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Heart Therapy: A Downtown East Side Art Show Features Unlikely Artists; Pamela Masik leads Vancouver Downtown Eastside (DTES) women on Healing Journey
Can art heal? Try asking the artists featured in a show titled: “Uncovering Vision: A Discovery of Art Forms by Men and Women on the Downtown East Side.” The show runs from Nov. 20-22, with an opening at 4:00pm on Friday the 20th at 361 Heatley Ave., and is sponsored by the East Side Culture Crawl.
The show is the culmination of two art programs hosted by the Union Gospel Mission for the men and women from their Alcohol and Drug Recovery Program and Women’s Drop-In Program: The Creative Journey, with artist Pamela Masik, and Photography 101, with photographer Kevin Clark.
Elizabeth, one of the women who took part in the Creative Journey class, arrived in Vancouver ten years ago with only five dollars in her pocket, fleeing an abusive relationship. Finding herself on the streets and alone, she turned to the Union Gospel Mission for help, eventually finding a home in one of UGM’s permanent supportive housing suites. She’s been through some difficult times over the last ten years, and the Creative Journey program has helped her to process those experiences.
“It isn’t just art, it’s healing,” says Elizabeth. “It’s a way to take everything that happened to me in the past and let it out. I didn’t realize I had so much emotion in me!”
Masik led the women through a ten week journey, helping them to find their own artistic voice and create several pieces each, including a mask, a charcoal drawing, and a large-format oil painting on canvas. But the women came away with more than just art. “Life out there is hard, so it was good to get in off the street and express ourselves,” says Elizabeth. “We became friends, got updates from each other and supported each other every week. We’re healing together.”
Photo Caption(high-res available on request): Artist Pamela Masik (right) helps guide Elizabeth, a participant in the Creative Journey program.
For Masik, the Creative Journey was a natural extension of her own work. She recently completed a series of 69 8’x10′ portraits of women who have been missing from Vancouver’s Downtown East Side for more than a decade, a collection titled The Forgotten. The collection will be featured in a major museum in 2011. “Facilitating the women on this creative journey has been a wonderfully transformative experience, and I believe finding one’s voice through art can be very empowering. Not only did the women create amazing art, which will be featured at the Uncovering Vision show as part of the East Side Culture Crawl, they were also offered a group art exhibition opening at Grace Gallery on Main Street on January 14th, 2010. I am proud of them for their achievements!”
Masik will continue to fund and run the program in the future. “It is a way to give back to the community, by inspiring women to find their voice through art.”
The Details:
What: Uncovering Vision: A Discovery of Art Forms by Men and Women on the Downtown East Side, sponsored by the East Side Culture Crawl. Opening will be attended by many of the featured artists, Mayor Gregor Robertson, Photographer Kevin Clark, Artist Pamela Masik, and others.
When: Opening Friday, November 20th at 4:00pm; show runs Friday, Nov. 20th 4pm-10pm, Saturday and Sunday 11am-6pm
Where: Maurice McElrea Place, 361 Heatley Ave, Vancouver.
HomeGround Community Meeting at Oppenheimer Park in Vancouver Downtown Eastside Friday November 20, 2009 2PM
HomeGround for the homeless & underhoused DTES residents, 1-28th February 2010
HomeeGround – a secular, creative event in February for DTES residents, who are homeless and underhoused.
HomeGround – to offer additional sanctuary and sustenance to our most vulnerable neighbours during the period of the Olympic Games.
HomeGround Workshops – at Carnegie, the DTES Neighbourhood House & Oppenheimer Park as of November 2009
HomeGround Workshops
– painting
– banner making
– exploring a DTES Flea Market with our binning neighbors
– traffic calming signage
– creating a HomeGround Zine
– workshops to support residents in dealing with the potentially invasive international media
– adapt as you contribute your ideas
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Support W2 Community Media Arts in Vancouver Downtown Eastside on Twitter
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Hendrik Beune of AHA MEDIA is proud to attend THE DOWNTOWN EASTSIDE ARTS4ALL INSTITUTE
Arts4All Institute
DOWNLOAD PROGRAMME GUIDE HERE (PDF)
THE DOWNTOWN EASTSIDE ARTS4ALL INSTITUTE
November 12-20, 2009
Vancouver BC
In association with Vancouver Moving Theatre
This week long intensive course focuses on the principles, practices and underpinnings of community-engaged art; the tremendous value it has for communities; and the things you need to know to launch your own project. Activities include presentations, discussions, videos, hands-on workshops, creative explorations and resources to take home.
Who is the Institute for? People interested and experienced in arts and other processes that engage communities, and Downtown Eastside community artists ready for leadership roles.
What are the course topics? Definitions, values and principles; developing your own vision; project start-ups and basics; planning and partnerships; budgets and grant-writing; arts-based and oral history research; facilitation skills; documentation and evaluation; legacy and sustainability; challenges and rewards; aesthetics and ethics.
Faculty instructors include four of Canada’s leading community artists: Ruth Howard (Jumblies Theatre, Toronto), Savannah Walling (Vancouver Moving Theatre), Cathy Stubington (Runaway Moon theatre, Enderby BC) and Varrick Grimes (associate artist, Jumblies Theatre), along with guest panelists and presenters.
Dates & Venues: all day Nov 13-15 and 17-19 at the Ukrainian Hall, 805 E. Pender (Sat Nov 14 at the Carnegie Community Centre Theatre, 401 Main)
With thanks to http://www.heartofthecityfestival.com/arts4all/arts4all-institute/
AHA MEDIA is very proud to celebrate its First Birthday and First Year Anniversary online on Wednesday November 11, 2009
AHA MEDIA is very happy to celebrate its First Birthday and First year Anniversary online on Wednesday November 11, 2009 !!! 🙂
AHA MEDIA has come a long way in one year when we ( April Smith, Hendrik Beune and Al Tkatch) formed AHA MEDIA ( using the first letter of our first names) and decided last year to have our very own site online!
AHA MEDIA does mobile new media/social media reporting and event documentation for all communities in Vancouver and Downtown Eastside. We have even been invited to the cities of Whistler and Victoria to do mobile media and livestreaming.
With lessons learned from the Fearless City Mobile project from W2 Community Media Arts Centre http://www.creativetechnology.org, we are proud to continue to grow everyday and help support/report in all our neighborhoods from social justice issues to social media events!
AHA MEDIA enjoys providing an independent and alternative perspective to general media views. Through our new media devices and cameraphones, we hope to be a news resource for everyone who is interested in us.
Over the year AHA MEDIA has grown to include 11 people affiliated with AHA MEDIA – nearly all live and work in the Vancouver Downtown Eastside.
We are honored to have the Aboriginal/Native Culture perspectives from our Aboriginal reporters – Brody Benson, Alvin Clayton, Clyde Wright
Other fantastic members of AHA MEDIA are :
Peter Davies – Photographer
Ken Glofcheskie – Sports and Social Justice
J-Hock – Housing and Economic Issues
Derrick Simms – Tech Support
Alain Assaily – Real Journalist!
AHA MEDIA enjoys peer training, participating and engaging in our communities to produce content for everyone to see and hear!
Among our many news/events coverage, our next ongoing project is documenting and archiving events leading up to and during the 2010 Winter Olympics. We will report on all perspectives as well as hearing the personal stories of folks in our neighborhoods.
Two future projects AHA MEDIA will be involved in are:
1) Documenting the Poverty Olympics – a satirical view of the Games put on by CCAP who are concerned about economic, housing and social justice issues of the Downtown Eastside
2) Participating in Fearless City’s CODE Live and Bright Lights editions – the Cultural Olympiad Digital Edition, part of the 2010 Winter Olympics celebrations. The projects will include streaming videos created by local residents and shown on giant screens at W2, a community media arts centre opening this winter as part of the Woodward’s development.
AHA MEDIA is proud to be part of ongoing year long documentary filming process for a movie called With Glowing Hearts – http://www.vimeo.com/5401993
AHA MEDIA is still learning and growing everyday! We humbly thank EVERYONE who has supported us, been our mentor and most importantly been our friend!
We couldn’t have done it without you! 🙂
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Below is a photo of AHA MEDIA – Al Tkatch, Hendrik Beune and April Smith celebrating our First birthday and First Year Anniversary together on Wednesday November 11, 2009 in Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Classical Chinese Garden in Vancouver Chinatown
We hope AHA MEDIA will continue to have good luck, good fortune and live as long as the turtles swimming in the ponds! 🙂
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Below is a photo and video of AHA MEDIA Co-founders Hendrik Beune and Al Tkatch and their thoughts
This was filmed by April Smith of AHA MEDIA on a Nokia N95 mobile cameraphone. April is passionate and skilled in making Nokia films by exploring mobile media production through the camera lens of a cellphone. For a better quality version of this video, please DM April Smith @AprilFilms on Twitter or Facebook.com/AprilFilms
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Below is a photo of three ducks swimming at Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Classical Chinese Garden in Vancouver Chinatown. AHA MEDIA believes that beautiful things can happen in small places especially in the Vancouver Downtown Eastside
AHA MEDIA thanks everyone once again during our year long journey into media making online and offline 🙂
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