The John Howard Society of the Lower Mainland (JHSLM) and the Community Arts Council of Vancouver (CACV) are excited to announce our Inclusive Community Artist In Residence partnership project!
Our organizations have come together to build on our common values – rooted in our shared principles of accountability, diversity, and community – and our commitment to social justice. Our partnership provides a unique opportunity for our organizations to further CACV’s mission of “Creating Community Through the Arts” and JHSLM’s mission of “Strengthening communities by supporting individuals experiencing barriers so they can achieve greater independence”. Through this innovative project, we hope to spark conversations and share the principles of inclusive living through storytelling.
Our artist in residence project provides the opportunity for a resident artist will live in, and contribute to, our Fraser Street apartments building in Vancouver – a community committed to further embracing the notion of strengthening lives through art. The project will allow JHSLM service users, residents, staff and local community members to find new and creative ways to share stories. Through meaningful connection, ongoing dialogue, and workshops that foster an environment of story gathering and story telling, we hope to highlight the importance of relationships in our journey and produce telling and inspirational pieces. This unique one-year project will culminate in an event in March 2019 that shares the contributions of everyone involved – our live-in resident artist, service users, stakeholders, and other community members.
We are excited to introduce Lindsay Wong as our live-in resident artist. Lindsay holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Creative Writing from UBC, and a Masters of Fine Arts in Literary Nonfiction from Columbia University. She has been the recipient of many awards and fellowships, and her fiction and nonfiction has been featured in No Tokens, The Fiddlehead, Ricepaper Magazine, and the Apogee Journal. Lindsay is about to release her first book, The Woo-Woo, a witty and touching memoir which tells her story of growing up in an Asian immigrant family. In her residency Lindsay will organize classes, facilitate workshops, host gatherings, offer coaching, reflect through blog posts, and advance her own creative practice as a writer.
We want to tell our story, and the stories that exist within our community. We want to share our experiences in a unique and accessible way. Together the JHSLM and CACV are excited to co-design this process with Lindsay, and begin to invite participation in a way that promotes the values of inclusion throughout the community.
