Lena approached us from Germany last spring, and was “pleasantly persistent”. She had chosen CACV as her ideal placement for an internship as part of her Masters in Cultural Sciences.
Last night she gave a presentation on a theoretical context for social change and community arts.
PRESIDENT – Michael Clague, C.M.
Michael has been executive director of three voluntary agencies, the Britannia Community Services Centre, the Community Services Centre, the Community Social Planning Council of Greater Victoria, and the Social Planning and Research Council of BC. From 1996 to 2005 he was director of a City of Vancouver facility, the Carnegie Community Centre in Vancouver. In this capacity he was an eager supporter and advocate for the community arts in the Downtown Eastside. From 1998 through 2000 he was the coordinator for the Legacies Project (a retrospective journey into twentieth century politics and society as portrayed through the arts). He is Past President of the Carold Institute for the Advancement of Citizenship in Social Change and a director of the Fraser Basin Council. He has served on the Board of the CACV since 2006 and as Vice-President from 2008 until April, 2010. Recently Michael has been selected as one of “five great guys” by the Firehall Theatre at their annual tribute gala. In October, 2007, Michael Clague, C.M. was recognized with the designation of Member of the Order of Canada for his contributions and commitment to social planning and action through the arts, particularly in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside.
VICE-PRESIDENT – vacant (Note Michael Clague served as Vice-President and stepped into the President role when Sita Kumar resigned to take on the job as Program Coordinator for the Creative Pathways program).
SECRETARY – Susan Gordon
From Montreal, Susan studied English Literature before moving west in the late 60’s. She taught for several years in Chemainus, Burnaby and Vancouver. In the mid 70’s she travelled in South America and homesteaded in the Cariboo.
Back in Vancouver in 1979, Susan moved to Cordova Street on Oppenheimer Park and worked at the Carnegie when it opened in 1980. She was Co-ordinator of Arts and Culture for the Park Board in 1991, bringing in an Arts Policy for the Board focused on Community Cultural Development. Retiring in 2007, she is now finding the balance between volunteer work and exploring interests left on the shelf during her working life. She has served on the CACV Board since 2007 as board secretary. Susan has been a champion of community-engaged environmental arts during her time on the board.
TREASURER – Ashley Hardill
Ashley is a chartered accountant with Manning Elliott LLP, a Vancouver based firm. She graduated from Wilfred Laurier University with an honors degree in Economics and Accounting and after she completed her studies she worked at a chartered accounting firm in Toronto for two years. In 2007, she decided to move to Vancouver and began working at Manning Elliott. Her main focus at work is with not-for-profit organizations in the Greater Vancouver area. She has a great interest in the Downtown Eastside and the local art scene in Vancouver, which has directed her interest in the CACV. Ashley was first elected in 2009.
MEMBERS AT LARGE
Sabrina Cordeiro
Sabrina started volunteering for CACV on the Communications Committee with extensive work on the communications strategy. Holding a Masters in Public Policy and Administration specializing in Cultural Policy Development, she worked at the City of Toronto as a researcher in the Culture and Economic Development Division conducting a review on municipal arts funding and a comparison study with other municipalities in Canada. She updated recommendations within the City of Toronto’s Culture Plan and drafted funding recommendations to Council. She also worked with Community Futures Development Corporation in the North Fraser District, and currently works for a consulting firm doing business development. Sabrina has volunteered as a Board member for the Victoria Immigrant and Refugee Centre Society developing the purpose, policies and priorities of the organization and playing an active role in fundraising. She is an accomplished pianist and writer. Sabrina is the CACV board liaison to the Communications committee and the Community Arts Activities Committee.
Nathan Edelson
Nathan is a Senior Partner with 42nd Street Consulting which supports inclusive planning for diverse communities. He has worked on projects linking government and community organizations in a variety of settings in Canada, the U.S., Brazil and South Africa. He is Adjunct Professor with the UBC’s School of Community and Regional Planning and a Bousfield Distinguished Visiting Scholar at the University of Toronto.
