PCAC Organizations

We are a casual group, most of us amateur painters, meeting once a week in the Community Centre on Thursdays from 9:30 – 12:30 from mid September to the end of May. We come together to learn, teach, encourage, critique and marvel at each other’s work. Most of us are hobby painters, some more serious, and some downright professional! We are here for our love of painting! We welcome anyone with an interest in painting. During the year we hold several in-house workshops with various Okanagan artists at very reasonable rates. Beginners are always welcome. This year we have a membership of 48 artists from Peachland and the Westside. Our yearly fee is only $30.00 and everyone is welcome to attend.

A large room with light

On the last Sunday in May we present our annual art show and sale. It is our chance to showcase the group and feature paintings created during the year. In 2010 our group celebrated its 50^th show! Our ‘Golden Anniversary Galleria’ at the Community Centre in Peachland featured paintings from the group’s alumni dating back 50 years as well as over 200 of our current works in various mediums including oil, acrylic, watercolour and pastel. We put on a fabulous luncheon and tea. Our Mayor presided over a cake cutting ceremony at 1:00 pm. Admission was by donation. Our annual show is all about participation, so no matter what their level or skill, our beginners are encouraged to enter their work. The money collected from donations goes towards paying our rent at the Community Centre as well as our insurance costs for the group. Joan Dupuis critiques

One of the group’s first projects in 2010 was to create 30 new banners for the City to be hung along Beach Avenue. Each banner celebrates some aspect of life in Peachland and the Okanagan. Some of the banners can be viewed in the gallery. During Arts & Culture week, Peachland’s Arts Council sponsored a ‘Banner Walk’ along Beach Avenue. Our group’s artists were in attendance along with the Mayor and 50 or 60 residents. We walked along Beach Ave. as each artist shared his or her inspiration for their banner. We then headed back to the Little Schoolhouse for refreshments afterwards.

Chris Berry - a study in concentration

Last year the group helped to celebrate Peachland’s 100^th Birthday, by featuring Centennial themed paintings in our show. Each member was asked to create an ‘old time’ painting showcasing some aspect of life in Peachland 100 years ago. The show was a huge success and our Centennial paintings were hung in the Library for the rest of the summer for everyone to enjoy.

The Peachland Art Group was started in the late ‘50’s by Mary Smith, a long time Peachland resident, and three of her friends, Jean Coldham, Myrtle Ferguson and Anne Webber. The first sessions were held in the old Municipal Hall with about 6 or 8 people. One year the class was held in the school, then for a few years, afternoon classes were held in the Legion Hall. When the Centennial hall was added to the Community Hall in 1971, Richard Smith makes a bold move classes were held there on regular Thursdays and have continued ever since.

These are Mary’s words; “Conducting art classes, and helping people to enjoy painting and sketching has become a most enjoyable and satisfying part of my life. Over the years we have tried just about everything – every technique, all types of media, oil, watercolour, pastel, acrylic, batik, silk-screen printing, even finger painting! We’ve done a bit of sculpture, abstracts, and sand painting. Members come year after year, and derive help from one another, and share ideas. We enjoy one another’s successes as much as our own. Beginners have always been welcome, and, I think, soon feel at home. I hope sincerely there will be an Art Class or Club long after I am gone.”

Mary Smith

Mary’s son Richard has joined the art group and being an art teacher himself, he is always available to help out and give advice to anyone struggling with a painting. Last fall he held an in-house workshop in abstracts. Richard is also very active with artist, Ruth Munro at the Gallery on Hwy 97. Ruth and Richard will be busy this summer offering workshops in glass fusion & slumping, a form of glass art.

Anyone is welcome to drop in to our painting sessions on Thursdays.

To see more images of the Art Group click here

For more information contact Deborah Livingstone, President,

Peachland Art Group 250-767-6796 dlivingstone@telus.net

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Peachland Players

Submitted by Bill Bennett

Please click on any image to enlarge

Bill Bennett, director of the Peachland Players, describes in his own words how the group came about:

“Some 15 years ago Ricki Morin contacted me and asked if it was possible to form a theatre group in Peachland. Well, that was the start.

We called ourselves The Peachland Players and somehow found a cast for our first production, Thornton Wilder’s Our Town. We performed in the Community Centre with the audience on three sides. We also took the play to Westbank and Kelowna.

Our Town (First production)

There followed a number of children’s plays on the stage in the Community Centre and also a shortened version of A Christmas Carol.

A Christmas Carol

Then along came the Bowling Alley. After taking a look at it we tried the acoustics and decided to mount The Chalk Garden. We set up crude lighting, laid carpets on the concrete floor, and it was a success.

