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Community Arts Fund

Applications are now closed. The Community Arts Fund will return in Spring 2024.

The Community Arts Fund grant provides support for the planning, creation, and execution of projects that focus on building community through arts-related engagement. Both organizations and individuals may apply to create projects that will help to build bridges of understanding, community confidence, and support in the City of Vancouver. Projects that serve the Downtown Eastside (DTES) community will receive special consideration as the fund was originally founded on supporting the DTES and has since expanded to reach the wider City of Vancouver community. 

2023 Project Announcements

The Community Arts Fund is delighted to announce the 2023 funding recipients. This year, we saw an overwhelming response with a record 143 project proposals received, compared to 64 in 2022. Out of the exceptional submissions, six projects have been selected to receive a total of $23,000 in funding. We were thrilled to see the diverse and creative ideas that came in this year and look forward to witnessing the positive impact the selected projects will bring to our community in the coming months!

Selected Projects

25th Anniversary Podcast Series presented by Centre A
Centre A will start a podcast series as a part of our organization’s 25th-anniversary celebration. The podcast series will start with an introduction to Centre A and explore different pivotal points in our 25 years as an arts and culture institution. It will also situate the organization within Chinatown and Gastown by exploring the different locations that Centre A have called our home. For the anniversary series, we will also interview 8 artists with a wide range of practices that the organization has worked with since our inception in 1999. In addition to the guest speaker interviews, we will also explore topics such as community organizing in Chinatown, intergenerational connection, migration history and experiences in different episodes throughout the year.

Enable Creativity, Enable Play presented by Enable: Arts Society

In a series of six exploratory workshops, multidisciplinary artists and seasoned workshop facilitators Franz Seachel, Anjalica Solomon, Patricia Naguiat, Tawahun Bige, Alisha Sian, and Alyssa Amarsi will lead participants through different process-based play and expressive art explorations. Each will focus on aspects of poetry, movement, visual art, and mental health, that invite participants to connect with their inner child and work on creating without attachment to the outcome. The artists will guide participants through meditations, share their poetry, music, art, and dance works in progress and guide participants into flow-state collaborative creation that is land-based. Toward the end of each workshop, participants will have the opportunity to share their own creative explorations with the group in a safe and encouraging environment. The objective is to focus on building participants art based practices in a way that centres process over production and building community, in this way, we attempt to decolonize how we make art. Register online: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/enable-play-tickets-687698563917

Marpole Community Artist Exhibit presented by Marpole Neighbourhood House
Marpole Neighbourhood House has been a safe and inclusive space
where people come together to strengthen their leadership capacities and build a better neighbourhood. This project will showcase our local artists by organizing a community artist exhibit where they can share their art and others can appreciate it.

Pride in Art at the Carnegie Community Centre presented by the Pride in Art Society
The Pride in Art Society (PiA) will present a series of free 2SLGBTQIA+-led arts events and workshops at the Carnegie Community Centre in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside (DTES). This project aims to strengthen community ties, provide residents of the DTES free access to performing arts events and visual arts classes, and increase the visibility of Vancouver-based 2SLGBTQIA+ artists as agents of positive social change.

Queer Joy Workshop Series and Screening presented by XINEMA
As an expansion of XINEMA’s eighth program surrounding the theme of Queer Joy, XINEMA and guest curator, Rae Grant Duff will be hosting a workshop series and community screening with local analogue fieldhouse Echo Park Film Centre North.

When the Cycles of Corn, Salmon and Bison Meet presented by Dunna’eh House of Healing Society
This project aims to create a dialogue in a culturally safe environment about traditional Indigenous knowledge regarding cultural foods. We aim to create a Culinary Sanctuary where we will consult with Indigenous communities and Elders in a trauma informed-approach to gain a better understanding of their perspectives on food and nutrition and to ensure that our protocols of preparation of food are culturally appropriate and respectful. One of the primary goals of this project is to dismantle colonial narratives surrounding food preparation and promote culturally appropriate practices for urban Indigenous peoples. To achieve this, we intend to document traditional knowledge through various mediums such as video, photography, and written materials. The project will also host a community film screening at Strathcona Park featuring documentation of a bison ceremony, followed by a round-table discussion to foster dialogue and understanding. The event will close with a community feast.

2023 Advisory Committee

Valerie Smaller

Valerie Smaller

Vancouver-based and raised, a communications and event management consultant. Valerie held the position of Senior Manager, Corporate Partnerships at the Rick Hansen Foundation, and has been a consultant to a broad range of not-for-profit and corporate clients in the arts, retail, sports, healthcare and science. She began her involvement with CACV in 2012 as the inaugural event organizer of SWITCH!, a fundraiser raising nearly $700,000 over 7 years. Valerie studied communications at Simon Fraser University where she earned a degree in Communications and Publishing; and a Marketing diploma from Capilano University. Valerie believes we all possess creative abilities, not limited to self-proclaimed artists who earn a living from pursuing their passion. She enjoys a vast array of artmaking projects, with an emphasis on photography. The magic happens when we apply our talents and begin our creative journey – start anywhere, just start.

