CONFERENCE 2021
Where creatives and cultural workers come together.
A New Way Forward
As we approach the coming year of reopening and rebuilding, we can begin to work towards the future and imagine a new way forward.
Join Arts BC on November 17th and 18th for two virtual days of discovery and connection, as we explore ways to build a healthier, more equitable sector beyond the pandemic. Panels and presentations will focus on developing new ways of leadership, centering the wellbeing of Indigenous artists and communities, Disability arts & culture, cultural mapping, and more!
Registration is Closed
We invite members and non-members to join our conference.
We know that organizations and individuals have been effected differently during the pandemic, and are offering tiered registration fees between $0-$60.
Please note that if you or your organization has not felt the financial burden of the pandemic, we urge you to select a higher registration fee as your support helps everyone in our sector.
ASL interpretation and auto captioning will be available for all events. Please inform us of any other accessibility needs you have when you register.
Nov 17 – Day One Schedule
Disability Arts and Culture Online: More Than Just Access and Accommodations | 10:00am-11:30am PST | with Jenna Reid presented by Kickstart Disability Arts & Culture
Access in the arts is a fraught practice both online and in person. Mad, Deaf, and disabled artists are all too familiar with the hyper focus on access and accommodations, as it creates the conditions for us to show up to the proverbial zoom room. However, when access and accommodations is all we talk about in relation to Disability Arts and Culture, we miss out on some of the most magical offerings that mad, Deaf, and disabled artists have to offer. This presentation will engage the online space as a space of both contentions and possibilities; ultimately asking questions about how we might crip online spaces as a creative practice that centers Disability Arts and Culture as an aesthetic practice.
Jenna Reid: Jenna Reid (she/her) is the current Artistic Director at Kickstart Disability Arts & Culture. She is a fibre artist who works primarily with the practices of quilting and natural dyes as a way to engage with activist based aesthetics. Jenna has completed a residency on Toronto Island with the Feminist Art Conference, has exhibited her work and presented on panels in Canada, US, UK, and Australia. Her studio work explores inter-institutional violence informed by the histories of queer, feminist, Deaf, disability, and mad movement organizing. With a studio-based PhD in Critical Disability Studies from York University, Jenna developed a critical craft praxis as a way to explore how creative practices can intervene in ways that make change happen in the world.
The Pace of Creativity (over lunch) | 12:00pm-1:00pm PST | with Zaynab Mohammed
An artist talk with Zaynab Mohammed who will share her process of creation and the current project she is immersed in.
Zaynab Mohammed: A Performing Poet, Musician, and Activist living in BC Canada. Her work focuses on youth empowerment and activism through art. With Lebanese, Iraqi and Palestinian roots, she allows the pain to mesh with what is possible in the realms of healing, of creating new ways forward, so that the past is understood and not repeated.
How the Law Impacts Our Work | 1:00pm-2:00pm PST | with Gina Lupino presented by PLEO
In this session, we will hear the most common questions and answers from these regional sessions. This is a special opportunity to have access to resources and legal knowledge that is otherwise difficult to find.
Gina Lupino: Gina is a U.S. (New York) and Canadian lawyer, former U.S. patent examiner and former engineer, who advises on patent, trademark and copyright registration, management and enforcement. She is a registered US patent attorney licensed to practice before the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). She is currently Associate Counsel at Voyer Law Corporation and Director of Intellectual Property and Legal Affairs at TRIUMF Innovations Inc. When not practicing law, she enjoys hiking, yoga, martial arts, and doing advocacy and outreach work with the Young Onset Parkinson’s Disease community.
BCAC Special Presentation | 2:00pm-3:30pm PST | with Erin Macklem & Krista Patterson
This session for arts and culture organizations is uniquely focussed for those working in non-urban and community arts, as well as those made marginal by the system.
BCAC Program Officers Erin Macklem and Krista Patterson will discuss available funding, program priorities, Strategic Directions, funding partnerships, and more. Join us for this special presentation to learn more about:
- What funding is available to your organization
- BCAC’s priorities, and why they matter to you
- Tips for contextualizing your work and writing successful grants
Krista Patterson: A graduate of NSCAD (BFA, Fine Art/Art History), Krista joined the BC Arts Council in 2021. Her prior experience includes 20 years in a senior management role in community arts and culture, including growth of an arts funding program, municipal committee work, advocacy, and many projects. Committed to lifelong teaching and learning, she has been fortunate to live in communities from rural B.C. and northern Canada to Shanghai, China, teaching jewellery, metalsmithing and design, along with art history, business practices and administration, to learners from a variety of backgrounds and ages. She sees art as integral to community development, strength, and resilience.
Erin Macklem: After 25 years working in professional theatre as a costume designer, playwright and administrator, Erin Macklem joined the team of Program Officers at the BC Arts Council in 2018. She facilitates youth-focussed, multidisciplinary programs. She has a passion for outreach and engagement, especially as they relate to supporting the BC Arts Council’s strategic priorities. Erin is a member of the Métis Nation of BC, with Red River roots on her mother’s side. She strives to bring this cultural lens to her work, while being conscious of the white skin privilege afforded her by her father’s Irish and English ancestors.
Nov 18 – Day Two Schedule
New Leadership Directions for Arts & Culture Organizations | 10:00am-11:30am PST | with Jules André-Brown & Maya Preshyon
Maya Preshyon: Maya Preshyon (she/they) is a 3rd year Social Work and Indigenous Studies student at UBC. She is the Vice President of the Student Executive at CiTR/Discorder, contributing writer for Discorder, curator of Discothrash; Discorder’s fiction column and has a seat on CiTR’s governing board. She has recently been on the organizing team for 2021’s Music Waste festival and has been a volunteer at CiTR since 2019. The focus of her volunteer work is to shape the art scene to be a more welcoming space for people like her.
