Make Parq Vancouver your ultimate destination for Chinese New Year celebrations this year. With luminous lanterns and decorative umbrellas on display, vibrant cherry blossom trees and hanging silk wisteria and an embellished pop-up photo lounge with life-size zodiac calendars adorning the many corners of Parq Vancouver, guests can be sure to capture the magic of Lunar New Year here.

LUNAR NEW YEAR LANTERN MAKING WORKSHOP:

In the spirit of Lunar New Year, The Vancouver Chinese Lantern Festival and Family Day, Parq Vancouver will debut its first ever workshop: Lunar New Year Lantern Making. On Sunday, February 17^th from 3:00 pm to 5:00 pm, the interactive workshop will take place in the art studio on the sixth floor, adjacent to the lobby of the Douglas, an Autograph Collection Hotel.  Tickets go on sale Monday, January 14^th and will be priced at $15.00 a person plus taxes and fees. A family rate of $40.00 plus taxes and fees will be applied to groups of four.

Guests are welcome to join for lessons in calligraphy, sugar painting and riddle solving along with different techniques on how to paint and create traditional cotton lanterns. Let this festivity be part of your family’s celebration for a joyful Year of the Pig!

CASINO PROMOTIONS:

YEAR OF THE PIG CASH GIVEAWAY

• From Feb 1st – 28^th
• 1 winner every night
• Choose 8 out of 15 symbols for a chance to win $888,888
• Monday – Thursday 8pm
• Friday – Saturday 9pm
• Sunday – 6pm

FORTUNE LUNAR NEW YEAR GIVEAWAY

• From Feb 1st – 23rd
• 2 winners every Saturday

The first winner will receive $8,888 in Free play at 8pm and the second will receive $8,888 in Cash.

JADE LUNAR NEW YEAR CAR GIVEAWAY

• From Jan 1st – Feb 28^th
• GRAND PRIZE DRAW: FEB 28TH AT 11PM
• 1 winner every Thursday, Friday and Saturday for $5,000 in free play plus 10,000 ballots into the grand prize draw: a 2019 Range Rover Velar on Feb 28th at 11pm
• Thursday/Friday 10pm
• Saturday 11pm

TRADITIONAL LION DANCE WITH YEAR OF THE PIG MEMORABILIA GIVEAWAY

• February 5^th at 7:00pm there will be a traditional lion dance with a fortune giveaway

The Firehall Arts Centre is thrilled to remount the award-winning Circle Game: Reimagining the Music of Joni Mitchellfrom Saturday, January 12 to Saturday, February 9, 2019.

The enduring music of Canadian icon and renowned singer-songwriter Joni Mitchell is reimagined in this energetic musical experience. Conceived and directed by two of Vancouver’s own theatrical powerhouses, Andrew Cohen and Anna Kuman,Circle Gamefeatures six quadruple-threat talents including Benjamin Millman, Scott Perrie, Adriana Ravalli, Kimmy Choi, Samantha Bourque and David Z. Cohen. Together, they play eighteen instruments, creating modern variations on themes by Canadian singer-songwriter Joni Mitchell.

One of the most influential female recording artists of the late 20^thcentury, Joni Mitchell has often reflected on social and environmental ideals through her music. Millennial culture celebrates the repurposed and the upcycled. Mitchell’s music stands the test of time and once again she is the voice of a generation. The heartbreak of a failed love affair in “River”, the fear of imminent ecological disaster in “Big Yellow Taxi”, and the promise of a generation gathering to ‘get back to the garden’ in “Woodstock” are topics that resound as heavily today as they did fifty years ago.

“It is great to welcome back the creative team and performers from our production of Circle Game: Reimagining the Music of Joni Mitchell,” says Donna Spencer, Artistic Producer at the Firehall Arts Centre. “This playful and exuberant interpretation of Ms. Mitchell’s music by co-creators Andrew Cohen and Anna Kuman wowed audiences when we first produced it in May 2017, and I am certain that audiences of all ages will enjoy it again. Following these performances at the Firehall, we are delighted to be partnering with the Arts Club Theatre Company as part of their Community Touring Presentation program, which will take our production to communities around British Columbia.”   

