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Cultural Arts Society chooses 2020 board

Chemainus Valley Cultural Arts Society board members: (back row) Steve Hughes, Director; Peggy Grigor, Past Chair; Tom Farnsworth, Director; Bev Knight, Chair; (seated) Chrissy Kemppi, Secretary; Craig Harris, Membership Committee Chair; Joan Roberts, Treasurer; Kathy Wachs, Director. Not in photo: Mark Kiemele, Director; Val Bob, Director; Connie Crocker, Director.
Chemainus Valley Cultural Arts Society chooses new board
Members of the Chemainus Valley Cultural Arts Society voted in a board for the coming year at their Annual General Meeting, February 27 at the Royal Canadian Legion hall.

Bev Knight will remain as Chair; Peggy Grigor as Past Chair;  Chrissy Kemppi, Secretary; Joan Roberts, Treasurer; Craig Harris, Membership Committee Chair. Directors are: Kathy Wachs, Tom Farnsworth, Val Bob, Mark Kiemele, Connie Crocker, and Steve Hughes.

Knight said 2019 was a banner year for the society. Its visual arts program, organized through the Rainforest Arts gallery, was an ‘outstanding success’, “Rainforest Arts represents over 60 local artists in all mediums.”

A busy year of musical performances and events was conducted at the bandshell in Waterwheel Park; Pat’s House of Jazz at the Osborne Bay Pub in Crofton, and at the Legion hall. “Last year was just so successful,” Knight said. “We’re thrilled with the amount of people that came to all the concerts – Tuesday nights (at the bandshell) were exceptional.”

Knight also highlighted Aboriginal Day, June 21, which was produced by Director Val Bob. “There were dancers, musicians, story-tellers, and good food.”

The board is hoping for continued success in 2020, and a $22,000 operating grant from the BC Arts Council – the first such grant to have been awarded the CVCAS – will help the society bring even more programs and cultural entertainment to the community.

Knight thanked local and cultural sponsors who have contributed to the organization, including: the BC Arts Council, First Peoples Health, the Cowichan Valley Regional District, the Chemainus Business Improvement Association, The Royal Canadian Legion – Branch 191, the Coastal Community Credit Union, and the Lions Club.

“And the businesses in town were just phenomenal,” she added.

You can find out more about the Chemainus Valley Cultural Arts Society and its events and programs at cvcas.com. Go to cvcas.com/membership/ to find out how you can join, donate or get involved.
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From Land and Sea, Vancouver Island inspires

Pinned to a cork board on the wall of Linda Yurgensen’s studio is a photo of her and her father painting together during a recent trip she took back to her home province, Nova Scotia. It’s a reminder of her very first inclination to translate reality into a representative vision through art.

Retired now, Allen Horne was a pipe fitter and plumber during working hours; father to six children, and an avid hunter and painter when time permitted. He first inspired his daughter to pick up pencil and brush.

“I grew up watching my father paint, he painted part time – never really showing his work anywhere,” she recalled. She remembers sketching, and occasionally asking if she could use some of his paint in her own works.

But after she entered her teens, the love of painting went dormant in Yurgensen for many years. “I did it up to a certain age, until I was maybe 13 or 14, and then I kind-of forgot about it,” she said.

She married, worked, raised a family and moved – in 1992 – to the Cobble Hill home, where she and her husband Eric still live. “For years and years it didn’t really occur to me to pick up a paintbrush,” she said. Not, in fact, until 10 or 12 years ago, a hiatus of about three decades, did she set brush to canvas again.

Once again, her dad helped her get going. “My father kind of encouraged me,” she recounted. “He sent me a book for Christmas one year, Painting with Pastels, and that’s how I first started, pastels.”

Since then, she’s been making up for lost time in the narrow studio, which looks suspiciously like a converted front porch, where she works. The urge to paint has become “an overwhelming desire to do something creative,” she said. What inspires her now are the forests, landscapes and seascapes of her Vancouver Island home… and always colour, vibrant hues of reflected sunlight.

“I just did it for the enjoyment of it, basically. And I noticed as I was doing it my work was getting better,” she said. 