A Planner with the City of Vancouver from 1983 to 2008, he focused for 15 years on the many challenging issues facing the Downtown Eastside. This included work on an Arts and Culture Strategic Investment Plan as well as a variety of public realm improvements and a plan for community based programming of local public spaces. Prior to working for the City he was the founding Executive Director of Little Mountain Neighbourhood House.
Nathan joined the CACV board in 2008 and is currently the CACV board representative to the Downtown Eastside Centre for the Arts and various other DTES organizations and initiatives.
Richard Evans
Architect and engaged DTES community participant, Richard worked with his firm Marceau Evans Johnson Architects for eight years from his offices on Victory Square Park. As Chair of the Friends of Victory Square, Richard was instrumental in raising $1.1 million dollars toward Victory Square improvements and has lobbied for the ongoing park programs and events.
For his community work Richard has been awarded: the Volunteer of the Year Award in 2003 by the Vancouver Board of Parks and Recreation and the Barbara Dalrymple Award for Community Service in 2004 by the Architectural Institute of British Columbia.
Richard’s professional interest in architecture is in community building through a participatory design process, which leads to successful community and education facilities. Richard’s architectural practice has brought him into many working relationships with First Nation community groups throughout BC. Richard serves as the Chair of the Creative Pathways Advisory Committee which will be coordinating community arts events in the downtown eastside starting in the spring of 2010.
David Lee
David is a business consultant who has developed and led programs within and across the private, public and non-profit sectors in Canada and Australia. His passion is finding connections between people and organizations to create new relationships and opportunities. His focus over the last four years has been in local economic development, cross-sector stakeholder engagement and capacity-building of arts organizations and other non-profits, primarily in the Downtown Eastside. He also serves as the Treasurer on the board of the VIVO Media Arts Centre and as a consultant with Building Opportunities with Business (BOB). David joined the CACV board in 2008. He is Chair of the Fundraising and Membership Committee and a Past Treasurer.
Juan Gabriel Solorzano (November – September, 2010)
Born and raised in Mexico City, one of the largest metropolises in the world, Juan has always enjoyed travelling, immersing in other cultures and seeing things from new perspectives. He started his post-secondary training at the Faculty of Medicine in the National University of Mexico where he studied for three years. His interest in systems change and community-level interventions drew him to pursue additional studies in Geography and later in Planning, both of them at UBC. Today, Juan works for Vancouver Coastal Health as the Leader for Chronic Disease Services where in addition to his health planner role he supervises a team of clinical staff. He is passionate about designing, implementing and evaluating programs that address health inequities, as well as managing change in complex organizations. Juan is a strong advocate of the Arts, and has enjoyed managing and evaluating community-engaged art projects that have left important legacies for participants and their communities. Juan is interested in exploring collaborations with organizations around arts and health.
PAST PRESIDENT – Leslie Kemp
One of Leslie’s passions is in building community and she tries to incorporate this into all of her work (both paid and volunteer). In her professional life, Leslie works for Langara College Continuing Studies as a community development educator. Her deep interest in social justice is reflected in her long-time work with the Social Justice Committee at the Unitarian Church of Vancouver and with the Faithful Fools Street Ministry. Leslie’s interest in the arts (theatre, music and dance, etc.) has led to her participation in community arts projects and to her work on the CACV board since 2005.
Leslie has been honoured to serve as CACV’s President from 2007-2009 and has enjoyed working with the board in building a strong and vital community arts council and in strengthening our relationships with our key partners.
“I feel we don’t dance enough. If we danced more and sung more, I think that we’d be happier people”
-Yulanda Faris
Yulanda Faris, arts philanthropist, chair of the Vancouver Opera Foundation, and honorary chair of the Judith Marcuse Dance Project, spoke at the CACV Annual General Meeting on November 25, 2010. Born in Jamaica, Yulanda came to Canada to attend McGill University and moved to Vancouver in 1974 where she has been involved in the arts scene ever since.
She has been a board member of the Vancouver International Writers’ Festival and Family Services of the North Shore, and a volunteer at the Vancouver Art Gallery, for UNICEF and at St. Paul’s Hospital. She also supports a variety of organizations including the Downtown Women’s Eastside Centre, Covenant House, Music in the Morning, the Vancouver Symphony, the Vancouver Children’s Festival, Bard on the Beach and the Vancouver Opera Guild.
