Vancouver Park Board Names Artists for 2015 Fieldhouse Studio Program

Publik Secrets workshop (via City of Vancouver website)

More than 30 Vancouver artists, musicians, and performers have been selected for multi-year residencies in nine former park caretaker cottages throughout the city.

Aimed at bringing art into everyday life, the residencies are part of the Park Board’s Fieldhouse Studio Program. Artists receive studio space in exchange for offering community workshops, performances, events, and/or collaborative art-making experiences.

The 2015 residencies are:

“Mr. Fire-Man,” artist David Gowman, invites the community to explore the craft of building musical instruments (Maclean Park);

Media artists from Iris Film Collective create, screen and exhibit film-based works, aiming to increase the visibility and accessibility of experimental media arts (Falaise Park);

Vancouver Society of Storytelling has a strong history of community engagement, bringing diverse groups of people together through the ancient art of oral storytelling—from folktales and fables to personal narratives (Slocan Park);

Led by George Rahi and Robyn Jacob, Publik Secrets is a team of musicians, fabricators, and visual artists. They re-imagine public spaces as participatory gathering places, sparking wonder and play through multi-disciplinary, community-driven arts projects and events (Hadden Park); 

The Vancouver B Movie Factory, headed by film producer Jimi Stewart, works to co-create imaginative social encounters that foster participation in film and television arts (Moberly Park);

chART: Public Art Marpole is a long-term research partnership between the Marpole community and Cameron Cartiere of Emily Carr University of Art + Design. chART supports public art and community engagement through creativity and innovation (Oak Park Fieldhouse). 

The Pandora, Burrard View and the Second Beach studios will be shared spaces with the Vancouver Biennale international artist residencies:

Dance Troupe Practice is a movement-based performance collective combining dance, voice, video, and installation. Committed to celebrating the moving body and creative collaboration, the troupe explores connections between dance and everyday life in unexpected places; 

Lexie Owen looks at how insights form when different systems of understanding collide. From back alley walking tours with botanists to community embroidery circles, she investigates by making objects, forming societies and intervening in public space; 

Instant Coffee is a Vancouver/Toronto-based, service-oriented collective of artists, curators and designers. The group’s installations, slogans and branding campaigns invite social gathering and exchange through events, workshops and informal gatherings.

Artists are selected through an open call process every three years. Additional studio spaces are filled as they become available. The 2015 artists move into the fieldhouses in mid-February.

For more about the Fieldhouse Studio Program, click here.