Cosy Up! We’re Launching the Weekender

Right now, you're seeing a big change in The Tyee’s look and feel — the first edition of the Weekender, our new culture section. Because weekends here will now be devoted to showcasing creative ingenuity in this corner of the world. Big dollops of beautiful visuals. Smart writing about the arts. First-person essays about what it feels like to be human right now. Videos. Photo essays. Interviews with authors and book excerpts. A bento box to feast on till Sunday evening.

Why are we shaking things up? We heard from many readers, and people who work in B.C.’s arts community, that something just like the Weekender is needed and would be very much welcomed. Here is some of what we heard:

“The arts and culture sector has been particularly hard hit by mainstream media’s reduction — in some cases the elimination — of the sustained public exposure and informed examination that has traditionally helped it flourish,” says celebrated arts writer and author Max Wyman.

“So the news that The Tyee has decided to buck the trend by launching a whole new section devoted to culture in its widest sense shines a bright beam of encouragement and hope into what has become for many a gloomy corner of the world.”

We’re living in a time when we need more space for the arts to thrive, added Am Johal, director of Simon Fraser University's Vancity Office of Community Engagement, chair of the Vancouver International Film Festival and board member of the BC Alliance for Arts and Culture. “In a time when critical review of the arts sector is so sorely needed, there are so few places to find it,” he says.

“Our artists and cultural producers need to have their work seen and considered critically for it to be part of a thriving arts ecology in the city. The Tyee continues its maverick, upstart ways by investing in culture writing. It is exciting for the sector to see this investment.”

Our hope is that the Weekender will act as a new space for readers to connect with the creative community, and for creatives to connect with our readers.

We resonate, for example, with Sarah Joyce, director-curator of the New Media Gallery in New Westminster, who told us: “Culture writing encourages us to consider alternate ways of communication and thinking. The arts encourage us to feel, sense and empathize, as well as think. The notion of a cultural ecosystem that can be ‘public’ and ‘democratic’ is supported and nourished by great culture writing.”

We heard lots of praise for Tyee culture editor Dorothy Woodend, who’s written about film and the arts here since the first weeks of The Tyee. She’ll be a Weekender regular. “Reading Dorothy’s work — a pleasure, always — is like catching up with a smart, articulate friend over tea, whose informed opinions on art (in its many forms) you value, and whose cultural dance card is, inevitably, far better managed than your own,” says Shaun Inouye, artistic director for the Cinematheque in Vancouver. “Quality company, to put it otherwise.”

In the Weekender, you can expect to see an exciting range of work as well by all-star Tyee staff writers like Christopher Cheung, Harrison Mooney, andrea bennett and Crawford Kilian. And we’re looking for new voices to take the Weekender stage. If you’re one of them, please be in touch!

The Tyee has long run culture stories, but having a place to showcase them puts a new emphasis on the importance of these pieces in our lives, with the aim of building a meeting place for a diverse and intergenerational audience.

Our thanks to Matchbox Creative for designing the Weekender, and to our director of web production Bryan Carney for bringing the section to life.

Watch this space for an exciting weekly transformation starting every Friday evening. And we’d love to hear what you’d like to see in the Weekender. Reach out to Weekender editor Jackie Wong via email.

All of this is made possible by the ongoing support of our readers. We couldn’t do this without you.