She took one course in watercolours, tried pastels, went on to acrylics, but gravitated to oils as her preferred medium. “Oil is my love,” she said. “I really love oil, probably won’t ever leave oil.” Although she’s self-taught and paints by her own light, Yurgensen does admire The Group of Seven, and some of her work is reminiscent of Canada’s most famous artistic movement.

And like the Group of Seven, her work is deeply evocative of place, of Vancouver Island. We do get plenty of cloudy, rain-sodden days here, but Yurgensen sees and portrays them as anything but drab. “When I look at a foggy day, even, I’m not seeing grey, I’ll see purple and blue.” 

She wants viewers to experience her new homeland’s contours, shapes and hues through her art. “I’m hoping they see the West Coast as I do, not as a drab place, but the beautiful, green, lush, colourful rainforest, which is Vancouver Island,” she said. “Before I came I had no idea that this was here, now I’m never going to leave.”

To achieve the feel she wants, Yurgensen starts with a primed canvas, colours that with a primary colour, ‘something bright’ in acrylic. Then she paints her scene on, again in acrylic. “When that’s all dry,” she said, “I go in with my oils, but I don’t layer, I just lay the colours side-by-side, so you get an optical illusion when you look at it. It’s not blended.”

The artist’s life isn’t easy. Getting your work into galleries is hard, and when the work is rejected, it’s hard not to question why. “You wonder, it it the art, or is it just not the right time?” You have to push through and keep going. “I would say, just keep doing what you love, and eventually, others are going to love it too,” Yurgensen said.

Linda Yurgensen will be featured artist January 6 through February at Rainforest Arts, 9781 Willow Street in Chemainus, open from 11 am to 4 pm daily. She will be hosting an art demo Saturday, Jan. 18 from 2 to 4pm at the gallery.

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An Artful Christmas at Rainforest Arts

What is it you look for in a Christmas present?

Of course, you want something unique, something that will delight and surprise, and in that department, few presents top original art. So, with more than fifty artists displaying paintings, sculpture, jewelry, pottery and more at Rainforest Arts, it’s a great place to find gifts that will add a bright touch to someone’s home and holiday.

There will be an even greater choice of original art to enjoy and buy this season. A special floor-to-ceiling salon style exhibition, opened in early November, bringing in an expanded selection of locally produced works. And if you aren’t sure what might suit the tastes of friends or loved ones, you can always give them a gift certificate, knowing there’ll be a terrific selection for them to browse.

Many of the artists showing at the gallery are from the Chemainus area, so their works often touch on local themes and scenes. And since Rainforest Arts is a non-profit, run by volunteers on behalf of the Chemainus Valley Cultural Arts Society, when you buy a Christmas gift, you’ll be making a contribution to the arts and artists in your community.

Rainforest has an excellent selection for every budget. From art greeting cards, and colorful accessories, to large format prints and original art, you’ll find something memorable to put under the tree.

As a bonus, November and December shoppers will have a chance at something extra-special: with every purchase, they can enter their names to win a basket packed with art gifts valued at hundreds of dollars, donated by Rainforest’s artists. The draw for prizes will take place in late December, in time for you to add a few extras to your gift list… or give yourself a fantastic present.

The friendly volunteers at Rainforest Arts are always happy to answer questions and show shoppers around. So, when you’re making your list, and checking it twice, be sure to visit Rainforest Arts this holiday season. You’re sure to discover some great ideas and see some wonderful art.

Find out more at RainforestArts.ca

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CitizenX: Arts & Culture

I have to put a disclaimer on top of this post, because I’m a writer and my partner Diana Durrand is an artist. So, if what follows seems slanted, all I have to say is: It’s about bloody time somebody slanted things in favour of Canada’s artists, who have been, for a long time, at the wrong end of a very long table, where everyone else gets served first… CS

Citizen X is Mid-Island Focus’s survey of issues heading into the Oct. 21 Canadian Federal Election. MiF is providing background  and asking questions a typical voter might ask.

