 The PCAC newsletter is published and emailed to members on a Monday every two weeks starting September to the end of May with a break during the Christmas season. It is normally published here on the weekend following its being emailed. NOTE: A reminder that you must be in HTML mode to have the underlined links work in this email. In Outlook under Format Text  Monday, March 17, 2025 Dear members: Happy St. Patrick's Day! You'll be happy that spring officially arrives this Thursday, March 20. However, if you are concerned that the Peachland Art Gallery may be permanently shut down on April 1, no worries: the newsletter comes out the day before, so no April fools joke this year and no loss of disgruntled members. Following an all-female Open MIC on International Women's Day last Saturday, there will be another Open MIC next week on Thursday, March 27, at 7:00 pm in Our SPACE. This time, it will feature both women and men on piano, guitar, and flute, as well as vocals and comedy. Each Open MIC is different and open to newcomers inspired by the moment. Yes, this is Peachland offering a high-calibre musical experience! There will be live entertainment with a grand piano, a new sound system, and refreshments! The cover charge at the door is $5 for members, $7 for non-members, and free for under 12 and performers. All are welcome! If you would like to offer your particular talent for future performances (whatever it might be), you can contact Paula McLaughlin at [email protected] You'll be delighted to learn that our friends from the Kelowna Community Music School will be visiting us once again on Saturday, April 5, at 5 pm, while on their way to a concert in Penticton, thus providing us with our annual Intimate Spring Ensemble Concert. Music instructors at the school, Ashley Kroecher (viola), Martin Kratky (cello), and Sandra Wilmot (violin), who are also players for the Okanagan Symphony Orchestra, will play alongside their students Lenna Barbaza (violin), William Li (violin), Henry Barbaza (cello), Ben Barbaza (cello) and Nicholas Covaser (violin, viola, double bass). The Barbaza family players are becoming regular visitors to our annual concerts! The ensemble will play works from Boccherini, Kreisler, Cassado and Handel. The concert will be followed by an optional dinner at 6:30 pm at the Blind Angler Restaurant. A three-choice menu is available online at the above link. The concert only is $20 for members and $25 for non-members; the dinner and concert is $70 including salad, tip and tax. We hope to see a good crowd at this popular event! The concert will be held in the new venue of Our SPACE, which has great acoustics and a grand piano. Book your seats early! There are still some spaces left for Jim Elwood's Acrylic Drawing with Paint Workshop to be held April 5 from 10 am to 2 pm, during which he will instruct how to draw on canvas with paint. Elwood has years of experience as an art instructor and if you're at the intermediate stage of your creativity this is the best moment to expand your skills. Click on the link now to enroll! Currently showing at the Summerland Art Gallery is a photographic exhibition, Wonder in the Mundane, featuring the fine art photography of PCAC member, Nicole Hunziker-Basler. Originally from Switizerland, Hunziker-Basler moved to Summerland, BC, after finishing her MSc in Biology. Though primarily self-taught, she has taken workshops with professional photographers and now runs a professional photography business. You will have seen her work many times in our Captured Images exhibitions, twice at the Lake Country Artwalk, and more recently, Hunziker-Basler was awarded 3 silver and 2 bronze medals for her landscape photography in the prestigious International Imaging Competition (IIC) by Master Photographers International (MPI). Her artwork can be purchased through her website Photography by Nicole Hunziker-Basler. The Crossing Creek Community Theatre will hold an open workshop, "Love Your Voice," taught by Artistic Director Leanne Reimer, from 1 to 4 pm at the Powers Creek Community Church, Lower Level, 3718 Glenway Road, West Kelowna. This will enable you to develop your acting skills and be part of an exciting performance adventure. Registration is limited to 25 students, so register today. The workshop will be followed by auditions at 4:30 pm for their upcoming 2025 Summer play "Tooth and Tail" by Elizabeth A.M. Keel. The comedy is "a fantasy story of a deep friendship sent awry by jealousy, selfishness, and misunderstanding. Magic spells, pirates, witches, dragons, sock monsters, and broken curses bring this epic comedy to life." To register for the workshop or auditions, or for more information about either, email: [email protected]. Opera Kelowna will be presenting Voices in Bloom, a concert by Canada's next generation of opera singers, at the Rotary Centre for the Arts at 7:30 pm on April 12. The concert is supported by The Colin & Lois Pritchard Foundation, and the proceeds will likewise support the Valley Opera Summer Intensive (VOSI) emerging artist programme as well as the UBC Vancouver Opera Department. The concert features Vancouver UBC opera students and Alumni in Concert, who will perform arias and ensembles accompanied by Wenwen Du on piano. They will be co-hosted by Nancy Hermiston, Director of the UBC Opera program, and Rosemary Thomson, Artistic Director of Opera Kelowna. The audience will be presented with favourites from great operatic hits of Mozart, Puccini, and Verdi to the operetta bonbons of Franz Lehar and Johann Strauss. Hmmmm ..... sounds like an enjoyable evening of outstanding operatic music! On Friday, March 28, from 6 to 7 pm, the Alternator Centre for Contemporary Art will hold a Triple Exhibition Reception, free and open to the public. Light snacks and refreshments will be provided. You are asked to please register for the event here. The Main Gallery will exhibit The Guest Book, a rotating exhibit showcasing the works of various alumni of SAR at a time. Emily Geen's interactive exhibition, Generation in the Project Gallery, reflects a living room that invites you to sit on an inflatable plastic couch and flip through a family album of snapshots. Crafts such as cross stitching, once passed on from mother to daughter, that took patience and time to construct, are now transmitted through computer technology. How much the world has changed! A third exhibition, Manner(isms), a meal, is offered by AKB, a biracial Cree writer and strategist, born and raised in the Sylix Okanagan nation. The exhibitions run Tuesdays to Fridays 11 am to 6 pm, and Saturdays 11 am to 4 pm until Friday, May 9. I'm going to mention this now (although it may seem early) because tickets are going fast for Singing in the Rain at the Kelowna Actors Studio. Most of us oldies will remember Don (Gene Kelly) in the early 50s swinging around that lamppost in the rain with his umbrella, clearly in love with Kathy (Debbie Reynolds). That was one of the greatest Hollywood musicals, and now you can see it live on stage. Performances run from April 23 to May 11, with evening performances Wednesdays to Sundays at 7:30 pm with a 6 pm dinner seating and Saturday matinees at 1 pm. Book now. The next Kelowna Film Society film on Wednesday, April 2, at 4 pm and 7 pm at the Orchard Plaza Cinema will be Last Summer, a French film with English subtitles. Anne, a lawyer specializing in sexual violence against minors, herself, becomes involved with her husband's 17-year-old son from a previous marriage, who moves in with them. By doing so, she jeopardizes her career and the loss of her family, leading to a destructive relationship. Speaking of This Summer - for now, let it snow - but rain preferred to keep the summer fires at bay! Spirits up! Chris Christopher Byrd PCAC Director / Peachland Art Gallery Facebook Photographer: Fine Arts America NB: Should you wish to unsubscribe from the newsletter and bulletins please send an email to cjbyrd@telus.net       |