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8 Richards and Youssef
Tue 21 Feb 2017 7–9PM
A series of informal sessions of research and knowledge exchange
Vanessa Richards on UnSilencing Ourselves - The Quiet Site of Shame
Marcus Youssef on the Theatre of Activism
222 East Georgia Street
Vancouver, BC
Join us for these brief presentations followed by discussion: Vanessa Richards will lead a conversation-in-action on the reclamation of the body as instrument of change and song in common life. Marcus Youssef will share his insights on how good activism needs good theatre. He’ll address how the process of collaborating across difference affects, challenges, and strengthens creative practice.
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Vanessa Richards has a social arts practice that explores what life becomes when we turn more often to each other than away. Community engaged initiatives have been devised with The Arts Club Theatre, Public Dreams, ECUAD, Capilano, SFU and PHS. In the UK her interdisciplinary work has been presented at the Tate Modern, ICA, Oval House Theatre, South Bank Centre. Poetry and critical works are anthologized in the UK, Holland, United States and Canada. She is the founder and song leader for the Woodward’s Community Singers and director of Creative Together, a song based facilitation process.
Marcus Youssef’s dozen or so plays – many of which investigate questions of culture, difference and “otherness” – have been performed at dozens of major festivals and theatres (and school gyms!) across North America, Australia and Europe, from Seattle to New York to Reykjavik to Berlin. Selected awards and nominations: Governor General’s, Rio-Tinto Alcan Performing Arts, Chalmer's Canadian Play, Arts Club Silver Commission, Seattle Times Footlight, Vancouver Critics' Choice (three times). Marcus is Artistic Director of Vancouver’s Neworld Theatre, sits on the city’s Arts and Culture Policy Council, co-chaired the Coalition of Progressive Electors and co-founded the East Vancouver artist run production studio, PL1422. He has served on the faculties of Concordia and Capilano Universities, teaches widely, and is a Canadian Fellow to the International Society of Performing Arts.
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ABOUT THE FORESHORE
The Foreshore is a collaborative pursuit and shared space between Access Gallery and Other Sights. The Foreshore is inspired by the deep influence of the waterways on our cities and societies on the West Coast. As a place of unclear jurisdiction, and thus of contestation, friction, and constant movement, those who dwell in this zone must continually adapt to a changing environment. As a site it conjures histories specific to this region: narratives of trade and exchange, habitation and nourishment, resistance and violent erasure. Considering the potential of this zone as both concept and site, the project asks the following: How do we generate conditions of emergence? How can we take up space differently? How do we support unruly practices and futures?
Over the last 3 months, the storefront adjacent to Access’ gallery space at 222 East Georgia has hosted bi-weekly open discussion sessions informed by invited artists, writers, curators, and activists. Adding to this exciting program, we have launched an artist-in-residence series to provide space and time to artists interested in addressing questions of the foreshore.
If you would like to receive email invites to The Foreshore events, please sign up on the dedicated project website: www.theforeshore.org
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Other Sights for Artists' Projects is a non-profit arts organization that develops new and unexpected exhibition platforms outside of the gallery context. Other Sights collaborates and shares resources with organizations and individuals to present artworks that consider the aesthetic, economic and regulatory conditions of public places and public life. For more information visit othersights.ca
Other Sights gratefully acknowledges the support of the British Columbia Arts Council, The Canadian Union of Public Employees Local 15, and private donors without whom this project would not be possible.
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Established as an non-profit artist-run centre in 1991, Access Gallery is platform for emergent and experimental art practices. We enable critical conversations and risk taking through new configurations of audience, artists, and community. For more information visit Access Gallery
Access Gallery gratefully acknowledges the support of the Canada Council for the Arts, the Government of British Columbia through the BC Arts Council and BC Gaming, the City of Vancouver, the Hamber Foundation, the Burrard Arts Foundation, the Contemporary Art Gallery, NSB Reederei, and our committed donors, members and volunteers.