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Concerts, markets, meetups, workshops – here's what's coming up in the Valley.

Showing 1–24 of 60 events

March 2026 24 events

Artful : The Poets Featuring Landon Norris
Mon, Mar 2 7 pm – 9 pm

Artful : The Poets Featuring Landon Norris

Artful the Gallery

Artful : The Poets welcomes Landon Norris as feature poet, with host Diana Kolpak, on March 2, 7-9pm. Landon Arora Norris is a visual artist, actor, and poet, bringing an abundance of energy and colour to the stage, with vibrant brush strokes and line-work, wordplay, quirky subject matter, and eye-catching composition, leaving the ear a myriad of details to explore and become lost in. Landon mixes her personal experiences, interests in games and pop culture, along with her affinity for literary exploration and play. Landon earned a BFA in Drawing & Painting from OCAD University, while working steadily as a professional on-screen and voice actor. Her engagement in the artistic world quickly segued into music and poetry, latching onto linguistic intricacies, like anagrams, palindromes, and spoonerisms. She enjoys the carefree exploration involved in abstraction, and cartooning, while having a deep-rooted understanding of realism, light and shadow. With this amalgamation of artistic expression, Landon crosses the lines between free-spirited childlike poetry and highly technical lyricism and flow. Landon drove out from Toronto to Courtenay four years ago and planted roots on the island rather quickly, enjoying the pace of life, and the immediate connection to nature and the breathtaking outdoors this country is rich with. When she’s not glued to her creation station, playing games of the board or video variety, or out partaking in community events, you’re likely to catch Landon slinging ice cream at Blue Spruce during the weekdays.

Arts Details about Artful : The Poets Featuring Landon Norris
New Exhibit “Hope Meets Action: Echoes Through the Black Continuum”
Mar 7 – May 23 10 am – 4 pm

New Exhibit “Hope Meets Action: Echoes Through the Black Continuum”

the Courtenay and District Museum

The Courtenay and District Museum is pleased to present “ Hope Meets Action: Echoes Through the Black Continuum ”, a travelling exhibit created by the BC Black History Awareness Society in partnership with the Royal BC Museum. The exhibit reclaims and retells the complicated history of Black British Columbians and traces an unbroken line of strength and resistance from the distant past to the present and into the future by highlighting the contributions of Black leaders. “ Hope Meets Action ” will be on display from March 7 to May 23, 2026. The Courtenay Museum is open Tuesday to Saturday from 10 am to 4 pm. FMI: (250) 334-0686

Arts Details about New Exhibit “Hope Meets Action: Echoes Through the Black Continuum”
Poetry Reading and Book Launch
Sat, Mar 7 7 pm – 9 pm

Poetry Reading and Book Launch

Artful the Gallery

Join host Kelly Madden at Artful : The Gallery for the poetry reading and book launch of Ed Varney and Dan Kirk. Guest poet Kristina Campbell will also join the reading for an entertaining trio of Comox Valley Poets. Ed Varney was inspired to become a poet during his second year of University and has followed that idea over the past 60 years. Along the way he has learned printing technologies, publishing strategies, book binding skills, graphics and fine arts, arranged exhibitions, edited anthologies, founded small poetry magazines and published over 20 books and chapbooks of his own poetry. Varney reports that poetry continues to engage him and new poems emerge on sheets of paper in his studio. Varney’s latest chapbook is ‘Crossroads’, published by the Poem Factory. It follows the path that thought takes as it expresses itself in words and how those words morph into poetry. Dan Kirk has spent extended periods of time over the past 20 years reading American poets William Stafford, Robert Bly and Emily Dickenson, Spanish poets Antonio Machado and Juan Ramon Jimenez, Swedish poet Tomas Transtromer and Norwegian poet Olav H. Hauge. They have informed and inspired Kirk’s writing in an ongoing conversation where he has responded to, argued with and extended their words and ideas and brought them into his world. This volume ’Still Talking’ represents a distillation of his ongoing dialogue with these poets and others who evoke a response. Kirk founded and ran the Red Tree Poetry Series and co-produced the first two Cascadia Poetry Festivals in Cumberland, B.C. with Adelia MacWilliam and Ed Varney. Reading in locations around Vancouver Island and Kelowna, Daniel has enjoyed the varied audiences for poetry in these communities. Kristina Campbell is an artist and therapist who has lived in the Comox Valley since 2017. In 2020, Campbell established Artful : The Gallery to provide a home base for her multi-media art practice which includes painting, poetry and experimental film. Campbell has reached back through her Danish ancestry to bring the Nordic gods to her mythopoetic sensibility as an artist. Campbell’s style is an expression of her belief that using mythological imagery can inspire and lead to the creation of new narratives. Campbell’s fascination with mythology, symbols, memory and dream imagery is a unifying theme throughout her work. Kelly Madden is a Vancouver Island poet whose writing is raw, unflinching, and deeply rooted in place. She speaks for the overlooked: those lost to the overdose crisis, those unhoused, and the ecosystems we continue to erase. Her work has appeared in numerous publications supported by the League of Canadian Poets, Reckoning, SAPPzine, Island Writer’s Magazine, CV2, The Poet, Drift, Drunk Monkeys and elsewhere. She is currently working on her second collection of poetry.

