The UBC Centre for Cultural Planning and Development is offering two online professional development courses this fall, starting on October 15, 2013. Members of the Alliance for Arts and Culture are invited to register with the coupon code CPLAN13 to save $100 on the standard registration fee.

Attend a free forum on Wednesday, September 18, 2013 from 5:00-8:00 p.m. at the VSO School of Music, 843 Seymour St, Vancouver. (Networking reception takes place from 8:00-9:00 p.m.). 

The Symposium for Performing Arts in Rural Communities (SPARC) will bring together rural creators, producers, presenters and animateurs to initiate a dialogue about how to develop and sustain the performing arts in rural communities. SPARC will ignite dynamic exchange among participants through interactive workshops, seminars, panels and research or community soundbytes and presentations that showcase local venues and celebrate the synergy of community that creates culture and culture that creates community.

The City of Vancouver is inviting ‘expressions of interest’ to tenant the CBC cultural amenity space at 750 Hamilton. Approximately 8,500sf of finished space will be available for long-term lease in mid-2014. Eligible organizations must be Vancouver-based cultural not-for-profits with a focus on performing, media arts or festival arts.

Creative BC is a sponsor of the Global Edition of the 4th annual Merging Media Conference, on November 6 and 7, 2013 at The Arts Club Theatre on Granville Island in Vancouver. This edition showcases the best and brightest cross-media innovation. Take part in discussions on the latest transmedia trends, business intelligence and creative strategies that are shaping the industry worldwide. 

Tourism Vancouver board chair Bob Lindsay announced yesterday (August 20) that the organization's president and CEO Rick Antonson will leave to become a full-time book author in June 2014. 

Lindsay said in his announcement, "We began planning this over two years ago at Rick’s request, so the transition is strategic. Tourism Vancouver and our industry are heading into some of the most exciting and successful years, so the timing for this transition is very good."

This weekend City Opera Vancouver will offer a unique open-air preview of two arias from the company’s next new opera, “Pauline”, based on the life and final days of Canadian writer, poet, and actress Pauline Johnson.

Join the company at Lost Lagoon (Chilco at Alberni) and hear mezzo Rose-Ellen Nichols and pianist David Boothroyd present two arias, with music by Tobin Stokes and libretto by Margaret Atwood. Mohawk poet Janet Rogers will give a talk on the significance of Johnson.

TELUS announced this week the launch of a new fund to help Canadian producers create innovative health and wellness content for digital mediums and television. 

The TELUS Fund is an independently governed, not-for-profit corporation funded by TELUS and charged with encouraging the development and production of Canadian content showcasing social and technological innovation in the field of health and wellness. The fund plans to support 10 to 20 projects a year with up to $250,000 per project.

Want to learn more about how to promote your Culture Days activity to the media in the weeks leading up to the big weekend? Be sure to download the 2013 Culture Days PR Toolkit! This free resource is filled with useful information and tips about how you can get the word out about your activity to local media. 

Roger Gaudet has been selected as the new Director, Arts Disciplines Division at the Canada Council for the Arts, effective October 15, 2013. 

Star in a “home movie” featuring BC residents’ relationship with, and hopes and fears about, the current and future state of BC’s economy. Share your story and be part of We Are BC - a crowd-sourced, user-generated video portrait on our province’s economic life.

A two-day, participant-driven conference on the reality, representation and recognition of Indigenous writers in Canada.

Publishing@SFU is set to host the inaugural National Indigenous Writers Con­ference, October 19-20, 2013.

The two-day conference will feature panels, round-tables, keynote speakers and a series of writing and publishing workshops.

The latest Hill Strategies newsletter features a number of recent reports that have provided indexes and indicators of cultural and social well-being. This issue highlights two arts-specific reports, including an American arts index and a proposed set of cultural indicators for Australia. The issue also examines whether and how culture is integrated into two international indexes of social progress and well-being. You can find the newsletter and reports here.

Vancouver Opera has commissioned internationally-recognized Canadian spoken word poet and performer Shane Koyczan to create the libretto for a new opera whose theme – bullying – is a central issue in our community, in communities across the country and around the world. 

Aimed at audiences of all ages, and drawing upon Mr. Koyczan's own experiences with bullying, both as a victim and as a perpetrator, the 80-minute opera will be based on Stickboy, Mr. Koyczan's acclaimed 2008 novel in verse.

A new association of advocates for art in education is inviting cultural organizations to participate in a nation-wide survey to help create a profile of arts-in-learning activities across Canada.

The Canadian Network for Arts and Learning / le reseau canadien des arts et de l’apprentissage (CNAL/RCAA) is a new national association of artists, arts organizations, educators, policy- makers, researchers, and other advocates for arts-in-learning led by the UNESCO Chair in Arts and Learning, Professor Larry O’Farrell, Queen’s University, Kingston, Ontario.

Fans of artist books, magazines, zines and experimental publishing will have the chance to browse publications by a plethora of local, national and international artists, designers, writers, publishers and institutions at the second annual Vancouver Art/Book Fair (VA/BF) this October 5 and 6 at the Vancouver Art Gallery.