Painters, musicians, dancers, writers, actors – all those captured under the term ‘artists’ in its broadest sense – have much to be grateful for. The federal government’s contribution to the Canada Council for the Arts has been increasing incrementally, with the goal of growing the CC’s ‘investments in the arts’ to $310 million annually as part of its five-year strategic plan – that’s a doubling of funding for artists and arts organizations by 2021.

As part of that plan, the Canada Council has ‘drastically’ simplified programs and lightened ‘administrative processes’ so it will be able to channel ’88% of the federal government’s $550 million over five years directly into the arts sector.’

A bit of redistribution is taking place, too. New recipients will be eligible for 25% of the funding, indigenous peoples’ art funding will be tripled, and $88.5 million will be channeled into initiatives to ‘increase the quality, range and sharing of art through digital’ means.

A lot of thought has gone into realigning priorities at Canada’s go-to national funding organization for Arts & Culture with the creative challenges and opportunities of the times. So would the arts community be pulling an Oliver Twist by begging “Please Sir, I want some more?”

Let’s look at the picture from a different perspective:

  • $310 million is less than one tenth of one percent of the $355.6 billion 2019 federal budget;
  • In an era of rapid technological and social change, it is increasingly difficult for individual artists to innovate and make a living;
  • The world needs creative visions and challenging portrayals from outside the mainstream now more than ever.

So, on the one hand, it can be argued that significant increases in arts funding have been put on the table; on the other, a case can be made for continued and increased investments, if we want to sustain a vibrant, stimulating arts sector.

Another area where the federal government could make a significant difference is amendments to the Canadian Copyright Act, which is currently under review. This is an incredibly complex and contentious process, but one thing is clear: artists – particularly literary and visual artists – do not feel well-served by the current Act.

One idea that has been proposed is secondary royalties for artists on resale of copyrighted works. Books, for instance, are resold much faster these days than was ever the case a quarter century ago. Online resellers like Amazon are flogging used copies of recent releases before the appies have been digested at the official book launch.

Writers do not receive royalties on those resales, but the of new books is almost certainly dampened when used copies flood the online shelves before the bloom is off.

Painters and other visual artists often have to sell their works at less than subsistence rates when they are unknown, only to see the same works sell at inflated values after the artists have achieved recognition. A secondary royalty on resale would ameliorate that situation.

Nothing’s ever simple when it comes to the arts economy in general, copyright in particular, but…

CitizenX would like to know:

  • Would your party likely reduce, maintain or seek to improve Arts & Cultural funding during its mandate? How?
  • Do you and your party believe mechanisms have to be considered to ensure artists are fairly compensated for their work?
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Please Take a Seat

There’s really no such thing as an empty chair.

That’s the conclusion you come to, looking at the evocative pictures Daphne and Art Carlyle have taken over the last 15 to 20 years of chairs outside cafés, in shopping malls, nailed to forest trees, in marble porticos, in just about every conceivable setting or configuration.

Funny thing is, there’s not a single person in any of the pictures hanging at Rainforest Arts, where they are featured in September and October. Rather, the chairs inviteyouto take a seat. But they’re photos, so you can’t step inside the scenes and sit yourself down, the only way to get there is through the portals of imagination.

Viewers are invited to turn themselves around and look out of the photos, instead of in. “I hope that they would look at the chairs, and imagine themselves being in that chair, in that location,” Daphne said. You can even bring a companion along and place them on the other side of the table. “Somebody special, or perhaps just a friend.”

“Any chair has an appeal to it, and there’s a temptation or an invitation to sit,” Art said. “So, a quaint table and chairs at a coffee shop is an invitation to sit and chat or take a moment, take a special moment.”

Part of that special moment is the chairs themselves, how our bodies conform to their shapes, how their curves and colours appeal to the eye. There’s an elegance and functionality to chairs that make them works of art in their own right, and capturing that essence is one of the objectives of Please, Take a Seat.

“I think it’s important to acknowledge the designers and the craftsmen, who make the chairs,” Art said. “Our role is to use our creative skills and technical skills to interpret that. I don’t think anyone who looks at the show is going to quite be able to view chairs the same again.”

