Last January, the Dunlop Art Gallery invited Montreal artist/poet Cynthia Girard to explore its collection Folk and Modernist art during a one-week residency. While in Saskatchewan, Girard also looked at some work in the collections of the MacKenzie and Mendel Art Galleries, and a couple of private Regina collections. She then returned home and made five large-scale paintings and several smaller works inspired by art she’d seen here that are being displayed in an exhibition called The Black Glove & the Peacock.

I’ll have more later on. But tonight at 7:30 p.m. there’s an artist talk and performance by Girard at the gallery. The show itself will run at the Dunlop until Aug. 29. Pictured above, by the way, is Girard’s painting Feeding the Birds.

Also on tonight and tomorrow night at the Exchange/Club are two special fundraisers to help the Saskatchewan Cultural Exchange Society bounce back from the devastating flooding that it suffered this spring when a pipe in the basement broke. Tonight, it’s the turn of local punk bands to rally to the cause, with shows happening on both the Exchange and Club side beginning at 7 p.m. Here’s a list of the participating bands: Amour Fou, Tomorrow Starts Today, Architects and Builders, Black Thunder, Royal Red Brigade, Double Down, Johnny Amore

Tomorrow night, local metal bands are helping out. Included in the line-up are:  Agonal, In Darkness, Troy Bleich, Roberto Gianinin, Lest We Fail, Numenon, Kyler James, Adam Ennis

The Exchange/Club are critical venues for all-ages shows in the city and music fans will hopefully show up in droves to demonstrate their support. Admission both nights is $20.

Also on tonight at O’Hanlon’s Pub, hard-rocking Toronto band C’mon is playing with the Dead Letters. Here’s the trailer for a film called The Messengers that documents C’mon’s 2009 cross-country tour.