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Remembering the 1980s
THE PAST IS PROLOGUE
» Thursday 28 August 2008 | 5 pm
» The Bohemian Café, 524 Bernard Avenue
An informal afternoon hour showcasing people and ideas featured in Okanagan ARTS. Join cultural pioneers Ursula Surtees and Jennifer Hindle as they provide a retrospective look at the development of culture and the arts in the Okanagan.
» This is a free event. Refreshments will be available at a modest cost.
» Seating is limited, please reserve yours HERE
Arts Pioneers Recall Cultural Glory Days
The year was 1976 and there was excitement around a new idea that the Okanagan was ready to embark on a new adventure - celebrating its own artistic merits.
Hailed as the cultural program of the decade, Okanagan Image became the "renaissance" that people from Vernon to Penticton to Kamloops were waiting for. It featured the work of local artists, composers, writers, ballerinas, even the premier Canadian playwright of the day - George Ryga - with his specially commissioned work The Ploughman of the Glacier.
On the heels of this excitement came the awareness that the Okanagan was ready to embrace culture to its fullest capability. The result? Two pillars of Kelowna's own cultural community - the coming-of-age of the Kelowna Museum as a place capable of bringing world-class exhibitions to the Southern Interior, and the first glimmer that the arts deserved a home to call its own. In less than a decade, this vision would transform an old packing house into a home for the artistic community The Laurel Building.
On Thursday August 28, 5pm at the Bohemian Café in downtown Kelowna two critical players in this cultural renaissance - Ursula Surtees and Jennifer Hindle - take part in the Okanagan Institute Express series of public events with Remembering the 1980s: The Past Is Prologue - a retrospective look at a critcally important decade in the development of culture and the arts in the Okanagan.
Ursula Surtees is the retired curator of the Kelowna Museum. Born and educated in England, she came to Kelowna in the late 1940s and started work with the museum as its first and only employee in 1959. Surtees retired in 2002, and during her time with the museum saw it grow from what was affectionately termed "the bunkhouse" into the largest museum in the Okanagan featuring a high-tech conservation lab (named in her honour) - the only one of its kind in the region. Well-regarded as a champion of both heritage and conservation in the province, Surtees received numerous awards including the Queen's Jubilee Award and a distinguished service award from the BC Museums Association.
Jennifer Hindle is well-known in the community as the wife of former mayor John Hindle and the former owner of the Eldorado Arms Hotel. But she's also known as the key player in moving the Kelowna and District Arts Council from a handful of volunteers working from a cardboard box to a full-fledged arts organization. She was instrumental as a local fundraiser for the arts and played a critical role in saving the Laurel Packing House from demolition.
Remembering the 1980s: The Past Is Prologue is a free event, and takes place at the Bohemian Café. This marks the 55th event the Okanagan Institute has held since the Express series got underway in July 2007. Since that time, the series has played host to many Okanagan luminaries, including former deputy secretary general of Amnesty International Derek Evans, artists Lee Claremont and Gary Pearson, BC Book Award nominee Don Gayton, CBC Literary prize winner poet Harold Rhenisch, distinguished editor and author Jim Taylor, animator and filmmaker Jim Cliffe, architect Jim Meiklejohn, and others from a variety of creative fields.
FOR MORE INFORMATION AND TO REGISTER ONLINE CLICK HERE
Where Enquiring Minds Gather. Okanagan Institute at the Bohemian Café A hearty feast of lectures, presentations, workshops and showcases celebrating our culture and community. Produced by the Okanagan Institute in association with Wheat King Publishing magazines: Okanagan Arts and Okanagan Home. Express is sponsored in part by the Arts Council of the Central Okanagan, Wood Lake Publishing, UBCO-FCCS, and in support of Project Literacy Kelowna.
The Okanagan Institute is a group of creative professionals that have gathered around the goal of providing events, publications and services of interest to enquiring minds in the Okanagan. We partner with individuals, organizations, institutions and businesses to achieve optimal creative and social impact.
Our mission is to ignite cultural transformation, catalyze collaborative action, build networks and foster sustainable creative enterprises. We invite the participation by all members of the creative community.
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