The Vancouver Outsider Arts Festival (VOAF) is returning for its seventh year from Oct. 12-17 at the Roundhouse Community Arts & Recreation Centre.
Presented by the Community Arts Council of Vancouver (CACV), this unique festival features artists who consider themselves outsiders from the mainstream art world. Participants have faced physical, economic, or social obstacles to showing their work in traditional art spaces. It is Canada’s first and only outsider arts festival.
“We are honoured to be able to provide a positive and safe space for people of all backgrounds and to help visitors connect to artists facing social, economic, and cultural barriers in showcasing their work. VOAF fosters inclusion and nurtures community within this artistic city”, says Cheung.
The festival features art exhibitions of over 400 works and performances from 56 Metro Vancouver artists including 40 visual artists, 13 performing artists, and three art groups. One of the exhibiting artists is Katalina Guerrero, who is returning for her second year. Along with her art practice, she is also a volunteer with Coast Mental Health and has ties to Vancouver’s Latin American communities. Participating Art Groups include ART & Justice, The Art Studios, and Gathering Place Community Centre.
New this year, are public workshops on creating handmade felt objects by Chantal Cardinal and Ikebana or Japanese flower arranging by Cecily Chang. In addition, through a partnership with Culture Days BC, two workshops will be presented on Kathak Movement, a type of South Asian classical dance, by Fiana Kawane and collaborative character design by Bethany Pardoe.
“The Vancouver Outsider Arts Festival continues to strengthen its ties to the local and international art scenes, offering even more opportunities for participants and our audiences,” says Kristin Cheung, executive director of CACV.
A special presentation at the Roundhouse Performance Centre on October 16 is a series of short films on Finnish outsider artists from suburban Helsinki and rural Karelia. The films by Finnish film makers Mika Ruohola, Kati Kallio, Anne Kalliola and Miska Tuononen incorporate storytelling, performance art, silent film, poetry, and dance. The series is a new partnership with Helsinki’s Outsider Arts Festival (OAF) and includes an online meet and greet with the artists. It can also be viewed online at OAF Online Stage.
All performances will be available after the festival on CACV’s YouTube channel. For additional information, visit the festival website at www.voaf.ca. In addition, The VOAF exhibition will be exhibited at the Port Moody Arts Centre from Jan. 11–March 4, 2024.
The Community Arts Council of Vancouver (CACV) is an independent non-profit organization and the first arts council in North America. Since its founding in 1946, the Community Arts Council of Vancouver has been an advocate for many of the cultural institutions and policies in Vancouver. Key programming includes the Vancouver Outsider Arts Festival and the Community Arts Fund, which provides grants to community artists.
VOAF 2023 is supported by the Canada Council for the Arts, BC Arts Council, City of Vancouver, Canadian Heritage, Modo, Roundhouse Community Arts & Recreation Centre, Jamie Poh, BC Culture Days, Disability Alliance BC, and the Y.P. Heung Foundation.
Dates:
Thursday, Oct. 12 to Monday, October 16 from 12:00 to 8:00 pm
Tuesday, October 17 12:00 to 8:00 pm
Location:
The Roundhouse Community Arts & Recreation Centre
181 Roundhouse Mews, Vancouver
