Best Arts for Kids in Vancouver
April 5, 2013
Thanks to your support and your belief in our school, The Arts Connection was voted as the top venue for arts for kids in Vancouver by VancouverMom.ca! We were competing with some pretty fantastic places in the lower mainland so we are feeling very honored about this exciting news. Most importantly, we are so grateful for all the love from our amazing community of families, students, teachers and staff!
Celebrating our Opening
February 3, 2013
A special ‘thanks’ to the over 100 friends, family, colleagues, and business associates who attended a wonderful evening celebrating the grand opening of our amazing new facility! I was thrilled to share this amazing moment with so many who had contributed in one way or another, large or small, to our achievement. To quote Christine Brodie, wife of our Mayor, “The children of Richmond now have a ‘state-of-the-art facility’ to learn and grow”. I am so proud to have been able to make this facility available to the community. It is no longer just ‘a dream’!
~Linda Shirley, CEO & Founder
VALENTINE’S DANCE & FUNDRAISER
February 1, 2013
February 9th, 2013
6:30pm-9:00pm
Admission: $10 per student
All Ages Welcome!
Let’s celebrate our love of dance, love for each other, love for our new studio, AND love for our “adopted” school friends at Admiral Seymour School in Vancouver! As many of you will remember, we held a dance-a-thon last year to raise money for art supplies to be given to Seymour School. The Arts Connection has developed a program where once per month children from Seymour School will come out to our location and spend an entire day working on arts-related projects in partnership with students from Westwind School. In order to help this monthly program flourish, the Dance Division is going to use our Valentine’s Day Dance Party as a fundraiser to help these Seymour school children continue to attend.
Admission to the dance party will be $10 per student. Parents – you will receive a tax receipt upon your request for this donation! ALL PROCEEDS will go directly to the Seymour School art program.
We will create Valentine’s for each other, have a colouring station, and dance the evening away! PLUS, we will have a coin toss to win prizes! Please bring any quarters, loonies, and toonies or other coins that you might have lying around for this activity. Every toss will receive a Valentine’s Day chocolate, and if you get the coin on the target, there will be a bonus prize!
There will also be a FANTASTIC door prize!
The person drawn for the door prize will take home a certificate for another dance party – hosted by your very own Dance Division Teachers! The winner, along with 15 of his or her friends will get to attend a TWO HOUR dance party learning a variety of dance styles. This dance party with all of the dance division staff is valued at $450! Students are encouraged to invite friends who do not attend The Arts Connection. Maybe all this fun will make them want to be a part of our dance family!
The School of Music raised $600 at the Winter Recital last December. We are hoping to beat that number! Please come out and support the School of Dance, Seymour School, and be a part of the team!
Please sign up to bring snacks and drinks at the School of Dance bulletin board located outside the girls changeroom.
Our New Facilities
January 9, 2013
After months of grueling hard work and mountainous challenges, we have persevered! What has been a longtime dream to see our entire community under one roof has finally come into fruition. Our brand new facilities are finally open and we invite you to see a few pictures of our space or to stop by anytime to take a tour.
“It’s a Wonderful Life” for Aiden
December 8, 2012
Aiden Wessels plays young Henry Bailey in Arts Club’s much-beloved production of “It’s a Wonderful Life” which is now in its fifth year! Aiden can be seen onstage from now until December 29th at the Granville Island Stage. Congratulations Aiden! If you would like to purchase tickets for this production, please call the Arts Club Box Office at 604-687-1644 or visit artsclub.com.
Maeghan Lorey in “Nutcracker”
December 6, 2012
Our very own Maeghan Lorey will be performing in Canada’s Royal Winnipeg Ballet’s “Nutcracker at Vancouver’s Queen Elizabeth Theatre. She will be dancing the part of a mountie. Set in the turn-of-the-20th-century Canada, the show is a uniquely Canadian spin on the traditional ballet. Maeghan will be dancing on the 7:30pm show on December 15th. If you would like to support her, tickets are available at www.ticketmaster.ca.
Free Russian Folk Dance Class
October 3, 2012
The Arts Connection is excited to be partnering with Professor Stanislav Galmkhanov to offer our students the opportunity to learn the ancient art of Altyn Folk Dance. Altyn is a centuries old genre of dance from Russia that includes a number of folk dances in different meters, including quadrilles and roundelays. Altyn Folk Dance theatre focuses on broadening the dance traning of each student to relfect the dance in all of its beautiful forms while simultaneously providing them with a musical and cultural education.
Professor Stanislav will run a FREE, 1-hour, promotional class on October 3rd from 6-7pm, for students of all ages to come and learn more about Altyn Folk Dance. No registration commitment is required to attend this promotional class, but we will need your RSVP so that we know how many to expect! Please RSVP below. You are welcome to bring a friend. (They will also need to RSVP)
Construction Update!
August 23, 2012
We are excited to finally begin construction of our new facility and want to share the progress with all our families as we excitedly wait for our new home to be finished! Please keep checking our construction update page as we add more pictures of the construction.
Tune in Now: We Have a Major Renovation Project Coming!
March 31, 2012
Do you know about the planned redevelopment of Minato Village Plaza? We’ve been working with Porte Realty at our No. 2 Road headquarters to acquire three adjoining warehouse units.
With the help of our design consultant, Jack Falk, and our construction team, we’ll start a major renovation project in the next few months. Soon we’ll have 7,500 sq ft of added space to provide more facilities and programmes designed for your toddlers and children.
Starting this September—in addition to our current Renaissance Kids’ programme —we’ll be adding more creative space that makes everything arts-related easily accessible all in one place. And, if you personally would love to try your hand at pottery, painting or perhaps a yoga or dancercize fitness class, there’ll be something for adults, too.
Our new facilities will include:
- beautifully appointed music studios
- large dance studio/performance space with a stage for recitals and presentations
- pottery studio with kiln and wheels
- photography darkroom
- fully-equipped art studio for drawing and painting
- administrative offices
- new Renaissance Kids’ Kindergarten classroom
- additional Renaissance Baby Toddler classroom
- 3 classrooms for new Before/After School programme
