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Archives for 2012

Snake Lantern Debut

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SnakeSlider
More photos by Kamille Manoy here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/ecoartsvancouver/

The 21st December was the winter solstice 2012, the longest darkest night of the year, and the night Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Classical Chinese garden was transformed with hundreds of beautiful lanterns of all shapes and sizes hung in the trees, stationed in the ponds, and guarding hidden alcoves and rock features.

The lanterns are traditionally created into a variety of shapes in the form of animals, insects, flowers, as well as some more adventurous ones including a giant Chinese tea set made fittingly solely from tea bags.  The night was certainly dark and thankfully remained dry which attracted large crowds into the gardens- the final stop on the procession which had started at the Strathcona Community Centre- winding their way around the narrow walkways, admiring the lanterns, stamping cold feet along to the sound of the rousing drums, eating sticky buns and drinking hot Solstice spiced tea.

This night was also of course the debut of the CACV snake lantern, created by the local arts community a couple of weeks before.  The completed lantern was truly a work of art.  Our master lantern creator Jacquie Rolston easily recruited a group of proud, eager children to lead the snake out into gardens, and each gripping onto a bamboo pole attached to the lantern they danced it out of its lair and through the crowds, accompanied by some very realistic snake-like hissing!  It was a fantastic sight, and it attracted a lot of attention from delighted members of the public.

The rest of the Community Arts Vancouver clan were ensconced in a room across the garden encouraging members of the public to contribute to our now traditional white cube lantern.  Children and adults alike got involved cutting pieces of coloured tissue paper into fantastic shapes and sticking them onto the lantern.  It always amazes me how creative people are- we ended up with a beautiful piece of art which has gone on to be hung up in the CACV office- a lasting reminder of the community spirit abound on this night.

Follow the snake from January 14-18 with workshops to create snake sculptures to be installed in the Chinese garden, leading up to the February 17 New Year parade.  More information can be found on our website at www.cacv.ca/snake

Salon

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We’re often asked: “What’s a salon?”

The official definition: A salon is a gathering of people under the roof of an inspiring host, held partly to amuse one another and partly to refine the taste and increase the knowledge of the participants through conversation. These gatherings often consciously followed Horace’s definition of the aims of poetry, “either to please or to educate” (“aut delectare aut prodesse est”). (Wikipedia)

Eco-Arts Poster

The Year Of the Snake- Snake Lantern evening

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The Winter solstice in December 2012 will once again see the Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Classical Chinese Gardens in downtown Vancouver’s Chinatown lit up with 100’s of beautiful lanterns to celebrate the longest, darkest night of the year.  One of these lanterns was created specially this week in an enlightening and creative evening hosted together by the Gardens and the Eco-arts team.

Led by Jacquie Rolston, a gifted lantern maker (who stumbled upon the craft and discovered her passion in a self -confessed roundabout way) we were her motley crew of inspiring poets, animated storytellers, numerous enthusiastic members of the public and volunteers, eager to get started on creating the snake but if anything like me, perhaps creatively challenged and unable to fully envisage how the bare wire and wood frame would materialize into a snake lantern…

Throughout the night the atmosphere was set by some utterly beautiful snake themed poems written and read by local poets Lenore Rowntree and Don Fox as well as a reading of ‘Snake’ by DH Lawrence, which were by turn dark and mysterious, funny, short, philosophical and all in tribute to the Great Snake itself- a creature as legend has it both feared and revered, charming and wise. Lenore had written a poignant poem specifically for this evening based on the Money plant- the luminescent scales of which were being used to decorate the head and tail of the snake.  I was in awe of the touching, lively storytelling performance from Mary Gavan who taught us the value of trust in our friends and fellows, even in a snake..

Towards the end of the evening Jacquie announced that we were ready to see the snake in action, and the excitement in the room was tangible as the cloth was finally lifted onto the wood and wire frame and we could envisage how the Snake will look on the night- and I was struck by not only how alive and vivid it immediately became, but also by the unity in this group of strangers, artists, volunteers, running amok through sacks of donated lace and coloured plastic, gold paper and recycled bottles, sequins and wool, to collectively create such a beautiful thing.

We look forward to watching our great snake begin its journey towards the Chinatown Lunar New year parade. Its first trip out in public will be at the winter solstice Secret Lantern Society lantern night on the 21st December at Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Classical Chinese Garden. We hope to see you there to join in.

