I LOVE public art and New West has more than its fair share of it.

This is one that I'd missed, even though it's been in place for 6 months on the outside of the Anvil Centre: https://imgur.com/a/u142dWA

**Rebecca Bair
Curl Mapped, 2023**
(b. 1995, Toronto, ON, Canada;
lives and works in Vancouver, BC, Canada)
Anvil Centre Public Art Project
April 2023 - March 2024
Curated by Emmy Lee Wall, Capture Photography Festival

Commissioned by the City of New Westminster, this temporary public art installation is presented in partnership with Capture Photography Festival

Situated on the façade of the Anvil Centre in New Westminster, Rebecca Bair's site-specific installation, Curl Mapped, tackles the complex, colonial history of archives to represent that which is absent: traces of Black settlers in this region. Bair spent significant time in the city archives poring over the leather-bound ledgers, reading the handwritten notes, and examining the photographs therein only to discover a gap - what she describes as "a ghost in the space." In Curl Mapped, Bair interrupts parts of the map with curly tendrils of hair, which for her, is symbolic of heritage. and cultural care. As these coils reach toward one another, attempting to close the gap in the map, they suggest the subjective nature of maps while gesturing to the need to acknowledge and repair this lack of representation.

:(

This Saturday will be Car Free Day. Columbia St shutdown for "live music, food trucks, site-wide liquor license, and more!"

Date: Saturday, July 29 Located: Columbia Street, New Westminster, BC Time: Noon - 8 pm

Always a lot of fun... this is what the food truck festival morphed into (which is probably a good thing because the food truck festival had grown to a ridiculous size).

Core details including the bands playing on https://www.carfree.ca/new-west

More details on https://www.newwestrecord.ca/local-news/get-ready-to-enter-a-pedestrian-paradise-new-wests-car-free-day-is-back-7322081 (including that there's going to be a bike valet this year)

There's no time to relax after week #2 of Fridays on Front - the fun never stops in New West in the summer...

Uptown Live today, Saturday July 15 from Noon - 8:00 PM - uptown New West.

Lots of food trucks, lots of bands, lots of vendors.

Schedule, artists, vendors etc here: https://www.uptownlive.ca/schedule-1

I'm especially looking forward to hearing Ayla Tesler-Mabé - that woman sure knows her way around a guitar but there doesn't appear to be anything she can't do.

Arts New West (what used to be known as the Arts Council of New West) is putting on a series of free concerts at the bandshell in Queen's Park.

Every Thursday at 7pm and every Sunday at 2pm (apparently with a break in the middle...??) until the end of July.

Go take a picnic (and even a beer if you like) and enjoy free good times. Maybe see ya there.

More details on their FB or their website https://artscouncilnewwest.org/concertseries/

This Saturday from 11AM to 2PM - official opening of the Agnes St Greenway. We rode it the other day & it's looking lovely. Lots of nice touches - the planting as usual in New West and the doggy exercise yard.

Got in a coffee hat trick this afternoon.

#1

rode into town past the brand-new-just-opened-today-but-not-really coffee shop on 6th - Coasters Coffee. (As far as I can work out they had a ribbon-cutting with the Mayor etc today (Photo: New West Chamber of Commerce) but had a grand opening in March). https://www.instagram.com/coasterscoffeeshop

#2

got coffee & nibbles in Craft Cafe down on the Quay. Always good coffee and I managed to avoid buying any of the fancy coffee gadgets they have for sale. https://www.instagram.com/craftcafe.ca/

#3

In Craft Cafe I picked up a freshly roasted bag of everybody's-favourite-New-West-roaster Ghost Roaster coffee. https://www.instagram.com/ghostroastercoffee/

Is that too much coffeeing for one day?

City's asking for input on the 2024 budget - go tell them your priorities (and maybe win a local gift card)