So, consider yourself invited to Please, Take a Seat, during their exhibit at Rainforest Arts. The gallery is at 9781 Willow Street in Chemainus. It’s open from 11 am to 4 pm daily. On Sept. 14 Daphne and Art will be at the gallery all day for their opening (refreshments will be available). More information at RainforestArts.ca. You can also email info@rainforestarts.ca, or phone 250-0246-4861.

CraigSpenceWriter.ca

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Citizen X: Health Care

Citizen X is Mid-Island Focus’s survey of issues heading into the Oct. 21 Canadian Federal Election. MiF is providing background  and asking questions a typical voter might ask.

If we want to judge the efficacy of Canada’s Medicare system, a comparison of a few fairly recent indicators from above and below the 49th parallel gives pause for thought. Here’s some relevant stats from a Healthcare in Canada article in Wikipedia:

In 2015, life expectancy in Canada was 82.2 years, in the US 79.3; under five mortality rate per 1,000 live births, 4.9 vs 6.5 (2016); maternal mortality rate per 100,000 live births, 7.3 vs 26.4 (2015); physicians per 1,000 people, the same at 2.6 (2013); nurses per 1,000 people 9,5 vs 11.1 (2013); per capita expenditure on health, $4,735 vs $9,892 (2016); healthcare costs as a percentage of GDP, 10.1% vs 17.2% (2016); percentage of government revenue spent on health, 18.1% vs 21.3 (2014)%; percentage of health costs paid by government, 70.3% vs 49.1% (2016).

Canadians strongly prefer their health care system to what is offered in the United States, but polls also show we are not satisfied with the level of service being offered.

A 2016 study by the U.S. based Commonwealth Fund (also cited on Wikipedia) found that Canada’s wait times for all categories of services rank either at the bottom or second to the bottom out of the group of eleven surveyed countries (Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and the United States).

Canada’s wait time on emergency services is the longest among the eleven nations, with 29% of Canadians reporting that they waited for more than four hours the last time they went to an emergency department. Canada also has the longest wait time for specialist appointments, with 56% of all Canadians waiting for over four weeks.

Canada ranks last on all but one of the other wait time categories, including same or next-day appointments, same-day answers from doctors, and elective surgeries. Canada ranked second to last for access to after-hour care. The study noted that Canada’s wait time improvements have been negligible over the last decade, despite government investments .

Another gripe about the cost of medical care in Canada is the largely unsupported cost of prescription drugs. The final report of the advisory council on the implementation of national pharmacare, titled, A Prescription for Canada: Achieving Pharmacare for all says:

“Canadians spent $34 billion on prescription medicines in 2018. Drugs are the second biggest expenditure in health care, after hospitals. We spend even more on drugs than on doctors. On a per capita basis, only the United States and Switzerland pay more for prescription drugs.

“Yet for all that spending, there are huge gaps in coverage. One in five Canadians struggle to pay for their prescription medicines. Three million don’t fill their prescriptions because they can’t afford to. One million Canadians cut spending on food and heat to be able to afford their medicine. Many take out loans, even mortgage their homes. Sadly, far too many Canadians die prematurely or endure terrible suffering, illness or poor quality of life because modern medicines are out of reach for them.”

The report notes that Canada is the only county in the world with a universal health care plan that does not also provide universal coverage for prescription drugs. That renders the health care system in Canada ‘critically flawed’ says the advisory council report.

It recommends Ottawa work with provincial and territorial governments and stakeholders – who deliver health care – to establish universal, single-payer, public pharmacare in Canada that is:

  • Universal: all residents of Canada should have equal access to a national pharmacare system;
  • Comprehensive: pharmacare should provide a broad range of safe, effective, evidence-based treatments;
  • Accessible: access to prescription drugs should be based on medical need, not ability to pay;
  • Portable: pharmacare benefits should be portable across provinces and territories when people travel or move; and
  • Public: a national pharmacare system should be both publicly funded and administered.