Follow the Snake – Feb 8, 10, 17 and beyond…

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Snake in the News

Province http://www.theprovince.com/news/foot+long+sculpture+marks+Year+Snake+Vancouver+garden/7896041/story.html

Westender http://www.wevancouver.com/news/190029651.html

Metro Vancouver cover photo February 8

on Breakfast TV with Dawn Chubai and on Shaw TV

Lunaria snake and artist Jacquie Rolston were interviewed on CBC On the Coast February 8.

Have you sighted our snakes in the media? Please comment below!!

Snake on the Move

Monday Jan 21 Snake slithers along Gore and Keefer from Firehall to Garden.

Follow our flickr account to see photos of the snake lantern as it was constructed and then where it was shown for the Winter Solstice. Artist Jacquie Rolston and children, accompanied by drummers, took the snake out for a trip around the garden at the Winter Solstice event.

Our new snake lantern designed by Jacquie Rolston and created at our Eco-Arts Salon December 11, 2012, had its first public appearance at Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Classical Chinese Garden on Winter Solstice, December 21, 2012. Click here to see a 12 second video clip.

The Snake is coming !

2013 Lunar New Year is the Year of the Water Snake

Community Arts Vancouver in partnership with Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Classical Chinese Garden and other community partners are planning a series of events to engage with community members celebrating the lunar new year.

  • Dec. 11: Our Eco-Arts Salon included Snake Lantern-making and poems and stories about snakes. View live tweets from the event and photos.  Photos by Ivan Yastrebov can be found on our flickr page.
  • Dec 21:  Winter Solstice @ Vancouver Chinese Garden. Our Snake lantern will be on display at the garden while people also add a dash of colour to our now traditional white cube lantern to transform it into a multi-coloured, mosaic.
  • Jan 14-18, 2013: Workshops with Alastair Heseltine to create snake sculptures for installation at Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Garden.  All welcome! The resulting art works  will be installed in the Garden
  • February 8: International Village 3pm – Lunaria Snake (and artist Jacquie Rolston) will be interviewed by Michelle Elliot of CBC On the Coast.
  • February 10: Granville Island will have their annual lunar new year event and we hope to bring our Snake Lantern down for you to greet. 10:30am-12:30pm
  • February 17: Parade with us and Garden participants in the Chinatown Lunar New Year parade. The parade starts at 11am at the Chinatown Gates and goes for about 2 hours.

Watch for the Dictionary of Snakes CD Launch in March or April, 2013. We are hoping to collaborate with Hilary Peach, Alex Varty and Victory Anthony in their launch of this two-year project. Stay tuned or search for “snake” at cacv.ca

Sending a message to snake@cacv.ca will reach our volunteer team. We have volunteer opportunities on this project. Let us know how you’d like to be involved.

Community Lantern – Transformation through participation

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Friday, December 21 Winter Solstice 2012

White Cube: China Maple Hall 6-10pm (with Carmen Rosen’s Tea pot installation and Garden products)

Out with the Dragon/ in with the Snake: Jade Water Pavilion – on display and then we’ll process with the lantern.

Video showing the lantern from start (see left) to the finish (on right)

Come join us at the 19th Annual Winter Solstice Lantern Event produced by The Secret Lantern Society.

For the fourth year, our volunteers will be at the Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Gardens with a blank slate for you to contribute to.

We provide a plain white cube and coloured tissue paper and scissors – and you tear or cut and attach your image onto the community lantern.

What: A community lantern

Where: Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Classical Chinese Gardens

 

Our 2011  eco-arts lantern was a tree-shape made from 6 bamboo poles, strung together. Participants added laurel and magnolia leaves punched into lovely designs.

Here’s the 2010 eco-arts lantern of magnolia leaf lantern:

 

More photos on http://communityarts.ning.com

Volunteer Opportunity: Social Media Group Facilitator

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Are you a whizz on social media *and* in person networking?

Like turning people onto the pleasures of tweeting and want to support community-engaged arts in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside by introducing people both in person and online.

These sessions happen at UBC Learning Exchange and we have a two-hour program design worked out. You’d meet with five people and five laptops and help them like, comment, share and retweet – for the greater good of the arts in Vancouver.