The Chalk Garden

During the next two years with the help of the Arts Council, the Archery Club, and others, we laid a sprung floor, darkened the walls to avoid reflected light and generally improved the place. We gave it the name 4th Street Place.

Now after some twenty full length plays and musicals, including the Fantastics, Agnes of God, You're a Good Man Charlie Brown, and Steel Magnolias we are waiting to start our Summer Junior Players’ Production, Androcles and the Lion.

Agnes of God

Later this year we will mount a Christmas pantomime, Mother Goose, and a spring play, The Effect of Gamma Rays On Man in the Moon Marigolds.

Though at the moment we do not have full use of 4th Street Place, we have formed a good working relationship with the Peachland Boxing Club and are looking forward to a rosy future. We are grateful to have an enthusiastic Peachland audience that continues to fill our seats and enjoy our productions.”

To see more images of the Peachland Players click here

For more information contact: Bill Bennett, Director

Peachland Players 250-768-7200 baringo@shaw.ca

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Peachland Variety Singers

Submitted by Frank Warburton

Peachland Variety Singers are the longest running Senior choir in the Okanagan valley now in their 33^rd year, with an average number between 35/50 coming from Westbank as well as Peachland with some members ageing into their nineties and still singing a robust song even although it is only in the bathroom while having a shower or bathing.

Phyllis Papineau has been the current choir director for the past 16 years. The energy and humour she displays to her choir members has to be seen to be believed. Phyllis will tell you that singing is a good exercise for your breathing it is also a right, left, brain activity and that music and song is always talking to you, giving joy to our heads and hearts and voiced through the choral singing. The total activity is reputed to help with memory loss associated with Alzheimer’s disease.

Our talented accompanist Dave Smith with his patience and ability to portray his humour through the keyboard is another story, and can only be appreciated by hearing what he can make those ivories do.

The choir undertakes to perform two concerts a year Spring and Christmas and some members of the choir sing on different occasions at other concerts and local functions, also at times at care homes where the audience is invited to join in the singing of the old familiar songs of today and yesteryear So if you have a song deep inside you come and join the choir, recruiting takes place in the Fall and early Spring every year, no audition

The Croakers and BIG blue Frog

required. Come on all you men who sing in that bathroom venue, don’t be shy, please come and join us we are always looking for that hidden Peachland talent. As members will tell you everyone has fun with song and even though the practice may be trying you leave feeling invigorated and humming that favourite you have just been practicing with joy in your heart and a smile on your face.

At the concerts some of the choir named the ‘Treasures’ may well display part of those Peachland hidden talents by singing a solo or duet or perhaps even reciting a poem, and very often present a small skit* which is sure to broaden that smile on your faces.

Big Blue Frog

* For a PDF sample of one of their skits please double click here.

Dave Smith and Phyllis Papineau

For more information, please contact Frank Warburton (250-767-9584) or email at: fcwarburton@shaw.ca

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Pincushion Quilt Guild - Peachland

Submitted by Rita Macdonnell

What better name for a quilt guild than “pincushion “- the name of the distinctive mountain that looks over us all in Peachland and the name of an essential tool that all quilters rely on.

Formed in 2004, we are just completing our sixth year together. Pincushion Quilt Guild is comprised of energetic and talented quilters who come together twice a month to sew, learn, design, consult and, yes, sometimes just chat. Some of our members have quilted for more than twenty years and some are beginners. No matter what your skill level, you’ll find an easy fit with our group.

In 2009, we helped Peachland celebrate its Centennial by mounting a show, called “A Century of Quilts”. The collection of antique quilts spanned almost two centuries and demonstrated various styles and materials, truly showing how quilting has changed over the past many years. The display of contemporary quilts demonstrated incredible diversity, in style, pattern, fabric, colour and technique.

Every year we undertake several “community” projects, such as quilts for the Kelowna Hospice House a ‘Quilt of Valour’ for our armed forces. This year’s plan includes completing a quilt for our local on-call ambulance attendants to use, as well as completing a Breast Cancer Quilt. This quilt, along with many others, will that will travel on display from coast to coast and then be auctioned off for Breast Cancer research. Next year, guild members will take on the challenge of creating tote bags, designed especially for patients receiving cancer treat-ments.

We have organized several workshops during the year, as well as many “mini-workshops’ given by our more talented members.

Of course, there’s always lots of time to work on our own projects. We meet at the Community Center on the second and fourth Wednesdays of each month, between the hours of 9:00 and 4:00, and hold a short business meeting on the last Wednesday of the month. Bring your sewing machine or your hand quilting project. We have lots of room and some basic equipment for our members to use, and there will always be someone there to answer a question or help solve a problem. New members are always welcome.

For more information, please contact Donna (767-0330), Gail (767-9618) or Rita (767-9429) or visit our website www.pincushionquiltguild.webs.com.

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