If you have an hour or two a week, Columbia Valley (CV) Arts needs your support as a volunteer. Let me tell you a little about who we are and what we do with our mandate too; foster the growth, awareness and appreciation of the arts in the Columbia Valley.
When the annual general meeting of CV Arts is held at Pynelogs on the evening of March 17, 2011, it will be marking 35 years of service to the residents and visitors to the Columbia Valley. From modest beginnings oriented to facilitating communication among local artists it has grown to where it now provides festivals, concerts, films, art tours, workshops and over 15 art exhibitions each year at the beautifully situated Pynelogs Cultural Centre. This year’s opening show, April 7 to 24, will be the 7th annual Art From the Heart featuring the work of over 600 elementary school students. Other shows will feature local artists as well as special theme shows such as the “Wings Over the Rockies” exhibition in conjunction with the Wings Festival in early May and the “Reach” show highlighting art by the students of David Thompson Secondary School.
Our spring concert series opened with the Griffith Hiltz Trio in early February and welcomed the Denis Chang Manouche Project on March 1. This will be followed by a high energy weekend event on March 26 and 27 featuring the Cheesecake Burlesque Revue. Our Cinefest film series continues at Pynelogs on Tuesday, March 8 and Tuesday, April 12. Community Canada Day celebrations on July 1 each year are rolled into the Mountain Mosaic Festival of the Arts, a fun-filled day with lots of activities for children of all ages. Our 4th annual Tour of the Arts on July 31 this year features locations in and around Windermere and Fairmont.
The challenge of course is to keep track of all these opportunities. If you wish to be reminded of upcoming CV Arts events, please call Jami at 250-342-4423. Tell her you want to be added to our contact list and you will get timely emails with details of the events.
None of these activities take place without the dedication and effort of the volunteers on the CV Arts Board of Directors, or one of the event committees. Maybe you would like to get involved. More specifically, we are looking for: creative folks who enjoy planning a party to join our Mountain Mosaic Arts Festival committee; a secretary for our board to take minutes at our meetings (eight to 10 meetings a year); members for our Performing Arts Committee to organize the six to eight concerts/events each year; someone to work with our granting agencies database to seek out funding sources; people with ideas and energy to create new interest in arts and culture.
There are no end to the opportunities, so please take this as an invitation to contact me at 250-342-8392, any of the board members or committee members, or speak to Jami at 250-342-4423. Attend our annual general meetings on March 17 at Pynelogs to hear more about what we do and the dreams and ideas we have, and share some of your own. Take the risk and come join us. Help us make the arts “where it’s at”!