Below you can find photos and videos of our activities at the Hadden Park fieldhouse!

You can find our calendar of upcoming events here

OUTDOOR CONCERT SERIES 2020

a series of outdoor performances featuring the music of Nico Muhly, Caroline Shaw, John Cage, John Luther Adams, Meredith Monk, Kaia Stoesz, Gamelan Bike Bike*, and Kutapira*, (*co-presented with Caravan World Rhythms)

VANCOUVER NEW MUSIC 2020

an outdoor presentation of compositions and installations by Robyn Jacob, Roxanne Nesbitt and George Rahi. The sounds of custom-made bells, ethereal voices and unique, hand-made, ceramic percussion pieces play with and within the park’s usual ambience, temporarily transforming the space and sonic environment, co-presented with Vancouver New Music.

FESTIVAL FOR PUBLIK SPACE 2019

a mini-festival of creative loitering and performances in the park, featuring installations and performances by Balot Ne, Jonathan Adams & Laura Crowe, Peki Hajdukovic, Jean Brazeau, Robyn Jacob, Raj Gill & Michael Undem 

State of the Practice Exhibit

State of the Practice is an annual exhibition highlighting the Vancouver Park Board’s support of artists working in community to engage citizens in creative practices. The 2017 exhibit, FieldGuides, featured our projects in Hadden Park along with all the other Field House Studio Residencies, held at the Roundhouse Community Centre.

Musical Playground in Hadden Park

Throughout the summers of 2016 – 2018, the fieldhouse hosted various youth workshops exploring musical instrument making, group sound improv games, and a sound scavenger hunt.

Museum of Vancouver & Maritime Museum Performances

Throughout 2016 and 2017, our ensemble Gamelan Bike Bike gave performances at community events hosted at our neighbouring cultural institutions, including the Maritime Museum’s Winter Wander event and the Musuem of Vancouver’s Expo 86 evening retrospective.

Big Draw Down in Hadden Park

Throughout the month of October, 2016 we created a participatory drawing workshops, inviting people to explore and interpret the sounds around them in the park through visual gestures, marks and invented notation. Participants were also invited to make ephemeral drawings using found objects in the park.

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24 Hour Karaoke

Inspired by the weekly outdoor karaoke found in Berlin’s Mauerpark and the thriving 24-hour karaoke clubs in Tokyo, we created a continuous participatory event to stretch our sense of what is possible in our city. Held from April 9th to April 10th, 2016 at the Hadden Park Fieldhouse, participants were invited to curate an hour with a concept or activity.

Wandering Stranger Tea Gathering

Using tea as a vehicle for connection, our mobile tea cart has been been actively hosting impromptu gatherings in Hadden Park and surrounding public spaces that bring people together to socialize and enjoy tea. Part of our Mobile Tools for Conviviality project, the pop-ups help us imagine public spaces for non-commercial forms of gathering and socializing. The project has parterned with student-led initatives at City Studio throughout 2017 and the City of Vancouver’s Places for People project in 2018.

Soundwalks

A Soundwalk is a guided listening tour that encourages participants to actively listen, opening ears and consciousness to the complex orchestration that the environment is composing at all times. It is an exercise in drawing attention to subtle, hidden sounds as well as a way to discern the various layers and defining soundmarks of a place. In collaboration with the Vancouver Soundwalk Collective and Vancouver New Music, a series of Soundwalks were held in Hadden Park and have ventured into surrounding coastline and the downtown core.

Festival For Publik Space 2016

To mark the first year into our field house residency, we organized a mini-festival of creative loitering and performances in the park, featuring music, dance, and site-specific works from groups Gamelan Bike Bike, Only A Visitor, Graftician, Bill Jr Jr, and artists Martin Reisle, Kelly McInnes and George Rahi.

Pedal-powered Movies

Hadden park has been host to a series of free outdoor movies each summer. Our pedal-powered projector system invites participants to power the film by pedaling the reclining stationary bike. Films featured have been independent works by local artists for the Vine Arts Festival 2017, as well as the climate-change documentary ‘How to Let Go of the World’ by Josh Fox, featured as part of the Vines Art Festival in 2016.

Shadow Jam

A Shadowjam is a fully participatory event where everyone is a performer and everyone is the audience. It’s a magical blend of improvised musical jam, in-the-moment shadow puppetry, and spontaneous storytelling. Hosted by Mind of a Snail Puppet Co, Shadowjam provides a framework for unconditional play within an expressive, inclusive group experience.

Freestyle Focus Group

Freestyle Focus Group is a monthly feature at the field house. FFG workshops embrace the truth that everyone can freestyle. From beginner to advanced improv exercises, FFG uses freestyle rap as a technique for mental liberation, to not over-think expression but to exist in the moment where true creativity and originality can flow.

More info at www.freestylefocusgroup.ca

See Sounds Listening Series

Each month we invite anyone to come and bring something they would like to listen to, together with others at the field house. Discussion follows, meandering across topics such as music, sound art, field recordings, place, and media broadly. We have most formats available (digital, vinyl, CD, tape, radio). As part of the series, we feature a guest artist to curate part of the evening. Past artists have included Gabriel Saloman, Hidlegard Westerkamp, Elisa Thorn, Michael Tenzer, Selina Crammond, Giorgio Magnanensi, Elliot Vaughan, Annie Chiavaroli, Martin Reisle, Lief Hall, Soledad Muñoz, Ben Wylie and George Rahi.

The community ensemble Gamelan Gita Asmara has given multiple performances and workshops at the fieldhouse. The group is based at the University of British Columbia, and is open to new members interested in learning Balinese gamelan.

Interview with Sue Palmer

In 2016, community-based artist Sue Palmer was awarded a Winston Churchill Travel Fellowship to undertake research into innovation in participation in public urban green space in three cities: Berlin, Germany, Portland, Oregon, and Vancouver. Read about her visit to Hadden Park below

Parks + Art: Bike power at Hadden Park Fieldhouse

Speed Stunned Imaginations 

Speed Stunned Imaginations is a shadow theatre project that explores themes of transportation, modern life, and imagination. The work drew together experiences and stories of youth in Vancouver over a period of 6 months. Participants came from the Aboriginal Focus School, Sir Charles Tupper Secondary, Lord Selkirk Elementary, Winston Churchill Secondary, and Britannia Secondary, contributing stories, puppets, and music ideas inspired by their experiences of moving through their city.

Produced by the Western Front in collaboration with Gamelan Bike Bike, Speed Stunned Imaginations premiered at the Roundhouse’s youth-week event on May 6, 2015, with an outdoor performance in Dude-Chilling Park on July 7, 2015