January
Coldsnap, Prince George's unique winter music festival (most in Canada are held in summer, mostly outdoors, while this one is inside at a number of venues) made a triumphant return. The year previous, they melded with the Canada Winter Games festivities as a matter of practicality, but 2016 was back to their usual format. The headliners from coast to coast included such notable names as Devin Cuddy, Old Man Luedecke, Le Vent Du Nord, Jaclyn Guillou and many more.
Local film company Picaroon Pictures, owned and operated by Dan Stark and Jon Chuby, cracked the Top 15 list at the international "48 Film Project" short-film competition in which they had only two days to shoot, edit and submit their project. As a result their show Behind The Reds got screened in Hollywood at a special viewing for the Directors' Guild of America.
It was announced that all-local startup business Crossroads Brewing Company was going to renovate the long vacant building at 5th Avenue and George Street and turn it into a craft brewery and tasting house. Owners Daryl Leiski and Bjorn Butow announced their plans in January then set to work on executing the venture.
February
The Juno Awards announced the annual list of nominees for the pinnacle trophy in the Canadian music industry. Connections to Prince George included two nominations for rock band Hedley (with P.G. guitar player/vocalist Dave Rosin), one for The Tenors (with former P.G. boy Fraser Walters), and one for Cariboo roots duo Pharis & Jason Romero. Other nominees with our northern region in their personal history included Dean Brody, Dan Mangan, and Alex Cuba (also nominated for a Grammy Award in 2016).
Thanks to a partnership with Theatre NorthWest, the national touring theatre project Tale Of A Town came to P.G. to create the Prince George edition. In 2014, Fixt Point Theatre Company and the National Arts Centre Of Canada launched the cross-Canada theatrical project whereby researchers come to a community, do research and interviews, then create a live dramatic telling of the town's story as a reflection of what was learned in the preview stage. The show was held over several days at a converted space in the Ramada Hotel, plus many parts (taped interviews, etc.) left over as a permanent legacy.
Susan Klein became the first woman to conduct the Prince George Symphony Orchestra in its 46-year history. A staffing shortage meant changes needed to be made to the on-stage presentation of their mainstage show at Vanier Hall, and the most qualified person to take the baton was Klein, a longtime player in the PGSO and a veteran conductor in their rehearsal process. She is also an award-winning band teacher with DP Todd Secondary School.
After an experiment for the 2015 Canada Winter Games, during which visual artist Jennifer Pighin was featured for a year, the top floor of City Hall was officially made into an art gallery.
The artist that took the space over under this new exhibition mandate was Laura Chandler, a longtime local photographer and painter of watercolour and acrylic images. She is also known for teaching art at the Two Rivers Gallery. About 40 of Chandler's pieces were put on display on the deck of the building housing the mayor's offices and other key municipal departments.
March
When filmmaker Kevan Funk needed a place to set his hockey story, a feature-length film about an aspiring player who had his life upset by on-ice violence, he turned to Prince George. The film Hello Destroyer was scheduled to use local sites for a few scenes, but the community's reception to the cast and crew was so positive, they switched their plans to include P.G. for much more. The highlight was the crowd that came out to fill the stands at CN Centre for their shooting of the game action scenes.
To celebrate the city newspaper's 100th year, The Citizen and the Community Arts Council offered the public a unique feature spread over 26 weeks. The Alphabet Project had each letter of the alphabet artistically rendered by local artists. Each one was unique and intrinsically Prince George, coming from the deepest wells of all-local creative talent. Each week, the next letter was revealed in sequence along with a biographical feature story on the artist and some of the thinking that went into the piece.
April
A musical force from Prince George joined up with a visual force beloved the world over. Kevin Zakresky, opera singer and symphony conductor, was called to the podium for the global tour of The Legend Of Zelda: Symphony of the Goddesses, an orchestral event based on the music and animation of the famed video game franchise.
Zakresky was until recently the PGSO's last full-time conductor and music director before moving on to be the maestro for the Vancouver Chamber Choir, the Pacifica Singers, the Sea To Sky Symphony and teach at the Vancouver Symphony School Of Music.
He has been a recent guest conductor with the St. Louis Symphony, Sudbury Symphony, West Coast Symphony and other orchestras and choral ensembles.
A poem was read aloud to commence a public meeting of mayor and council.
It sounds simple, but it had never happened before. Local award-winning poet Gillian Wigmore was chosen for the honour, as Prince George's contribution to a national challenge issued by Calgary mayor Naheed Nenshi to shine a light on both UNESCO's World Poetry Day (March 21) and Canada's National Poetry Month (April). Wigmore performed her work Late Season Sun.
May
Northern FanCon was once again held at the CN Centre/Kin Centres complex, drawing tens of thousands of visits from the public into the pop-culture convention.
The trade show gave an enormous public platform for artists, vendors and service providers, plus brought to the Prince George stage a number of international celebrities.
