One week remains before the deadline for applications to the Daniel Kingsbury Music for Youth fund, which provides assistance to young people for music education and development.
Sunshine Coast youths aged 13 to 19 (as of Dec. 31, 2021) may request up to $500 for lessons, access to instruments, production software or studio time.
Kingsbury, who died in 2015 at the age of 28, was a preternaturally talented performer, songwriter and environmental crusader from Roberts Creek. While still in high school, he raised more than $8,000 through concerts and CD sales to establish an endowment fund for young musicians.
The fund Kingsbury established is now managed by the Sunshine Coast Foundation and is administered by the Sunshine Coast Community Services Society with assistance from the Coast Cultural Alliance. In 2021 its principal value reached over $50,000.
Previous applicants and grantees are encouraged to apply again. Application forms must be completed by a youth—or by a nominator with the consent of the youth.
Details and application forms are online at suncoastarts.com.
Artists invited to brush up on business acumen
The Coast Cultural Alliance is launching a peer-to-peer artist mentoring series for its members—and is seeking to expand its membership in the process.
The inaugural session will feature a one-hour live artist demonstration (via Zoom) by landscape painter Marleen Vermeulen on Feb. 17.
Vermeulen, who was born in the Netherlands, is a graduate of the Design Academy in Eindhoven and the Academy of Fine Arts in Utrecht. She moved to the Sunshine Coast in 1994.
The CCA says that Vermeulen will share stories and business advice to benefit other local artists who are working in any medium.
The event is free with a CCA membership, which can be purchased for $45 at suncoastarts.com/become-a-member/.
Vermeulen maintains a website, marleenart.com, that provides extensive insights into her “conversation”-centric approach to her painterly relationship with nature.
Gibsons gallery features Francophone visions
Four Francophone artists from British Columbia will be in attendance at the Gibsons Public Art Gallery at 2 p.m. as their touring exhibition “Place: A Nomadic Gallery in British Columbia” opens to the public.
Visual artists Ghislain Brown-Kossi, Florence Debeugny, Johanne Galipeau, and François Michaud each contributed works that “address identity and relationship to territory,” while wrestling with questions of place, displacement, and belonging.
Originally from Lyon, France, Brown-Kossi sublimates his Ivory Coast heritage into canvases where playful perspectives mask deep questions about cross-cultural dialogue.
Debeugny, a photographer, has dedicated herself to architectural photography that documents B.C.’s industrial landscapes, particularly historic canneries.
Galipeau works in acrylic varnishes and water-based waxes to produce paintings that fuse abstract exuberance with impressionistic tranquility.
Sculptor and painter Michaud produces works that amplify the intensity of nature through the use of vibrant colour and dense patterns.
“Place” runs until March 6.
