Community-engaged Environmental Arts is one of the three program priorities selected by the Board of the Community Arts Council of Vancouver.
See our Blog for information!
Follow us on Twitter for up-to-date news!
If you’re interested in volunteering to support this series of projects and our monthly eco-art salons, send a note to volunteer@cacv.ca to express interest with a short bio and an indication of your interests.
Eco-Art Salons are events that bring those active in creating environmental art together with interested community members, representatives of environmental/community groups interested in using art to advance their social or environmental goals. These events serve as a venue for dialogue and for people from a variety of backgrounds to connect professionally & socially.
Salons are held from 7:00-9:00 pm on the 4th Wednesday of each month at the Roundhouse Community Art and Recreation Centre.
For information on upcoming events, see our online community centre or send a note to eco-art@cacv.ca
We have coordinated a series of five short-term community environmental art projects in five different Vancouver locations (some indoor; some outdoor) with artists including: Nicole Dextras, Oliver Kellhammer, Pierre Leichner, Sharon Kallis and Haruko Okano. Projects were hosted at Kitsilano Neighbourhood House, Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Garden and Granville Island.
Below are examples of some of these Environmental Art projects.
An Eco-Arts Project at Kitsilano house, where volunteers, residents and visitors create symbolic nests from natural materials. Messages of memory and hope are deposited into the nests during the Kits House’s transitional period.
Read more about this project by clicking here.
Several Green Streets volunteers are involved with the Community Arts Council of Vancouver — pushing the envelope for traffic circle and corner bulge gardens. From Chloe Bennett’s Bees Please Bee Habit-Art at 6th & yew to Julien’s Car Battery at Fremlin and 46th and Ella Cooper’s Art Garden at 8th and Trimble with art activites incluidng poetry-making; clay work and brightly painted signage, art is springing up in public space near you.
We’d like to connect with anyone who’s noticed – or better yet is making – art in the Green Streets plots.
Cedar by John Hemsworth and Peter von Tiesenhausen (Photo by Paul Colangelo)
On December 15, 2006 a major windstorm struck Stanley Park. This storm closed parts of the park for several months. CACV partnered with the Vancouver Park Board and Stanley Park Ecology Society to produce the Stanley Park Environmental Art Project and we continue to provide programming to help promote understanding of the project. This project was a collaboration between artists, ecologists, park staff, environmental educators, and the very ecology of the park itself. Completed in 2009, it began with creation of ephemeral works and then the semi-permanent works. Artists were selected considering artists’ histories, interests, proposed initiatives as well as artistic merit, ecological merit and strategies of community engagement. Two of the artists bring a First Nations background to the project. All six artists collaborated with forest ecologists and park staff.
"Fringe" by Shirley Weibe. (Photo by Paul Colangelo)
They worked under the following conditions:
- Used only natural materials – native to Stanley Park and ecologically friendly.
- No destruction of living plants, unless invasive or other species which results in net ecological benefit
- Public could watch the process of creation and interact with artists
- Educational and participatory elements were developed and delivered.
A series of videos about the project is available for playing or download. Below is the Introductory video featuring an interview with Davide Pan and Cease Wyss.
We are involved with and helped start the Means of Production Artists Community Garden in the Mount Pleasant area of Vancouver.
Means of Production started in 2002 with Oliver Kellhammer as lead artist and instigator, working with Vancouver Parks Board and Community Arts Council of Vancouver funding and Environmental Youth Alliance (EYA) as partner. The piece of land straddles park board and City of Vancouver engineering land, and is on lease to the Environmental Youth Alliance.
In 2009, Community Arts Council of Vancouver with funding from the City of Vancouver sponsored MOP Out! - an outreach and communications programs for the tea parties and events held at the garden.
From Earth Day, 2010 to the end of August, Sharon Kallis worked with a variety of community groups to create ephemeral installations in CRAB Park at the foot of Main.
Environmental Arts Advisory Committee
Terms of Reference
Introduction
In 2009, the Community Arts Council of Vancouver identified, “Be a leader in the developing field of environmental art” as one of the top three program priorities of CACV.
A. Goals
The purposes of the Environmental Arts Advisory Committee are to:
- Provide overall direction and support for the development of environmental arts activities
- Develop policies and procedures related to environmental arts.
- Encourage environmental, community and arts groups to engage with CACV in this priority.
- Seek advice and assistance from the broader community including arts organizations in raising awareness of and engagement with environmental arts.
- Provide recommendations to the CACV board on fundraising and grant opportunities in this area
- Provide recommendations to the CACV board on the appropriate criteria and advisory structure for expanding our impact in this area.
B. Operating Principles:
The following principles will inform the operations of the Committee:
- Forming partnerships and connections
- Co-creation of environmental art
- Diversity of participation
- Linking with existing communities
- Engagement with ecologists, artists and communities.
- To support sculptural land art and also other genres, such as filmmaking, theatre, music with the goals of environmental awareness or action.
In addition the Environmental Arts Committee is guided by the following CACV values:
·Accountability: To be transparent and responsive by issuing open calls for artists and partners.
·Contribution: To create opportunities for everyone to contribute and to learn by initiating events that engage with people a variety of ages, educational and expertise and occupational backgrounds.
·Community: To encourage active participation and collaboration in community life by initiating and responding to community groups and agencies as partners in the creation of environmental art and dialogue about this emerging field.
·Diversity: To be open and inclusive by hosting events in a variety of geographical neighbourhoods and especially with partners who include diversity as a core value in their own work.
·Creativity: To support the role of the artist in bringing out the creativity and the artist in everyone by engaging, supporting and promoting Vancouver-based environmental artists in projects, discussions and dialogue on CACV engagement with this field.
·Meaning: To bring to light the beauty of people and their communities, the issues of social justice that challenge people and communities, and the opportunities for healing within our communities by overtly setting the context of environmental art projects and dialogues as focused on expanding people’s awareness of and sense of empowerment to affect environmental planetary issues and act with integrity and creativity in having a positive impact locally and globally. The goal is to give individual and collective voice, hope and meaning to people’s lives.
C. Responsibilities
The Advisory Committee is responsible for the following tasks:
- Making recommendations through the CACV board representative to the CACV Board with respect to the overall purpose and direction.
- Seeking feedback from ecologists, artists, environmental groups and community groups on the mandate and strategic directions of CACV engagement in this area.
- Identifying and applying for grants to establish environmental arts activity as a sustainable and ongoing activity and priority.
- Making recommendations through the CACV board representative to the CACV board on the best organizational structures for advancing this field.
D. Specific Instructions
- The Committee shall meet on an ad hoc basis as requested by the board representative, but at least three times per year.
- The Committee shall support the CACV board representative in preparing an annual budget for submission to the CACV Treasurer (July 1 – June 30)
- The Committee shall help the CACV board representative to prepare an annual report by September of each year for the previous fiscal year.
E. Committee Membership
The Committee shall consist of the CACV board representative, a chair or co-chairs (appointed by the CACV Board) and shall include at least three other individuals invited by the CACV board representative or the chair. The Administrator and Board President shall serve as an ex-officio member of the Committee. Additional individuals may be invited to join a particular meeting when their input, feedback and expertise is sought for the topic of that meeting.
F. Lines of Communication
- Report to the CACV Board Representative and to the CACV Board at least annually.
- Report to CACV members at the Annual General Meeting and through regular newsletters and bulletins through the CACV board representative.
Approved by CACV Board October 28, 2010
