The Sunshine Coast Museum and Archives is inviting community members to pitch their best idea for an innovative pop-up exhibit at the Gibsons institution.
Museum assistant Lucy Wolchock-Brown, who is completing undergraduate studies in art history at the University of British Columbia, will help select the winning proposal. Wolchock-Brown plans to work alongside the designated co-curator to bring the exhibit to life.
“We’re really interested in anything,” said Wolchock-Brown. “We want to stress that it can be a very contemporary submission; it doesn’t have to be historical.”
The successful co-curator can bring their own objects, archives or story for display. The finished exhibit will remain at the museum for four months.
It’s not the first time the museum has featured interpretive displays created by locals. A multimedia exhibit on hypothetical fixed-link Howe Sound crossings was installed a year prior to the COVID-19 shutdown. The project was the work of two Elphinstone Secondary School students.
The latest co-curatorial invitation is open to all ages, although participants under the age of 18 require parental consent.
“If you don’t have artifacts related to the story that you want to tell, we can work with that,” said Wolchock-Brown. “We can do photographs, we can do text, we can do whatever the co-curator has in mind. We are very much open to working with whatever people want to do.”
The museum’s initiative is guided in part by the 2010 book The Participatory Museum. Author Nina Simon also delivered a TEDx talk on the subject of how cultural institutions should become more dynamic and accessible.
A cabinet on the second storey of the downtown Gibsons institution will be cleared to host the incoming exhibit. Its current contents — an array of ornamental tobacco pipes — will be moved into storage.
The museum’s deadline for entries is July 21; submissions can be made through its website at sunshinecoastmuseum.ca.
Summer music series promise sizzle
With the start of July, three local music series have released their free concert schedules for the upcoming months.
The Music in the Landing series takes place in Gibsons on the breakwater gazebo (Fridays at 7 p.m.) and at Winegarden Park (Saturdays at 3:30 and 6:30 p.m.). The series launches on July 7 with Kansas Lee singing soulful, folksy Americana at the gazebo. At 3:30 p.m. on July 8, multiinstrumentalist Celso Machado shares his distinctive take on Brazilian musical traditions. That evening at 6:30 p.m., Monty Montego and the Rocksteady Crew perform Jamaican dance music at the bandshell. The full schedule of events is online at facebook.com/Music.Landing.
Meanwhile, the Sechelt Summer Music series takes place at Hackett Park every Saturday afternoon from noon to 2 p.m. On July 8, the Back Porch Reunion (Dale Stavroff and Al Burns) performs its trademark brand of blues. Afterward, the Knotty Dotters marimba band ascends the outdoor stage with infectious music from the Shona people of Zimbabwe. Listings are available online at sechelt.ca.
At the gazebo behind the Roberts Creek Community Library, weekly concerts take place under the banner of Slow Sundays in the Creek. Performances run on Sundays from noon to 3:30 p.m. On July 9, the Beachcombers Ukulele Group Singers (BUGS) lead the way, followed by John Thompson playing old-style blues, with Al Burns and Dale Stavroff later performing folk and blues. The Martini Madness band brings this week’s program to a close with dance hits of the last century. Weekly playbills are posted at the Sunshine Coast Cultural Alliance website at coastculture.ca.
Bears Lair roars into second season
Season Two of APTN’s Bears’ Lair TV series has been greenlit and the production is seeking applications from Indigenous entrepreneurs across Canada. The series films in Vancouver and is seeking applicants nationally.
The series is an initiative of shíshálh Nation member Geena Jackson, who serves as both its executive producer and a judge.
Applications from Indigenous entrepreneurs are invited until July 15. Selected contestants will pitch their ideas to the panel of Bears and guest judges, competing for their share of cash prizes. Prize money will help bring the best business concepts to life and set them up for success working in their respective Nations.
Full details are online at bearslairtv.com.
