Frances Koncan

Gifted musicians play to strengths on Instagram

It’s not as easy as it once was to keep up with the live music scene in Winnipeg and with winter on its way, it’s only going to get harder.

While Spotify and Soundcloud are still fantastic places to discover music from around the world, a great way to learn about new local music — and the talented artists who make it — is Instagram.

Here are five suggestions of performers with incredible music and charming personalities and styles that you should definitely be following via the social media app.

RAYANNAHThe Winnipeg-born and -raised music artist Rayannah has an electro-alternative sound that blends breath, loop pedals, inventive beats and evocative lyrics to create a style all her own.

City selected as early stop for immersive exhibition of Dutch master's work

Fresh off enormously successful stops in Montreal and Quebec City, Imagine Van Gogh is bringing its immersive sensory experience to the RBC Convention Centre. 

The exhibition premièred in Paris in 2017 and was created by designers Annabelle Mauger and Julien Baron. It weaves together multimedia — and the true life stories of two different men, artist Vincent Van Gogh and Cathédrale d’Images founder Albert Plécy — to create a grandiose experience of art, projection and music that has wowed millions of viewers throughout the world.

While it is the artwork of Van Gogh — the Dutch post-impressionist painter (1853-90) whose bold colours and expressive brushstokes influenced many who came after him — that is on display, it is Plécy’s concept of the “Image Totale” that inspired Mauger and Baron to create the immersive blend of sound and image. Plécy, a journalist and photographer, created the Cathédrale d’Images (now called Les Carrières de Lumières or Quarries of Lights) to project luminous images onto the stone walls, ceilings and floor of a former bauxite quarry in Provence, in southeast France.

Visitors are invited to wander and explore amid enormous projections of more than 200 of Van Gogh’s most famous paintings from the Arles period, the Saint-Rémy period and the Auvers-sur-Oise Period, including Sunflowers, Starry Night over the Rhône and Wheatfield with Crows. 

Turn up the volume

A new TV series premièring on APTN this week aims to document the inspiration and personal process of Indigenous musicians from across Canada.

Amplify sheds light on the work of musicians — including local singer-songwriters Leonard Sumner and Jason Burnstick — over 13 22-minute episodes, all directed by Indigenous directors, including Winnipeggers JJ Neepin and Erica Marie Daniels.

“The show was conceived as a platform to showcase Indigenous stories and music,” says producer Shane Belcourt in a media release. “We called it Amplify because the series amplifies Indigenous music, Indigenous stories and Indigenous perceptions.”

Belcourt chose to focus on musicians because he believes music is the glue that holds people together.

Contrarian take on green movement gets re-release

A new documentary by director Jeff Gibbs is being re-released with a live virtual event on Oct. 28, after being removed from YouTube earlier this year.

Battle for the Planet of the Humans premièred on YouTube on the 50th anniversary of Earth Day and racked up millions of views. But it also attracted the negative attention of certain groups, one of which filed a copyright claim over a short snippet of footage of rare earth mining in China.

Gibbs says the clip was employed under the doctrine of fair use. Although the case was resolved, the copyright claim resulted in the film being removed from YouTube.

“It turns out the person who made the claim was funded by some of the same foundations that we criticize in the film that are associated with hedge funds and billionaires and bankers,” Gibbs says.

WAG donor’s Inuit Art Centre tour inspires second gift

A recent tour of the Winnipeg Art Gallery’s soon-to-open Inuit Art Centre has prompted an awestruck city philanthropist to add to his existing contribution to the project.

Until the end of November, Bob Williams will match donations up to a total of $500,000, the WAG announced this week.

“Once you have a tour of the building, you see what this vision is,” said Williams, who invested in Apple stock 15 years ago and is passionate about giving back to the community.

“With this building there will be nobody in the world that will be able to match Winnipeg, Manitoba, for the display of Inuit art.

Urban Shaman gallery director shares journey in Art Talk

Sometimes a work of art can change your life.

In this month’s Art Talk — a monthly event held in partnership with First Fridays in the Exchange and hosted by Free Press contributor Alison Gillmor — Urban Shaman gallery director Daina Warren will go live on YouTube to talk about the artists and artworks that have inspired her during her career as an artist and curator in a conversation entitled The Art That Won’t Let Go.

Warren, who is a member of the Akamihk (Cree) Nation in Maskwacis, Alta., earned her BFA at the Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design and holds an MA in critical and curatorial studies from the University of British Columbia.

She cites Kainai-Blood sculptor Faye HeavyShield as a major influence early in her training.

