Job Description

Position: Engagement Coordinator
Project: Blue Cabin Floating Artist Residency
Location: Throughout the Lower Mainland
Reporting to: Blue Cabin Committee

Hours: $25-$27/hour, 18 hours per week. Some evening and weekend work. Flexible schedule.

Start date: July 29, 2019
Application Deadline: Thursday, June 27, 2019 @ 5:00pm

Project Description:
The Blue Cabin Floating Artist Residency (BCFAR) is a collaboration between grunt gallery Other Sights for Artists’ Projects and Creative Cultural Collaborations. The collaborating organizations have formed the Blue Cabin Committee to oversee the ongoing management of the BCFAR.

About the Blue Cabin:
The BCFAR provides artists with a unique opportunity to work in a completely restored and outfitted heritage cabin/studio with deep historical roots in both the foreshore past of North Vancouver on the West Coast of British Columbia and the early years of Vancouver’s contemporary art scene. Situated on a floating platform and anchored in a marine environment, the residency features a state of the art, self-sustaining “deck house” as accommodation. Responding to the unique environment, landscape and heritage of the region, the BCFAR will be a central feature of the selected artists’ experience. This is an artist–centred residency space that welcomes local, regional and national participants as well as international guests.

The BCFAR is open to artists in all disciplines and supports the creative development of all kinds, for artists at all stages of their careers. It is intended to support artists who wish to undertake research, reflection, contemplation, production or presentation activities. Artists are asked to propose a program of public engagement as the only outcome required of the residency.

General Description of the Position:
The Engagement Coordinator works with staff, contractors, volunteers, and membership to develop contacts, programming and strengthen relationships between the Blue Cabin Floating Artist Residency (BCFAR) and its partners in the community. This is a professional position that reports to the Blue Cabin Committee and associated staff.

The Engagement Coordinator is a planner, implementer, and relationship builder who is responsible for developing this new initiative in conjunction with multiple and diverse communities across the Lower Mainland. They are also responsible for developing strategies around programming, retention and recognition of audience members, volunteers and other communities, as well as strategies for outreach. This is NOT a fundraising focused position.

The Engagement Coordinator will work within the communities the facility inhabits making connections and strengthening bonds between stakeholders and increasing visibility and access. A major focus will be on the heritage and cultural communities, and the position will require the incumbent to familiarize themselves with the many different heritage stakeholders in Vancouver and on the North Shore including community groups, non-profits, government departments, universities and museums and archives. The Engagement Coordinator will work with these groups to develop programming for the BCFAR in the form of lectures, panels, open houses, exhibits and discussions around the Blue Cabin that are part of the project’s broader curatorial activities.

The Engagement Coordinator will work with the Blue Cabin Curatorial Committee to maintain relationships within the three Indigenous host nations; as the BCFAR will move throughout waterways in the region, we are committed to strong relationships with Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh (MST). The incumbent will play a fundamental role in continuing our conversations with the MST, and continuing to build strong relationships and opportunities for collaboration. The Engagement Coordinator will maintain relationships within the infrastructure of the cities of Vancouver, North Vancouver and the District of North Vancouver, including targeted relationships with stakeholders at Northeast False Creek, the North Shore and Port Metro.

The Engagement Coordinator is expected to work independently while maintaining a strong connection to the overall project and curatorial planning.

Required Competencies:
Collaborative Reliable
Committed Independent
Community Minded Tolerant
Creative Flexible
Social Resourceful

General Responsibilities:
● Work with staff and committees to develop and enhance contacts within the identified communities.
● Develop strategies for outreach and active community development.
● Produce and develop programming at the BCFAR engaging the Heritage and cultural communities
● Design and implement a community plan that builds strong, long-term, and loyal relationships with audience members, supporters and communities.
● Forge relationships within the heritage and cultural communities across the Lower Mainland, and explore opportunities for co-programming, cross-promotion and outreach.
● Continue to develop relationships with Indigenous partners and collaborators from the host nations (Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh) as well as the wider indigenous communities of Vancouver.
● Explore engagement opportunities from other communities as necessary, and in conjunction with the Blue Cabin Committee’s vision for programming and the residency.
● Produce a news feed around community engagement that is aligned with BCFAR’s social media, website and newsletters focusing on their respective membership and community activities.
● Collaborate and communicate with neighborhood organizations to develop activities that promote the BCFAR’s role in the community (eg. community events and festivals).

Required Skills and Education:
● Superior networking skills for arts and cultural-based environments.
● Strong knowledge and commitment to bridge-building within diverse community frameworks.
● Good understanding of artist-run culture.
● Post-secondary education in an arts related program, educational program or a relevant discipline is an asset.
● Previous experience (work or volunteer) in an arts organization, community centre, educational centre or activist organizing is an asset.
● Demonstrated supervisory and interpersonal skills; ability to perform well in a team environment and collaborate with others.
● Strong written and oral communication skills; ability to target events outreach materials to varying audiences and age groups.
● Strong organizational skills, able to identify and prioritize tasks with minimal supervision, work independently, and take initiative.
● Experience with youth/adult education programming an asset.
● Working knowledge of Social Media, e.g. Facebook, Twitter and mass email systems;
● Resourceful, hands-on and pro-active.
● Previous experience in developing and maintaining strong internal and external relationships.
● Demonstrated success with strategy development, implementation and evaluation.
● Proven ability to act in an assertive but professional manner and to represent oneself and an organization in a positive manner.
● Ability to work flexible hours.
● Ability to travel throughout the Lower Mainland.

Business Ethics and the Workplace:
• Must promote and set the example for ensuring a friendly, courteous, respectful and professional work environment.
• Must maintain the confidentiality of all personal, private, and professional information obtained within the course of employment.
• Must not accept any gifts, loans or anything of value from any individuals with whom contact is had during the course of employment.

To apply: Please send cover letter and resume to Sunshine Frere by email < sunshine (at) othersights (dot) ca >

Application Deadline: Thursday, June 27, 2019 @ 5:00pm

Job Description:

Position: Residency Coordinator (contract position)
Project: Blue Cabin Floating Artist Residency
Reporting to: Operations Director (grunt gallery) and General Manager (Other Sights for Artists’ Projects)

Hours: $27/hr 18 hours per week. Some evening and weekend work. Flexible schedule.

Start date: July 2, 2019
Application Deadline: Thursday, June 13, 2019 @ 5:00pm

Project Description:
The Blue Cabin Floating Artist Residency (BCFAR) is a collaboration between grunt gallery Other Sights for Artists’ Projects and Creative Cultural Collaborations. The collaborating organizations have formed the Blue Cabin Committee to oversee the ongoing management of the BCFAR.

