Culture Days has announced the 2013 top ten cities and towns based on the total number of registered Culture Days activities last year.

Vancouver lost a popular jazz singer, recording artist, and arts journalist last Thursday when Renee Doruyter (seen here with close friend and onetime Vancouver Jazz scene celebrity Almeta Speaks) passed away of cancer, age 68, at St. Paul's Hospital surrounded by friends and family.

Does your group hold a parade, festival, or other arts or cultural projects that promote unique Vancouver communities and neighbourhoods through arts and cultural activities? If so, your group may be eligible for grant money for planning, running, or promoting that event or project.

City of Vancouver Cultural Services staff are holding a free information meeting about Community and Neighbourhood Arts Development Grants to share more about this annual grants program. There will be a brief discussion followed by a question and answer period.

West Vancouver's Kay Meek Centre for the Performing Arts has a new management structure that will divide the roles of managing and artistic director to meet the needs of the Centre in a period of expansion and artistic growth. 

The Key Events List (pdf), compiled by your Alliance for Arts and Culture, lists upcoming events in and around Metro Vancouver through the next 12 months. The list is designed to be a guide for event planners, who will find the roster helpful in avoiding scheduling conflicts.

The City of Vancouver invites you to participate in TalkVancouver, an online space where you can share your insights with Vancouver City Hall on the important issues that affect you and our city.

As new City projects and initiatives unfold, TalkVancouver allows the City to reach out to you, share plans with you, hear your ideas, and talk about your needs.

Kerry-Lynne D. Findlay, Minister of National Revenue and Member of Parliament (Delta–Richmond East) was in Kelowna last week, on behalf of Shelly Glover, Minister of Canadian Heritage and Official Languages, to announce support for seven arts and culture projects in the Okanagan region.

The one-time investment of $274,980 will enable six organizations to deliver programming, organize festivals, strengthen francophone communities and support local publications. 

Film buffs mourning the 2011 closure of renowned Vancouver video store Videomatica can now access its collection of over 35,000 titles at UBC and SFU libraries. 

Catalogued and available for borrowing, the unparalleled collection includes feature films from more than 75 countries, documentaries, cult and art films, Canadian works and selections from the Vancouver International Film Festival. UBC received about 28,000 DVDs, 4,000 VHS titles and 900 Blu-rays and SFU received more than 2,500 documentaries.

The BC Museums Association announced this week the appointment of Theresa Mackay to the position of executive director. 

Mackay, a prominent leader in the fields of marketing and culture and a former director with the Royal BC Museum, succeeds interim executive director, John Grimes. 

The Cultch will receive the largest corporate donation in the organization's history, a $2 million gift from East Vancouver-based West Coast Reduction Ltd. 

In recognition of the gift, The Cultch has named the restored stage at the York Theatre, which the organization operates, in honour of the local rendering facility. The deal was pending until Vancouver City Council voted last night (January 21) to amend a sign bylaw to permit name recognition on the York’s signage.  

The Symposium for Performing Arts in Rural Communities (SPARC) will bring together rural creators, producers, presenters and animateurs to discuss the business of performing arts and place-based culture, in particular in rural communities.