“Circle Game is perfection.”– Mark Robins, Vancouver Presents!

“The freshness and artistry of Circle Game completely won me over.” – Jerry Wasserman, Vancouver Sun

“The Circle Game’s effervescent cast explores Joni Mitchell’s themes.”– Alexander Varty, The Georgia Straight

“It’s just so playful. And it’s infectious!”– Jo Ledingham, JoLedingham.ca  

 

January 12 – February 9, 2019 |Firehall Arts Centre| 280 E. Cordova 

Opening Night:  January 16, 8:00pm

Previews:  January 12, 8pm | January 13, 3pm | January 15, 7pm | January 16, 1pm (PWYC)

Performance Times:  Tues, 7pm | Wed-Fri, 8pm | Sat, 3pm & 8pm | Sun, 3pm | Wed, 1pm PWYC

Tickets: From $25 at firehallartscentre.ca| 604.689.0926

Post Show Talkback: January 17, 24, 31, & February 7

Surrey, BC | Surrey Art Gallery is proud to announce a landmark exhibition for one of Surrey’s most distinguished artists. Nicoletta Baumeister: In the Realm of Perception opens Saturday, January 19 with her artist talk at 6:30pm and the reception to follow at 7:30 p.m. Admission is free.

Nicoletta Baumeister’s paintings combine profound insights into the nature of reality. In the Realm of Perception is an overview of the artist’s passionate investigation into how the human mind sees, understands, and constructs the world around it. Spanning multiple decades of practice, the exhibition comprises over forty paintings, along with select installations, showing the extraordinary breadth of Baumeister’s art.

In the painted world of Nicoletta Baumeister, reality is never as it seems. In the Realm of Perception includes a selection of key pieces from earlier in her career: vivid watercolours of minerals, plants, and landscapes rendered in extraordinary detail. Through visual tricks and illusions, these works question the truth of what the viewer is looking at.

A large body of newer acrylic paintings shows the artist’s shift inwards to a more meditative approach. Brilliant fields of colour and geometric patterns collide with each other, expand, and recede from the surface of the canvas, illustrating the mind’s internal processes. There are conflicts between intuition and logic, collisions between the past and the present, and the unfolding of a single thought.

“The world is a fantastic, awe-inspiring place, and we are invited to take part in it through the portals of our senses,” says Baumeister. “Visual art is well suited to reflect and convey not only the appearance of things, but also their sense. Combining layers of content in my work, I strive for a balance between object and meaning, beauty and possibility.”

Weaving together memory, history, and time, Baumeister’s paintings are a thought-provoking foray into the processes through which the brain generates meaning.

The opening reception will also celebrate Surrey Art Gallery’s other winter exhibitions: an ultimate jigsaw puzzle for visitors to interact with in Colette Urban: Gambler, and thought-provoking stories connected to African diasporic experience in the short film Triangle Trade: Camille Turner, Jérôme Havre, and Cauleen Smith. Crescent Beach Photography Club’s group exhibit Impressions is also on display in our lobby.

On Thursday, March 14 from 7 to 8:30 p.m., visitors to the Gallery can accompany Nicoletta Baumeister on an exhibition tour to learn more about the relationship between cognitive psychology and art in her paintings. Her exhibition catalogue In the Realm of Perception will also be available to purchase.

About the Artist | Nicoletta Baumeister is a painter interested in exploring the human act of making sense out of sensation. Her quest is to understand the gaps between seeing, perceiving, and understanding a thing. Her artwork, rooted in hyperrealism, has permuted into abstract work in the last fifteen years. Using mainly rectilinear forms and stripes, she explores the structure of reality-for example, the difference between what one sees and what one thinks one sees. She holds a Dip.FA (Honours) from Langara College, a BFA from the Nova Scotia College of Art & Design (NSCAD), and a Specialization in Goldsmithing (Germany). She has been painting, exhibiting, and winning awards since 1984, as well as teaching students since the late 1990s.