About the Blue Cabin:
The BCFAR provides artists with a unique opportunity to live and work in a completely restored and outfitted heritage cabin/studio with deep historical roots in both the foreshore past of North Vancouver on the West Coast of British Columbia and the early years of Vancouver’s contemporary art scene. Situated on a floating platform and anchored in a marine environment, the residency features a state of the art, self-sustaining “tiny house” as accommodation. Responding to the unique environment, landscape and heritage of the region, the BCFAR will be a central feature of the selected artists’ experience. This is an artist–centred residency space that welcomes local, regional and national participants as well as international guests.

The BCFAR is open to artists in all disciplines and supports the creative development of all kinds, for artists at all stages of their careers. It is intended to support artists who wish to undertake research, reflection, contemplation, production or presentation activities. Artists are asked to propose a program of public engagement as the only outcome required of the residency.

General Description of the Position:
The Residency Coordinator is charged with the administration, management and maintenance of the BCFAR as well as working with a variety of individuals and groups to coordinate and schedule all programming and artist in residence stays.

The Residency Coordinator organizes all aspects related to the residency, including support of the artist application process, support of the artist in residence, and ensures that the facility is safe and well maintained and that the ongoing maintenance plan is implemented.

The Residency Coordinator is responsible for the day to day operations of the BCFAR and the management of associated special projects. The Residency Coordinator reports directly to the Operations Director at grunt gallery and the General Manager at Other Sights for Artists’ Projects.

Required Competencies:
Project Management Communication
Time Management Collaborative
Committed Community Minded
Creative Flexible
Social Reliable
Independent Tolerant
Resourceful

General Responsibilities:
• Develop and maintain the day to day administration of the BCFAR.
• Help maintain the BCFAR’s public presence through the Blue Cabin website, social media channels, e-newsletters, and in print, in conjunction with other communications’ staff.
• Organize and lead the artist application process, assist the Blue Cabin Committee with artist selection, and coordinate all aspects of the residency including resource documents, contracts, communication with artists, fees, programming events, etc.
• Provide logistical and technical support to artists in residence.
• Organize field trips, studio visits, public presentations and other research and engagement activities.
• Develop a maintenance plan around the cabin facility for maintenance, janitorial and facility upkeep.
• Oversee the work of contractors implementing the maintenance plan.
• Oversee the residency budget, in conjunction with other staff and contractors.
• Provide budgets and expense reports to the Blue Cabin Committee at regular intervals.

Required Skills and Education:
• Strong familiarity with arts administration.
• Good understanding of artist-run culture.
• Preferably, post-secondary education in an arts-related program or a project management program.
• Previous experience (work or volunteer) with an artist residency programme an asset.
• Demonstrated supervisory and interpersonal skills; ability to perform well in a team environment and to collaborate with others.
• Strong written and oral communication skills.
• Strong organizational skills, ability to identify and prioritize tasks with minimal supervision, work independently, and take initiative.
• Experience with youth/adult education programming an asset.
• Strong knowledge and commitment to bridge-building within diverse community frameworks.
• Working knowledge of social media, e.g. Facebook, Twitter and mass email systems.
• Resourceful, hands-on and pro-active.
• Proven ability to act in an assertive but professional manner and to represent oneself and an organization in a positive manner.
• Ability to work at and travel to multiple sites throughout the Lower Mainland.
• Ability to work flexible hours.

Business Ethics and the Workplace:
• Must promote and set the example for ensuring a friendly, courteous, respectful and professional work environment.
• Must maintain the confidentiality of all personal, private, and professional information obtained within the course of employment.
• Must not accept any gifts, loans or anything of value from any individuals with whom contact is had during the course of employment.

To apply: Please send cover letter and resume to Meagan Kus by email < meagan(at)grunt.ca >

Application Deadline: Thursday, June 13, 2019 @ 5:00pm

The fourth installation of Pet Peeves is here! Can you believe it? Join us as grunt’s Gallery Assistant, Hedy Wood, continues her investigation of the grunt gallery staff by interviewing their pets.

Pets prefer a Scottish accent, period. You can say, “Whooooooo’s got those dog pants? Whooo’s got those PANTS?!” until your head expands like a melon, but really, it’ll get you nowhere. Likewise, “Where’s that pretty kitty cat CAT?!” Totally useless.

No, if you want to befriend any pet, any time, a simple Scottish burr is the way to go.

Example: “Och, aye, what a bonnie wee laddie/lassie ye are.” Boom, done, they melt like butter.

I was putting this theory to the test when I went to visit Kate Barry, Freddie and Moe. Not that I was exactly in the greatest mood for belting out a bunch of fake Scottish lingo, due to the heatwave, fifth-floor apartment and broken elevator, but I was doing my best.

Now Kate Barry is a bit newer to grunt, her job title is Screen Coordinator for the Mount Pleasant Community Art Screen, and I have to say she is one of the few interviews that I’ve done where a refreshing SNACK was provided. I think other pet owners might want to have a little think about that…

Freddie greeted me when I arrived at the apartment. I was sweaty, breathless, and talking a bit too much about arthritis. He was actually so adorable, my Scottish theory went right out of my mind.

Me: Oh hi Kate. Now who’s THIS? Is that the Freddie dog?! The little Freddie dog DOG! Whooooo’s the pupparazi? Well, that’s you, yes it is!

So, as you can see, pretty much a total failure of interview technique AND nothing Scottish whatsoever. I have to give Freddie extreme credit for rolling with all this nonsense in a very gentlemanly way.

Freddie: Why hello there Hedy, how charming to meet you, please, have a seat. Yes, that’s good, right there. I will jump up and sit right beside you. What could be more pleasant? Well, a small dog snack would really make this a perfect moment, wouldn’t it?

(I found out that Freddie, who looked perfect to me, is on a doggy diet. Some cruel and unusual vet has decided that Freddie needs to lose 3 pounds!)

Me: So, Freddie, how did you and Kate meet? How did she get so lucky?!

Freddie: Well, actually, I was on an online pet dating site, looking for a positive change in my relationships, and that’s how I met Kate. I didn’t know at the time that I was to become part of this beautiful, blended family, here with Moe. I LOVE Moe so much.

At this point in the interview, Kate did a little cat conjuring magic with a can of tuna, and Moe appeared from his upstairs man cave.

Me: Hello Moe! You are a CATLY cat!! Who’s got those whiskers?!!

(As you can see I had by this point pretty much gone completely cuckoo because Freddie and Moe are just so exactly the kind of pets anyone would love to have. Moe is a large luxurious tabby, and Freddie a perfect mix of Shitsu and Poodle, what’s not to love?

