Category Archives: Arts

Will Rendall: Keep On Smiling

Will Rendall released a CD called Keep on Smiling on May 22, 2024. Some Cortes Island residents will remember him as Julia Rendall’s son. He was 7 when he moved to Squirrel Cove in 1976.

He emailed, “I had always liked music but it wasn’t until I heard Billy Joel in 1978 that i became a rock and roll fan. I always thought his lyrics were amazing. I think it would have been around 1981 when I started writing songs. To me lyrics were the most important part of a song. 

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Seeing the language of Art

Art is a language received through the senses, and viewing the Member’s Show at the Old Schoolhouse Gallery is a perfect opportunity to learn how this visual language creates feelings and messages when we look at the art works.

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The 2024 Creative Spaces Garden and Studio Tour On Cortes Island

The Creative Spaces Garden and Studio Tour is Saturday June 22, from 10 am to 4 pm. This is an annual fundraiser for the Cortes Island Museum, as well as a showcase of some of the island’s hidden gems.  

“It’s a great opportunity to feature creative talents of people on the island, and it’s a self guided  tour of studios and gardens that takes you all the way around from Whaletown, down to Smelt Bay, and Cortes Bay. We’ve got painters, textile artists, weavers, spinners,  ceramicists .  We’ve got a number of potters and pottery studios that are participating. And then some beautiful spaces with gardens that range from low bluff to high bluff. You pick up a map, which includes a button, and you just go around the island visiting people with talents you may not have known about, or see spaces that you were curious about but never had an opportunity to actually walk into. Walk through the gates and see what people are growing there,” explained Melanie Boyle, Managing Director of the Cortes Island Museum.

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Opening Night of the Old Schoolhouse Art Gallery’s 2024 Season

Eighty-three people turned out on Friday June 7, for the gala opening night of the Old Schoolhouse Art Gallery’s 2024 season. This is a group show, which will be open to the public on Fridays (6-9 PM) and on weekends (2-6 PM) until June 16th.

Bianca Lee,  Manager of the Old Schoolhouse Art Gallery, was delighted by the large turnout, “I wasn’t sure how it was going to work out having the member show at the beginning of the season, but it worked out pretty magnificently. There was so much interest and participation in the show. It seems like a really beautiful way to start out the season, get people excited about the gallery and also avoid the burnout of late season.”

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Getting Ready For Love Fest 2024

Ben Coey is co-producing this year’s Lovefest, which returns to Linnaea Farm on Saturday August 10th.  

“Rex, Amy and Rick have been running and producing the festival for a number of years. They’ve  decided that they need to have a bit of a break from doing it. I’ve worked with Rex on a number of projects previously.  He asked me if I liked to get involved and help out with co-producing and I said, ‘yeah, sure,’” Coey explained.

“I’m good friends with Rex. I’ve toured for many years as a drummer in a band with Rex’s son, Jack. I’ve always loved coming to Lovefest, and played in it a couple of times. I’m spending more time up in Cortes and gradually moving up here. This is a nice way to just get involved with the community.”

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