W2 and AHA MEDIA are pleased to be at the 6th Annual Fair in the Square 2012 at Victory Square Park in Vancouver Downtown Eastside (DTES)
Fair in the Square: Celebrating together in the Inner City
Sunday, May 27th, 11 am – 2 pm
W2 and AHA MEDIA are pleased to be at the 6th Annual Fair in the Square!
Alongside dozens of social enterprises, artists, and community organisations, terrific local bands and musical artists will donate their talents to entertain from the Victory Park stage while a delicious BBQ including cupcakes, beverages and more are served up by the dedicated faculty, staff and students from Vancouver Community College’s Culinary Arts program.
Fair-goers are encouraged to wander the park and visit the tables set-up by a diverse range of social enterprises and neighbourhood non-profit community organizations providing an opportunity to chat and reach out to a network of neighbours, connect with services available, and admire talent coming from the inner city.
All of this is possible with the support of literally hundreds of volunteers who prepare, staff and strike the Fair site in addition to the donation of food, drinks and other goodies from generous corporate partners.
Storyweaving – Weaving First Nation Memories from Past into the Future in Vancouver
Sliding scale $0-$20 / Pay at the door only / Limited Seating / First Come First Serve
604-628-5672,
www.vancouvermovingtheatre.com
heartofthecityfestival.com
vafcs.org
Twining together stories, poems and personal memories
With oral histories woven from cultural teachings,
West Coast dances and the ancient bone game of Slahal.
A cast of aboriginal artists, elders, dancers and Downtown Eastside community members help an old man- The Old One – open up to his life’s journey, his regrets and hopes, through the teachings of the medicine wheel. His journey home gives voice to experiences of the urban aboriginal community, to voices not heard, to lives left behind. Over the course of the Old One’s journey, ancestral memories emerge of the history of the Coast Salish area shared by many peoples. Songs, dances and stories are shared about traditional roles, protocols and ways of seeing and doing.
We hear echoes of the salmon fishing industry’s decline, of families broken up by the residential school system and family members who have disappeared. And we hear stories of resilience: Aboriginal men and women who arrived in Vancouver looking for work; the founding of the Coqualeetza Fellowship and Aboriginal Friendship Centre; and what it means to be Aboriginal today, meeting the challenges of walking in the world of the ancestors and the world of today.
Storyweaving is about giving voice to those that have lived within and around the Canadian legislation of the Indian Act. And so many of us moved to the city of Vancouver and found a home here. Our social justice and educational efforts from the 1950’s through to today continue to reflect our passion for life, love, and harmony. Storyweaving is about our hopes for a good future, guided by the principles of our cultural past. Renae Morriseau
Featuring, among others: Bob Baker, Sam Bob, Jenifer Brousseau, Nick Dangeli, Mike and Mique’l Dangeli, Craig Edes, Wes Nahanee, Woody Morrison, Quelemia Sparrow, Susan Tatoosh, Marge C. White, Loni Williams, Spakwus Slulum Dancers, Git Hayetsk Dancers, and Downtown Eastside performers Sue Blue, Brenda Prince, Steven Lytton, Priscillia Tait, Muriel “X” Williams.
Terry Hunter (Producer), Carrie Campbell (Production Manager), Jeff Harrison (Lighting), Liisa Hannus (Stage Manager), Raeanne Elkins (Assistant Stage Manager), Cowboy Smithx (videographer).
Written by Renae Morriseau (Director) with Rosemary Georgeson and Savannah Walling with contributions by Downtown Eastside urban Aboriginal artists and from the 2003 Downtown Eastside Community Play (Renae Morriseau, James Fagan Tait, Savannah Walling & Adrienne Wong).
Storyweaving has been made possible with the support of the Canada Council for the Arts, BC Arts Council, Government of BC through Gaming,
City of Vancouver Cultural Services, City of Vancouver Great Beginnings Program, BCGEU, TELUS Community Board and media sponsor Georgia Straight.
Thanks also to our community partner Indian Residential School Survivors Society.
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2012 Sketchbook Project World Tour: Vancouver, BC at W2 Media Cafe
EVENT DESCRIPTION
THE SKETCHBOOK PROJECT ARRIVES IN VANCOUVER THIS WEEK AT W2 MEDIA CAFE
All the way from Brooklyn, New York, the Sketchbook Project is set to arrive in Vancouver this week for two days of epic sketchbook inspiration!
Irwin Oostindie of W2 with Steven Petermen – Cofounder of The Sketchbook Project
The Sketchbook Project is a traveling library of artists’ books by thousands of people from around the world. It is an immense collection of books and art that express limitless styl…es, influences and ideas.
The Project will be in Vancouver for two days, Tuesday and Wednesday, May 15 and 16, before traveling on to Los Angeles. This collection will travel to 14 cities on 4 continents.
W2 Media Cafe is proud to host the only Pacific Northwest stop on the tour! We’re also pleased to share this collection with the artist community of Metro Vancouver. Centrally located, near many transportation systems, it is easy to reach the Woodward’s site by bus, train, skytrain, seabus, bicycle and car.
W2 Media Cafe
111 West Hastings Street
Vancouver BC
The Sketchbook Project is a constantly evolving library of artists’ sketchbooks from across the globe. Consider submitting your work for the 2013 tour!http://www.arthousecoop.com/projects/sketchbookproject
Building a library for the Bosman Hotel Community in Vancouver
Hendrik Beune and April Smith of AHA MEDIA are very happy to help a library with excited Bosman Hotel Community residents of the “At Home/ Chez Soi” project.