Names like Levar Burton, Jay Mewes, Brett Dalton, Candice Patton, Veronica Taylor, Denise Crosby, and a whole contingent of Captain Canuck personnel (and many more) all got up close and personal with the local fans of TV, film, music, comics, comedy, internet and video games.
Kris Foot was voted the top light painter on our planetary orb.
The local art photographer was crowned the champion of the Spun-Ups Global Orbs tournament on Instagram, a competition entered by photographers all over the world who specialize in long-exposure light manipulation images. The winner got the title based on a combination of online voting and a panel of expert judges.
Aspiring local pianist Katherine Li made PGSO history twice. In 2015 she became part of the first tie ever experienced by the Prince George Symphony Orchestra's panel of judges in their annual PGSO-Integris Youth Concerto Competition.
The fact she tied with her sister Nancy was a bonus curio of fate. Then, when the 2016 competition was held, she set record number two, becoming the first to ever repeat as winner.
The one local entry in the 2016 Zone Drama Festival, held in Williams Lake this year, was the Pocket Theatre production of Vanya and Sonia and Masha and Spike.
It took home several of the tournament's awards, including the big one. Dominic Maguire took home the outstanding director trophy, Katherine Trepanier got best supporting female actor, Adam Harasimiuk was best supporting male actor, Jody Newham earned best performance by a female actor, and Pierre Ducharme was given an adjudicator's choice citation for outstanding work by a male actor.
The entire cast and crew won for outstanding production and moved on to compete at the provincials later in the year.
June
A long dormant entertainment company made a major comeback.
The Metro Comedy Circuit was resurrected by proprietor Jason Luke.
He ran it in the 1990s until he moved away, but since his return he spotted sustained interest in comedy in P.G. that didn't exist in those days, so he sparked the name up again with special performances by leading national comics like Erica Sigurdson, Dylan Rhymer and Kids In The Hall alum Bruce McCulloch.
Art Battle BC was held in Vancouver at the Red Room Ultra Bar with a Prince George artist in the theatre of paint-war. Christina Watts earned her spot at the provincial finals by winning at the annual Art Battle - Prince George event.
She didn't end up winning the B.C. event, but did place second, giving Prince George another strong showing in the event. This is a round robin speed-painting tournament.
Each artist has to whip up their best image in a 20-minute heat.
They advance to the finals via audience voting.
Local actor Dylan Playfair (born and raised in Fort St. James) got a pair of nominations at the Leo Awards, B.C.'s premier screen arts trophy. He was up for Best Performance In A Youth or Children's Program/Series for his role as Kooky-Dough in the TV show Some Assembly Required and also up for Best Performance By A Male In A Short Drama for his heart-aching role in Never Steady, Never Still, the short movie directed by Kathleen Hepburn (also a Fort St. James resident). He won for the latter category, giving him his second career Leo Award. Playfair can be seen now in the Crave TV series Letterkenny.
July
Canada Day 2016 was the first to be held at the newly re-named Lheidli T'enneh Memorial Park, the original site of the millennia-old Lheidli T'enneh First Nation village before their displacement to off-site reserves 100 years ago.
This year's celebrations included the first cottonwood canoe ever made on LTFN territory by the entire multicultural community.
An enormous log was placed outside at The Exploration Place where any passersby enjoying the national festivities could join in the chipping and chopping. The construction effort was led by LTFN elder Robert Frederick and artist Jennifer Annais Pighin with the canoe destined for the museum's permanent collection.
The Community Arts Council named their next artist-in-residence. Following on the year-long positions held by Corey Hardeman, Cliff Mann, and Crystalynn Tarr, the fourth-ever occupant of the position was announced to be Carla Joseph Aubichon. She now gets a year of free studio space in the CAC's arts complex at Studio 2880. The artist-in-residence also gets prime space at events like Studio Fair, Spring Arts Bazaar, the CAC's on-site gallery, Art Battle, 6x6 Art Auction, and other high profile opportunities.
Former Prince George comedian Chris Gaskin became the second local comic to make it into the finals of the annual SiriusXM Top Comic tournament (the first being Matt Billon). He cracked the Top 18 out of an original slate of more than 70 professional and semi-pro contestants. He didn't win but got plenty of critical acclaim for his acerbic wit and added that key credit to his growing list of career accomplishments.
August
The annual Metallion metal music festival happened in Vanderhoof, with an unusual twist this year. Two of the headline acts, Hellchamber of Vancouver and Deveined of Prince George, involve players who once comprised the two most acclaimed metal bands to ever reside in this city: Godless and Skin Cell. So Brad Foster and James Dean "JD" Eckert called on retired frontman Ross O'Byrne to complete the trio and do a reunion show after shutting down in 2004.
The most successful stage play to ever spring from the local boards had an anniversary to celebrate.
Jake's Gift turned 10 with a set of performances on the very stage on which it was invented, the Sunset Theatre in Wells.
Playwright and sole actor Julia Mackey has performed the show - an ode to Canada's sacrifices in the Second World War - almost 1,000 times internationally in front of children, war veterans, dignitaries and most poignantly in Normandy, France where much of the play is rooted.
