Stir Cheat Sheet: Artists and acts to catch at Arts in the Garden
North Van Arts’ outdoor celebration of nature across the North Shore includes visual art, live music, dance performances, and more
AutoHeartVan. Photo by Amie Le Blanc
North Van Arts presents Arts in the Garden at various outdoor venues on May 28 and 29 from 12 to 5 pm.
ARTS IN THE GARDEN brings together visual arts ranging from metalwork to hand-blown glass with live music (indie folk-rock, alt-country, blues, and then some) in 12 resplendent private and public garden spaces across the North Shore.
This year’s self-guided rain-or-shine tour also features five special performances that run the gamut from dance to spoken word as well as the new Feathers & Fungi, a day-long co-presentation with Wild Bird Trust at Maplewood Flats featuring a Coast Salish plant exhibition, workshops, a community parade with stilt-walkers and bird-friendly musicians, and more.
Here’s a sampling of what’s in store among the blooms and botanicals for 2022.
Ranjit “Ranj” Singh at Garden 6
May 28 and 29 from 3 to 5 pm
The Indo-Canadian folk singer-songwriter and 12-string guitar player performs at this North Vancouver property with a series of garden rooms including a Moorish-inspired enclosure with a fountain, an Asian-inspired area with a pond, an apple orchard, and a hidden dry garden.
Singh got his start playing with local Punjabi and Hindi folk artists in the 1980s before helping form the acclaimed bhangra-rock group Dal Dil Dog in the ’90s, going on to tour across North America and India. More recently, combining Indian melodies with Western Folk, Singh has gone solo, with three albums to his name.
Garden 6 also features performances on both days by folk musician Jay Knutson and Lamondance as well as wool weaving by Cheximiya Allison Burns Joseph of the Squamish Nation and an alcohol-ink creation station by Dana Huhn.
Spirit of the South Seas–Halau Na Keiki ‘O Ohana Lokah at Garden 1
May 28 from 12:45 to 1:15 pm
The setting is a West Vancouver garden built in the ’50s with steps leading down a granite rock, two streams, old-growth Douglas fir, native plants and shrubs, and perennial garden beds.
Spirit of the South Seas is a North Shore-based group specializing in the dances of Hawaii, Tahiti, Cook Islands, and of the Maori. The dancers have performed at BC Culture Days, Caribbean Days, Greek Festival, the Shadbolt, Kay Meek Arts Centre, and beyond.
Also happening throughout the weekend at Garden 6: oil-painting demonstration by Susanne Kestner-Aiello; metal-sculpture demonstration (tools and methods) by Bill Edler; blues and rock by independent singer-songwriter and recording artist Norine Braun; and Mountain Sound’s indie folk-rock.
AutoHeartVan.
AutoHeartVan at Garden 5
May 28 and 29 from 12:15 to 2:15 pm
Folk, flamenco, blues, and ranchera music: AutoHeartVan describes his sound as “queer misfit exophonic folk”. The singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist combines autoharp, thumb piano, and quijada) with baritone vocals to tell stories in French, English, Spanish, and German. Having released Endlings, his debut full-length album, in 2021, AutoHeartVan raised funds to bring several 2SLGBTQAI+ refugees to Canada through the Rainbow Refugee Society with his first single, 2017’s “Fault Lines”.
Joining AutoHeartVan throughout the weekend at this peaceful forest garden with a pond and multiple varieties of rhododendrons, azaleas, hydrangeas, magnolias and shade flowers are the jazz duo of vocalist Amber Tsang and guitarist Alvin Brendan (Guitar); experimental, impressionistic, and abstract artist Anita Morse, who will do live watercolour painting; and contemporary fused-glass artist Violet Finvers, who will demonstrate the fused-glass process.
Plus, spoken-word poet Angelic Goldsky will perform May 28 from 3:30 to 4 pm. Poet in residence at the Roundhouse Community Art Centre, Goldsky is also the creative director and founder of Transgender Expressions Haven.
Garden 1/Sally McDermott. Photo via North Van Arts.
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