Vancouver Outsider Arts Festival 2024: Opening Event

Join us to celebrate the opening of the 8th Annual Vancouver Outsider Arts Festival—an event that's free and open to the community, inviting everyone to come together and celebrate this year's exceptional artists!

Attendees will be able to have a sneak-peek of over 400 artworks on display in the exhibition hall, before moving into the theatre for talks, and performances by Terreane Derrick and M'Girl Music. The evening will be welcomed by Tsitsayxemaat aka Rebecca Duncan and hosted by Laura Fukumoto. 

The grand opening event is not just a celebration; it's an invitation to step outside the confines of convention and embrace the unfiltered beauty of artistic diversity. Join us for a night where art knows no limits, and imagination takes center stage. We can't wait to gather with you and celebrate this year's remarkable artists!

 

ELDER - Tsitsayxemaat aka Rebecca Duncan

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Rebecca Duncan is from the Squamish and Musqueam First Nations of the Coast Salish Peoples. Rebecca has devoted her life to preserve the Squamish Language along with her Cultural teachings that have been handed down to her from her late Papa and his Papa and so on and so on since the beginning of time.

Rebecca is a remarkable storyteller, weaver, traditional cook, language teacher, singer & dancer.

No matter where you are from, it is so important to know your history, your ties to the land, and your culture.

Welcome to unceded Coast Salish Territory, Our history is your history!!!

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HOST - Laura Fukumoto 

Laura Fukumoto (she/her) is a poet, theatre artist, person about town. She settled in so-called Vancouver 15 years ago (?!) from the Toronto area, and is committed to loving this city and all her neighbours. Laura gets paid to talk a lot, and you may have heard her hosting the annual Powell Street Festival’s annual Sumo Wrestling tournament, facilitating panels, or loudly talking about her other odd jobs (TA, fabric wizard, governance coordinator, potter, director, organizer of a one-time-only Spiritual Pizza Festival, dog-walker, costumer, etc). Recent poetry events include Main St. Car Free Day, Queer Arts Festival, Rehearsal Sessions at the Evergreen Cultural Centre, Powell Street Festival, Vines, and Verses Festival of Words. Laura writes about queerness+mycology, her Japanese Canadian heritage, and our hopeful futures.

FEATURE PERFORMER - Terreane Derrick

Terreane Derrick is a community-minded creative. She sees the arts as an intricate part of sharing moments. Her art practice is life-driven expressions with capturing presence, breathing art into being, regardless of the situation. Terreane expresses herself by putting pen to the paper page through film, poetry, sketching, writing, storytelling, or simply for the enjoyment of it. Terreane currently lives and creates on the unceded Coast Salish territories. Her motivation is threaded through her upbringing and community engagement with disability in the arts, indigenous arts and culture, and self-governance as a literal way of being.

FEATURE PERFORMER - M'Girl Music

M’Girl is an ensemble of Indigenous women with stories and songs on the gifts received from Mother Earth. Though officially performing together since 2004, their personal musical histories span throughout each of their lives. Their hand drum songs blend harmonies into a contemporary style that reflects both their expertise of voice and their personal story of home. The message in the music is an emergence of cultural worldviews from the perspectives of their Metis Anishnaabe (A-nish-naw-bay) Saulteaux (sow-toe) and Mohawk backgrounds.