Arts Details about Poetry Reading and Book Launch
Sat, Mar 14 7 pm – 8:30 pm

The Strathcona Symphony Orchestra Presents an Evening of Chamber Music Featuring Bach, Mozart, and Respighi

St Georges United Church

After the resounding success of the Strathcona Symphony Orchestra’s (SSO) start to the 2025/26 season with December performances at Courtenay’s Filberg Centre, the SSO Music Director, Kenji Fusé, is offering concertgoers a collection of well-known chamber orchestra works from Bach, Mozart, and Respighi, and chamber music from other invited guests, including the Comox Valley Flute Choir. The concert program, titled Intimate Voices, will be performed one night only at Courtenay’s St. George’s United Church on March 14 th . Tickets will be available on the SSO website, https://strathcona-symphony-orchestra.tickit.ca/ , later in January. “The Respighi piece, Suite No. 3, offers audiences a bit of Mediterranean sunshine during our late winter season, and the Mozart Symphony 40 in G minor is a personal favourite, one of the supreme classics of the entire orchestral repertoire which must be experienced live,” said Mr. Fusé. “Brandenburg Concerto No. 3 is such a joyous piece that I enjoy playing it anytime, anywhere.” “The Brandenburg is also special in that each of the ten performers plays a unique, important solo part,” he said. “The last movement in particular is extremely fun to perform and listen to live, and it will be an opportunity for the string players of the SSO to shine!” “Chamber music is the basis for playing music with others,” he added. “All orchestral musicians learn tremendously and deeply when they work on chamber music. This concert offers the musicians a chance to grow musically and as performers.”

Arts Details about The Strathcona Symphony Orchestra Presents an Evening of Chamber Music Featuring Bach, Mozart, and Respighi
Comox Valley Songwriters Circle
Mon, Mar 16 7 pm – 9 pm

Comox Valley Songwriters Circle

Artful the Gallery

Each month singer/songwriters gather to share their tunes at Artful : The Gallery. The range of abilities, experience and genres welcomes musicians who appreciate the challenge (and the deadline!) of creating a new song each month. The circle provides a place to be inspired, seek feedback and to be able to hear what other creatives are working on. Most musicians bring along their guitars or ukuleles, although some sing a cappella or use the in-house piano for accompaniment. Host Ashley Sykes’s love of connecting with other artists provides motivation to write and perform in the supportive group. The circle does not provide instruction; it provides an opportunity to perform your song, and to be impacted by others doing the same. Attendance is by donation ($10 or pwyc). The group welcomes newcomers, and the only criteria is that the songs performed are original.

Arts Details about Comox Valley Songwriters Circle
Lecture: Fishes of the Strait of Georgia
Tue, Mar 17 7 pm – 8 pm

Lecture: Fishes of the Strait of Georgia

the Courtenay and District Museum

In a presentation based on their book, Fishes of the Strait of Georgia, authors and marine scientists Dick Beamish and Jeff Marliave will share their observations about some of the 243 species that frequent the strait. They will be speaking at 7:00 PM on Tuesday, March 17 in the Courtenay and District Museum. Both authors have spent their professional lives studying the bountiful natural aquarium that is the Strait of Georgia. Marliave has a PhD in Zoology from UBC and was VP of Marine Science at Vancouver Aquarium. Beamish also has a PhD in Zoology; he has received the Order of Canada, the Order of British Columbia and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada. He was also a member of the International Panel on Climate Change that received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007. Copies of Fishes of the Strait of Georgia (Harbour Publishing) will be available for purchase ($80.00 plus tax) and signing after the talk. Admission to the lecture is $5 per historical society member; $6 for non-members. Advance tickets are strongly recommended . Doors open at 6:30 PM. For more information, or to purchase tickets over the phone, call 250-334-0686 ext. 2. The Courtenay and District Museum is located at 207 Fourth Street in downtown Courtenay.

