Kick-off Event

May 7th

Kick off – at Glenbow Museum
Free admission
Opening Reception 6-8pm
Level 2, Lobby

The Glenbow evening formally launches ImaginASIAN 2009 with the announcement of Asian Heritage Foundation programs and events in celebration of Asian Heritage Month. The evening’s program highlights Youth in the Arts with music featuring pipa and guitar and dance numbers of different genres, all performed by young artists.

Nancy Li and Jim Ang Li are the first pair of performers in Calgary to combine Chinese pluck traditional instrument Pipa and western pluck string instrument guitar to perform the music of Habanera from the opera Carmen.
The music is kept at its original melody, but Pipa gives the music a new sound enjoyment.

Benton Luu and Julia Zarkov have been dancing together for 5 years. They are both 11 years old, and have competed in all the competitions in Alberta. They have won many medals and trophies, and are Calgary’s best Juvenile Syllabus Couple. They will be dancing their Silver Latin Routines, which include: Cha Cha, Samba, Rumba, Paso Doble , Jive

Chelsea Bedrejo, has enjoyed much success as a young Canadian and has won numerous dance awards. She will performing a contemporary dance solo.

Fittingly, the launch of ImaginASIAN 2009 celebrates the opening of a month-long exhibition at the Glenbow Museum entitled Elsewhere. These recent paintings examining diaspora and place by Christine Cheung. Born and raised in Calgary, Cheung is a graduate from the Masters of Fine Arts program at the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design and a recipient of the 2008 Alberta Lieutenant Governor General’s Emerging Artist Award. In 2008, Cheung was awarded a production grant from the Alberta Foundation for the Arts and traveled to Asia where she completed artist-in-residence programs at Red Gate Studios (Beijing), and Compeung (Thailand). These remarkable works from her recent trip are fresh and engaging studies that reflect a sense of place. They are physical, emotional and imagined all at once.