Hands-on workshop guides process of making unique, custom silver jewellery

I know things aren’t going well when cracks keep forming on my clay — but not to worry. I’d been paying attention when instructors Jillian Sheedy and Joanne Roberts told me how to deal with this problem.

So I confidently dip my brush into the water and start moistening my clay to smooth it out. Except I’ve added a bit more water than I should have, and now the clay is wet and extremely sticky.

Beside me, Roberts smiles reassuringly.

“It’s a task that requires a little bit of patience,” she says, carefully removing the brush from my hand.

Council to vote on motion to rename park for Kevin Walters

Odeon Park — a nondescript plaza in front of the Burton Cummings Theatre — is one step closer to being renamed in honour of Kevin Walters, a leader in Winnipeg’s live music industry who died in 2014.

At city hall Tuesday, the executive policy committee unanimously carried a motion to redub the 970-square-metre space — a junction at the intersections of Notre Dame Avenue, King and Smith streets that hosts the Burt Block Party in August — as Kevin Walters Plaza. To make the change official, the motion will be brought to the council at large for final approval later this month.

The motion was brought to EPC by Charleswood-Tuxedo-Westwood councillor Evan Duncan.

“I’ve heard from countless residents, artists and industry leaders across our city who were impacted by Kevin’s profound generosity and vision,” Duncan said in a release. “Naming this plaza in his honour right on the doorstep of ‘The Burt’ will rejuvenate a vital public footprint and create an inclusive gathering place that reflects the soul of Winnipeg’s creative community.”

Renowned composer, cellist Derksen dead after car crash

Award-winning Cree composer and cellist Cris Derksen, who had strong ties to Manitoba’s arts community, has died following a car crash in northern Alberta. They were 45.

Theatre kids still wild about environmental issues

After 35 years, an eco-conscious theatre company has begun operating under a new name, one that better reflects its mission to bring educational, all-ages programming to audiences across the province.

Dry Cold Productions co-founder retires after 25 years of onstage merriment

A lifelong contributor to Winnipeg’s musical theatre world is taking a step back from his leadership role with Dry Cold Productions as the company marks its 25th anniversary.

In 2001, Reid Harrison, whose retirement from the role as co-artistic director was announced in December, was sitting at the Charterhouse restaurant with Donna Fletcher and Melanie Whyte commiserating over the city’s seeming reluctance to program work by American musical theatre legend Stephen Sondheim.

“We were just sort of whining,” recalls Harrison, who’s also the general manager of the annual Agassiz Chamber Music Festival.

So the trio decided to do something about it.

Uplifting musical Kimberly Akimbo one for the ages

It’s hard enough being the new girl at a high school in suburban New Jersey.

First steps of new dance competition taken at popular downtown program

While the walls come down on Portage Place, a little engine of creativity still churns on the beleaguered mall’s first floor.

Gallery’s ‘offcut’ fundraiser reflects its reputation as space to experiment

As it approaches its five-year anniversary, the Centre for Cultural and Artistic Practices — an arts organization offering free access to an eclectic slate of programming — wants to stay put in the West Exchange District.

Exhibition takes Canadian history of Chinese oppression from the archives into the light

Housed within two innocuous rooms flanking the Welcome Gallery at Manitoba Museum is a sobering record of a government’s betrayal of its own citizens.

'Kimberly Akimbo' takes on mortality with heart and humour

Nearly three years ago, Debbie Maslowsky was watching the Tony Awards when Anagram cast its spell.

First performed on Broadway by Victoria Clark and Justin Cooley, the song is a duet between the characters Kimberly Levaco and Seth Weetis, two teenagers who don’t look the same but share a thoughtful friendship rooted in inclusive language.

Seth is feeling alone for his reasons, while the newcomer Kimberly’s got hers: a new town, a new school and an unnamed, rare condition expressed through sped-up aging — calling to mind Natalie Babbitt’s 1975 novel Tuck Everlasting and Penny Marshall’s 1988 feature Big.

(Tuck closed on Broadway after 39 performances in 2015; Big the Musical was nominated for five Tonys and seven Drama Desk Awards in 1996; and in 2023, Kimberly Akimbo won five Tonys including best musical, best book and best score.)

Theatre review: Musical examines romance through lens of reality TV

A new musical from mother-daughter team Sara and Reena Kreindler sets out to observe whether it always takes a fool to rush in.

Anita Stephen (Carlyn Graff-Czehryn) is an emerging Winnipeg anthropologist who, in high school, may have considered pasting the inner door of her locker with excerpts from Margaret Mead’s Coming of Age in Samoa — better that she should study courtship rituals while trapped inside it.

That was then, this is now: Stephen — named in a nod to Sondheim by playwright, lyricist and composer Sara Kreindler — travels to a distant island location to study the modern phenomenon of the reality show The Perfect Man.

Hosted by Jerry Cole (Chase Winnicky), a former nature doc narrator, the show-within-the-show isn’t set in Mead’s 1928 but instead in an ever-present now. The characters are but one post-high school of fish in an endless stream of televised depictions of “real love.”

New craft exhibition gives artists licence to lighten up

Textile artist and Manitoba Craft Council program co-ordinator Katrina Craig had a simple brief for the artists taking part in her curatorial debut, Serious Play, at C2 Centre for Craft: each person was asked to investigate the radical potential of play when making pieces for the show.

The four local interdisciplinary artists — Charlotte Sigurdson, Candace Neumann, Maureen Winnicki Lyons and Miriam Delos Santos — took her playful instructions seriously.

“Culturally, we think of play as frivolous or irrelevant. It’s a low priority,” Craig, 35, says. “But I think of play as an essential part of creating new things and of problem-solving. I’ve found that when I lean into that not-so-serious side of myself, good things tend to come about.”

The theme is especially pertinent in the field of craft, which can often be more intensely focused on rigorous skill-building and technical mastery. Sometimes playfulness can fall to the wayside in the pursuit of excellence

Heated Rivalry parody going full steam ahead in NYC

Alan Kliffer is bringing The Cottage to off-Broadway.

The New York-based, Winnipeg-born and -raised impresario is directing and producing Heated Rivalry: The Unauthorized Musical Parody, which opens May 12 for an eight-week run at the 6th Floor Theater.

Esteemed musician’s performance will cap WSO season finale

Some of us Winnipeggers use our vacation time to jet south for balmier climates.

The California-based Boris Allakhverdyan, one of North America’s leading clarinetists, asked for time off to come to Winnipeg at a time when the hangover of winter still lingers in the air.

He’s not here for the climate, however, but to take centre stage alongside the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra in performing a favourite work of his for the orchestra’s final concert this season.

“This is my first time in Winnipeg,” says the Russian-born Armenian principal clarinetist for the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra.

Three Winnipeg restaurants among Canada’s best

Three Winnipeg restaurants have made it into the annual Canada’s 100 Best Restaurants list.

Mandel Hitzer’s Deer + Almond and Emily Butcher’s Nola, both which appeared last year, retained their spots but dropped down in placing.

Hitzer’s restaurant at 85 Princess St. held the rear of the top 50, down 16 places from last year’s 34 ranking.

Nola (300 Taché Ave.) came in at 88, after making its debut on last years’ list at 86.