Citizen X would like to know:

  • Do you think the federal government, through the Canada Health Act, is doing enough to make health care affordable and accessible to all Canadians?
  • If your party forms government, what measures would be taken to improve health care for Canadians?
  • Do you and your party support recommendations contained in the final report of the advisory council on the implementation of national pharmacare?

 

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What we’ve asked the candidates

Below is a listing of all questions CitizenX has asked of Cowichan-Malahat-Langford candidates in the Oct. 21 Canadian federal election so far. The questions are grouped under links to the original background posting.

The Q&A tally to date: 12 questions asked / 0 answered

Foreign Affairs Questions posted August 13 – No responses

  • What are the main foreign affairs issues are heading into 2020?
  • How Canada should position itself in the global context?
  • How Canada should respond to immediate challenges?

Poverty & Homelessness Questions posted August 22 – No responses

  • What would your party’s strategy be with regard to homelessness and poverty, if you formed government?
  • Do you believe the widening income gap is contributing to poverty and homelessness in Canada?
  • If so, what measures would you take to restore healthy income balance?

First Nations & Reconciliation Questions posted August 23 – No responses

  • What efforts will your party, and you personally, be making in response to the 94 calls to action contained in the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s 2015 report?

Health Care Questions posted August 25 – No responses

  • Do you think the federal government, through the Canada Health Act, is doing enough to make health care affordable and accessible to all Canadians?
  • If your party forms government, what measures would be taken to improve health care for Canadians?
  • Do you and your party support recommendations contained in the final report of the advisory council on the implementation of national pharmacare?

Arts & Culture Questions posted August 29 – No responses

  • Would your party likely reduce, maintain or seek to improve Arts & Cultural funding during its mandate? How?
  • Do you and your party believe mechanisms have to be considered to ensure artists are fairly compensated for their work?
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CitizenX: First Nations & Reconciliation

Citizen X is Mid-Island Focus’s survey of issues heading into the Oct. 21 Canadian Federal Election. MiF is providing background  and asking questions a typical voter might ask.

As long as reconciliation is just something we read about in the news or watch on TV – and we’ve been doing that way too long – we are not going to achieve the goals set out in the 94 calls to action contained in the Dec. 15, 2015 Truth And Reconciliation Commission report.

Reconciliation is a national priority which, more than any other, has to be taken personally, because if we don’t personally commit to addressing the consequences of a genocide that occurred within living memory, and the ongoing effects of continuing colonialism, we have to accept the blame that is our national heritage.

Are those harsh words? Not nearly so harsh as the reality lived by hundreds of thousands of First Nations people in Canada, be it on their traditional lands, or in the cities that have been built on their traditional lands.

Most of us would agree now that European ‘discovery’ and settlement of North America wasn’t the expansion of a progressive civilization into unoccupied, unproductive lands; it was an invasion of territories that had been inhabited and adroitly lived on by indigenous peoples for thousands of years. In BC the onslaught commenced in earnest less than 200 years ago – that’s in the space of three lifetimes.

We have to know where, on the spectrum, our political representatives stand when it comes to truth and reconciliation. Do they believe we, as a nation, have an obligation to assist First Nations rebuilding their communities and economies in the 21st Century, based on the strengths of evolving and adapting indigenous cultures?

Do our political representatives agree that: the appropriation of First Nations lands; the sequestering of hunting and gathering peoples onto reserves; the decimation of First Nations populations by European diseases; the denial of First Nations citizens of their democratic rights; the outlawing of First Nations cultural practices; the attempted genocide of the residential schools system… and so on, confer an obligation on the nation?

Again, most would go at least that far. But reconciliation isn’t only about deal-making. That’s just a start. It’s about healing, too. And that’s where things get personal. Friendship isn’t something proclaimed in an official document; it’s a feeling of mutual respect, curiosity, trust and concern shared face to face. Until we can look one another in the eye, and see relationships that go way beyond anything you could put into a contract, reconciliation will not be fully achieved.

So:

  • What efforts will your party, and you personally, be making in response to the 94 calls to action contained in the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s 2015 report?
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Citizen X: Poverty & Homelessness

Citizen X is Mid-Island Focus’s survey of issues heading into the Oct. 21 Canadian Federal Election. MiF is providing background  and asking questions a typical voter might ask.