Moe: Are you by any chance here to interview me about that dog? Maybe you would like to talk about my perfect lovely life before SHE brought HIM home?! Everything was perfect until he came along, and now he just LOVES me so much all the time! He’s all LOVE LOVE LOVE every day, all day! What is wrong with him?! It gets on my very last nerve. Honestly, why exactly does he live here? We were FINE before he came along. AND he’s getting fat.

Me: Oh…….

Moe: And what kind of breed is he?! A Shit Poo, that’s what I call it, heh, heh, heh…..get it? Shitsu and Poodle.

Me: Oh………dear……well, now Moe, surely there must be some benefit to having Freddie around? He seems like a very sweet dog to me. Surely you must have gotten fond of him over these last couple of years?

(I think it was at about this point in the interview that Freddie jumped out of his chair and ran over to lick Mo’s nose. That sent me into cuteness overload, and I swear I saw a tiny Cheshire grin on Moe’s face.)

Moe: There! You see? That’s just a perfect example of what he’s like! LOVE! Barf! If he wasn’t so darn cute, I’m sure I would have killed him by now….little cutie….little shitty poo poo….

I began to sense a bit of a game or pattern going on between these two. Much as Moe repeatedly stressed his general loathing of Freddie, I could see a real bond and genuine caring between them. This, combined with the gracious hosting by Kate, and the general ambience of warmth and happy pets and all the rest of it, began to annoy me. I ended my little visit as politely as possible and went on down the five flights of stairs and out into the summer heat. Always easier going downhill, that’s what I say….

The thing is, I was thwarted once again in my quest for pet peeves. My quest which had in actual fact, mainly become about discovering bad behaviour ANYWHERE at all, on the part of any of the grunt staff, or their much loved pets! Everything was just a bit too peachy keen everywhere I went, and, as Moe would say, it was getting on my very last nerve!

#callresponse, co-organized by Tarah Hogue, Maria Hupfield and Tania Willard, began at grunt gallery in 2016. The exhibition has toured across Canada and the US for two years and recently came to a close at TRUCK Contemporary Art and Stride Gallery in Calgary. To mark the end of the tour, grunt’s curatorial interns, Whess Harman and Nellie Lamb, chatted with Tarah about #callresponse and the roles of collaboration and mentorship in her practice.

Ursula Johnson with Charlene Aleck and Cease Wyss performing at the #callresponse opening in 2016. Photo by Merle Addison.

NL: Can you start by briefly describing #callresponse?

TH: #callresponse takes as its starting point five projects that were commissioned by Indigenous women-identifying artists based across Canada and into the US. The invitations were extended to these artists in particular because they are all very much enmeshed in working with community in different ways and their practices are all quite diverse, ranging from performance to ceremony to new media. The context that we asked those initial five artists to respond to was around reconciliation but in a roundabout way. We thought about how the projects that these artists are already committed to working on have a really transformative capacity, and looked at that as a starting point in order to turn that settler-nation-state-to-Indigenous relation within reconciliation on its head. We then asked each of those artists to extend that invitation to a collaborator or respondent to create these dialogues between practices. We were thinking about this call and response structure, but the artists took that in so many different directions. Christi Belcourt and Isaac Murdoch decided to work together and position the land as their respondent, so there’s different degrees of collaboration or mentorship or response throughout the project.

WH: I was just reading over everything on the website again and the initial outset of how the project was described and, as an artist and someone at grunt now, it stood out so much how present these questions still are, not just as institutions but as artists. One of the questions I had about that is, how do you think institutions now are responding to this idea of reconciliation? Do you think that’s changed a lot or do you think #callresponse could just keep going until institutions responded in a meaningful way?

TH: [laughs]…until decolonization?

WH: [laughs] Yeah, until we achieve decolonization!

TH: That’s an interesting question because the experience of working with all of the institutions that we partnered with was very different and demonstrated where different organizations are in that relationship-building process. Like at Blackwood Gallery, we were in the context of an academic institution—they’re at the University of Toronto Mississauga—and part of what we did when we were there was to meet with university faculty and talk about their efforts to indigenize the academy, which is something that was a relatively new path for them at that time, or at least was new in terms of the university recognizing the work that Indigenous faculty were already doing in a systematic way. And then at a place like AKA Artist Run Centre in Saskatoon we were building upon work that they had already been doing within the community there, so it was really just about how we could give our resources over to the work that was already happening. I think that because the project doesn’t centre that settler-Indigenous relationship within reconciliation in the same way, that it could keep going on for a long time. Not that I don’t think that other projects that privilege that relationship aren’t important but it’s also like, who’s benefit is that for?

WH: It’s a heavy load on Indigenous artists. I feel, again speaking as an artist, being asked to do that, it’s like, I don’t have the answer and that’s what so many of these projects seem to frame like: “We’re going to have a reconciliation project and we’re going to have an answer!” But you are not! It’s going to be exhausting and I might be kicking and screaming by the time you’re finished.

TH: I asked Maria and Tania to work with me because they’re two people who I look up to immensely, and we further invited other artists who we looked up to immensely. A lot of the artist-respondent pairings had that aspect woven into it. Some artists chose to respond more directly to that context of reconciliation, like Christi and Isaac saying we’re not ready for reconciliation; we have to reconcile ourselves with the land before we can do something else.

WH: On the [web]page there’s a little thing where you’re quoting Leanne Simpson that was something that stood out to me about the whole process. With reconciliation are tied in these concepts of recognition and those concepts of recognition are so different when Indigenous people are working with other Indigenous people—it strengthens those bonds.

TH: That idea of living as if, as if we have realized the realities that we want on the ground. I love Leanne Simpson.

NL: I really like this web-like, looking-in-multiple-directions-at-the-same-time idea. When I originally read about the project I understood it as starting with you and hopping over to these artists and then they hop to these [other] artists, but listening to you talk about it now, it’s not so linear.

TH: No it’s not. That web of relationships, I’m coming to realize, is part of my curatorial practice both unconsciously and consciously. Translating that way of working to working at the Vancouver Art Gallery is a little bit complicated. How do you maintain that? How the institution responds to that methodology is interesting.

WH: It must be hard with larger institutions. I imagine there is this unspoken thing about making things palatable for an audience but a project like #callresponse is asking, well, what’s palatable for an institution?

TH: That’s something that I’ve puzzled over about the exhibition in general as it’s travelled to different places, because the story of the project is so rich and all of the different in-person interactions and experiences are at the heart of the exhibition, and then you have a series of works that stay the same, that travel to each place with a few changes, like when Ursula did a new song line that would go into the gallery instead of the initial one that she and Cheryl did together. A lot of the works in the show point outside of themselves. Maria’s felt bag is an object that’s activated in performance and the plywood cut-out buffalo robe points to the fact that that original object is not there any more. I’ve always been curious throughout the process of the exhibition about how people experience that pointing outside of the gallery through these objects that are inside of the space. Allison Collins, when the show opened here, said that the role of imagination in looking at the exhibition was something that stood out for her right away. Thinking about what the stories of the objects were outside of the space. She said something along the lines of imagination is not valued as much in exhibitions as it should be.

WH: Initially I also had the same idea that this is a very linear project in many ways, but did you find overall that you were enmeshing more into things, into networks?

TH: Yeah, I would say so. It’s interesting to re-install a show over and over again and see how it shifts in every location and every context and what kinds of conversations come out of those contexts. The most enmeshed aspect of the project was me, Maria and Tania working together. That kind of coordinating but also curatorial conversations around each project—it was really thinking about, in each context, what projects we could activate or what artists we could bring in that would speak well to that context. Really it was about being responsive to that set of conditions, but sort of diving deeper into the projects each time.

NL: Do you have an example of one install or experience of install that changed really drastically or in an important way?

TH: Ursula’s project is a good example of that. Her project, The Land Sings, was in existence before #callresponse started. She had already done three or four song lines, so the project was a way of building on that work and acknowledging that work. We did song lines here, in Mississauga, New York, and Halifax. It moved from the East Coast to the West Coast and then back again over the course of the tour. In each case Ursula is working with singers, hand drummers, and language speakers in that area, and thinking about the relationships between the gallery and the closest First Nation community. That project shifted each time. In New York the song line was mapped onto the skyline of the city as something that’s such a defining feature there and is overlaid on top of Indigenous space and closely follows historic travelling routes that Indigenous Lenape would have travelled along.

NL: That site-specificity seems like such an integral part of the project.

TH: I think so. The initial five commissions were asked to be “locally responsive”; we didn’t really use the term “site specific.” I guess it started by thinking about how all of these artists are committed to doing the work that they’re doing in their own communities. That community is differently defined by everyone. It’s not about an ancestral or reserve community. It can be a shifting context that the artists are all responding to. Also, when we approached galleries for the first time we always asserted that this is a partnership. So the galleries need to take the lead, developing programming that makes sense in their context. We’re not just going to parachute in and do this exhibition; it wouldn’t be in line with how the project began or how it developed. It’s all the context; the responsiveness to context has always been a really central aspect to the project.

WH: Did you find some resistance from some places that didn’t understand where the project was coming from?

TH: No, luckily our partnerships were formed well in that way. Certainly some institutions had much more active, or ongoing or in-depth conversations than others that just rolled with it in their own way. Or [with] some people, it was a really collaborative coming to understand what needed to happen. I think that most of our partners understood for the most part what we were trying to do. There were challenges along the way. I think once we had done the first few, you kind of figure out what questions to ask, what kind of conversations need to happen at the beginning in order to get to what needs to happen. There’s always going to be a set of possibilities that we are responding to and another set of considerations that can be discussed with the partners.

WH: It seems like a difficult thing to do something like an exhibition, which is very administrative just by nature of being attached to an institution, [and] to also have it sincerely engage with the people that are going to see it. A thing I think about a lot when I’m asked to do a workshop is, well, what’s actually beneficial to you? To stop you from just dropping in and being like, “These are my ideas!” and then peace-ing out and ending the dialogue.

TH: I think that a lot of relationships were formed through the project. The participating artists are variously involved in communities where the show went to, so we were able to build upon those relationships a little bit.

WH: I was never able to make any of the performances just by nature of always travelling myself. I just remember each time there was a performance there was a spike in the hash tag and just feeling this intense feeling of FOMO. But also, going through the comments and seeing everyone else who couldn’t make it, there’s this weird outside community that wasn’t able to attend.

TH: Speaking of spider webs and networks, right? The amount of people who have followed the project online and through its various iterations has been pretty spectacular. It’s been really heart-warming in that respect. All of the artists, especially the five initial artists, they’re all such powerhouses. Huge amazing forces to be reckoned with. That was apparent always throughout the exhibitions.

WH: What curatorial projects are you inspired by outside of your own?

TH: Because I’m now working at the Vancouver Art Gallery I’m looking more intensively at what other large-scale institutional work people are doing and always puzzling to myself how they pulled that off. The work that Jamie Isaac and Julie Nagam are doing at Winnipeg Art Gallery, it’s very clearly connected to the community there and has enlivened the space when they activate it through their work and also their ethic and methodology. The way that they work together is really something I admire. And one of the best shows that I’ve seen in the last couple of years is We Carry Forward by Lisa Myers. I saw it when I was in Ontario. It was a group exhibition that just really floored me. She’s a really smart curator. And Lorna Brown at the Belkin, I was thinking about Lorna and Lisa together because they both play upon the meaning and structure of language and then extrapolate that into the artworks that they include.

NL: I’m just thinking about #callresponse ending: it recently wrapped up at its last stop at Stride and TRUCK Gallery in Calgary. Is there a story or a feeling about the impact of the project—maybe something in your own practice—as it comes to a close? How are you reflecting on the project?

TH: Two things come to mind: the scales of intimacy and really public-facing discourse that have both been really fulfilling. I think that’s encapsulated at Stride and TRUCK Gallery in Calgary. We worked with youth from Tsuu T’ina First Nation, which is a program already established with those galleries. A dozen kids came from the rez and we had pizza lunch,we gave them a tour of the show, Maria let them mess with her performance objects, and then we did a pirate radio broadcast in the gallery at TRUCK, which would have a radius of about a block. And the kids, like, played Drake songs and told jokes and we ate chips. It took a few hours before, right at the very end, everyone’s warmed up to each other and we’re chilling and it’s natural. It’s a little different with kids, but there’s a number of moments throughout the project that are small scale and focused on that kind of moment. And then there’s a moment, like opening the exhibition in New York and doing a round table to a packed house, attended by arts workers from around the city. And you recognize that you’re part of a dialogue that people really need to be hearing there and need to be having, because it doesn’t happen enough and the ways that [it] happens aren’t always Indigenous-led. It is a small moment, but you just feel like you’re connected to something that’s wider and urgent. Those nodes of the project are what will resonate with me for a long time to come.

Particles completes grunt’s exchange with organizations and artists in Seoul, South Korea. This international program began in 2018 with Instant Coffee’s project Pink Noise Pop Up , which saw curator Vanessa Kwan, artist collective Instant Coffee and Vancouver-based artists Jeneen Frei Njootli, Casey Wei, Krista Belle Stewart and Ron Tran mount an exhibition and a series of events at two partnering organizations in Seoul. This year’s program includes an artist residency, an exhibition and a curatorial visit.

RESIDENCY
Artist: Yaloo, April 18th – May 17th, 2019, Western Front Media Arts/ grunt gallery

Talk: Animation Show and Tell
Featuring Yaloo, with Howie Tsui and Lianne Zannier
April 25th, 7 PM.
Location: Grand Luxe Theatre at the Western Front.
Produced in collaboration with Western Front Media Arts

VISITING CURATORS
Curators: InYoung Yeo (Art Space One, Seoul) and Soojung Yi (National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Seoul).
May 8th – 17th, 2019.

Curator’s Talk and Open House
InYoung Yeo and Soojung Yi with Yaloo
May 13th, 6:30 PM
Location: Grand Luxe Theatre at the Western Front

At this Curator’s talk, Seoul-based curators InYoung Yeo (Art Space One) and Soojung Yi (National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art) will discuss digital technologies, art and urbanism. Yeo and Yi will address the conditions of production, collaboration and presentation in Korea and the influence of digital technologies on arts communities and the public realm. The event will also showcase the latest work in progress by Yaloo, developed while in residence at Western Front.

EXHIBITION
dot.dot.dot.
Artists: Sejin Kim and InYoung Yeo.
Curated by Vanessa Kwan with InYoung Yeo
May 10 – June 22, 2019.
Opening Reception: May 9, 7 – 10 PM. Location: grunt gallery

dot.dot.dot. brings together Seoul-based artists Sejin Kim and InYoung Yeo for their first presentations in Canada. Working at the intersection of media and installation, Kim and Yeo’s practices explore the omnipresence of interactive technologies and their varying effects on human experience. Far from decrying the advance of ‘the digital’ the artists represent an embedded yet critically engaged position. Their works contend, as we all must, with an embodied perspective in a technological environment that, in both promise and imperfection, is intertwined with our survival.

We gratefully acknowledge the financial support of the Province of British Columbia through the Ministry of Tourism, Arts and Culture. Particles: Seoul to Vancouver is produced in partnership with Western Front Media Arts, the Banff Centre for the Arts and Pacific Crossings

Participant Bios

Yaloo is a media artist currently based in Seoul and Chicago. Her work creates poetic narratives that explore regionalism, consumer culture and digital interactivity using transcultural icons such as corn, ginseng, and cosmetics. Via alternative video imaging technologies such as video projection mapping, sublimation transfer techniques and virtual reality, intimate relationships between consumerism and regionalism are mediated in spectacular, multi-faceted digital landscapes. She completed an MFA (2015) and BFA (2011) from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago with a focus on digital image-making and digital installation. She was the first recipient of Lyn Blumenthal Memorial Scholarship by Video Data Bank (VDB). Since 2009 she has shown her work internationally, including exhibitions in Seoul, Malmö, Frankfurt, Brooklyn, Seattle, Columbus, and Chicago. Her work is often site-specific with a strong research component, and recent residencies include the Bemis Studio Art Centre, Fukuoka Asian Museum of Art, Headlands Centre for the Arts, and High Concept Labs, Chicago

InYoung Yeo is an independent curator and director. With a background in English Literature, Illustration and Fine Art in countries including UK, US and Korea, she founded Space One, an independent artist-run space, in Seoul in 2014. Since then, she has put together various collaborative exhibitions, working and experimenting with emerging artists and art spaces from Korea, Japan, Taiwan, Germany, UK, US and Canada, among others. Some of her recent curatorial projects and exhibitions include Intersections of Common Space and Time supported by Seoul Art Foundation, Goethe-Institut Seoul; Gender Hierarchy supported by Geothe-Institut Singapore in collaboration with Grey Projects Singapore; A.I.MAGINE Seoul City, Seoul National University commissioned, Seoul Digital Foundation, Seoul Data Science Lab Project; a three-way dialogue with the Seoul Biennale of Architecture and Urbanism 2017; East Asia Goethe-Institut project ‘A Better Version of 人’ programs in Korea.

Soojung Yi was born in Busan, Korea. Yi worked for Daejeon Museum of Art as Curator of Media Art and worked for Art Center Nabi (Seoul) as a creative director, where her focus was the production of media art for the public realm. There she researched the rising number of media façades in urban space and its interaction with the public. She joined the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art (Seoul) 2012 and has been working for the exhibition and projects related to media arts. Her previous projects include The Future is Now! New Media Collection from MMCA, Korea, Younghae Chang Heavy Industries (2013); Shirin Neshat (2014); Infinite Challenge-Women Media Pioneers in Asia, Anechoic Project-experimental films and music performances (2014); and William Kentridge (2015).

Sejin Kim received her MFA in Fine Art from Slade School of Fine Art in London and MA in Film/TV from Sogang University in Seoul. She works with a variety of media apparatuses, including documentary realism and cinematic language to explore relationships between individuals and contemporary cultural systems. Her work has been shown internationally including selected solo exhibitions: The Chronology of Chance, Media Theater, Seoul; Prizma Residency #1, Prizma Space, Istanbul, Turkey; The Proximity of Longing, Cultural Station 284, Seoul. Selected group exhibitions include The Arrival of New Women, National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Seoul; Galaxias Maculates, Museo de Arte Contemporaneo de Valdivia, Chile; Future is Now!, La Friche Belle de Mai, Marseille, France; The Shade of Prosperity, INIVA, London; Bloomberg New Contemporaries 2011, ICA Gallery, London & S1 Art Space, Sheffield, UK; Life Stage, Art Centre Nabi, Seoul; The 4th Gwangju Biennale: PAUSE. She is the recipient of the Songeun Art Prize, Bloomberg New Contemporaries), and The 4th DAUM Prize and she has participated in artist residencies at HIAP-Helsinki international Artist Program, SeMA Nanji Art Studio, Seoul, ISCP-International Studio & Curatorial Program, New York, Seoul Art Space_Geumcheon, Seoul, Goyang National Art Studio, and Taipei Artist Village, Taiwan.

Together Apart has been envisioned as a way of making and holding space for 2SQ/Indigiqueer folks to come together and to be in dialogue with one another so that we might centre the conversations we’d like to hear or that we feel have been absent in our communities. However, our intentions are also simple: to celebrate and enjoy one another’s creativity and dedication to our practices, and to recognize one another in such a way that speaks across the distances we experience in our living and movement through our worlds.

Together Apart will be held in a series of both public and 2SQ/Indigiqueer events only, as outlined in our schedule. Please follow us on the Facebook page and on Instagram for updaes.

Schedule

FRIDAY, APRIL 19

Event: 2SQ/Indigiqueer Nature Walk w. Cease Wyss

Time: 11:00 – 12:00PM
Location: Native Education Centre, 237 E 5th Ave, Vancouver
*Closed to 2SQ/Indigiqueer participants only
Participants will join together with Cease Wyss to open our event by spending some time on the land together; though many of us are navigating urbanized living, the urban landscape still lays atop lands that deserve attention, acknowledgement and respect. Cease will lead participants through spaces where the land is more evident and discuss some of her on-going community projects.

