, imagine, and explore.
To highlight the ‘Intercultural Celebration’ theme, BC Culture Days is working in collaboration with the Moberly Arts & Cultural Centre to host a hub of events in South Vancouver named Intercultural Happenings at the Moberly, with free events from Polymer Dance, Echo Park Film Centre, the African Friendship Society, and South Vancouver Neighbourhood House. The hub will also feature a culinary workshop series in partnership with Vancouver Poetry House, Kickstart Disability Arts and Culture, and Vancouver Outsider Arts Festival called Poems from the Kitchen, which explores the social significance of food across diverse cultures.
“Poems from the Kitchen workshops will feature chefs and home cooks from diverse communities. Each demonstration will feature a spoken word presentation by a B.C.-based poet, speaking to different aspects of community, identity, culture, ability, and inclusion,” says Vancouver Poetry House Artist Director and Poems from the Kitchen facilitator, Johnny Trinh. “Participants will experience culture in different ways, as well as learn about new foods and traditions that are perhaps unfamiliar to them.” Each workshop is open to 20 participants and interested attendees can pre-register on the Culture Days website.
Also featuring the theme of ‘Intercultural Celebration’ is the 2024 BC Culture Days Ambassador Series Intercultural Interplay. Participants attending events from this series will have the opportunity to discover and honour cultural differences and shared experiences together, learn about each other's individual and collective histories, and create valuable community connections. Metro Vancouver will be host to two Intercultural Interplay events, one a free-to-attend storytelling and scrapbooking event presented by storyteller, activist, and visual artist Jesse Medrano-Ramos (Vancouver), and another musical composition workshop inviting participants to create a graphic score, presented by double bassist, composer, and music educator Harmeet Kaur Virdee (Surrey).
Culture Days raises awareness, accessibility, and participation in arts and culture across Canada. Organizations and artists in B.C. are encouraged to register their free, interactive events for Sept. 20 to Oct. 13, 2024 on the Culture Days website. Anyone—from grassroots community volunteers, public libraries, and independent artists, to major arts, culture, and heritage institutions, specialty festivals, and municipalities—can register Culture Days events as long as the events are participatory and free or Pay-What-You-May to attend. Event registration is open until Sept. 19, 2024 at 8:59 p.m. PT.
For more information on how to take part in BC Culture Days, sign up for the BC Culture Days newsletter or visit culturedays.ca/bc. Visit CultureDays.ca/events for all the event listings in the province. For updates on BC Culture Days and the BC Culture Days artist ambassadors, please follow BC Culture Days on Facebook, Instagram, X, TikTok, and LinkedIn. Use Hashtags: #BCCultureDays, #CultureDays, and #InterculturalInterplay.
BC Culture Days gratefully acknowledges the generosity of its funders, collaborators, and supporters:
About BC Culture Days (culturedays.ca/en/bc)
BC Culture Days is administered through the Greater Vancouver Society to Bridge Arts and Community (Bridge Society). The Bridge Society became a registered charity in 2002 with a mandate to promote awareness of arts and culture by establishing bridges between the general public, the private sector, arts organizations, and individual artists. Since 2010, Bridge Society staff have worked annually with a volunteer provincial task force, municipalities, and numerous community arts and cultural organizations to coordinate and promote events for the annual Culture Days celebrations in B.C. With a variety of programs including performances, workshops, tours, and panel discussions from a variety of artistic disciplines, Culture Days acts as a promotional platform for creators to showcase thousands of in-person and virtual events across the country.
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For further information, please contact Michael Ianni | 604.345.7689 | [email protected]