At the 2010 AGM, Yulanda drew from her almost 40 years of experience with the Vancouver arts community.
And if you have a moment check out this lovely, short documentary about Yulanda Faris and her husband Mohammed falling in love in 1950s Montreal.
Click here to read Yulanda Faris’ presentation to the CACV AGM 2010.
Kirstie just completed her first interview as a CACV volunteer – with Lyle Povah.
Kirstie McCallum lives in Vancouver where she is the Dance Editor for Plank Magazine and an Editorial Assistant for Event Magazine. She was raised in Prince Edward Island and studied in Halifax and Fredericton: she has a BA in Contemporary Studies and English from the University of Kings College and an MA in Creative Writing and English from the University of New Brunswick.
Anna Wilkinson is a member of the Community Arts Council of Vancouver’s Communications Committee.
She is an emerging museum professional and is interested in the ways that diverse communities can interact within gallery spaces and through public art. Contact Anna.
Anna’s interviews include:
An Interview with Community Artist Marina Szjiarto
by Anna Wilkinson
Earlier this October(2010), I took a walk around Mountain View Cemetery with Marina Szjiarto the art and technical director of Vancouver’s All Souls. In its sixth year, Marina describes the series of All Souls events as a time for community members to come to the Mountain View Cemetery and remember the dead. On October 30th, the public is invited to engage with a wide range of shrines and commemorative sites all around the cemetery.
As Marina points out, All Souls is nothing new; celebrations during this time of year go back hundreds of years. “There is something special about this time of year. Many cultures in this hemisphere have traditions related to honoring the dead during this season. Traditionally, it’s a time when the space between life and death becomes thin and communication between the two realms is possible.”
However, for Marina and her collaborator, the cemetery’s artist in residence Paula Jardine, the event is about engaging with these older traditions in a contemporary way.
“A lot of people in Vancouver are from somewhere else and many of their cultural traditions get left behind. It seems that All Souls often appeals to people who have been here for two or more generations; those who are not embedded in a strong tradition already. They are often the ones searching for meaningful ways of remembering their dead.
At the same time a lot of religious and cultural diversity is expressed during the event. We have had Buddhist ceremonies at the event as well as First Nations and Catholic traditions, so it definitely isn’t a non-religious event. But it also goes beyond this; it’s almost pan-religious. In a way, the event is open to whatever people want it to be and that maybe even means that for some people there is no religious reference to it at all.”
This universalism is an integral concept behind All Souls. And it is a concept that is perfectly illustrated by a Buddhist narrative that Marina came across through her research into cultural traditions surrounding death.
In the story, a woman’s child dies. She asks the Buddha to revive her child and he tells her that he will if she can bring him a mustard seed from a house which hasn’t been affected by death. She tries and finds that she can’t. In the end she thanks him for helping her realize that she’s not alone. It is these commonalities of the human experience that Marina hopes will become apparent through the All Souls programming.
“There is something very special about being in a public space and seeing that others have lost people or are creating beauty out of it. There is a sense of human connection through death. It’s about taking comfort in the fact that we’re not alone. Different cultures may have different rituals surrounding death but they all have them. Creating a space for grieving just opens one’s heart up to humanity. It can be very moving.”
For Marina, art-making is also part of a universal and hugely therapeutic process when it comes to dealing with grief. This is why many of the structures and spaces at All Souls invite participation and public engagement. Even something as simple as writing the name of a loved one on a prayer flag and tying it to a tree in the cemetery can help someone express their feelings in a healing way. As Marina puts it, “The shrines at All Souls are defined more by the meaning they are imbued with than by the form they take. They can range from a rock with candles on it to a huge, elaborate structure. Really it is the act of working with one’s hands that literally helps to express grief.”
The All Souls events promise to offer an intergenerational, multicultural, and moving experience in a unique location. See some of the upcoming events below and check out http://vancouver.ca/commsvcs/nonmarketoperations/mountainview/allsouls/index.htm for more details.
All events take place in the Celebration Hall at 5445 Fraser Street at 39th Avenue.
Go here for details.