Documentary reveals bitter reality of Jordan’s Principle

Abenaki filmmaker Alanis Obomsawin began making films in the 1960s at a time when there were few Indigenous filmmakers working in the industry.

The North American filmmaking landscape has changed dramatically since then with regards to diversity, thanks in large part to Obomsawin’s tireless commitment to activism through film.

Jordan River Anderson, The Messenger — which makes its streaming debut on Monday, Obomsawin’s 88th birthday — marks her 53rd film and tells another story of Indigenous resilience and resistance in the face of colonization.

The 65-minute documentary, which was named the best Canadian documentary at the 2019 Vancouver International Film Festival and is being streamed by the National Film Board, explores the life of Jordan River Anderson, a boy from Norway House Cree Nation who was diagnosed at birth in 1999 with a rare muscular disorder known as Carey Fineman Ziter Syndrome.

Get up close with Van Gogh at new exhibit

A trip to Europe might be out of the question for the rest of the year, but a touring exhibit from Quebec City making its way to the RBC Convention Centre will bring a touch of the European museum experience to Winnipeg. 

Imagine Van Gogh, opening Sept. 17, was created by Annabelle Mauger and Julien Baron, and uses more than 200 of Dutch artist Vincent Van Gogh’s works to create an immersive experience that positions technology at the service of art via enormous multi-projections of the paintings that amplify the detail, colour and brushstrokes involved in each work.

Through the concept of “Image Totale” — a concept that turns passive viewer into active spectator through the unguided immersion within sound and images — works are projected on 3D shapes, bringing viewers up close with Van Gogh’s work from angles that have never been seen before.

The artwork on display was selected from Van Gogh’s Arles period (1888/1889) to his death in 1890 and include iconic paintings such as Sunflowers and The Starry Night, as well as his Self-Portraits.

All the world’s a stage for Indigenous stories

The COVID-19 pandemic may have forced theatres to go dark for the rest of 2020, but for Sarasvàti Productions, the show must go on — even if that means performing in a park.

The theatre company is bringing a new play, Songide’ewin (which means “courage” in Anishinaabemowin), to the outdoor environment of Whittier Park in St. Boniface from tonight to Thursday.

The park — which is home to the annual Festival du Voyageur and the site of historic Fort Gilbraltar — has been a gathering place for centuries, so it seems fitting that a play inspired by the stories of Indigenous youth on the theme of reconciliation would mark one of the early returns of theatre gatherings since March.

Director Tracey Nepinak worked with an ensemble cast of five Indigenous and Métis actors — Sara Demers, Braiden Houle, Jessica McGlynn, Aqqalu Meekis and Josh Ranville — on the production, which emerged from a partnership among seven local organizations, Sarasvàti Productions and guest artists, with the intention of offering safe and supportive creative spaces for Indigenous youth.

Belting it out again at Rainbow Stage: showcase aims to inspire young performers

Broadway may be temporarily shut down, but that’s not stopping local musical theatre performers from honing their craft and putting on a show.

On Saturday, Rainbow Stage will reopen for the first time this season as a host of BELT Fest 2020, a performance showcase featuring 10 talented new faces from the Filipino community performing some of Broadway’s biggest hits.

From 50 video auditions, 10 singers were chosen for the program and have been receiving coaching from event host and actor Andrea Macasaet — who was starring in the Broadway musical Six when theatres were ordered to close — on how to get into character, how to portray a song and how to sing like a star.

One of the 10 lucky singers is Joyce Jugo, who has been using her spare time during the pandemic to build her vocal chops.

Cabaret stages act of protest to Philippines anti-terrorism law

On July 3, Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte signed into law new powers to target terrorism. The law’s ramifications have many people from the country’s diaspora concerned, and Winnipeggers are taking to the stage in celebration of their culture and in protest of the new anti-terrorism legislation.

A Filipinx Cabaret, produced by 23-year-old performer and activist Kristina Guevarra is a cabaret billed as a night of comedy, song and performance by the Filipinx — a word devised to avoid the gendered term “Filipino” — diaspora inspired by the motherland.

She was motivated to create tonight’s event in response to the new law, which she says is “very strict but very vague.”

“The bill is a major human-rights violation,” Guevarra says, “because it condemns anyone who criticizes the government.”

Coronavirus can't keep much-needed live comedy off the stage

It’s said that laughter is the best medicine, and if the number of comedy shows back on stage this summer — and the impressive (but still socially distanced) crowd sizes that make up the audience at these shows — is anything to go by, that statement is proving to be true.

It was only a few weeks ago that things in Winnipeg were starting to look up and people began venturing out more confidently to take in all the activities they love during summer.

