What’s up

Under $100 art show

• Today, 5-10 p.m.; Friday to Sunday, 11 a.m.-7 p.m.
• Portage Place, 393 Portage Ave.
• Tickets $15-$23 online

Snag some local art for a steal at the Under $100 Art Show, running today through Sunday at Portage Place.

The show features original paintings, prints, ceramics, jewelry, textiles and ceramics made by dozens of Manitoba artists and all priced at less than $100.

The event includes daily live music and is hosted by Art Spot, a Calgary arts organization that has mounted similar sales in cities across Western Canada. This is the first time the concept has come to Winnipeg.

“Our mission has always been to make art accessible,” Art Spot founder Emma Justine McCaul said in a media release. “When people buy directly from local artists, they’re not only taking home something beautiful — they’re helping creative entrepreneurs build sustainable careers while strengthening the cultural fabric of their city.”

Tickets are available in two-hour blocks with general admission or VIP tiers — the latter includes previews and early opportunities to purchase art before it hits the show floor. Kids aged 16 and younger get in free.

Purchases are tax-free and can be made by cash or card with a five per cent service fee.

— Eva Wasney

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Streat Feast

• The Forks, CN Stage Field
• Today, 4-10 p.m.; Friday and Saturday, noon-10 p.m.; Sunday, 11 a.m.-9 p.m.
• Free

Bring your appetite to the CN Stage Field at The Forks this weekend and sample some of Winnipeg’s best street eats at the fourth annual Streat Feast, celebrating food, culture and community starting tonight and running through to Sunday.

Among the food vendors serving up their wares this weekend are Jeepney, the Sweet Escake, Dirty Soda Pop, Shawarma Wrapublic, Oddysamm’s Menu and JT’s Golden Chicken. For those with a healthy appetite (and stretchy pants), pop by the M3 Cravings booth on Saturday at 2 p.m. and see if you can take down the sinigang birria taco fiesta platter.

There will be plenty of live entertainment throughout the weekend including Laurel Chantè and Jota D on Thursday, Brazilian Vibe Trio and Jar Band on Friday, Stormy J and Kaizen on Saturday and a performance featuring Winnipeg Chinese Youth Lion Dance on Sunday — with plenty more taking the stage throughout the weekend.

In addition to the music and food trucks there will be a pop-up market, a kids’ zone, a splash zone, axe throwing, karaoke, giant games and a teepee activity station with elder Barbara Nepinak.

Admission is free; for more information, visit streatfeast.ca.

— Ben Sigurdson

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Bouchra

• Dave Barber Cinematheque, 100 Arthur St.
• Friday through Thursday
• Admission $11.50

When the world shut down in response to COVID-19, visual artists Meriem Bennani and Orian Barki offered a viral video lifeline when they released 2 Lizards, a jazzy miniseries about two anthropomorphic crawlers whose New York lives take on new meaning when the city starts to sleep. With shimmering, hypnotic animation juxtaposed against camera-captured streetscapes, 2 Lizards showed off the surreality of the pandemic era with charm, whimsy and a firm grip on the tenuousness of global emotion.

This week, Bennani and Barki’s first feature film, Bouchra, has its local première at Dave Barber Cinematheque. The creative partners tell a story of diasporic disconnect through the vector of Bouchra, a Moroccan coyote making a go of it as a screenwriter in NYC. A grittier type of creature feature than Wes Anderson’s version of Fantastic Mr. Fox, Bouchra seems engineered to be defiantly personal, offering a sympathetic glimpse at underseen human characters by queering them under coarse coats of fur.

British film journal Little White Lies calls the film “a wild creative swing that pays off in spades,” comparing Bouchra to the Oscar-winning feline flick Flow, while saying that it “demonstrates the possibilities of using an open-source 3D software like Blender to explore visual storytelling.”

— Ben Waldman

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RWB Revealed

• True North Square
• Aug 19-21, 9:30 a.m. to 7 p.m.
• Free

The True North Square concourse will be transformed into a working al fresco ballet studio next week for RWB Revealed, a new initiative that offers the public a behind-the-scenes look at the Royal Winnipeg Ballet’s creative process.

Lean more about technique and training by taking in the company’s daily class at 9:30 a.m., featuring live commentary from artistic director Christopher Stowell and associate artistic director Tara Birtwhistle. See New York City-based choreographer Houston Thomas working with the company in rehearsal as it gets ready to première his reimagined Firebird as part of the first mainstage show of the season, Stravinsky Stories, which runs Oct. 8 to 11 at the Centennial Concert Hall. And stick around for artist chats, guest and community performances and other behind-the-scenes programming.

Each day will close with a performance featuring emerging artists from the RWB School’s post-secondary Anna McCowan-Johnson Aspirant Program, including Opus 15: The Maze by Melvin Lawovi. Those performances begin at 6 p.m.

— Jen Zoratti

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Burt Block Party

• Burton Cummings Theatre, 364 Smith St.
• Today to Sunday
• Single-day tickets $118 at Ticketmaster.ca

Burt Block Party is no less bumpin’ for being one of the younger summer festivals taking place in the Exchange District.

From Thursday through Sunday, the outdoor area in front of the Burton Cummings Theatre will fill with thousands of people to take in some of Canada’s biggest rock bands.

The Beaches, on Friday, will be a major draw. In a viral social media moment earlier this year backstage at the Junos, the four rockers from Toronto toasted Prime Minister Mark Carney backstage with what they called a “Scarney” beer (“sexy Carney”). The cringey moment didn’t stop the Beaches, one of the country’s most popular indie rock acts, from winning Group of the Year for the third consecutive time. They’re joined on Friday by Lights, LØLØ, and dreamy Winnipeg shoegaze duo Sunday Club.

Big draws of a deeper vintage include 54.40, Collective Soul and Paul Langlois of the Tragically Hip (all playing Sunday) as well as Colin James, Toque and Winnipeg hard-rock veterans Streetheart (on Saturday). Rounding out the local offerings are francophone chaunteuse Kelly Bado, joining the Saturday lineup, and alt-dance rockers Attica Riots on Sunday.

— Conrad Sweatman

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