Homelessness and poverty are issues that gnaw away at the public conscience. So I have to ask: Are there countries that take necessary steps to ensure no-one is forced to live on the streets, and families have enough to feed, clothe and educate their children?

A quick check reveals that Canada might be doing better than most – including the world’s affluent nations – when it comes to preventing homelessness. According to a 2015 Habitat for Humanity listing, Canada had a homeless ratio of .09% in 2013. The United States was higher on the spectrum, with a ratio of .17% in 2017. Even countries we tend to think of as socially progressive, like Sweden and Denmark had more homelessness per capita than Canada in the Habitat survey.

Is better good enough, though? According to the Homelessness Hub, a 2016 State of Homelessness in Canada report estimated that 235,000 Canadians experience homelessness in a given year – and that figure might be lowball, because many ‘unhoused’ people couch surf, and don’t show up in the official count.

Be sure to check out the Myths & Questions about homelessness link to get a quick grasp of who the homeless are. In short they are not a bunch of shiftless, lazy, drug addicted misfits; they are simply people without a secure place to live.

Poverty was a reality for one in seven Canadians, that’s 4.9 million people according to Canada Without Poverty. But to understand who’s affected, you have to break down that raw statistic:

  • 1.3 million children live in poverty, that’s one in five;
  • People with mental or physical disabilities are twice as likely to live in poverty;
  • 21% of single mothers raise their children in poverty;
  • Indigenous people – 4.9% of the population – represent 29 to 34% of shelter users in Canada; 40% of indigenous children in Canada live in poverty
  • About 20% of ‘racialized families’ live in poverty, compared to a national ratio of 1 in 20.

It seems obvious to say that income distribution is a key factor when it comes to homelessness and poverty. What needs to be highlighted, however, is that overall wealth is increasing in Canada; but the rich are getting vastly richer while the poor are getting desperately poorer.

In 2012, according to a video produced by the Broadbent Institute, the richest 20% of Canadians owned nearly 70% of the nation’s wealth; wealth of the poorest 20% ‘barely registers’ on the Institute’s chart, at less than 1%; the bottom 50% of Canadians owned less than 6% of the country’s wealth.

“Canada is now a place where the richest 86 families own more than the bottom 11 million people combined,” concludes the video.

So with that information in front of us, Citizen X would like to know:

  • What would your party’s strategy be with regard to homelessness and poverty, if you formed government?
  • Do you believe the widening income gap is contributing to poverty and homelessness in Canada?
  • If so, what measures would you take to restore healthy income balance?

 

 

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Citizen X: The world seems to be an increasingly dangerous place

Citizen X is Mid-Island Focus’s survey of issues heading into the Oct. 21 Canadian Federal Election. MiF is providing background  and asking questions a typical voter might ask

Cancellation of the Nuclear Proliferation treaty; Russian probings of North American air-space; Canadians arrested in China as retaliation for Canada abiding by the terms of an extradition treaty with the USA; North Korea’s continued belligerence and development of nuclear capabilities; an intensifying trade war between the US and China; Russian interference in the 2016 US election…

It seems global tensions are ratcheting up, and Canada is caught between the muscling and jousting of superpowers. Are we a proxy in a much bigger game? If so, what is the best strategy for Canada in the coming three to five years and longer?

Should we double-down on our alliance with the US – by doing things like updating NORAD ( North American Aerospace Defence Command) and beefing up our military? Are we prepared for the punitive retribution if Huawei Chief Financial Officer Meng Wanzhou is extradited to the US? Will Canada join other members of the ‘Five-Eyes’ alliance, and ban Huawei from participating in development of this country’s 5G network? What kind of leverage would a path of closer ties to the United States give President Donald Trump?

Citizen X would like to know:

  • What are the main foreign affairs issues are heading into 2020?
  • How Canada should position itself in the global context?
  • How Canada should respond to immediate challenges?

What do you think? Are these the right questions?