Jules André-Brown: Jules André-Brown (He/Him/His) is a leadership consultant and artist. Jules is involved in local music and visual arts and serves as a board member for the New Form Festival and CiTR/Discorder. Jules recently completed a thesis for a Master’s in Arts in Leadership degree at Royal Roads University. His graduate work looks at how young people see the future of leadership in arts organizations.
The Seven Sacred Teachings - A Better Understanding (over lunch) | 12:00pm-1:00pm PST | with James Darin Corbière
Many are familiar with The Seven Sacred or Grandfather Teachings, Love, Courage, Respect, Humility, Truth, Honesty and Wisdom. These teachings come from the East and the meanings are often mis-understood as pieces become lost in translation. Find them here, during this session.
James Darin Corbière: Waab Shki Makwa is Anishinaabe, Bear Clan from Ontario. Former College and High School Indigenous language teacher, police officer off and on-reserve. Indigenizing colonial systems in secret. Graphic novel writer, illustrator, artist and board game creator on a grand Cosmic Journey.
Mapping Culture: North Shore Culture Compass | 1:00pm-2:00pm PST | with Nancy Cottingham Powell & Harriet Goodwin
Nancy Cottingham Powell: Executive Director at North Van Arts. Nancy’s background is steeped in the arts, training to be in front of the lights at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in California, then evolving into behind-the-scenes production during Vancouver’s Expo ‘86. Her love for the arts led her to work with a wide variety of festivals, events, and arts organizations including Made in BC, MusicFest Vancouver, CelticFest Vancouver, Pacific Baroque Orchestra, and founding the Sechelt Arts Festival, a multi-disciplinary community arts event on the Sunshine Coast. Nancy’s passion has now led her to her role at North Van Arts, a non-profit organization dedicated to maximizing the intrinsic value of arts of all mediums in North Vancouver.
Harriet Goodwin: Marketing & Outreach Manager for the North Shore Culture Compass – a programme by North Van Arts. Growing up in England, her first jobs at the Royal Albert Hall, Frieze Art Fair and Somerset House gave her a first taste of working in the arts, one that she hasn’t been able to shake. In 2015, she moved to Vancouver and worked as Program Manager at Vancouver Heritage Foundation. Harriet is now a freelance Community Engagement Specialist, her goal being to support cultural organizations such as museums, festivals and galleries to engage their audiences through events, placemaking and exhibition curation. She is fascinated by the intersection of the arts and technology and its potential to make cultural experiences accessible to a wider audience. Harriet also performs as a singer and is a keen photographer. Her work promoting the North Shore Culture Compass combines her love of heritage, art, culture, storytelling and, of course, North Vancouver.
Centering Indigenous Artists and Community Well-Being | 2:00pm-3:30pm PST | with Tracey Kim Bonneau, Kym Gouchie, & Eli Hirtle
What could the sector look like if all stakeholders prioritized the knowledge and well-being of Indigenous artists and communities?
During this panel discussion, three Indigenous arts professionals will share perspectives on the arts sector in BC, and consider a way forward. This session will address the needs of Indigenous artists working with non-Indigenous organizations, and explore key ways in which non-Indigenous organizations can build respectful relationships with Indigenous artists and communities, ensure proper recognition and compensation, and provide safer working environments during – and after – the COVID pandemic.
Tracey Kim Bonneau: An award-winning documentary, director, writer and producer and a member of the Syilx Nation, born and raised on the Penticton Indian Reserve. Her most current project is the completion of 39 ½ hour episodes for the Aboriginal Peoples Television Network for the documentary series Quest OutWest Wild Food. She is a veteran independent artist with thirty years’ experience in print, radio, television and multimedia digital platforms. Currently, Tracey is a Matriarch with the IM4 Lab created by Indigenous filmmaker, Loretta Todd, alongside Indigenous Media Matriarchs Doreen Manuel, Cease Wyss. IM4 is in collaboration with Emily Carr University to offer workshops training Indigenous peoples in XR. IM4 is dedicated to Indigenizing VR/AR/360 by enabling Indigenous communities to find effective ways to incorporate these technologies into educational, cultural, language, artistic and commercial applications. Aside from her arts career, Tracey is the Manager of Arts Culture; Adult Higher Learning at the En’owkin Centre located in Penticton.
Kym Gouchie: With ancestral roots in the Lheidli T’enneh, Cree and Secwépemc Nations, KYM GOUCHIE is fostering change through her music and art. Her music brings awareness to First Nations and women’s issues, promoting reconciliation and community building while reminding us that we are all in this together. Her stories are a testament to the human spirit, weaving together threads of her own journey from personal tragedy to triumph. A respected elder-in-training of the Lheidli T’enneh Nation, also known as Prince George, BC, Kym is sought after to perform and speak at traditional welcoming ceremonies, cultural gatherings, schools, and conferences.
Eli Hirtle: Eli Hirtle is a nêhiyaw(Cree)/British/German filmmaker, beadworker, youth mentor and curator based on Lekwungen Territory in Victoria, BC, Canada. His practice involves making films about Indigenous cultural resurgence and language revitalization, as well as investigating his nêhiyaw identity through beadwork. Current areas of interest are learning how to speak his ancestral language of nêhiyawêwin and mentoring emerging Indigenous artists. Eli is currently the Curator, Indigenous and Contemporary Art at Open Space Arts Society. Past curatorial projects include Sacred at Victoria City Hall, Pretty Good Not Bad Festival, IndigeVision Film Showcase, and the Wapakoni Cinema on Wheels Tour.
Have Questions?
Are you interested in learning more or have questions about our conference? Please don’t hesistate to email us at [email protected] or give us a call at +1-778-410-5104.
