Still Moon Arts events celebrate nature

BY LUCAS CHAN

On June 30 Still Moon Art Society’s artistic director, Carmen Rosen, unveiled her first public art sculpture Still Here. Located on 2699 Kingsway (close to the old Wally’s Burgers), Still Here is a testament to the lost streams that continue to exist beneath the concrete jungle.

The sculpture also represents the efforts of the community to acknowledge its existence and steward the future health of existing natural spaces that remain in the city, like Renfrew Ravine and Still Creek. More than just beautiful places teeming with wildlife and flora, these places present environments for communities to learn, explore and connect with each other as well as the natural world.

Come out to Stewardship Mondays

On July 11 the weekly summer initiative, Stewardship Mondays, had its first session and featured a workshop on weaving native and non-native plant species with local artist Sharon Kallis.

Every Monday for the rest of the summer Still Moon Arts will continue to host family friendly activities in the ravine from 11 am–1 pm, meeting at the Renfrew Ravine labyrinth on 27th Avenue.

Performance Exploration

Renfrew Ravine is the home to many memories about how this natural space has served as a place for community reflection, inspiration and connection. From July 10–14 Still Moon Arts organized a site-specific Performance Exploration workshop in Renfrew Ravine, a four-day process to tell community-inspired stories through dance, poetry, music, vocal body, theatre and ephemeral art.

Still Moon Arts invited aspiring youth performers share two of the days to learn interdisciplinary techniques to expressing their creativity under the mentorship of artist/vocalist Carmen Rosen and director/choreographer Isabelle Kirouac, singer/dancer Laura Crema and visual artist/musician Robin Lough. Material from this workshop will be used to develop material for a larger work to be presented next year.

Moon Festival

August and September will be busy months as Still Moon Arts prepares for their 14th annual Renfrew Ravine Moon Festival on Saturday, September 17 at Slocan Park and Renfrew Park. From September 6-9/ 12-15 there will be lantern workshops at Slocan Hall from 4–8 pm, with Moon Music Concerts at Slocan Park throughout the month.

Still Moon Arts will end the month with an Equinox Labyrinth Walk on Thursday, September 22 and a World Rivers Day art and water celebration on Sunday, September 25.

For more information on all events find them on Facebook as Still Moon Arts Society and on Twitter and Instagram as stillmoonarts.

Lucas Chan is a fourth year student at the University of British Columbia studying international trade and development in the faculty of land and food systems. He is interested in learning from community stories and knowledge to explore more ways of bringing people together. Through Still Moon he aims to increase awareness of Renfrew Ravine as a place for community, education, sustainability and art.

Copyright (c) 2016 Renfrew-Collingwood Community News