Rossland’s third annual Youth Week kicks off on Friday, April 29, with plenty of events for youth to attend and participate in.
RED Talks
RED Talks will start off Youth Week at the Old Fire Hall on Friday, April 29 at 7 p.m. The event is being put on by the Rossland Youth Action Network (YAN) and the Seven Summits Centre for Learning.
Grade 10 students Hannah Kroeker and Rhiana Scott are planning the event with help from mentor Jonny Coleshill.
“RED Talks is based off of TED Talks, which is where speakers come in and speak on a different topic, but we use it as a fundraiser for our school and to bring awareness during Youth Week,” explains Kroeker.
This year the theme is “Giving Back” and most of the speakers will be youth, though there will be a few adults as well.
Andy Holmes will speak about Art for People, a project that donates a portion of all painting sales to an organization that oversees creative community projects. Natasha and Sylvie from Seven Summits will talk about their initiative to ban plastic bags from Rossland and Devin Knox, also a Seven Summits student, will talk about her involvement with Me to We.
There will also be an art-off where four youth artists will compete with 15 minutes to paint or draw something based on a provided topic, and the evening will include musical performances.
Doors open at 6:30 p.m. and admission is $10 for adults and $8 for students. Kroeker and Scott estimate that the show will be three hours.
Spray paint workshop and mural creation
On Saturday, April 30 and Sunday, May 1 Rossland youth will have the chance to help decorate the future YAN Space on the Emcon lot.
YAN will host a spray paint workshop taught by Nelson artist Bryn Stevenson and then youth will help create a mural on the east-side wall facing Rossland Summit School (RSS).
Pre-registration is required. Contact Mike Kent at yancoordinator@gmail.com for more information.
Rossland Art Walk
Also on Sunday, May 1, from 6 to 8 p.m., Rosslanders are invited to see artwork created by local youth. Participants will start at the YAN Space where they can pick up maps for the Rossland Art Walk, and then will proceed to the local businesses that have agreed to showcase artwork.
Participants will also receive a ballot for the People’s Choice Awards and can vote on their favourite pieces. There will be two first place prizes of $150 and two second place prizes of $50.
The theme for this year’s art walk is “When Life Gives You Lemons” and participants will also have a chance to vote for their favourite lemonade. Each venue will have it’s own special lemonade, so those planning on doing the walk should bring their own cup to try samples.
All of the artwork will remain on display through to Thursday, May 5.
U19 Film Showcase
This year the U19 Film Festival has been combined with the Youth Variety Show. The Youth Week Gala on Thursday, May 5 (see below) will include the U19 Film Showcase, where young local film makers will have the chance to share their films with the community.
Leading up to the festival, the Rossland Council for Arts and Culture (RCAC) has been hosting a number of film-related workshops to help youth with their projects.
Youth learned about making ski films, making claymation films, and creating special effects make-up.
The next workshop will be about film directing, and it will be held on Saturday, April 23 at the YAN Space from 1-5 p.m. The cost is $20 and youth must pre-register at rosslandartscouncil.com/Youth-Initiatives.
The RCAC has also been holding film drop-in nights at the YAN Space on Thursday nights, from 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. Youth can drop-in and work on their films, with access to cameras and laptops for filming and editing. The last day for the drop-in is Thursday, April 28.
Deadline for submission to the showcase is Thursday, April 28 at 12 p.m. and films can be submitted at u19filmfest.com/how-to-submit.
Youth Week Gala
Youth Week will wrap up with the Youth Week Gala on Thursday, May 5 at 6:30 p.m. in the RSS Auditorium.
The evening will include not only films made by local youth, but also musical performances and dancing.
“Anyone who actually took in the variety show that we had at Winter Carnival, there were a number of youth that performed that night and we’ve got some of them returning,” says Lisa Henderson, drama teacher at RSS.
Local singer and songwriter Laela Heidt will be among the performers as well.
The gala will also be a chance for YAN to give out some awards to local youth.
Admission to the gala is $5, and the event is a fundraiser for the RSS drama students going to New York next year.