Event: Keynote Address by Lindsay Nixon (followed by Poetry Readings)

Time: 7:00 – 8:00
 PM
Location: grunt gallery
*Free and open to the public
Our keynote address will be presented by Lindsay Nixon, a Cree-Métis-Saulteaux curator, award-nominated editor, award-nominated writer and McGill Art History PhD student studying Indigenous (new) feminist artists and methodologies in contemporary art. They currently hold the position of Editor-at-Large for Canadian Art. Nixon has previously edited mâmawi­-âcimowak, an independent art, art criticism and literature journal. Their writing has appeared in The Walrus, Malahat Review, Room, GUTS, Mice, esse, The Inuit Art Quarterly, Teen Vogue and other publications. nîtisânak, Nixon’s memoir and first published book, is out now through Metonymy Press.
Born and raised in the prairies, they currently live in Tio’tia:ke/Mooniyaang—unceded Haudenosaunee and Anishinabe territories (Montreal, QC).

Stay for our Poetry Reading event with fabian romero, Demian DinéYazhi’ and Storme Webber following directly after the keynote after a short break.

Event: Poetry Readings 

Poetry Readings with fabian romero, Demian DinéYazhi’ and Storme Webber
Time: 8:00 – 9:30 PM
Location: grunt gallery
*Free and open to the public
For our poetry reading night, we’ve reached out to some of our kin south of the colonial border to share their work about love, sexuality, settler colonialism, fighting white supremacy, Radical Indigenous Feminisms and the complicated networks of our many intersecting identities. This night will include queer poet, filmmaker and artist fabian romero (Purepécha), transdisciplinary artist and activist Demian DinéYazhi’ (Naasht’ézhí Tábąąhá (Zuni Clan Water’s Edge) & Tódích’íí’nii (Bitter Water)), and internationally-nurtured poet, playwright, educator, and interdisciplinary artist Storme Webber (Alutiiq/Black/Choctaw).


SATURDAY, APRIL 20

Event: Beading & Reading w. Anne Riley

Time: 10:00 AM – 12:00 PM
Location: Massy Books, 229 E Georgia St, Vancouver
*Closed to 2SQ/Indigiqueer participants only
An informal reading event hosted by artist Anne Riley (Cree/Dene) inviting attendees to bring readings of works that have resonated with them or have produced themselves in a relaxed setting where we can work and speak together over beading/crafting projects within the Massy bookstore event space. The intention of this event is to hold space in which our conversations can feel unrestrained and without the scrutiny of non-Indigenous audiences that often forces a degree of performativity.

Event: Performance by Storme Webber and In Conversation with Afuwa

Time: 1:00 – 2:30
 PM
Location: grunt gallery
*Free and open to the public
Storme Webber (Alutiiq/Black/Choctaw) will be giving an extended performance from her previous nights reading and will follow-up with an In Conversation Interview with artist Afuwa (Guyana) whose current projects have focused on re-imagining relations across the Atlantic diaspora.


Event: Readings and In Conversation with Demian DinéYazhi’ and fabian romero

Time: 3:00 – 4:30 PM
Location: grunt gallery
*Free and open to the public
Presentation with Demian and fabian consisting of short readings of their work, presentations of their interests/practices and a dialogue between the two as artists/writers/activists.


Event: Concert w. With War/Mourning Coup/Kerub
Time: Doors 8:00 PM, Show 9:00 PM (End 12:00 midnight)
Location: KW Studios,  #10 – 111 Hastings St W, Vancouver
Cover: $10-$15 sliding scale, no one turned away for lack of funds (sales from bar and door will be used to pay an honorarium for volunteers and then distributed amongst performers)
Three non-binary Indigenous performers, one face-melting night; we’ll start with Metis/Jewish electronic artist KERUB then fall into experimental electric MOURNING COUP aka Chandra Melting-Tallow (Siksika/mixed ancestry) and then top off the night with Portland vegan straight edge hardcore band WITH WAR, fronted by La Tisha Rico (Diné/Navajo) who in true straight edge form will also be giving a morning artist talk the following day.

SUNDAY, APRIL 21

Event: Artist Talk w. La Tisha Rico (of With War)
Time: 10:00 – 11:00 AM
Location: grunt gallery
*Free and open to the public
La Tisha Rico (Diné/Navajo) will present on their work as a musician and activist in decolonizing punk and DIY spaces within a queer and Indigenous identity that is beyond colonial definitions and limitations in colonial language.

Event: Community Discussion: Rural Indigiqueer Identities, hosted by Edzi’u
Time: 1:00 – 2:00PM
Location: grunt gallery
*Closed to 2SQ/Indigiqueer participants only.
Community discussion facilitated by performer Edzi’u (Tahltan/Tlingit) discussing queer Indigenous identities in rural situations; dating, isolation, mental health; will choose something from the archive to help centre the conversation by responding to how it does or does not reflect where we are now.

Event: Round Table Discussion: Intentions, with co-curators Whess Harman, Kali Spitzer and guests (TBD)
Time: 3:00 – 4:30
PM
Location: grunt gallery
*Free and open to the public
Round table discussion with co-curators Whess Harman (Carrier Witat) and Kali Spitzer (Kaska Dene) event discussing the interpretations and intentions in their practices and as programmers with several other artists/event organizers/curators.



Event: grunt Archive Screenings and Presentation with Lacie Burning
Time: 7:00 – 9:30PM
Location: grunt gallery
*Free and open to the public
In addition to a screening of several performances from the original Two-Spirit Cabaret held at the grunt gallery in 1993, Kanien’kehá:ka (Mohawk) and Onondaga (patrilineal) artist Lacie Burning will be presenting their response to Denise Lonewalker’s Dancing for our Ancestors. With this event, we will be looking back through the archive in an effort to root ourselves in our own history and give acknowledgement to those who’ve made space for us and look forward in how to look at how those spaces are changing.

Downloadable schedule here:
Schedule-Together Apart-2019

Together Apart is supported by the First Peoples’ Cultural Council and the City of Vancouver Creative City Strategic Grant Program. grunt gallery acknowledges the ongoing support of the Canada Council for the Arts, the British Columbia Arts Council, the City of Vancouver, the Province of British Columbia, and the Audain Foundation for the Visual Arts.

The third installation of Pet Peeves is here! Join grunt’s Gallery Assistant, Hedy Wood, as she delves further into her investigation of the grunt gallery staff by interviewing their pets.

