I always find this time of year to be inspiring. The leaves changing colour. The starting for programs and classes. And of course all the great stuff going on. October is shaping out to be one busy month and life in the arts is no exception. Here’s your Arts Round Up this week Calgary.

THE BEES ARE EVERYWHERE: Those boys over at the Bee Kingdom certainly are a busy bunch. They keep popping up on my radar. These awesome vignettes are part of Mythopoets and are found across from Theatre Calgary in the EPCOR Centre’s Window Galleries. These just debuted last week but are up until January 1 with an opening reception slated for Tuesday, November 1 at 5pm. That gives you plenty of time to check out these quirky, cute and thought provoking pieces by Ryan Marsh Fairweather, Kai Scholefield, Tim Belliveau and Phillip Bandura. And that’s not your only chance to see their great glasswork. The Bee Kingdom’s new show Super Cute is currently running, until November 3, at the Ruberto-Ostberg Gallery (2108 18th Street NW). Now is a great time to see what these wizards of glass have been up to. Go. Get your Bee on.
Photos by Amy Jo Espetveidt, Quadrophonic Image

UofC Continues Celebration Series with Rolston and Schmidt
Two award-winning Canadian musicians are teaming up this Saturday to deliver an outstanding inspirational performance.
The University of Calgary’s Department of Music continues its Celebration Series with Cello & Piano featuring Shauna Rolston and Heather Schmidt. The show takes place Saturday, October 20 at 8pm in the Eckhardt-Gramatté Hall at the University’s Rozsa Centre.
Cellist Shauna Rolston has been called one of the most compelling and unique musical voices on stage today. Joined together with pianist Heather Schmidt the two will perform pieces including Schmidt’s Icicles of Fire, Manuel de Falla’s Suite Populaire Espagnole and Dimitri Shostakovich’s Sonata in D minor.
Single tickets are $25 for Adults and $18 for students and seniors. For more information check out the Performing Arts website.

Bigger Than Me at AVALANCHE!
The show may have opened last Friday night, but you still have plenty of chances to see Bigger Than Me, an awesome exhibition of new independent and collaborative works by Calgary based artists Matthew Mark and Lindsay Wells.
Bigger Than Me runs until November 7 at AVALANCHE! Institute of Contemporary Art (1235 MacLeod Trail SE) and is open to the public Saturdays from 12pm to 4pm or by appointment.

NOT TO BE MISSED: Theatre Junction GRAND and the Fluid Movement Arts Festival are presenting The Tempest Replica this week only. Canadian choreographer Crystal Pite’s company Kid Pivot puts on a show that critics are calling brainy and blazing.
Photos by Jorg Baumann, courtesy of Theatre Junction GRAND

Shakespeare and Dance combine for the ‘Must See Show of the Season’
If you love contemporary dance, this show is NOT to be missed.
Theatre Junction GRAND and the Fluid Movement Arts Festival are presenting The Tempest Replica – an award winning and internationally acclaimed piece by Kid Pivot  – this week only. Running October 17 to 20, the work is based on motifs from Shakespeare’s The Tempest and integrates movement, original music by Owen Belton, text, and visual design including a film montage by Jamie Nesbitt.
Choreographed by Canadian dance goddess Crystal Pite, the show has garnered some prestigious attention including recently being awarded Canada Council for the Arts’ Jacqueline Lemieux Prize for 2012 and was named the Vancouver Sun’s “Pick of the Season”.
Tickets run from $16 to $35 (plus fees) and for more information head over to Theatre Junction’s website.
UPDATE: I had the pleasure to see The Tempest Replica last night (October 17) and boy, it was amazing. It was a surreal nightmare with beautiful textures and amazing movements. It drew me in with its quirky paper world and held me there with movements so true to reality, I felt like the dancers were actually origami creations that developed more and more as they turned real. And although the Shakespeare was apparent, it was so beautiful it didn’t need words – something I never thought I’d ever think with the Bard in the picture.
Opening night filled the theatre with a packed house and the show got a much deserved standing-ovation. The costumes, music and sounds all combined effortlessly with the dancers’ movements. It all accumulated in a breathtaking epilogue so true to madness that you could feel the main character’s mind leaving.
The Tempest Replica was so worth it and if you get a chance, go see this performance. You won’t regret it.

See Canadian Indigenous Shorts This Friday
Do you know what the Inuit High Kick is? Or what Shi-shi-etko means? Well, here’s your chance to find out.
The Calgary Society of Independent Filmmakers is presenting Canadian Indigenous Shorts from the 2011 imagineNATIVE Festival this Friday at 7pm at the Old Y Centre for Community Organizations (223 12th Ave SW Calgary). The free program features outstanding short films by Métis, Inuit and First Nations artists including pieces by Alethea Arnaquq-Bari, Danis Goulet and Jeff Barnaby.
The presentation is in conjunction with the national Stolen Sisters Digital Initiative (SSDI), an artistic commission and national exhibition of four, one-minute digital works by award-winning Canadian Indigenous filmmakers celebrating and honouring Indigenous women. These shorts will be exhibited throughout Toronto’s subway system on more than 300 Pattison Onestop digital subway platform screens and on 254 digital monitors in 33 English language shopping centre display screens across Canada including Southcentre Mall and at the Calgary International Airport over the next week. So keep an eye out for them while you’re out and about.

The Art Show That Might Just Kill You
‘Tis the season for all things gory and the House Gallery (2607 35 Street SW) is getting in on the fun.
The 3rd Annual Horror Group Show, presented by House & The Gentlemen Destroyers, is this weekend – Friday October 19 from 7pm to 10pm and Saturday October 20 from 3pm to 10pm.
The show features some of Calgary’s best artists working in paint, sculpture and miniature depicting all things wicked in this horror themed exhibition.
A silent auction will run from 3pm to 9pm on Saturday and the artists will be on hand to speak to their work and what influenced their perversity.

Do you have something cool and great coming up and want to be part of the Calgary Arts Round Up? Drop me a line at amy@calgaryisawesome.com!