Community Arts Council of the Saanich Peninsula

Welcome

Our Mandate is:

To encourage public awareness and appreciation of the richness of cultural life on the Peninsula by providing a collective voice for the arts community, and being an advocate, information source and support resource for all forms of artistic expression.

The Community Arts Council of the Saanich Peninsula (CACSP) is a registered non-profit organization that encourages, supports and promotes local arts activities throughout the year.

Through provincial and municipal funding, as well as our own fundraising initiatives, we are able to support such events as Artisans Show and Sales, Spring and Fall Studio Tours, Gallery-by-the-Sea, Arts in the School programme and literary reading events.

CACSP organizes lectures, presentations, workshops and art shows. We also offer grants to member groups . We issue a regular newsletter and provide community arts resources.

We welcome new members and our membership is open to everyone.

Office & Community Arts Centre

The Community Arts Council of Saanich Peninsula invite you to visit us at our new office and Community Arts Centre at 9565 Fifth Street at Tulista Park in Sidney.

Our winter office and Arts Centre hours are 11am – 3pm, Wed to Sun. Our Arts Centre may have extended opening times for specific events.

The Arts Council is pleased to have the opportunity to offer rental space to artists at the Tulista Centre. The space is suitable for classes or workshops, exhibits, displays as well as shows with sales. For more information please call 250-656-7400 or email admin@cacsp.com.

Please see posts below and the side bar for entry forms and information about our Arts Council events or contact the office at 250-656-7400.

OUR COMMUNITY PARTNERS

Sidney Business Association

Sidney Community Development Office
www.sidney.ca

Saanich Peninsula Chamber of Commerce
www.spcoc.org

Society of Saanich Peninsula Museums
E-mail: info@sidneymuseum.ca
www.sidneymuseum.ca

Board work - more than just meetings!

Signs of spring are stating to appear outside the Tulista Art Centre - even more incentive to take a stroll down Sidney’s beautiful waterfront and drop in to the centre to see what’s happening.

An exhibition of work by the CACSP Directors will be on display at the Tulista Art Centre from March 10th through March 28th. The works include paintings, photographs, sculpture, fibre art and clothing.

Drop by the Centre to see what the Directors - who are all volunteers - do when they are not “directing”. The Centre is open Wednesday through Sunday from 11 a.m. - 3 p.m.

Craig Benson Sculpture Display

Sidney Fine Art Show Master Craig Benson is showing a selection of his sculptures in the display case at the Tulista Arts Centre throughout March.

Enjoy a stroll along Sidney’s wonderful waterfront walk and take the opportunity to drop into the Centre between 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Wednesday through Sunday to see these beautiful pieces.

Annual General Meeting

The Annual General Meeting of the Community Arts Council of the Saanich Peninsula will be held  at the Tulista Arts Centre (in Sidney at Fifth and Weller) on Thursday March 25th at 7:30 p.m.

We invite and welcome our members and the community to join us for a short meeting. Light refreshments will be available following the meeting.

Come out, see our new Arts Centre, and meet our new Board of Directors.

Nancy Rotolo & Judith Herman Paintings

A show of paintings, featuring Nancy Rotolo, accompanied by Judith Herman, will be held at the Tulista Art Centre from March 30th until April 11th. Nancy Rotolo will display works in acrylic, oil and pastel of flowers, animals and landscapes in a variety of sizes. Judith Herman will be showing creative abstract works in acrylics. Freedom will be shown through the techniques of staining, pouring and scraping on raw canvas. Please drop by the Centre Wednesday through Sunday, 11 a.m. - 3 p.m. to meet the artists and hear more about their works.

Sidney Shutterbugs Photographers Gallery

This exhibition, which runs at the Tulista Arts Centre from February 10th - 28th, is a collection of up to 70 outstanding photographs by members of the Sidney Shutterbugs Camera Club. The exhibition covers a wide range of subjects from landscapes, environment, architectural through portraits and demonstrates the variety of techniques and creative skills of club members.

Sidney Shutterbugs was established in 1992 by a group of local photography enthusiasts. Their purpose was to provide an environment to spark creativity. It is a club for photographers of all skill levels to gather, learn techniques, share ideas as well as sharing their favorite images. With this exhibition the club is sharing it’s work with the community and other creative individuals.

Please come and enjoy. The photographs on display will be offer for sale. Drop in to the Centre from 11 to 3 Wednesday through Sunday to view the show.

Face of A Sister City – A Moment in Time

Face of A Sister City – A Moment in Time - the Community Arts Centre at Tulista is the venue for this exhibition of photographs. Originally shown in October, 2009, in Cairns, Australia, the exhibition consists of photographs taken during a specific 24 hour period, 12 noon to 12 noon on the 1st and 2nd of May, 2009, in Cairns and each of Cairns’ seven sister cities, which include: the Town of Sidney; Lae, Papua New Guinea; Minami, Japan; Oyama, Japan; Riga, Latvia; Scottsdale, USA; and Zhanjiang, China.

Don’t miss this wonderful exhition, which opens to the public Jan. 14 and runs until Feb. 4th. Hours are  Wednesday through Sunday, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. and admission is free.

The show is much more than a collection of beautiful photographs, although it certainly has many of those. In the words of Val Schier, Mayor of the Cairns Regional Council, which were echoed by Sidney Mayor, Larry Cross, on opening night, the Show “reflects cultural and geographic differences between the eight cities, but what is more striking is that they also reflect the many things that we have in common. Through these events, we have established real bonds between the “real” people in our communities.”

You also have the opportunity to buy the photographs for $10 each. Note that the end date of the exhibition has been moved forward from Feb. 7th to Feb. 4th so that the exhibition can be moved to the Mary Winspear Centre where photographs will also be on sale at the Haiti relief benefit concert on Feb 6th.  Money from all sales will support Haiti relief. Purchasers will be able to pick up their photographs after the concert.

The exhibition has been put on by the Sidney Sister Cities Association in collaboration with the Community Arts Council of the Saanich Peninsula and the Town of Sidney.

Unveiling of Sidney’s First Juried Public Art Installation Oct 16th, 2009

Visitors to the very successful 2009 Sidney Fine Art Show, which anchored “Arts Week in Sidney” and ran from October 16th - 18th at the Mary Winspear Centre in Sidney, were also able to take in Sidney’s first juried public art installation. The installation, which is situated alongside the new Beacon Park Pavilion, was unveiled on October 16th in Beacon Park on the waterfront.

In February this year, the Town of Sidney approached the Community Arts Council of the Saanich Peninsula to ask if they would be willing to work along with the Town on a project to select the first juried Public Art to be installed in Sidney. An Expression on Interest went out on February 11th and an information package sent to all applying artists. The Jurors on the Selection Committee included a Town Councilor, a Town Staff person, a representative of the Arts Council and a gallery owner.

The jurors were impressed with both the number - twenty-seven - and the excellent quality of the submissions that were received and found it a difficult task to choose three finalists. Each finalist was asked to provide the Town with a maquette for consideration. The quality of these final maquettes was also excellent and in the end the final decision was to award the commission to Jake James who completed the works - two sculptures, “The Power Walker” and “The Pirate” - in his Sooke studio/forge.

Jake James is an English born blacksmith, now living in Sooke. Born in east London, Jake spent his early years living on a barge in east India docks. Much of his childhood was spent on the westerly tip of England - Cornwall. On the wild promontories of his ancestral homeland, Jake developed a deep respect and admiration for the beauty of his natural environment; which inspires much of his work today.