What’s Up: Fine art fair, Burt tours, art auction/cupcake party, MCO concert

Winnipeg Fine Art Fair

• Red River Exhibition Park, 3977 Portage Ave
• Friday to Sunday, various times
• Tickets: $10.50 daily; $15.75 weekend pass available online

Now in its third year, the biggest art show in the province returns this weekend.

The juried art show and sale features 77 local artists showing works across a variety of styles, including watercolour and acrylic paintings, fibre art and photography.

Artists include Megan Elowen, whose needle-felted wool paintings invite touch; Manitoba-based Métis photographer Jason Lee, showing his dramatic Canadian landscapes; and Carla Rademaker, who uses clocks, keys, cogs and gears in her steampunk pieces.

All art on display is available to buy with all proceeds going to the artists.

— AV Kitching

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Tour the Burt

• Burton Cummings Theatre, 364 Smith St.
• Saturday, 10 a.m.-2 p.m.
• Free, check online to reserve a spot (Update: sold out as of Thursday morning.)

Take a peek behind the curtain at Burton Cummings Theatre on Saturday with a free guided tour of the historic downtown venue.

This weekend’s tours are a celebration to mark 10 years since True North Sports + Entertainment purchased the theatre.

Reservations are free and available in 30-minute time slots. Visitors will be able to check out the backstage spaces and learn about the history of the theatre, which hosted 115 events and 122,000 guests in 2025.

Known as the Walker Theatre when it opened in 1907, the 1,500-seat auditorium and former movie theatre is designated as a national and provincial historic site. It was renamed after Guess Who frontman Burton Cummings in 2002 and purchased by True North in 2016.

— Eva Wasney

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Over the Top Art Auction and Cupcake Party

• MAWA (Mentoring Artists for Women’s Art), 329 Cumberland Ave., Suite 203
• Friday, opening party and bidding, 5-9 p.m., free
• Saturday, bidding, 12-6 p.m., free
• Sunday, cupcake party, 1-5 p.m., first lot closes at 3 p.m., tickets $10 online

It’s the sweetest weekend of the year.

Where else could you bid on an original work by local lions such as Aganetha Dyck, Ewa Tarsia and Dominique Rey, and satisfy your sweet tooth with all-you-can-eat cupcakes at the same time but MAWA’s annual Over the Top Art Auction and Cupcake Party?

More than 200 artists have donated artworks for auction, 35 bakers will contribute dozens of cupcakes, and 60 volunteers will staff the event. It’s an essential fundraiser for MAWA, typically raising more than $30,000, which helps the organization continue to offer programming that supports women and gender-diverse artists.

Only Sunday’s cupcake party requires a ticket; the rest of the weekend is free. Visit mawa.ca to buy in advance.

— Jen Zoratti

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In the Company of Birds

• Manitoba Chamber Orchestra and Winnipeg Sonora Voices
• Crescent Arts Centre, 525 Wardlaw Ave.
• Sunday, 2:30 p.m.
• Tickets $15-$48 available online

MCO on a Sunday?

Best known for its mid-week concerts, the Manitoba Chamber Orchestra’s weekend concert is a departure for a few reasons. It features unexpected repertoire — no baroque music this time around — including Piazzolla’s classic The Four Seasons of Buenos Aires, whose tight tango rhythms evoke the city’s late-night milongas and smoky bars.

It stretches the definition of chamber music by filling Crescent Art Centre’s stage with not just an orchestra but a favourite local choir, Winnipeg Sonora Voices (formerly Pembina Trails Voices). Together, under the baton of two conductors (MCO’s Anne Manson and Sonora’s Valdine Anderson), they perform Ola Gjeilo’s Song of the Universal, a cinematic crowd-pleaser with hints of Hans Zimmer and Philip Glass, rooted in Nordic choral traditions.

True to form, MCO also features a commissioned new work, A House Covered With Dawn, by celebrated Canadian composer Kevin Lau with whom many Winnipeggers are musically intimate after so many warm premières here.

— Conrad Sweatman