Beverly Walker

Beverly Walker

Beverly is an arts administrator with over 15 years of experience. She is thrilled to be supporting the 2nd Annual DTES Writers Festival, New Works 30th Anniversary, and Amplfied Voices as an advisory committee member. While on staff at Carnegie Community Centre, her favourite programs included the Community Death Care Project, DTES Small Arts Grants Program, and Street Vendors Collective. Beverly is a proud member of her Employee Resource Group for employees with disabilities, and commits time and energy to supporting access to creative spaces for every body. Beverly lives on the unceded and stolen territory of the xwməθkwəy̓əm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish) and Səl̓ílwətaʔ/Selilwitulh (Tsleil- Waututh) Nations colonially known as Vancouver, BC, Canada.

Mónica Reyes

Mónica Reyes

Mónica Reyes Gallery (MRG) has been backing the growth and development of emerging and mid-career artists at its current location since 2013. Serving the local and international art scene, MRG promotes artist initiatives invested in shaping the economies of art and culture. Located in the heart of Strathcona, the gallery is uniquely positioned to create dialogues with the artists and cultural engineers who call the neighbourhood home. Our new outpost, located at 2895 West 33rd Avenue – at the intersection of Mackenzie Street, opened in February 2022. This new location in the very heart of Vancouver's west side, will provide a unique opportunity for the gallery’s roster of artists to connect with a new audiences, to present new projects and to participate in curated group exhibitions With a commitment to advancing the cultural capital of the city the gallery has since partnered with Pattison to present The Billboard Project (2020-2021), extending the public’s access to local artists and treats viewers to approachable, yet thought-provoking contemporary art on the billboard. Featuring Kathy Slade, Annie Briard, Jack Chapman, Jessica Bushey and Robert Kleyn, during a time when an in-person visit at galleries or museums was less possible due to the pandemic. A project that was inspired by the pandemic and its need to return to the local and foster the community around us, Monica Reyes was one of the founding galleries of a new art fair, called COMBINE. It's purpose is to serve as a platform for new and aspiring art collectors to learn about the West Coast art scene and as an opportunity for seasoned collectors to discover the latest local talents. The predominant concept of collaboration is visible in the make-up of the fair, consisting of five Vancouver galleries and the emphasis of interconnected elements of artists, collectors, galleries, and institutions of this inaugural fair. Founder and director Mónica Reyes has been a longstanding figure in the Vancouver art scene having served as Vice President of the Contemporary Art Society of Vancouver, the Board of Latincouver. Today she sits on the Board of the Strathcona Board Improvement Assosiation. Reyes is committed to investing in art that gives voice to the cultural diversity of the Pacific Northwest. MRG's regular exhibition program and special events provide artists with opportunities for artists to show work that includes range of practices from more traditional forms of painting, sculpture and photography to experimental video, durational performance and installation.

Olumoroti Soji-George

Olumoroti Soji-George

Olumoroti (Moroti) Soji-George (he/they) is a curator, writer and educator based in Vancouver, BC. Olumoroti is the curator at the Black Arts Centre in Surrey, BC and the artistic director of Gallery Gachet in downtown Vancouver. His curatorial practice revolves around unravelling and demystifying the multifaceted ways Blackness is embodied and codified in the arts and conceptualizing the way Black Contemporary artists present a post-modern perspective on the state of Blackness in the current world through their artworks. His research and curatorial practice also involves envisioning accessible and community-centred art spaces and highlighting the stories of individuals and communities who construct new ways of being that challenge the Western status quo and state of being. At the core of his practice is the belief that space could be used to reflect the agency and lived experiences of individuals whose bodies and identities are not typically valued, respected and represented in traditional art and academic settings.

Beatrice Gill

Beatrice Gill

Beatrice is a Project Management Professional (PMP) with close to 20 years of project management experience in a variety of industries, including financial services, higher education and the non-profit sector. She is also a Prosci Certified Change Management Practitioner having managed large and complex multi-year business transformation programs, primarily in the financial services industry. Beatrice has a Master of Arts degree in International Relations from UNSW in Sydney, Australia, and holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from UBC. She is also a board member and volunteer with the South Granville Seniors Centre and supports both early career professionals and seniors through volunteer supports and services, as well as through advocacy and mentorship.

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