“To merely observe your culture without contributing to it seems very close to existing as a ghost.” - Chuck Palahniuk
Somehow it’s the end of the summer with September literally lurking right around the corner, and the rhythms of the school year are about to dominate most people’s movements. Performing arts seasons have always aligned with the school year, so Arts and Culture and the Clarke Theatre are gearing up for an amazing 2025/2026 season.
Kicking it all off is the annual celebration of all forms of culture and creativity that is known as Culture Days. Running from September 19 through October 12, Mission is once again gearing up to be a cultural hotspot in the Fraser Valley.
Culture Days will kick off with an open house at the Clarke Theare on Friday, September 29th from 7-8pm. All of the seats in the theatre were replaced over the last month, and we’re having a reopening open house for the community. Come see (and try!) the new seats, hear about the Culture Days events that are coming up, learn about the Clarke Theatre Presents 2025/2026 season and enjoy light refreshments with your friends and neighbours.
Clarke Theatre Presents is our in-house presentation series that will bring artistically-driven programming to Mission. The series features music (Valdy, Arrogant Worms, Morgan Toney), dance (Mosaico, Take This Waltz, Kelowna Ballet’s MacBeth), theatre (Where Have All the Buffalo Gone?) and the greatest interactive film event in history (The Rocky Horror Picture Show). This series will bring thought provoking, innovative, inspiring performances to our very own Clarke Theatre.
Back in February we held a Creative Conversation with the goal of generating Culture Days ideas from the creative community and several of the projects coming from Arts and Culture came out of this conversation including Voices on the River, the Living Library, and several of our (free) Word Art workshops.
Arts and Culture is celebrating all the types of art that can made with words with a series of free workshops led by incredible artists from the community. Registration is required, but there is no fee for any of our Word Art workshops. There are 10 great workshops from Words for Healing, Modern Haiku Remix, Finding the Voice through Spoken Word, Expressing Identity through Word Art, Make Your Own Mini-Book, Blackout Poetry and more! Visit mission.ca/culture for all the details.
There are fantastic community events happening as well that you will not want to miss!
The 5th Avenue Artists (Rosanne Paciencia Lambert, Charlotte Lightburn, Jacquie Pierce) will be holding an event at the Mission Arts Centre on September 27 where our local heritage will be brought to the present as the strawberry is celebrated. Rocks will be painted and transformed into strawberries for a public art garden.
The Mission Arts Council is once again holding their Arts Alive event, and this year it is expanding to include a Renaissance Fair at Fraser River Heritage Park! Arts Alive takes place on September 20th at the Mission Arts Centre, Fraser River Heritage Park and Harbour House.
The Mission Community Archives has online programs (This Place Matters!, Heritage Lost) and will be featuring their School Archives Program at the Mission Leisure Centre through Culture Days. The Mission Museum will be showing off the extensive restoration work that has happened from 11-4 on September 27, with a ribbon cutting and refreshments right at 11 am.
One of our goals for this year was activating the waterfront and Jack Poole Plaza to connect us better to the Fraser River, and we’re doing just that on World Rivers Day. Voices of the River, from 1-4pm on Sunday, September 28th will bring amazing choirs to the waterfront, along with artist Brenna Maag’s Camera Illumina. This is a free event, and we hope you join us on the water.
I’m maybe most excited for our own Living Library on Saturday, October 4, from 11 am – 3 pm in partnership with the Fraser Valley Regional Library. To populate our living library, we need humans with interesting stories to be our “books” that you can sign out during this event.
We're looking for people whose lives don’t fit into neat boxes. Maybe you’ve been underestimated, misjudged, or misunderstood. Maybe your experiences have reshaped how you see the world—and could do the same for others.
Living Library is a space where real conversations can break down barriers. If you’re open to share a chapter of your life, we want to hear from you!
By volunteering, you’ll help create meaningful connections between people who may never otherwise meet—and discover just how much stories can shift perspectives. If you’re interested please email culture@mission.ca, we’d love to have your story in our Living Library!
