An important focus for this year's festival planning committee is surrounding transportation. We even added a foot, a bus and a bicycle to our society logo to help communicate our goal of providing varied options of fun, functional and sustainable ways to navigate between the long and wonderful list of galleries and creative spaces on our en-masse art crawl map.

BY FOOT:

One of the many fabulous things about Victoria is that it's walkable! Our downtown offers scenic walking tours of heritage architecture mixed with modern buildings, public art, boutique shopping, beautiful harbour & ocean views, and of course: galleries! A short trip to Fernwood and Oak Bay will find you in another totally walkable village with many of the same features and also a lovely bundle of gallery stops. Navigating the Integrate Arts Festival by foot is one tried and true way to enjoy all the festival has to offer at your own pace. Just follow the map and look out for the blue chalk circles on the sidewalks!

BY BUS:

If you've taken part in previous festivals, you may have experienced an Integrate Arts Festival bus tour already. And if that's the case, then you already know how much fun it is! This year, we will be riding the big blue bus from our generous sponsors at Wilson's Transportation Ltd.

Thank you Wilson's!! Join the Hop On/Hop Off bus tour at any of the clearly marked bus stops also indicated on the Integrate map. Get your map stamped at each space you visit and enter to win one of our great draw prizes generously donated by local Victoria businesses (stay tuned for a future blog post featuring our prize offerings!). The blue bus tours will be running on Friday, August 15th following the opening reception, from 7:30 pm until 10:00 pm.

BY BIKE:

We're so excited to be offering a coordinated bike tour this year that includes special demos and workshops from the tour stop locations for our cyclists! As we all know, Victoria loves their cycling and so does Integrate Art Society so we know this will be a popular aspect of this year's festival! If you would like to participate in the bike tour, please meet us at the Festival HQ - 1501 Douglas Street - at 10:00am on Saturday, August 16th. There will only be one tour on Saturday so please be there on time as we don't want to leave anyone behind!

Here's the bike tour details (you won't want to miss it!):

1st STOP: Fifty Fifty Arts Collective - 2516 Douglas Street
View and experience the photography installation In Memory by artist Emma Palm. Read more about this show on a previous blog post, here. There will be a Fifty Fifty volunteer on-site to discuss the work with you and answer any questions or curiosities you have regarding the show and/or space.

After experiencing In Memory, we'll head around to the back of the building where Jon from The Pedal Box Gallery will treat us to a short demo and tell us what his unconventional art space is all about!
Pedal Box is a bike-powered mobile art gallery presented by the City of Victoria Youth Council and the CRD.

2nd STOP: Luz Studios - 569B Hillside Ave.

At Luz Studios we'll witness a bit of Alchemy as they produce stunning images on metal and glass using a 19th Century photographic process. The studio specializes in Wet Plate Collodion Photography and you’ll have the opportunity to see how raw materials are combined in one of the earliest photo-chemical processes (1851) to create breathtaking one of a kind images. Throughout the day there will be on going demonstrations of the process and the opportunity to talk with Quinton, Diana, and Andrew about the various techniques of working on metal or glass, as well as the vintage cameras and lenses they use. The studio will also be operating their Tintype Photo Booth with 4x5 tintype portraits available at $65 for an individual portrait.

3rd STOP: Templed Mind Studio Gallery - 2006 Fernwood Road

At Templed Mind Studio Gallery, we'll have the chance to try a Qi Gong session facilitated by Aaron Banfield. Integrating ancient arts of awareness and movement to meet in the current of breath, Qi Gong takes you on a powerful journey into yourself. In this Qi Gong session at Templed Mind, you will unify Body + Mind to empower your entire being. Using the principles of Yin and Yang to expand and harness the life-force energy of the body, we move through a series of postures and exercises intended to promote vitality, flexibility and relaxation.

After a relaxing Qi Gong session, we'll break for lunch in sunny Fernwood!

4th Stop: Eclectic Gallery - 2170 Oak Bay Avenue

During our visit at Eclectic Gallery, we'll get to tour a space that represents over 100 artists and artisans producing work that varies from two-dimesional art, to sculpture and jewelry. In addition to Eclectic's usual exhibitions, they have also coordinated a series of special demonstrations for our bike tour by 3 visiting Japanese artists, each showing us their individual painting styles!

Work by visiting Japanese Artists - Image courtesy of Eclectic Gallery

After learning some new painting techniques from the visiting artists at Eclectic Gallery, we'll have some free time to explore Oak Bay and all the other wonderful galleries on the Integrate Arts Festival map.

5th Stop: The Art Gallery of Greater Victoria - 1040 Moss Street

After we tour Oak Bay, we'll head over to The Art Gallery of Greater Victoria to finish off our bike tour. The AGGV is offering free admission all day Saturday in conjunction with the Integrate Arts Festival so we'll be able to take in their current exhibitions free of charge! They are also hosting the talented Tim Gosley and his performance of The Ugly Duckling at 3:00pm. Tim Gosley has performed on The Muppet’s Fraggle Rock, The Sesame Street movie Follow That Bird, and was Basil Bear for 9 years on Canadian Sesame Street, along with winning a Gemini award for best preschool puppet performance.

The Puppet Wizard Tim Gosley - image source: aggv.ca

Tim Gosley's animated performance of The Ugly Duckling at the AGGV will bring our bike tour, and The 8th Annual 2014 Integrate Arts Festival, to a close with a well deserved hoorah!

Have we convinced you to walk, bus, or bike the festival? For more information, visit our events page on our website, follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram or contact us at integrateartsociety @ gmail dot com. Can wait to see you all navigating the streets of Victoria on August 15th and 16th celebrating our vibrant arts community!

By Foot, By Bus, By Bike - How to navigate the 8th annual Integrate Arts Festival

BY FOOT:

BY BUS:

BY BIKE: