Aboriginal Gathering Place

Vancity is now accepting applications of expressions of interest (EOI) from artists or artist teams who live or work in Metro Vancouver, Fraser Valley and Squamish Valley, to design and integrate a site-specific art commission for the soon to be relocated North Road community branch 16. We’re seeking applications for artwork for a curved wall that reflect and interpret, in a celebratory way, the rich and diverse culture of the local community of the North Road branch.

Content / themes must align to Vancity’s vision and values, and can be social, economic, historical, environmental or a combination. Preference will be given to submissions that aim to incorporate up-cycled, recycled, sustainably sourced, salvaged, found and/or other natural media.

SUM Gallery's second exhibition Naked Napi presents new work by two-spirit Siksika artist Adrian Stimson. Stimson previously curated the UnSettled visual art exhibition for our 2017 Two-Spirit and Indigequeer curated Queer Arts Festival. Naked Napi is Stimson’s first solo exhibition since winning the Governor General's Award in Visual and Media Arts earlier this year.

In this site-specific installation of sculpture, drawings, and paintings, Stimson reimagines the traditional Siksika (Blackfoot) tales of Napi in the present and challenges the colonial erasure of Indigenous bodies, power, and sexual histories.

Frank Lewis (posthumous) was one of four inductees into the Oak Bay Fine Arts Hall of Fame in February 2017.

Mr. Lewis was born in Winnipeg in 1932, but moved to Victoria at the age of 14. He attended the Vancouver School of Art, during which time he learned from artists such as Jack Shadbolt, Gordon Smith, Arthur Erickson and Donald Jarvis.

He earned acclaim for his professional illustration work and was featured in the prestigious New York Society of Illustrators Show in 1963. In the late sixties his painting began to change and evolve on a larger scale, as witnessed on the construction fence of the Vancouver Court House.

Living Labs and the Aboriginal Gathering Place are pleased to welcome artist-in-residence Kim Stewart to Emily Carr in February as a part of our ongoing series Along a North-South Axis, presented in partnership with Two Rivers Gallery in Prince George, BC.

Future Self: The Creative Transformation of a Pop Culture Indian | Artist Talk with Kim Stewart

Wednesday, February 22 at 11:30am
Emily Carr Aboriginal Gathering Place – All Welcome
Open studios daily from February 21 to 25, 2017

Please join us as we present an exhibition showcasing beautiful moccasins created by the Emily Carr University community. This year-long initiative invited staff, faculty and Aboriginal students to participate in a Moccasin making workshop. Through demonstrations, videos and guest artists, participants were shown how to design and sew their own pair of moccasins. Beadwork was a new challenge for most, and one that was eagerly met by these first time beaders.

The pre-cut Elk hide templates and other supplies were supplied and organized by the Aboriginal Gathering Place and held weekly drop in times. It was a wonderful opportunity for staff and faculty across disciplines and departments to interact and engage with each other and our Aboriginal students.

In July 2014, history was made at Emily Carr when three generations of Leech women enrolled in the Urban Access to Aboriginal Art program. Violet (grandmother), Pam (mother) and Crystal (daughter) completed a four-week intensive program at Emily Carr’s Aboriginal Gathering Place, for a once in a lifetime cultural experience.

Now on in the Concourse Gallery

at Emily Carr University, the 18th Annual Aboriginal Student Exhibition is not to be missed. Individually and as a whole, the artists' works and the vision of its three co-curators, come together in a powerful exploration of this year's theme, UNceded.

A member of the Wuikinuxv Nation, Bracken Hanuse Corlett is a graduate of the Enowkin Centre of Indigenous Art in Penticton and Emily Carr University of Art & Design ('11). He is a multi-disciplinary artist who began first working in theatre and performance prior to transitioning to digital-media and visual arts.