[BCMA] Media Release: VPAG Riot on the Roof was a Riot Indeed! August 30, 2012

Fri Aug 31 16:57:07 PDT 2012

MEDIA RELEASE

For Immediate Release

Contact: Kelly MacIntosh

kelly at vernonpublicartgallery.com

August 31, 2012

Vernon Public Art Gallery

Riot on the Roof was a Riot Indeed!

Where: Vernon Public Art Gallery, 3228 31st Ave. Vernon BC, V1T 2H3
250-545-3173

When: Saturday, August 25, 2012

Why: 4th Annual Alternative Arts Event a Success

Who: Vernon Public Art Gallery

It's a perfect Saturday evening atop the Parkade.  The sky is blue, there's
a cloud that looks like a smiley face, the pigeons are pooping, and the
evening air still has the sweet smells of summertime clinging to it. Sound
familiar?

If you were at this year's 4th annual Riot on the Roof, it probably is.  If
you opted instead to stay at home and watch your hair grow (or recede), you
missed out on what is quickly becoming THE go to summer-end event for
Vernon.

This year's Riot on the Roof took place on August 25th and took over the top
two floors of the downtown Parkade.  Over 500 people from Vernon and the
surrounding area came out to enjoy the sights and sounds of the local talent
from emerging artists, musicians and performers.  And it wasn't a lunchbox
letdown, either.

Picture this: You're standing on a stretch of cement, squinting into the
West, watching the sun fold itself neatly behind the valley's mountains.
The soft strumming of guitar marks the opening acts of the evening: Bjorn
Kriel, followed by a small dance routine from Okanagan School of Ballet, and
then tiny Robot, Windmills, Van Damsel, Paperboy and Devon Coyote; all
local, all organic, all from your own backyard.  It's 7pm on a Saturday, and
you're sardine-d in a captivated crowd that hums with electric excitement as
Riot serenades the summer away. Mesmerized, you wander down the Parkade
ramp, which is lined with plywood and people.  They paint swirls of pinks,
purples and greens onto them, their paint brushes sweeping easily and
methodically across wooden canvasses donated.  You wander to the 3rd floor,
get your picture taken at the photo booth, selecting props (value village
bifocal glasses and extra large Hawaiian print t-shirts are so in) and after
a few snapshots, you let your legs take you for a walk. To your left is a
yarn station for Yarn Bombing during September's Culture Days.  Next to that
is a silk screening station, where kids are pulling Mona Lisa's clad with
moustaches onto t-shirts.  Along the North facing wall are exhibiting
artists, including Sookinchoot Youth Centre.  To your right are two mural
artists clad in white cloth coveralls.  You watch them delicately craft
precise lines and colours onto the cement walls of the third floor. At the
end of the line of artists is a small stage for a spoken word corner.
Adjacent from them are a group of orange and floral couches that hug a large
projector screen.  A group of onlookers huddle together in this bohemian
style setting to watch film screenings from local filmmakers, including
UBC-O's own Michael V. Smith. You walk back up to the rooftop, hot dog in
hand, wondering how the Vernon Public Art Gallery managed to squeeze so much
talent into one venue, and then they announce the Wearable Art Fashion Show
by Mackenzie Jones.  The sky is an inky black at this point, and night is
creeping in.  It is the perfect stage for Jones's flora and fauna inspired
creations that mimic the vast Canadian wilderness.  A mixture of white and
black silks, feathers, furs and elk antlers all float seamlessly down the
runway in an eerily breathtaking display of art and dance. Suddenly 11pm
comes too soon, and you trudge down the four flights of stairs, uncertain of
how any of this can be topped at next year's Riot.

All of that sound pretty spectacular?  Wrapping up this year's Riot on the
Roof, we here at the Gallery think so too.  And we're already making plans,
jotting down notes, compiling lists of things to do for next year, our 5th
year.  As Riot on the Roof comes to a close, it continues to gain momentum,
it's reputation spreading across the province, reminding the artist and
audience alike just how crucial the arts are, and how vital events like Riot
and places like the Gallery can be to the community.  Riot on the Roof will
be back next August for our biggest and best year ever, to blow everyone
away with more surprises, performances, artwork and talent all from the
North Okanagan's own backyard.

Images:

Wearable Art by Mackenzie Jones at Riot on the Roof 2012

For more information about the Vernon Public Art Gallery contact
www.vernonpublicartgallery.com or call 250-545-3173. 

Kelly MacIntosh
Marketing and Programming Coordinator

VPAGlogo

3228-31st Avenue, Vernon BC V1T 2H3 

vernonpublicartgallery.com (250) 545-3173

Follow us on Twitter <http://twitter.com/vernonagallery>  & Facebook
<https://www.facebook.com/pages/Vernon-Public-Art-Gallery/92358973285> 
Yarn Bomb
<http://www.vernonpublicartgallery.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=art
icle&id=167&Itemid=92>  with us during Culture Days, September 29!!

 <http://www.culturedays.ca/>
http://culturedays.ca/assets/Tipsandtools/CD2012_eSignature.jpg

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