Esther Rausenberg is the artist working as project coordinator for the SPOTA (Strathcona Property Owners and Tenants Association) and HAMP (Hogan Alley Memorial Project) Markers through CACV. Thank you to the City of Vancouver’s Great Beginnings Program for support of this project.
Esther Rausenberg is a Strathcona based artist currently working on the Strathcona Art and History Trail project, an art project regarding the issues of strathocona neighbourhood. She will work with Strathcona residents to design art and history markers in Strathcona that honour significant events, people and stories of Strathcona.
Rausenberg has worked and volunteered in the non-profit sector since 1979, including the Firehall Arts Centre, The Norman Rothstein Theatre, Strathcona Community Centre Board and G&F Financial Services. She is a creative and motivated person who has initiated and implemented innovative projects and initiatives, ranging from housing to the arts. She has an MA in Asian Policy Studies (UBC) and a post- graduate diploma in Asia Pacific Management from Capilano University where she was also a faculty member for 5 years.
Esther is developing her unique direction as a photographer, studying and exhibiting locally, nationally and internationally. She has travelled both locally and internationally, and different series of her photographic work reflect Asian, Latin American and South American themes along with those of her immediate west-coast environment. Her subjects are charged with her technical inventiveness and the distinctiveness of her vision.
Esther has documented several public art projects for the Canadian public art group La Raza including the mural exchange project in London Ontario (2007) and exhibited in the group show at the Salon de Plastica Mexicana in Mexico City, November 2007. She photographed their mural activities during their tours of Argentina (2006) and Mexico (2005) cultural exchanges. Her work was part of the group’s latest collaboration titled “Idea of North-Visual Variations” that features the work of six Canadian artists. The work was exhibited in Merida, Mexico in March 2010. Recently, she documented the “Eastside Mural Projects” in Vancouver.
Click here for more about the projects that Esther is working on for CACV.
December marks the darkest time of the year but also marks the beginning of the return of the light. The Lightness of Hope installation focuses on this moment of change as synonymous with human nature in its darkest hour, where sometimes comes a glimmer of light giving rise to hope. One’s hope then provides the courage to endure, to act, to believe in change for the better.
Sharon Kravitz is a documentary filmmaker, community organizer, and educator. She has worked in the Downtown Eastside of Vancouver for the last 17 years organizing large-scale events, community public art projects and arts and health programs for all ages. She has also participated on numerous panels about the essential role of arts and culture in creating healthy communities. Sharon graduated from the Documentary Film Program at Capilano University in 2009. She is currently working on a documentary based on the work of Dr. Bruce Alexander and his book The Globalization of Addiction: A Study in Poverty of the Spirit.
