Arts&life

Local
nightlife
in the
dark

Ongoing issues due
to city bylaws driving
out artists and venues
= By AMANDA POOLE

ocal activists are calling on
the city to revitalize and

recharge Vancouver’s enter-
tainment nightlife scene.

Limited event permits and liquor
licenses for bars, combined with
skyrocketing real estate prices, have
caused small business owners and
music artists to close their doors
or relocate in order to keep musical
culture in the city alive.

Malcolm Levy, the moderator for
Save Space: The Future of Vancou-
ver's Nightlife, is bringing together
culture and entertainment groups
from Vancouver, Los Angeles and
Amsterdam this week to discuss
the city’s ongoing nightlife issues
as a result of aging city bylaws and
regulations.

Levy said the lack of late night li-
quor licenses for bars and entertain-
ment facilities limit the availability
of nightlife music and events.

“Tf the club closes at 2 a.m. and
people are still wanting to carry
on, it means that they have to find
spaces that are likely not as safe,
not as conducive to their rules and
regulations that are so important
for people to enjoy themselves re-
sponsibly,” Levy said.

Ana Rose Carrico, the owner
of Red Gates Arts Society, a local
non-profit rehearsal and perfor-
mance studio that is closing down
due to developer renovations, said
the city’s talented musicians are
becoming endangered and will
eventually have to move outside
of Vancouver to continue pursuing
their music careers if regulations
surrounding event licensing don't
change.

Carrico said currently it’s difficult
to get licensing for arts events that
are located in places that aren't nec-
essarily zoned for events.

“You can only have three events a
month,” Carrico said of arts spaces
that are not zoned as event spaces,
“So a lot of DIY venues would
rather just not call attention to
themselves and stay completely un-
derground so avoid inspection and

: ”
review.

Vancouver city councillor Heath-
er Deal said the city can only do so
much when it comes to changing
liquor laws because they are regu-
lated by the province.

“We are looking at ways to make
it easier to find places to perform
in the city,” Deal said, adding that
there are city music and creative
plans underway.

POSSIBLE NIGHTLIFE

SOLUTIONS

»Learning from other major
cities such as Amsterdam

»A nightlife advisory board
that works with the City of
Vancouver

»More late-night transporta-
tion options (i.e. Uber).

SOURCE: MALCOLM LEVY, MODERA-
TOR FOR SAVE SPACE: THE FUTURE OF
VANCOUVER'S NIGHTLIFE

EDITORLISA TANH |

TUESDAY, MARCH 27,2018 |

THE VOICE

7

PHOTO BY AGAZY MENGESHA

Corrine Leroux has stayed away from traditional applications of stained glass art and instead focuses on modern expressions such as pop-culture characters.

Stained glass back in style

Artists: Colourful medium reaching beyond traditional uses

= By AGAZY MENGESHA

tained glass art is making
a comeback beyond tradi-
tional uses, says a local art-
ist.

Stained glass art, the act of co-
louring glass by adding metallic
salts and arranging individual piec-
es to form a large image, was his-
torically used in churches and other
places of worship.

Between March and April, Cor-
rine Leroux, the founder of Awe-
some Sauce Designs, who is hosting
beginner and expert stained glass
workshops, said her workshops and
commissioned work have a modern
twist.

Corrine said they are making

stained glass for comic conventions

and fan expos, that feature comic

book characters and superheroes.
“From my perspective, it’s mak-

Vancouver.

John Gilroy, the owner of Gilroy
Stained Glass on Barnard Street,
said there is a demand to create

ing a re- — — something “out
surgence,” Mu . of the norm”
Leroux From my perspective, through — stained
said. “I've “sy . glass art.

had quite It's making a For example, a
a lot of in- local family asked

terest in
the classes.

nf
resurgence.
~ CORRINE LEROUX, FOUNDER OF AWESOME

him to create a
piece of stained

Back in the SAUCE DESIGNS WHO HOSTS STAINED GLASS glass for their en-
fall, they WORKSHOPS trance way.

were fill- LL _ “The family
ing up two wanted a real fine

months in advance.”

Leroux said because of the grow-
ing interest, there have been an in-
crease in places offering classes in

art piece in their entrance way in
their home that had a lot of Chi-
nese themes in it — different types

of plants and symbolism,” Gil-

roy said. “They wanted something
completely unique to them and told
the story of their culture.”

Gilroy said most of his clients
ask for “out of the norm” work such
as fine art paintings that generally
take weeks and months to produce
as a stained glass piece.

“They wanted somethign com-
peltely unique to them," Gilroy
said.

Colleen Lu, who attended one of
Leroux’s workshops, said it would
be nice if making stained glass art
became as popular as it was in the
medieval times.

“It's something that I find very
relaxing...which I don't think we
do enough in our daily lives now,”

Lu said.

Learning facts with

Award-winning
children’s books
combines tales
and teaching

= By DESIREE GARCIA

( } hildren’s books should use
fiction to teach kids about
science, history, and the

world of facts, according to novel-

ists and academics.

In March, the West Coast Book
Prize Society announced the final-
ists for the 2018 BC Book Prizes.
Under their Christie Harris Ilus-
trated Children’s Literature Prize,
four out of five awardees were
authors who wrote children’s fic-
tional stories that taught scientific
and academic topics. Some of the
awardees include Wolf Island by
Nicholas Read and 4A Day With

Yayah by Nicola Campbell, which
tell the stories of wolves’ ecosystems
and an indigenous family’s foraging
techniques respectively.

Ron Hatch, a publisher with
Ronsdale Press on 21st Avenue,
said combining fiction and fact is
the most crucial part in making a
successful children’s books, since
most children will likely not pick-
up a historical non-fiction book as
a “good read.

“(Children] want the historical
information to be fascinating and
exciting,” Hatch said.

Elleke Boehmer, a literature and
English professor at the University
of Oxford and author of Nile Baby,
said fiction is a potent teaching
tool and a great way to introduce
children and young people to big
ideas they might not otherwise be
exposed to.

“If we think about how J. K.
Rowling or J. R. R. Tolkien trans-
mit to children about history and
about rituals and traditions, it's
obviously a very effective medium,”

Boehmer said.

Caitlin Jesson, manager of the
Book Warehouse on West Broad-
way, said books that focus on edu-
cation are important.

She said combining fictional ele-
ments that allow kids’ imaginations
to run wild is a necessary part of
making educational topics appeal-

iction

ing for them.

Jesson said books that combine
education and imagination are al-
ways in demand, and believes offer-
ing children the chance to learn and
to dream is an easy way to attract
their attention.

“Combining the two is just kind
of a no-brainer,” Jesson said.

Caitlin Jesson, manager of the Book Warehouse. PHo070 BY DESIREE GARCIA