Cathy Merkel presents a special holiday concert at The Reach Gallery on Nov. 29, as part of the Culture, Coffee and Cookies series running throughout November.

Cathy Merkel presents a special holiday concert at The Reach Gallery on Nov. 29, as part of the Culture, Coffee and Cookies series running throughout November.

Culture, Coffee and Cookies at The Reach in Abbotsford

Series for November includes music, books and more

The Reach Gallery Museum continues its mostly free Culture, Coffee and Cookies (C3) talks on Wednesdays throughout November.

All presentations start at 10:30 a.m., except the one on Nov. 29, which is at noon.

The first presentation on Nov. 1 features Hans Kruger, president of Columbia Cabinet Cabinets Ltd, who is set to discuss Cabinets, Community, Choir.

He will provide a brief overview of the 47-year history and life of Columbia Cabinets in Abbotsford, including the caring support they provide locally and abroad.

Kruger, a choir musician and conductor, will also share how they have been able to invest some of their profits to support the arts in and around the Fraser Valley.

On Nov. 8, local historian and professor Molly Unger will discuss Don’t You Know There’s a War On? – Canadian War Art in World War II.

During World War II, Canadians were surrounded by visual representations of all aspects of the conflict, including war posters, war advertising, official war art and unofficial war art.

Unger’s illustrated talk will provide examples of these many visions of the war, and how Canadians reacted to them.

Publisher Kerry Coast talks about self-publishing on Nov. 15, including e-books, local printers, online publishing houses, layout and cover design, blogging and more.

On Nov. 22 the shift is to Cathy Ace and her My Life of Crime: 5 Years’ Hard Labour.

Ace is the author of 12 novels, all crime fiction, including a B.C. bestseller. She has also won a national Canadian writing prize.

She will talk about why she is currently turning back to self-publishing.

The final C3 event of the month is on Nov. 29, with the Lunchtime Holiday Concert: Song for a Winter’s Night.

Former teacher and principal Cathy Merkel, who studied opera in Italy over the summer, will lead a special concert in which she is joined by Mel Bowker on piano, Paul Horban on bass guitar, and Larry Galloway on tenor sax.

They will present a variety of holidays classics. Tickets are $10 and are available in person at The Reach (32388 Veterans Way), online at thereach.ca or by calling 604-864-8087 (ext. 0).

Abbotsford News