With a new library onsite, residents can improve their literacy and life skills through positive peer community engagement. Sharing books and new found knowledge brings friends closer together at the Bosman.
Over 100 people will now have access to books and resources to help enrich and support their lives.
Many thanks to the wonderful support from Angelika Sellick , Literacy Outreach Coordinator of DTES Adult Literacy Roundtable and Megan Langley of Carnegie Centre Library.
Plans to build the Bosman library started a few months ago and our first donations have begun to arrive.
The official opening of the library is scheduled for Thursday 24 May 2012.
Located in the former Bosman’s Motor Hotel in downtown Vancouver, the Bosman is an important part of the Mental Health Commission’s At Home / Chez Soi initiative – the largest research project of its kind in the world studying mental illness and homelessness. In Vancouver, At Home / Chez Soi is focusing on people who also have substance abuse and addiction issues, and over the next four years will provide housing and support to 300 homeless mentally ill people in the city.
Liz Evans, Executive Director, PHS Community Services Society, said: “The Bosman project offers hope because it embraces the very values our society strives for – one that is inclusive and one that says that every life matters and every individual deserves a chance to be their best self. The Bosman is an exciting start to acknowledging that we can live in a community, in a city and in a country where fellow human beings living with a mental illness do not have to be sleeping on our streets.”
At Home/Chez Soi: Largest research project of its kind in the world
At Home/Chez Soi is a ground‐breaking national research project in five cities -Vancouver, Winnipeg, Toronto,Montreal and Moncton – to find the best way to provide housing and services to people who are living with mental illness and homelessness. Using a ‘Housing First‘ approach, the research project focuses on first providing people who are homeless with a place to live, and then the other assistance and services they require. The goal is to see if this approach is better than traditional care.
The research will help make Canada a world leader in providing better services to people living with homelessness and mental illness.
For more information on the At Home/Chez Soi project, please visithttp://www.mentalhealthcommission.ca/English/Pages/homelessness.aspx (English)
orhttp://www.mentalhealthcommission.ca/Francais/Pages/Litinerance.aspx (French).
The Mental Health Commission of Canada is a non-profit organization created to focus national attention on mental health issues and to work to improve the health and social outcomes of people living with mental illness. In February 2008, the federal government allocated $110 million to the MHCC to find ways to help the growing number of people who are homeless and have a mental illness. For more, visit www.mentalhealthcommission.ca.
The PHS Community Services Society provides affordable, low-barrier supportive housing and services to marginalized people, many of whom suffer from mental illness, physical disabilities and addictions. These services include a supervised injection facility, detoxification and addiction recovery services, an art gallery, life skills training, low threshold employment and banking.
Happy Vaisakhi Day in Vancouver
Every April, millions of Sikhs world-wide celebrate Vaisakhi Day, a day that marks both the New Year and the anniversary of one of Sikhism’s most important events, the establishment of Khalsa in 1699 with the first Amrit ceremony.
Vancouverites have two Vaisakhi Parades to choose from: the Vancouver Vaisakhi Parade happening on April 14, 2012, which attracts about 50,000 spectators, and the annual Surrey Vaisakhi Parade and Celebration on April 21, 2012, which attracts 80,000 – 200,000, making it one of the largest Vaisakhi parades outside India.
Read more here
Spring Day at Trout Lake in Vancouver
Water and Dogs go together on a sunny day at Trout Lake
Art Cart Launch “Art Cart” Takes Community Art to City Streets
Art Cart Launch
“Art Cart” Takes Community Art to City Streets
Fri Mar 23, 2012 – 11:00am Oppenheimer Park, 400 Powell Street (@ Jackson)
VANCOUVER BC, Coast Salish Territories – Gallery Gachet and Oppenheimer Park are cutting the ribbon on the Art Cart. This is a community red ribbon cutting, so please join us!
The Art Cart is a mobile art gallery and vending cart. With its light, aerodynamic design it is attached to a bicycle or pushed by hand, and features art by people facing barriers to accessing resources and space.
“Art Cart takes the ‘art gallery’ concept into the community at large,” says Lara Fitzgerald, Gallery Gachet’s Programming Director. “It can roam freely into neighbourhoods, encouraging the public to engage with art in new ways, while allowing emerging community artists to reach a wider audience.”
The Art Cart launch is timely. Artists and collectives continue to lose studios and gallery spaces to gentrification in the Downtown Eastside; Gallery Gachet itself may be losing its longtime home at the end of 2012. The Art Cart underlines the precarious existence of many artists, while celebrating community engagement with a vibrant local art movement. It will also serve as a roving hub for curated exhibitions, community workshops and public events.
“The launch of the Art Cart shows the determination of local organizations to serve the residents of the community, and to provide them with a imaginative and exciting mobile gallery,” says Terry Hunter, Artistic Producer of the DTES Heart of the City Festival. “This is community art in action. And dollars in pockets for low income residents. And community pride!”
The Art Cart is a collaboration between the Oppenheimer Park community and Gallery Gachet’s artist collective, providing alternate means for creative exchange, empowerment and art sales. Through a collaborative ideation process, it was designed by industrial designer Dean Bennett, and manufactured by Toby’s Cycle Works. The project was made possible by the City of Vancouver’s Great Beginnings Program and with support from the Community Arts Council of Vancouver.
About Gallery Gachet: Gallery Gachet is a unique artist-run centre located in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside established in 1992. Through artistic means, Gallery Gachet aims to demystify and challenge issues related to mental health and social marginalization, to educate the public and promote social and economic justice. http://gachet.org
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