Eastside Arts Festival unveils new workshops and full schedule for event running July 17 to 26
New art-making opportunities and expanded art walks are part of the programming just announced
A sketching workshop at the Eastside Arts Festival. Photo by Jon Pesochin
THE EASTSIDE ARTS FESTIVAL has just announced expanded programming for its sixth edition, happening in local parks, studios, and breweries July 17 to 26.
This year’s event, put on by the Eastside Arts Society, introduces a series of new art-making workshops—spanning potted-plant portrait painting, floral watercolour still-lifes, ceramic mini-house creations, and an en plein air drawing tour. Returning workshops include eco-printing, indigo dyeing, textile printmaking, lino landscapes, goldwork embroidery, and more. Workshops are hosted by local artists at a variety of venues, from studios and parks to breweries and distilleries such as Luppolo Brewing Co., East Van Brewing Company, Superflux Beer Company, and Odd Society Spirits. Workshop instructors include Terminal City Glass Co-op, Naomi Yamamoto, Christina Radvak, Janine Schroedter, Candice Weber, Serena Chu, Dima Gurevich, Sunfire Studios Inc., Tara Pople, Pilar Mehlis, and Sonya Iwasiuk.
Neighbourhood walking tours will also make a return, with artist-led trips through such areas as Chinatown, Strathcona, and Commercial Drive, covering themes like photography, soundwalking, public art, and a choose-your-own-adventure heritage tour. Walking-tour guides include Hogan’s Alley Society, Bill Yuen of Heritage Vancouver, and local artists Kate MacDonald, Jorma Kujala, Wendy D, and Candice Weber.
On July 18, the festival is set to hold a live, interactive performance installation, The Whitty Wily Poetry Connection, hosted by artist Claire Davis at the Kamloops-Hastings Plaza (12 to 2 p.m.). Audiences will be welcome to participate in spontaneous acts of writing, composing poems from unexpected objects, and more.
On July 25, the festival hosts its annual free, all-day outdoor event, at MacLean Park, in collaboration with the Rickshaw Theatre, and presented by the Strathcona BIA. Earlier concert announcements have included DJ Jody Glenham, Big Rig, Stephen Hamm: Theremin Man, Wack, and Buddie. The event also features art activities; food trucks hosted by the likes of Dos Amigos, Stik Pop, Midnight Joe’s, and Chickpea; and a Strange Fellows Brewing beer garden.
The same day, free all-ages public art activities will fill the park, ranging from a collaborative collage led by Enabling Arts to a kid-friendly activation led by the Writer’s Exchange and an accessible art activity featuring recycled materials led by Alternative Creations Studio. There will also be an onsite Art Shop with work by local artists.
A Strathcona Blocks Party takes place the same day on the 800 block of East Hastings Street from noon to 5 p.m.
This year’s Eastside Arts Festival will also copresent Belle Spirale Dance Projects’ series The Dance Deck (July 18, 19, 25, and 26), and MacLean Park Music, an afternoon of free music on July 26, with performers Mizz Lisa, Lyndsay Wills & the No Frills String Band, and Sinéad X Sanders.
Find the full festival schedule and purchase event tickets at eastsideartsfest.ca. 
Hogan’s Alley walking tour at the Eastside Arts Festival. Photo by Jon Pesochin
Related Articles