About Surrey Art Gallery | Internationally recognized for its award-winning programs, Surrey Art Gallery, located at 13750 88 Avenue in Surrey, is the second largest public art museum in Metro Vancouver. Founded in 1975, the Gallery presents contemporary art by local, national, and international artists, including digital and audio art. Its extensive public programs for children through to adults aim to engage the public in an ongoing conversation about issues and ideas that affect our communities and to provide opportunities to interact with artists and the artistic process. Admission is free. Surrey Art Gallery gratefully acknowledges the financial assistance of the City of Surrey, Province of BC through BC Arts Council, Canada Council for the Arts, and the Surrey Art Gallery Association.

Produced by Nasty Women Comedy, the inaugural Smash Comedy Festival is a three-day comedy festival spotlighting Vancouver’s best and brightest women/trans*/femme/plus performers. Smash Comedy Festival is guaranteed to be a magically hilarious time, combining wildly funny, feminist-forward comedy from an elite squad of sketch, improv and stand-up comedians, PLUS writing and improv workshops, and a ‘90s dance party! It’s going to be a very special weekend featuring some of the city’s funniest and hardest working individuals, all in support of sending underrepresented kids to Improv Camp for the upcoming 2019 season! Here’s the low-down: THURSDAY NIGHT A very special edition of Nasty Women’s monthly comedy show at the Biltmore Cabaret will kick off the weekend, followed by dancing all night long to a Carly Rae Jepsen-heavy setlist. FRIDAY NIGHT We start the early evening off with a Jam Show (by donation) for all of Vancouver’s WTF performers, and then get right into two hot shows at Little Mountain Gallery featuring an all-star cast of Vancouver’s WTF comedy world. (Also featuring fun snacks and an even FUNNER after party!) SATURDAY DAYTIME Inspiring workshops from some of the city’s sharpest improv performers and writers, taking place at Little Mountain Gallery. SATURDAY NIGHT Two MORE hot shows with another amazing crew representing the city’s finest in comedy, PLUS a not-so-secret late-late musical comedy show to keep everybody laughing well past bedtime. For more information, like and follow @smashcomedyfest on Facebook and Instagram! Links to purchase tickets: Opening night only: https://bit.ly/2RPLWsL Other tickets: https://bit.ly/2ROwo8p

Each one of us carries our own unique experience, perspective and set of concerns when it comes to end-of-life.
The theme of 2019’s Community Forum is: What’s Your Story?, exploring the personal narrative as the expert voice of experience, for the purpose of sharing, validating and learning from each person’s experience and the connections we make together.
Our forum will address the multifaceted support our palliative care team provides as well the alternative care supports available in the community. These include physical, emotional, social and spiritual supports to patients and their family members.

Audience Participatory Theatre for children 2-6yrs and their caregivers. Semiahmoo Arts presents: “The Snowman” performed by: Surrey Youth Theatre Company (SYTCO) A delightful play for young audiences. A town learns that sharing and working together make it a very happy place to live. TWO SHOWS! SATURDAY, January 26th, at 12PM & 2PM South Surrey Rec. & Arts Centre, in the Turnbull Gallery: 14601-20 Ave All tickets are $5 each, all ages are welcome! Get your tickets at www.semiahmooarts.com Doors open 30 mins before showtime, come early to participate in some crafts! Tickets are $5 each. Children under 12 months old are free when they come with an older sibling. The children will be invited to participate in the performance- however participation is not mandatory.

Surrey, BC - After many years of producing health-focused trade shows specifically for the South Asian community in Surrey, local business woman Rina Gill executed her broader vision of launching Surrey's first mainstream trade show focusing on the health, wellness, beauty and fitness industry last Summer. This initiative is important for the community and encourages them to be proative about their health vs. reactive.

