Canadian Superstar Anne Murray pays a visit to the Enmax Centre in Lethbridge on Wednesday night. Tickets are available by visiting www.lethbridge.ca/tickets or calling 329-SEAT.

Her recently released CD, Anne Murray Duets: Friends & Legends, debuted at #4 on the Top 200 Soundscan Chart in Canada, her highest debut in over twenty years, and currently sits at Double Platinum status with over 200,000 copies sold!  The CD is Anne’s 35th studio album and pairs her with some of her favourite ladies of song, including Carole King, Celine Dion, Shania Twain, Martina McBride, Nelly Furtado,  the late great Dusty Springfield, and her daughter Dawn Langstroth.

Anne remains one of the most consistent and enduring live performers of our time – a singer’s, singer.   This tour encompasses a lifetime of music and memories – an opportunity to share in the magic that is simply, Anne.

A very special partner on this tour will be the “Raise-A-Reader” campaign, who will benefit from every ticket sold. The “Raise-A-Reader” campaign is the brainchild of CanWest and has raised over $10M for literary beneficiaries across Canada since its inception in 2002.

(courtesy enmaxcentre.ca)

The Galt Museum & Archives has received $12,000 from the Alberta Museums Association to document and register the Taber Buddhist Church Shrine formally added to the Galt's permanent collection earlier this year. 

The donation of the Shrine was a result of the closure and sale of several regional Buddhist churches, including the Taber, Raymond and two Lethbridge-based churches, as the congregation prepares to consolidate under one new roof in Lethbridge.  The shrine requires documenting and cataloguing before it can be put on display.

Collections Technician Kevin MacLean will lead the project with the assistance of a term-position Collections Assistant beginning May 5, a Glenbow-employed Conservator, an accredited Appraiser, a team of volunteer assistants, and the Buddhist community for information sources and support.  A 14-year employee at the Galt, MacLean has led dozens of Collections’ registration and preservation projects.   Most recently, he and his Department were recognized with an AMA Collections Management award.

“Our Collections department has never undertaken a project of this scale or scope,” shares MacLean about the artifact.  The Galt more commonly receives objects of a personal nature.  In order to conduct this work, the Galt will be seeking the expertise and guidance from members of the regional Japanese Canadian community as well as multi-disciplinary views from teaching faculty at the University.

 The Shrine project is two-fold.  First, members of the Japanese Canadian community and Buddhist Church will be located in order to learn more about the origin of the population and the church, their historical existence and culture.  “No time can be wasted with regards to documenting this artifact,” says MacLean.  Church founders from the 1940s and those who acquired the Shrine in the 1960s are now in their senior years, and some have already passed away.

“We'd like to know who came, where they came from, why they stayed, how the Church got started and the importance of the Church to the overall Taber Japanese-Canadian population, and more,” says MacLean.  “We'd also like to secure copies of as much relevant archival material as possible, including moving film and photographs.”

The second aspect of the project is the registration and cataloguing.  All parts must be identified, their symbolism and use interpreted, and Japanese characters translated.  The Shrine must be labeled, conserved, cleaned and prepped for exhibit.  An appraiser will be sought out to ensure that it is properly appraised.  

The Galt is privileged to have been asked to be a steward of the Taber Shrine.  The Shrine compliments the Galt’s existing Japanese Canadian collection which is of national significance.  It totals over 1000 objects ranging from materials referenced in Joy Kogawa’s acclaimed book Obasan to artifacts associated with the area’s Japanese pioneers.  Based on the strength of the collection, the Galt was able to develop the 2002 temporary exhibit Nikkei Tapestry highlighting the story of the Japanese in southern Alberta.   This exhibit is the basis of a traveling exhibit, Nikkei Journey, currently under development at the Galt.

Following restoration, the Shrine will be made available to the public in the Galt’s permanent gallery.  This will further visitor appreciation of Japanese Canadian culture and the region’s rich human diversity, and enhance the Museum’s reputation as a topical research, study and educational centre.  People conducting research on Japanese Canadians in western Canada already look to the Galt as a centre of knowledge. 

Japanese pioneers settled in the Lethbridge area as early as 1901.   During World War Two, a second, larger wave of Japanese Canadians arrived in southern Alberta after the Federal Government uprooted them from BC’s West Coast.  Thousands of “evacuated” persons were relocated to the Lethbridge area where they were sent to work on sugar beet farms near towns such as Taber.   After the war, a great many of the evacuees remained in southern Alberta.

As a result, the area developed a national reputation for Buddhism and Buddhist Temples and Churches.   In recent decades, however, Buddhist Church attendance has declined, resulting in the closure and sale of regional Temples such as the Church in Taber.

Canadian recording star George Canyon will be headline the Great Canadian Barn Dance's 5^th annual Bluegrass & Classic Country Music Festival. The Barndance will be the place to be on the weekend of July 25-27, featuring great groups: The Abrams Brothers, Trevor Panzak, Down to the Wood, The Barn Dance All Stars, Woodbend Bluegrass Band and the Barn Dance Sweethearts. There are still some RV overflow packages available, for more information call  1-866-626-3407 or visit ticketmaster.com.There will be a limited number of tickets available, so get yours soon.

In  September 2007, Vulcan, Alberta launched an ambitious campaign to host the World Premiere of the new Star Trek Movie, aka Star Trek XI when it is released in May 2009.  The campaign began modestly with the Vulcan Tourism office creating of a group on Facebook.com called: “Star Trek XI: Help bring Spock home to Vulcan, Alberta”; and sending out a press release announcing the plan.   The story of Vulcan’s goal to host such a glamourous Hollywood event, caught the media’s attention, and was picked up by major media outlets around the world.  The Vulcan Tourism office put together a multi-media proposal that highlighted this wave of publicity, and sent it to the film’s producers in Hollywood.

Paramount Pictures Canada has contacted Dayna Dickens, Vulcan’s Tourism Coordinator, to let the town know that their proposal was received, and is being considered.  They also acknowledged that they have noticed the publicity that Vulcan has been getting for the idea. 

In early March, Calgary’s CTV Evening News, Canada AM, and Agence France Presse (AFP) ran stories about Vulcan’s goal to host the film premiere, and as a result, Vulcan’s Star Trek story has been picked up by another group of major international media outlets including:  The New York Times, The China Post, The Kuwait Times, CBC Radio, Le Monde (France), and Oasys.com (Namibia) to name just a few.  Earlier this week, Dayna even did an interview with a reporter from Entertainment Weekly Magazine in New York City!

Vulcan’s Star Trek film proposal campaign has had a direct impact on the area’s tourism industry.  Stats collected at the Vulcan Tourism & Trek Station show a 47% increase in visitors between October 2007 and February 2008, compared to the same period in 2006.

Vulcan’s Facebook Group: “Star Trek XI Help Bring Spock Home to Vulcan, Alberta” now boasts over 900 members form all over the world.  Members are updated regularly about the status of this project.