New year, new arts and culture season
Mark your calendars for the Women at War exhibition, Shakespeare’s Comedy of Errors, the New Music Festival, candlelight concerts and more
Get ready for a new year of arts and culture at the University of Manitoba. After an amazing Fall Term of gallery exhibitions, theatre productions and concerts, the upcoming slate of programming is sure to inspire and entertain. Here is a roundup of just some of what’s happening in the next few months.
School of Art Gallery
Dirt Dance #3
Jan. 25| 7:00 p.m.
As part of exhibition programming, artist seth cardinal dodginghorse will perform their new work Dirt Dance #3 live on Thursday, January 25 at 7:00 p.m.
To Broadcast is to Scatter
Now until Feb. 10 | Mon-Wed, Fri, 9:00 am – 5:00 pm, Thurs: 9:00 am – 7:30 pm
There is still time to see Shalaka Jadhav’s exhibition, To Broadcast is to Scatter featuring art works by seth cardinal dodginghorse, Cadence Planthara, Diana Sofia Lozano, and Natalia Villanueva Linares, with projects by June Canedo de Souza and Larissa Sansour & Søren Lind.
On until Feb. 10, the exhibition is an exploration of the cycles of rot and regeneration, illuminating memory-marking within the human insistence on organizing time.
Women at War
Feb. 29-April 27| Mon-Wed, Fri, 9:00 am – 5:00 pm, Thurs: 9:00 am – 7:30 pm
Women at War opens at the School of Art Gallery on Feb. 29. The internationally acclaimed touring exhibition, curated by Monika Fabijanska, makes it first Canadian stop at the School of Art Gallery for a two-month run. Heralded by The Washington Post and Frieze Magazine as among the best visual art exhibitions in 2022, the exhibition features works by a selection of the leading contemporary women artists working in Ukraine and provides context for the current war. Several works in the exhibition were made after Feb. 24, 2022, when Russia began full-scale invasion; others date from the eight years of war following the annexation of Crimea. There is a full slate of adjunct programming planned. More details can be found on the SOA Gallery website closer to the opening date.
Music
January in Winnipeg is known for the searing cold, and also the trailblazing Winnipeg New Music Festival.
Re-Sound is a series of community new music and mixed arts events presented by the Desautels Faculty of Music in partnership with the Winnipeg New Music Festival. All events feature students, faculty and alumni from the University of Manitoba.
Re-Sound: Ex Camera
Jan. 29 | 7:30 p.m.
Winnipeg Art Gallery, Muriel Richardson Auditorium
Free | Tickets
Ex Camera is a program of contemporary chamber music performed by the Winnipeg Chamber Winds Collective, featuring compositions by Gordon Fitzell, David Litke, Melody McKiver and Örjan Sandred under the direction of Jacquie Dawson. Reserve your tickets.
Re-Sound: Paint & Play
Jan. 31 and Feb. 2 | 12:30 p.m.
UM ARTlab, Room 468, Fort Garry Campus
Free |Tickets
Paint & Play is a collaboration between the eXperimental Improv Ensemble and the UM Percussion Ensemble featuring live visual art creation featuring students from the School of Art. Due to limited capacity, please register to guarantee your seat at one of these two presentations.
Candlelight Concert
Feb. 10 | All day
If music by candlelight is more your style, check out the Candlelight Concert with the University of Manitoba Upper Voices, performing at Westminster United Church on Feb. 10.
There are many more concerts to choose from, whether you prefer choral, symphony orchestra, percussion, jazz, opera or musical theatre. Check out the Desautels Faculty of Music website to see the full slate of programming.
Music & Art
March 22| 3:30 p.m.
Desautels Faculty of Music and St John’s College will host the second annual music and art competition on March 22, 2024. The competition looks to bring together students and staff from across the University of Manitoba to showcase a range of artistic abilities. Learn more about how you can submit your piece before the is Feb. 14.
Theatre and literary events
Book Launch
Jan. 19 | 3:00 p.m.
Students from the winter 2022, spring 2022 and fall 2022 terms of the course WOMN 2540: Feminisms and Disability in Contemporary Literature have collaborated to create a book of 28 creative works of nonfiction titled “What our Bodies Know: Essays at the Intersection of Feminism & Disability”. Prof. Christine Stewart introduced themes and concepts from scholars in women’s and gender studies and disability studies including ideologies of normalcy, stigma, appearance, invisibility, care-taking and care-receiving, issues of access and inclusion, impairment/difference, and intersectionality. Students identified a shimmering moment from their lives that connected thematically to one of the course’s over-arching concepts and were then asked to create their essays from that moment.
The launch party will include readings, a book signing, a Q&A and celebration at Centre Space, John A. Russell Building, 84 Curry Place, Fort Garry Campus. Limited copies will be available by donation.
Writer-in-Residence
Miguel Antonio Chávez
Jan. 25| 12:30-2:15 p.m.
Miguel Antonio Chávez is the Winter 2024 Writer-in-residence. He is a writer, lecturer, translator and screenwriter from Ecuador. The Centre for Creative Writing and Oral Culture in the Faculty of Arts welcomes Chávez to UM at an in-person event on Jan. 25, where Chávez will give a reading and talk after a lunch.
Beginning Jan. 31, Chávez will be hosting a three-session workshop for aspiring writers, which will be offered in English as well as Spanish. Chávez is also available by appointment for individual writer consultations from Jan. 15 to Apr. 15. All services are free and open to UM students, academics, staff, alumni and the wider community.
Find out more details and register for the workshop and consultations on the CCWOC website.
Comedy of Errors by William Shakespeare
March 27-31 | 3:00 p.m.
Associate Prof. Katrina Dunn will be directing The Comedy of Errors by William Shakespeare, for the University of Manitoba Theatre program.
Believed to be one of Shakespeare’s earliest plays, this comedy about separated family and mistaken identity is unforgettably poignant and hilarious. A man arrives in a new city to find that everyone knows his name but thinks he’s someone else. To put a modern spin on it, this version of the play sets the action in a high-fashion house of mirrors where style is commodity, image is identity, and your reflection may be taking over your life.
You can see the production March 27-31 in the John J. Conklin Theatre in the Gail Asper Performing Arts Hall, in the Taché Arts Complex. Tickets will go on sale in February.
UM Warming Huts at the Forks
Now until thaw | All day/night
Finally, what is winter without the warming huts competition? UM Faculty of Architecture students will once again be joining five other teams building warming huts in the annual competition. Be sure to check out their entry, “Ice Henge,” a playful space inspired by the spirit of disco and the monumentality of Stonehenge, on the Nestaweya River trail – once it all freezes over. Warming huts will remain out until the end of the skating season. Always check River trail conditions before going.
Mark these events on your calendars now, so you don’t miss out, and be sure to visit the UM arts and culture website to find out about even more events.