After all of that British swearing from the Hounds of the Barkervilles over at Meagan’s place, I planned to go and visit Vanessa and her partner and their cats. Their nice delightful quiet cats, that’s what I was in the mood for.

Vanessa Kwan (grunt curator for the last 4 years) and her feline friends were to be my 3^rd pet interview, and I have to say that I had already pretty much given up on finding any dirt. I know Vanessa to be consistently lovely, and I highly doubted that her cats were going to shed any light on some other shadowy, dark side of her personality that was completely made of evil. It just didn’t seem likely….

There was however, a millennial cat (Atom), and like a lot of people of my generation, I had a few questions about technology that I wanted to ask him. So I headed out, with my trusty phone that I barely know how to make an audio recording on, and the obligatory pocket full of cat treats. I figured Hank would enjoy a treat, being the older cat, but she preferred to sit on the other side of the room, working on her best stink eye.

Now, everything would have gone really well at Vanessa’s, if only I hadn’t sat down on the couch. THE COUCH!!!! It is the BEST goddamn couch I HAVE EVER SAT ON! I can’t stop yelling and swearing just thinking about it! That couch is dreamiest, comfiest, cushiest, softest, most cloudlike thing I have ever had the pleasure of lying on in my entire life!! I LOVED their COUCH! So, of course, that was a bit distracting when it came to trying to conduct my interviews with the cats. I mean, how did they meet Vanessa? Where did they come from? I DID NOT CARE! All I wanted to do was sit on that couch until the day I die…  by the end of my time there, I was completely horizontal and ignoring the cats entirely… I tried, but honestly, the couch won out.

Here’s a small sample of what was in my notes…

Me: So, Atom and Hank, do you two actually get to lie on this couch every day?! Don’t you love it?

Atom: Well, I DO enjoy the couch, when I feel like sitting still and watching a bit of television, but normally I am too active to lie around… I like to play computer games, and things like that that Hank does not enjoy, Hank is quite old, JIC you didn’t notice…

Hank: I, wait a minute, what was the question? I don’t think I like you, but I can’t remember why, exactly… oh, the COUCH, yeah that is good…

I found out that Hank suffers from some short term memory loss, which made interviewing her a bit more difficult. She also only likes Vanessa, no one else, only Vanessa. There was something about that I could relate to. It so exactly mirrored my feelings for the couch.

Atom: Did you know that Hank hates technology so much that she puked on the iPad? What kind of a person does that? She’s so jelly about that iPad!

Me: Aren’t you being kind of a snitch right now? Come and sit on the couch with me? Be nice!

Atom: I feel more like running around the place!

Hank: Yep, I still feel like I hate you Hedy….can’t really put my paw on the reason why… well, you’re not Vanessa for one thing… hey, wait, was there another question? Lot of questions…

Me: Well, yes, how long have they had this couch? Where did they get it anyway? Might have been expensive… must have been… sooooo superior to that old piece of lumber I’m sitting on at my place, I might as well be lying around outside on the concrete, that’s how bad my couch actually is… hmmmmmm, I think a short lie down would be good…

Atom: Hedy! HEDY!!!! Look! LOOK! Hedy, LOOK! I got a new game on my phone!!!! Come and look!! I can play it while I’m hanging upside down from this chair!!!!!

Me: Zzzzzzzzzzzz

Hank: Gack! Barf! Excuse me, hairball…

It might have been around this time that Vanessa began to talk a lot about having to get to work. I tried to check around, sort of surreptitiously, to make sure I hadn’t left any drool on the couch, and prepared to head out.

Once again, I had not actually uncovered any real vices in the grunt staff… I mean apart from the fact that Vanessa literally SHAVES Hank on a regular basis. Hank is really a long haired cat, which you would never know at all from looking at her. The thing is, Vanessa shaves Hank as an act of kindness, (so annoying). Otherwise Hank would continually chew on and eat her own hair, then throw it up all over my couch. Then, she would forget that she’d done it because of the memory thing. So, you see, Vanessa is not doing anything mean at all by shaving her, or even anything particularly memorable… And Atom? Well, he is just a sweet young Devon Rex who would enjoy more screen time, if only the humans of the household would turn the darn thing on and watch a nature show or two… nothing very sinister lurking there either.

No, no, no no no, these pets weren’t pissed at all! Possibly there would be something at Kate’s place, but I was beginning to despair, AND I already missed that couch.

** Since this interview was conducted Vanessa’s cat gang has grown by one, Prune is pictured with Hank and Atom above.

Welcome to the second installation of Pet Peeves! Join grunt’s Gallery Assistant, Hedy Wood, as she investigates the grunt gallery staff by interviewing their pets.

It is entirely possible that I am more of a cat person. Of course, I was not scared in any way at all while visiting Meagan, Sugar(?!) and Wendell. And I was definitely NOT standing out on the porch until the dogs were secured upstairs behind a completely insubstantial looking gate. No, no no no! I was just waiting politely to be invited inside.

After all the pleasantness over at Dan and Boris’ place, it’s fair to say that I was on the lookout for something a bit more visceral. I’d like to emphasize the words, A BIT. I wasn’t actually prepared at all for the piranhas in dog bodies that I met at Meagan’s house…. and I have to say right now that in my humble opinion, SUGAR is a bit of a misnomer for an animal that would literally enjoy chewing the limbs off your body. Sugar?! Seriously.

Meagan Kus has been grunt’s Operations Director for the last 9 years and she described to me what that job entails. Budgets, HR, and daily thingies, oh my! I sort of dozed off a little in the middle part of it all.

The one thing I did notice is that her personality is basically the complete polar opposite of those hell hounds that we are calling British Bulldogs. At 60 pounds each, Sugar(?!) and Wendell greet visitors to the household in a snarling mass of fury! To say that they are “protective” is understating the situation.

I attempted to interview the dogs, because I was not at all intimidated by their histrionics, but it didn’t actually go well. For one thing, I had to stand at the bottom of the stairs and yell up at them while they tried to break through the gate and eat my legs off.

I’ll give you a little sample of what was on my tape.

Me: Er, hello, Sugar(?!) and Wendell….

Dogs: Barking in unison,

WHAT ARE YOU DOING IN THIS HOUSE YOU BLEEDING BEGGAR?!!!! GET OUT NOW POXY BITCH!!!!! SOD OFF!!!!! AAAARRRRGGGHHHH!!! CRIKEY!!!!!!

DON’T BLOODY WELL TOUCH MEAGAN!!!! ARE YOU TOUCHING MEAGAN?!!!! YOU’RE GONNA DIE DAFT COW!!!!! DIE!!!!!!!AND A LOT BLOODY SOONER THAN YOU EXPECTED!!!!!

C-WORD!!!!BARK! SNORT!!!!

