VANCOUVER, BC.- Some of Vancouver’s most exciting indie bands will rock Robson Square at the Vancouver Art Gallery’s August 25th FUSE. Taking the party outside, the Gallery brings together three of the city’s most artful bands – Sinoia Caves, The Battles and The Book of Lists – to perform in the cool evening air. Inside the Gallery, FUSE-goers will create massive Haida cartoons with artist Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas, and use their mp3 players to rock the party in the FUSE Lounge. With jazz, food and drink on the Gallery Café patio, and expert tours of current exhibitions Raven Travelling: Two Centuries of Haida Art and Arthur Erickson: Critical Works, FUSE is Vancouver’s most unique night of art, music and performance.

“Our city’s indie music and visual arts scenes thrive as a result of mutual inspiration. This month we’re offering our visitors an intriguing new way to view art by putting the ‘gig’ and the gallery together,” said Marie Lopes, division head of public programming at the Vancouver Art Gallery. Beginning at 8 PM with Sinoia Caves, the solo project of Black Mountain keyboardist Jeremy Schmidt, bands will hit a stage constructed on the Robson Square Plaza. Pop rockers The Battles will conjure a set of their dreamy post-punk delights at 9 PM and at 10 PM The Book of Lists will finish the event with a potent performance of their Brit-pop flavored melodies.

Inside the Gallery, internationally renowned artist Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas will prepare the beginnings of a wall-sized Haida manga cartoon, which he will invite FUSE-goers to help finish. Working with the artist, guests will learn about Yahgulanaas’s unique fusion of Haida legend and East Asian comic aesthetic. Extremely successful in Japan and Korea where his comic books sell in vast quantities, Yahgulanaas is celebrated for his innovative, accessible and relevant work that remains firmly rooted in the classical world of Haida legend.

iDJ will give FUSE-goers the chance to play their tunes in the FUSE Lounge, a bar space on the Gallery’s 4th floor. Prospective DJs are invited to come equipped with the mp3 player of their choice and sign up to spin 15-minute pre-programmed playlists.

The Vancouver Art Gallery’s FUSE is the city’s most intriguing night of art, music and performance. Taking place the last Friday of every month, FUSE offers an ever-changing array of programming drawing on Vancouver’s thriving artistic communities. From aerial dancers performing on the Gallery walls, to pop culture lectures on Picasso, FUSE puts Vancouver's leading visual arts destination in an entirely new light – at night. FUSE tickets are $10 per person, $5 off the regular adult admission price. Members of the Vancouver Art Gallery receive free admission.