Art and music Pulse in heart of Downtown Courtenay this Friday
Photo: Pulse on the Plaza aims to revive the old concept of a town square, creating a community-led space for engagement with no barriers to participation. Photo by Charlie Karumi, shared with permission of CVArts
This Friday September 26th, Comox Valley Arts (CVArts) will be hosting their fourth and final Pulse on the Plaza event of the 2025 summer season. Taking place in front of the Comox Valley Art Gallery on Duncan, the finale event is named “Sunset on Summer” and hosted in partnership with local organization Elevate the Arts.
“Pulse on the Plaza is a free outdoor summer series that's held in Downtown Courtenay. We transform Duncan Avenue into a vibrant town square where art and culture and community can come alive. We have these events four times every summer for the past two summers on the last Friday of the month from 5 p.m. ‘till 9 p.m.,and each event is a little bit different. Each one has its own flavour, featuring different performances and participatory art projects and collaborations with local partners that [are] really making space for people of all ages and backgrounds to connect through creativity,” Sarah Clark said. Clark is the Arts Project Manager for CVArts, and one of the organizers of Pulse on the Plaza this year.
The summer event series kicked off in June with K’ómoks Fusion Festival in partnership with Queneesh Indigenous Community Society. July’s event was Urban Jungle Jam, and August’s event partnered with Queer Centre Comox Valley to launch the weekend of Pride.
All Pulse on the Plaza events are produced in collaboration with Comox Valley Art Gallery, Comox Valley Arts, Elevate the Arts, and the Downtown Courtenay Business Improvement Association.
Bobby Herron of Elevate the Arts shared what will make this week’s event unique:
“This is the finale event of the summer for Pulse. And we kind of decided that it would be a lot of fun to get people dancing on the street on Duncan Avenue, so we've programmed some music that we thought would be fun to dance to. We have a reggae band, and we have a Latin trio, and a pop– alt pop duo. So three acts and some, a little bit of DJ-ing in between. And all of the usual Pulse activities: art activities and more,” Herron said.
CVArts is a regional arts council that has been operating in the Comox Valley for 60 years. With a focus on creative empowerment and community engagement, the organization creates opportunities for local artists and organizations through diverse programming and advocacy. Sarah Clark said amplifying stories of the Comox Valley is central to the core belief that creative expression is foundational to shaping the community, when working toward an equitable and sustainable future.
“When we talk about creativity [and] the arts, we believe that everyone is an artist, and that our collective stories are really important. And in the projects that we take on, and the programming that we do, our aim is really to ensure that this process – this creative, collaborative process – is open to everybody, especially those at the margins. So that everybody has a chance for their voices to contribute,” Clark said.
The goal of Pulse on the Plaza was to bring back the idea of a town square, creating a space for community engagement, led by the community, with no barriers to participation.
Photo: Clark said that evening Pride events are often ticketed, so having a free event right downtown allowed people to join in that may otherwise have missed out. Photo by Charlie Karumi, shared with permission of CVArts
One example of this succeeding was the Pride Pulse event, which Clark said received enthusiastic feedback as a free and accessible Pride event, bringing out members of the community who hadn’t participated in local Pride events before. She said that as an organizer, hearing that the event created a space for new friendships and community connections to form brought her “a whole lot of joy.”
“Just the feeling of all of the events this summer have been so connected, have been so celebratory. And I feel like a lot of the work that we do in like shaping community as organizations is something that involves a lot of conversations, a lot of organizational work, is pretty structured. And to have a way to be able to see all of that work come into action in these like beautiful, joyful, deeply joyful celebratory ways is really heartwarming and really validating,” Clark said.
The events haven’t been without their challenges, like a particularly windy day for the first event in June. But the support of neighbouring businesses who shared sandbags to bolster tents reinforced the atmosphere of community and collaboration.
“Our last Pulse of the season is coming up this Friday, that’s September 26th, from 5 p.m. ‘till 9 p.m. and it happens on Duncan Avenue between 5th and 6th Street in Downtown Courtenay, right outside the Comox Valley Art Gallery. And for this Pulse, you can expect a great lineup of artists; our programming partner Elevate the Arts is bringing in a whole bunch of enthusiastic dance bands to get us all moving into the fall. I think we're all really looking forward to that, to close out our season, to have something that feels really high energy,” Clark said.
Photo: Contributing artists shared their designs for the printmaker to support participants in printing their own items from home. Photo by CVArts, shared with permission
As well as the live music and dancing, there will be community art making for all ages, and DIY screen printing with local printmaker Andy MacDougal; anyone attending is encouraged to bring a t-shirt, tote bag, or other fabric item to print on.
More information is available on the event’s Facebook page, or on the social media pages of the participating partners (linked above).
Funding Note: This story was produced with funding support from the Local Journalism Initiative, administered by the Community Radio Fund of Canada. Reporting done in the Comox Valley is done in partnership with DIG FM.