Spring Summer 2024 Activity Guide

Register online at recreation.nanaimo.ca General Inquiries 250-756-5200 96 Culture & Events BC Office of the Human Rights Commissioner FromHate to Hope Mural by Humanity in Art, Nanaimo Aquatic Centre 2024 CULTURE & EVENTS GRANTS: Did you know the City of Nanaimo supports over 40 arts and culture groups through our Grant program? Culture & Events have three available grants: Culture Operating Grant; Culture Project Grant; Downtown Event Revitalization Fund. These grants are essential in supporting the activities of the professional and community-based arts and culture organizations who contribute to the cultural, social and economic vitality of Nanaimo. In December 2023 and January 2024, Council approved Culture & Events staffs recommended 2024 grant allocations to support the activities of non-profit culture and heritage organizations and contribute to the success of events and initiatives planned for downtown. To learn more about our Culture and Events Grants and to see the organizations, programming and events being supported by this program, visit our website at nanaimo.ca. PUBLIC ART SPOTLIGHT David Martinello’s Compelling Agency In fall 2023, the City of Nanaimo unveiled artist, David Martinello’s Temporary Public Art Project, Compelling Agency , which will remain accessible until 2027. Located at the heart of the Old City Quarter adjacent to the intersection of Wallace and Fitzwilliam Streets, Compelling Agency is an arresting, large-scale sculpture constructed of metal and wood. Compelling Agency draws attention to the connective value that humans have with wood as a resource. Fashioned in the silhouette of a tree, the sculpture’s shape and colour places it in conversation with the natural growth of the surrounding park. Suspended within the frame is slab of cedar which prompts a conversation about a material that’s ever-present in our daily lives. Martinello’s intent is to have the viewer consider their relationship to wood and, in turn, their relationship to their environment while they observe the natural weathering and evolution of the sculpture during its years on display.