Limelight Quest 2016 whittled its field of competitors down to eight: Caitriona Hogan; Raylene Westlund; Selina Bomberger; Bryanna Davidson; Sean Robinson; Arilynne Barks; Paige Danelle Johnston; and Kiziah Arias. They vied for the title at the BC Northern Exhibition with Robinson coming out the winner, at the age of 12. He now embarks on a prize package that includes feature performances and studio time to advance his singing aspirations.
The book Obstruction Of Justice by Ray Michalko was released, detailing Michalko's years as a private investigator working on several of the cases of missing and murdered women along the Highway of Tears.
Several film and radio documentaries, magazine features, newspaper stories, plays, even visual arts pieces have been created for this tragic topic but Michalko's is one of the few books.
September
Longtime dance school Excalibur Theatre Arts moved locations.
The facility operated by Bonnie and Dave Leach grew beyond the capabilities of their previous address on Ogilvie Street, necessitating a move to Lyon Street only a couple of blocks away where they substantially renovated the old Prince George Free Press building into a base of operations for years to come.
The animated film Red Sonja: Queen Of Plagues renewed the fantasy heroine franchise, with some local talent involved. The voices of Mark Wheeler and Becca Strom were part of the cast, with Wheeler portraying king's confidant Apos and Strom portraying villain Dark Annisia.
The film is 72 minutes long, based on the 2013-14 graphic novel by Gail Simone (author) and Walter Geovanni (artist). Simone directed the film. It is available now from the Shout Factory website and through Amazon in Blu-Ray and DVD formats.
Longtime local photographer but first-time filmmaker Kim Feragen earned funding from the Telus-Storyhive granting agency for her short-film proposal entitled Final Breath. It is a horror story adapted from real events in Feragen's youth. The $10,000 grant enabled Feragen and co-producer Norm Coyne to shoot the footage this past fall, using a who's who of local actors in the roles and all-local sets and crew.
A downtown gallery on the brink of shutting down was instead restored and injected with new life. Groop Gallery was unsustainable on the part-time basis owner/artist Melanie Desjardines could provide, but commercial photographer Philomena Hughes and artist/art broker Christina Harmer Watts of Ridge Side Art moved in with her. It reinvigorated the space and created a private-sector art hub in the downtown.
October
One of the region's veteran cultural professionals has been applauded provincially for his efforts here. George Harris, the longtime curator of the Two Rivers Gallery was spotlighted at the B.C. Museums Association (BCMA) awards show and conference. The BCMA bestows few trophies at each year's event, so Harris's recognition was especially amplified. He was one of only two to take home the Distinguished Service Award.
He deserved it, according to BCMA officials, because of "years of work, through Two Rivers Gallery, to develop the careers of northern B.C. artists and to bring internationally renowned artists to northern B.C."
The Lakes Animal Friendship Society released their second children's book as a fundraiser for their animal rescue efforts. Out In The Cold was written by society founders Valerie Ingram and Alistair Schroff and illustrated by famed New York artist Amanda Moeckel. It tells the story of a dog saved from the winter cold by a charitable dog house initiative - an actual initiative of the society.
The book is available for sale at Petland and contains information about the society and its all-local animal welfare work.
November
An awkward pause turned into a new ripple of laughter. Longtime theatre director, actor and arts entrepreneur Bas Rynsewyn announced his retirement, closing both his Serious Moonlight Productions play company and his improvisational comedy series Improv Ad Nauseum. Some of the regular I.A.N. cast reformed the group under a new name, however, so the spontaneous jokes can carry on under the title Improv Shmimprov.
Even more faces are now peering at passersby from the trees of Cottonwood Island Park. The City of Prince George commissioned master carver Elmer Gunderson to chip his trademark images - detailed faces and shapes in the bark of cottonwood trees - along the popular trail system along the Nechako River near the Railway & Forestry Museum. Gunderson had installed some of these images already, in previous years, but this added more, giving one more incentive for walkers and joggers to get out and enjoy a local pedestrian treasure.
Aspiration: A History of the University of Northern B.C. was released, detailing the first quarter-century of life for the city's university. Written by UNBC history professor Jonathan Swainger delved into the foundational forces of the facility, and also looked into how it transformed the culture of Prince George and northern B.C.
December
Local playwright Devon Flynn was celebrated four times over for his script-crafting when the Nechako Community Theatrics Society held a showing of four plays (three shorts and one feature-length) in one event. All four were written by Flynn.
Born and raised in Prince George, instructed at Judy Russell's Enchainement Dance Centre, aspiring ballerino Matt Cluff took a big leap in his dance career when he got called to be an apprentice with one of Canada's top dance companies. He had been working with Ballet Victoria and the Arts Club Theatre Company prior to the offer from Les Grands Ballets Canadiens de Montral to come be part of the cast for their production of Romeo & Juliet and then more throught the coming year.