Arts Details about Lecture: Fishes of the Strait of Georgia
9 to 5
Wed, Mar 18 7:30 pm – 10 pm

9 to 5

Sid Williams Theatre

9 to 5 , with music and lyrics by Dolly Parton, is based on the seminal 1980 hit movie. Set in the late 1970s, this hilarious story of friendship and revenge in the Rolodex era is outrageous, thought-provoking and even a little romantic. Pushed to the boiling point, three female coworkers concoct a plan to get even with the sexist, egotistical, lying, hypocritical bigot they call their boss. In a hilarious turn of events, Violet, Judy and Doralee live out their wildest fantasy – giving their boss the boot! While Hart remains “otherwise engaged,” the women give their workplace a dream makeover, taking control of the company that had always kept them down. Hey, a girl can scheme, can’t she?

Arts Details about 9 to 5
9 to 5
Thu, Mar 19 7:30 pm – 10 pm

9 to 5

Sid Williams Theatre

9 to 5 , with music and lyrics by Dolly Parton, is based on the seminal 1980 hit movie. Set in the late 1970s, this hilarious story of friendship and revenge in the Rolodex era is outrageous, thought-provoking and even a little romantic. Pushed to the boiling point, three female coworkers concoct a plan to get even with the sexist, egotistical, lying, hypocritical bigot they call their boss. In a hilarious turn of events, Violet, Judy and Doralee live out their wildest fantasy – giving their boss the boot! While Hart remains “otherwise engaged,” the women give their workplace a dream makeover, taking control of the company that had always kept them down. Hey, a girl can scheme, can’t she?

Arts Details about 9 to 5
9 to 5
Fri, Mar 20 7:30 pm – 10 pm

9 to 5

Sid Williams Theatre

9 to 5 , with music and lyrics by Dolly Parton, is based on the seminal 1980 hit movie. Set in the late 1970s, this hilarious story of friendship and revenge in the Rolodex era is outrageous, thought-provoking and even a little romantic. Pushed to the boiling point, three female coworkers concoct a plan to get even with the sexist, egotistical, lying, hypocritical bigot they call their boss. In a hilarious turn of events, Violet, Judy and Doralee live out their wildest fantasy – giving their boss the boot! While Hart remains “otherwise engaged,” the women give their workplace a dream makeover, taking control of the company that had always kept them down. Hey, a girl can scheme, can’t she?

Arts Details about 9 to 5
All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace*
Sat, Mar 21 10 am – 4 pm

All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace*

Artful the Gallery

On Saturday, March 21st, Courtenay printmaker Clive Powsey is having a one day pop-up exhibition of hand-drawn, printed and tinted intaglio impressions at Artful : The Gallery on Cumberland Road in Courtenay. Powsey has used a ‘savage’ rigorous prompt to elicit critique and assessment of hundreds of his prints from the large language model, ChatGPT. Only the highest scoring images will be included in the show, the content of which was decided by AI. Also on hand will be the prompt, an artist statement outlining the metrics of selection, a curator’s statement generated by ChatGPT, and samples of the critiques which are, of course, mindless probabilistic arrangements of words determined by the prompt and the training of the model on vast amounts of art historical and critical writing. There will also be a folio of rejected images and sample critiques for comparison. The show’s name comes from the title of a 1967 poem by Richard Brautigan*. Beyond any questions that might exist regarding the art imagery, the exhibition asks the question of visitors, ‘How does human judgment and sensibility fare against that of machines?’ Visit the show and decide what you think.

Arts Details about All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace*
Sat, Mar 21 2 pm – 4:30 pm

9 to 5

Sid Williams Theatre

9 to 5 , with music and lyrics by Dolly Parton, is based on the seminal 1980 hit movie. Set in the late 1970s, this hilarious story of friendship and revenge in the Rolodex era is outrageous, thought-provoking and even a little romantic. Pushed to the boiling point, three female coworkers concoct a plan to get even with the sexist, egotistical, lying, hypocritical bigot they call their boss. In a hilarious turn of events, Violet, Judy and Doralee live out their wildest fantasy – giving their boss the boot! While Hart remains “otherwise engaged,” the women give their workplace a dream makeover, taking control of the company that had always kept them down. Hey, a girl can scheme, can’t she?

Arts Details about 9 to 5