For some, that was watching the Winnipeg Jets attempt to play something that vaguely resembled hockey. For others, it was heading out to Steep Rock for their annual summer Instagram photo.

And for those missing the joy of laughter in their lives, it has meant taking in a good old-fashioned (by which I mean pre-pandemic) standup or improv show. Here are some of the shows that graced the stages of Winnipeg this month, and a few that are coming up.

Manitoba artists use app to showcase work during pandemic

Love it or hate it, the social media app Instagram has become ubiquitous in the daily lives of more than one billion people across the world.

It’s also an app of contention, where the bad can easily outweigh the good. For all the drawbacks of the Facebook-owned app — like the anxiety and depression caused by seeing an endless barrage of other people’s perfectly curated lives — it is also a great (and free) platform for artists to showcase their work, connect with others, and find inspiration.

Here are five great local artists who have taken to Instagram to highlight their work, accept commissions and connect with the world around them.

Creative projects, therapy among five things helping local artist navigate pandemic

Joanne Roberts is a jack-of-all-trades artist with a passion for self-improvement.

The 29-year-old was most recently seen on stage as an actor in Theatre Project Manitoba’s production of Good Night Desdemona (Good Morning Juliet) by Ann-Marie MacDonald and in the Prairie Theatre Exchange/Cercle Molière co-production of Danielle Séguin-Tétreault’s play What to Do with Albert/Que faire d’Albert?

She is also the winner of the 2020 Emerging Filmmaker Pitch Competition hosted by the Gimli Film Festival, where she had three minutes to wow the jury with her idea for a new short film.

Roberts has no shortage of projects to keep her busy during the pandemic but she is also taking the time to focus on her own health and well-being. Here are five things keeping her healthy and happy as she navigates the pandemic.

First Fridays talk puts post-pandemic Winnipeg in focus

There are few aspects of daily life in Winnipeg and beyond that haven’t been changed, in some way, over the past few months by the pandemic — among them how we interact and communicate, get places and buy things.

Urban designer and visual artist Lawrence Bird doesn’t have all the answers, but he does have plenty of ideas that he’ll be discussing Friday with Alison Gillmor, moderator of Building a Post-Pandemic Future, this month’s First Fridays in the Exchange Art Talk.

From bike lanes to open-plan offices, Bird and Gillmor will discuss how prior pandemics have transformed the world and what kind of changes the current one might inspire.

The big question is if Winnipeg — a city that “doesn’t change super-quickly,” says Bird — will do the unexpected and embrace the changes that may be coming, or remain entrenched in its old ways.

Writing history into the world, together

The COVID-19 pandemic hit artist Kandis Friesen hard, but she’s bouncing back with a new solo art exhibit, The Cedar, the Birch, Our Hands at Full-Mast, Behind the After, at Plug In Institute of Contemporary Art, thanks to the help of her friends.

The 42-year-old artist saw most of her exhibitions, talks and research travel cancelled this past March, which left her in a bind.

“I lost income and was left without housing,” says Friesen, whose early days of the pandemic were devoted to figuring out a way to get from Winnipeg, where she’s originally from, to Montreal, where she currently resides.

“A very kind artist in Winnipeg took me in, and I finally made it back.”

Lynley Rose painting bright future over bleak past

Lynley Rose turned to art to overcome trauma from her past. Now she hopes to inspire others to use art to find themselves and share their voices in her new art exhibition at Cre8ery called Come Alive and Chase the Sky.

The friendly, talkative 52-year-old began painting at “the young age of 42,” and says art saved her life.

Given her cheerful demeanour — it’s a safe bet she’s smiling warmly behind her brightly coloured face mask — the turbulent details of her life are something of a surprise.

She was adopted as a baby and became a single mom at 19; she also experienced sexual violence and indulged in harmful use of substances as a young adult.

Fringe festival cancellation shifts parody of Victor Hugo classic online

Theatres in Winnipeg may still be dark, but that’s not stopping playwright, director and actor Connor Wielgosz from putting his new musical on to the stage and into the light.

LESS Miserable is a musical parody created by Wielgosz for the 2020 Winnipeg Fringe Theatre Festival. When that was cancelled owing to COVID-19, Wielgosz had to make a difficult choice: put the performance off until next year or find a new way to showcase it.

“When we thought about video,” he says, “we figured out a way of being socially distanced and safe where we could also perform.”

The musical being parodied is the 1980 synthesizer-heavy spectacle Les Miserables, an adaptation of Victor Hugo’s 1862 historical novel of the same name, which traces the redemption of Jean Valjean against the backdrop of a revolution — not The Revolution, this is a different revolution — in Paris.