Here's to 2017!

Thank you to all our exhibiting artists, committed audiences, and supporters in 2016!
Looking back and looking ahead

On this final eve of 2016, we wanted to write and thank our committed audiences, supporters, and participating artists for a tremendous year at Access Gallery. Because of your continued engagement and support, our organization has accomplished an enormous amount, presenting critically acclaimed exhibitions that showcase the work of some of the most provocative emergent and experimental artists based in Vancouver and around the world. Alongside these exhibitions, we have brought you an illustrated children's storybook by Cindy Mochizuki, a rousing debate with Mochizuki, Vanessa Kwan, Helen Reed and Hannah Jickling about artists working alongside children, a guided sound walk by resident artist Elisa Ferrari, a performance installation by resident artist Amaara Raheem meditating on the condition of residence, the firsthand witnessing of an unfolding economic crisis in the shipping industry by resident artist Rebecca Moss, a new collaboration inspired by the conditions of the foreshore with Other Sights for Artists' Projects, and unforgettable conversations with Lyse Lemieux (with Amelie Brisson-Darveau), Ian Wallace and Helga Pakasaar, (with the artists of Three Kinds of Abstraction), among many other events and programmes.

In 2016 we continued our unconventional travelling artist residency (in partnership with Burrard Arts Foundation and the Contemporary Art Gallery), Twenty-Three Days at Sea. Our second Call for Submissions brought in a whopping 1001 proposals from artists around the world. Our next resident artists, Michael Drebert, Lili Huston-Herterich, and Sikarnt Skoolisariyaporn, sail across the Pacific through the spring and early summer of 2017. We look very forward to our upcoming exhibitions in 2017: Tongues, Echoes: Matias Armendaris, Hyang Cho, Olivia Whetung, curated by Areum Kim, continues through until January 21, 2017. Following that we look forward to a group exhibition featuring the work of Megan Hepburn, M.E. Sparks, Carolyn Stockbridge, and Joseph Strohan, and later in the spring, a solo exhibition never before exhibited work by Birthe Piontek.

Access’ role is an important one in our community: we exist to create the conditions of emergence, bringing critical visibility to visual artists at the moment when these practitioners need that support most. A great many of our city’s most renowned established artists cut their teeth at Access in the 25 years of its existence. In order to keep this hard-working artist-run centre vibrant and flourishing, we continue to rely on the sustained support from individuals like you. Our recent fundraiser, celebrating Access' 25 years of existence, was a banner success, and we once again thank you for your generous spirit and support at this event and in all its forms.

I know many of us are happy to see the back of 2016, but I'm invigorated by all of the many small things we made possible this year. And here's to 2017!

Warmly,
Kimberly Phillips
Director/Curator
(and the entire Access team)