(So, of course these dogs swear in British! It’s the weirdest swearing I’ve ever heard. How many times can an animal tell a person to “sod off”? Quite a few as it turns out……and I still don’t know why they said I “ponged like a smelly old armpit”.)

Me: So, ummm, how did you and Meagan meet?

Dogs: SOD OFF OUT OF THIS HOUSE!!!!!BLIMEY!!! DIE!!!! GAAAHHHH! BARK!!! SNORT!!!!!!!!!!!

At this point, I did not exactly need to haul out my degree in rocket science to see how well the interview was going. Meagan put the dogs in the bedroom which made them slightly less loud, and we sat down for a bit to have a chat. I was determined to dig up a little dirt on Meagan, but it was starting to look like the only thing wrong with her was the canine component of her household.

Meagan told me that the dogs were from Abbotsford, and they had a predecessor, Bubba, who actually had a good personality. Bubba is the reason the Sugar(?!) and Wendell came to be Meagan’s pets in the first place.

So, to recap, Sugar(?!) and Wendell came from a breeder in Abbotsford. Did I mention there is a distinct possibility that they are related to each other? Like, they may be crazy British first cousins or something.

When it came to finding out the dogs’ pet peeves, I had to rely on Meagan, because there was obviously just no talking to them.

I found out that Wendell (recent history of near violence with a doggy day care worker!) cannot abide any kind of contamination AT ALL in his water bowl. AND he doesn’t do what any other dog might and simply sip from the toilet bowl water, no no. Wendell will actually sit beside the water bowl, yelling, whimpering and crying until someone, whose name starts with M, and ends with Eagan, gets up and refreshes it….he also will eat all of his food so fast that he is in serious danger of choking. In fact, he DID choke one time and needed some serious Heimlich maneuvering to save his life. Now he and Sugar(?!) both have special ridged dog bowls to slow down their eating….think of the short work they would make of a human limb!

Sugar(?!) has a strange fascination with Meagan’s husband’s head. She likes to LICK it, she likes it a LOT. Apparently this has gotten to the point where Craig cannot even have a nap on the couch because he knows he’s in for a licking!

Both dogs, allegedly, have a sweet and loving side to their personalities. I suppose this can be sort of seen in the head licking incidents….and they also enjoy physical contact in the form of sitting or lying on top of the humans in their household. Isn’t that nice?

Their main complaint seems to be about PEOPLE COMING OVER. They just don’t like it, at all. AND they would like a lot more physical affection and human contact, a LOT more. They are not at all content with a bit of weekend head licking…..well, I mean who would be, I guess.

All in all, nothing I saw reflected badly on Meagan in even the tiniest way! She does an amazing job of dealing with those dog personalities, and she does the same thing, (with less barking) at grunt.

No, my search for dirt was stymied once again! It was time to hit the road and soldier on, most likely there is something quite beastly going on over at Vanessa’s place. I was eager to get over there and investigate, and oh, did I mention? Vanessa has CATS.

ONE DAY ONLY! 10AM–10PM
Opening Reception: March 5, 2019, 7PM

Over the past two years, grunt gallery has been at work on the project Wordless – The Performance Art of Rebecca Belmore focused on her remarkable performance career. This legacy project begins with an all-day screening of, March 5, 1819, and the launch of her new website, rebeccabelmore.com

In 2008 Rebecca Belmore produced the video installation March 5, 1819 recreating the abduction of the Beothuk woman Demasaduit and the murder of her husband Nonosabasut by colonialist settlers in Newfoundland. This video installation is not a historical reenactment, rather the actors are in modern dress and Belmore questions what has changed over the past 200 years. March 5, 1819, was commissioned by The Rooms in St John’s and has also been exhibited in Ottawa and Toronto. Set at Red Indian Lake in central Newfoundland March 5, 1819 was filmed in Vancouver at Mount Seymour.

March 5, 2019, marks the 200th anniversary of these events. It was announced earlier this year that their skulls will be returned to the Canadian Museum of History from the University of Scotland.  As we grapple with reconciliation it is fitting to remember the history that brought us to this place.

grunt will celebrate the re-launch rebeccabelmore.com, a website documenting Rebecca Belmore’s career over the past 32 years. The new site features content that spans Belmore’s career in all media, taking the user deep into the heart of her practice.

From July 2 – August 3, 2019, grunt gallery will also present a photographic exhibition of five new performance photographs, and a book launch of Wordless – The Performance Art of Rebecca Belmore, in collaboration with the Audain Art Museum and Information Office.

Funded through a New Chapter grant, Canada Council for the Arts, and the Audain Art Museum, this project celebrates the important career of one of Canada’s most iconic artists.


Wordless – The Performance Art of Rebecca Belmore is one of the 200 exceptional projects funded through the Canada Council for the Arts’ New Chapter program. With this $35M investment, the Council supports the creation and sharing of the arts in communities across Canada.

BECOME PART OF THE NEW MOUNT PLEASANT COMMUNITY ART SCREEN!

DATES:
April 7 – the workshop is full
April 14  – one spot left!
April 28th -the workshop is full

TIME: 1 PM – 5 PM each day
LOCATION: grunt gallery, #116 – 350 East 2 Avenue, Vancouver, BC

This spring, grunt gallery and EastVan Digital Stories join forces once again with Mount Pleasant and Vancouver residents who wish to create short videos around the theme of PLACE. Artists Lorna Boschman and Sebnem Ozpeta will host a series of six, free, weekly workshops at grunt gallery that walk participants through the process of digital story making!

Through the digital stories group process, you will be able to create and share your own authentic story by combining digital photos and/or video. Selected videos from the workshops will be shown on grunt gallery’s Mount Pleasant Community Art Screen and on digitalstories.ca.

To sign up for one workshop, please choose one day (from the dates listed above), please include one alternative date in case your first choice of the workshop is filled. Send an email to Lorna Boschman: lorna (at) digitalstories (dot) ca with your name, email address, phone/text number, and whether you live in Mount Pleasant or Vancouver. Please include one, or two, sentences about why you would like to create a short digital story. Lorna will send you a list of things you must bring to the workshop including several photos (from your phone or camera) and/or video that directly relates to your story’s theme.

A maximum of four people can register per weekly workshop, and we expect these workshops to fill up quickly! 

For more information on the Mount Pleasant Community Art Screen, and the theme of PLACE, please visit the link: grunt.ca

Special thanks to the Vancouver Foundation who made this project possible.

Vancouver Foundation is dedicated to creating healthy, vibrant and livable communities across BC. Since 1943, our donors have created 1,800 endowment funds and together we have distributed more than $1 billion to charities. From arts and culture to the environment, health and social development, education, medical research and more, we exist to make meaningful and lasting improvements to communities in BC.