The 2nd annual Surrey Health Expo is taking place from 12pm to 5pm on Saturday, January 26th at Surrey City Hall. Attendees can take advantage of FREE ADMISSION and family fun for everyone! As an extra incentive, FREE PARKING for Surrey Health Expo attendees will be available on a first come, first serve basis, courtesy of the City of Surrey.

As we all know, the City of Surrey is growing rapidly. According to the 2016 Census, Surrey’s population is 517,887 with approx. 1,000 new residents moving into the City every month. Many people are experiencing busy lives with high stress levels which result in poor diet, lack of exercise, sleep deprivation, etc. These bad habits can eventually lead to serious medical conditions like obesity as well as emotional and mental disorders.

This is an opportunity to bring the entire community together under one roof to further explore the world of health, wellness, beauty and fitness. There will also be a diverse group of vendors, advertisers, media sponsors and attendees. Good health is important for everyone regardless of age, gender and ethnicity.

What to expect: Industry Experts On-Site, FREE Health Testing, Product Demonstrations, FREE Product Sampling, FREE Exercise/Dance classes, FREE Workshops, FREE Beauty Makeovers, FREE Massages, Play Area for Children, Tons of Prize Giveaways and Flea Market. Also have a chance to win a $10,000 worth of prize giveaways and pick up a FREE copy of the Surrey Health magazine.

One of the featured vendors participating this year is JAMMU HOSPITAL which is lead by Dr. Gurvinder Singh Jammu. Although they are based in India, they have an active team in Canada/US recruiting patients for a popular and proven procedure called Bariatric Surgery (also known as Gastric Bypass in North America).

"As a highly respected doctor in my field, I have performed this procedure on hundreds of patients whom all have experienced life-changing results. Obesity is an epidemic all over the world, especially in North America. Myself and my team are setup to accommodate patients so that they can achieve their desired weight-loss results which are not easily achieved through other methods. My team will be on-site at the Surrey Health Expo to answer any questions and assist with attendees starting their journey towards a new life", says Dr. Jammu

"It pleases me to have such high calibre vendors participating in this year's Expo. I have witnessed my own family members go through this procedure with Dr. Jammu and achieve extraordinary results. The event is happening as the new year gets started and people are setting goals and resolutions towards living a healthier lifestyle. We are excited to have JAMMU HOSPITAL on board and proud to be part of the journey towards changing peoples lives", says Rina Gill, Organizer of the Surrey Health Expo.

Women In Music Showcase
Saturday January 26th 2019
Redbird Room - The Flamingo Events Centre, 10768 King George Blvd. Surrey
$10 advance, $15 at the door
8:00pm doors
19

Featuring performances by:
Jessica Barbour Emily Williams Ria Jade & guest

**Drink specials all night!**

Women In Music Showcase
Saturday January 26th 2019
Redbird Room - The Flamingo Events Centre, 10768 King George Blvd. Surrey
$10 advance, $15 at the door
8:00pm doors
19

Featuring performances by:
Jessica Barbour Emily Williams Ria Jade & Nicole Mikala

**Drink specials all night!**

A small business owner spends approximately 120 hours a year working on the books of their business. That’s a lot of time when you consider the thousands of other things on an entrepreneur’s to-do list. Unfortunately, there’s no way to get around it… or is there? Enter cloud-based bookkeeping—a technological advancement that will transform your bookkeeping process so that you can make smarter and faster business decisions. Our free webinar will provide you with a firm understanding of how cloud-based bookkeeping works, as well as explain all of the pain points the technology solves. Spoiler alert: it’s simpler, faster, more affordable, and more reliable. You’ll finish the webinar knowing:

• The essentials of cloud-based bookkeeping
• The process of automating your bookkeeping system
• The tools you need to streamline your bookkeeping