Vines is an arts organization that is responsive to and nurturing of artists that are working toward land, water, and relational justice. We support marginalized artists in developing their work, host an annual festival and year-round events. Vines brings imagination into everyday spaces by presenting work for free in populated public spaces in Vancouver and throughout the province. We advocate for artists' well-being and center anti-oppressive community care without bureaucracy.
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Art is created in relation to the place and land it is presented on. It has a transformative power to change and heal the way we are together.
Vines Art Festival was initiated by Artistic Director, Heather Lamoureux in 2015. It is an annual event on the unceded territories of the Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), Səl ̓ílwətaʔ/Selilwitulh (Tsleil-Waututh) and xwməθkwəy̓ əm (Musqueam) Nations (Vancouver, BC). The festival has been rapidly growing in size and completed its eighth edition in 2022. Audiences and local artists have raved about the festival. One festival-goer called it a “rewarding and rejuvenating experience that connected [them] deeper to the park and local community.” A truly grassroots initiative, our budget has grown from $4,000 to $600,000 and received support from the Canada Council, BC Arts Council, City of Vancouver, Canadian Heritage, BC Gaming, Vancouver Foundation, Vancity Bank, and individual donors. The funding we receive allows us to hire more artists, host more events over a longer period of time in a variety of locations, and thereby reach larger, more diverse audiences. In 2022, Vines hosted a 10-day festival in eight parks, presenting over 60 performances involving over 100 individual artists with more than 4,000 attendees. The effectiveness of Vines in uplifting and supporting artists' strengths within the community and providing relevant and sustainable programming is attributed to the values, lived experience and talents of the Vines staff team. Our team has grown gradually over the past eight years from one volunteer staff member to one full-time and four part-time staff members with seasonal contract staff. In addition to staff, we work closely with many community partners and individual artists to inform our programming. Our programs include Rooted Relations (mentorship for grassroots Indigenous artists) and Heirloom Exchange (co-presentation support for emerging artists). We have recently begun touring and presenting additional showcases throughout BC with these programs. Additionally, in 2020 we began researching and developing an Arts Service portion of our work Ecosystems: Strengthening Artist Relations. This includes artist care, advocacy and repair and wise practices. A multi-pronged approach to do what we are able to heal our sector and create space for art that respects the artist's humanity.
Our annual Gratitude Report summarizes and highlights our past season's programming, events, festival and statistics; it is also our way of saying thank you to all of the artists and communities we are so grateful to work with year-round.
Click the image to download a PDF of our Gratitude Report.