Vancouver International Centre for Contemporary Asian Art

Art + Feminism Wikipedia Edit-a-thon 2023: Wikipedia Edit-a-thon

Art + Feminism Wikipedia Edit-a-thon 2023: Wikipedia Edit-a-thon

Saturday, March 18, 2023

1 – 5 PM PST

Register HERE.

The last event of our Art + Feminism Wikipedia Edit-a-thon 2023, is the Wikipedia Edit-a-thon! We are wrapping up the three-part event with a Wikipedia workshop, where we will edit articles for women, 2SLGBTQI+, gender non-binary, people of color, Black and Indigenous artists, curators, and organizations, as well as Feminist and activist art movements. 

In solidarity with the women and girls of Iran who continue to courageously protest for their fundamental human rights, Centre A will place an emphasis on creating new pages and updating existing pages on Iranian artists. 

In the meantime, feel free to sign-up and join our Wikipedia Dashboard. You’re welcome to get started anytime throughout March to edit and add articles, prior to and after the event. 

Refreshment and childcare will be provided (please email [email protected] before March 11, 2023)

Please bring your own electronic device!


Accessibility: The gallery is wheelchair and walker accessible. If you have specific accessibility needs, please contact us at (604) 683-8326 or [email protected]

Centre A is situated on the unceded territories of the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh peoples. We honour, respect, and give thanks to our hosts.

Art + Feminism Wikipedia Edit-a-thon 2023: TFW No Institutional Access: Independent Research Workshop

Art + Feminism Wikipedia Edit-a-thon 2023: TFW No Institutional Access: Independent Research Workshop

Saturday, March 11, 2023

1 – 2:30 PM PST

Register HERE.

In a world of paywalled articles and inaccessible academia, research without institutional means is often difficult and laborious. 

In this workshop, Centre A’s Library Assistant Coco Zhou will share tips and tricks for accessing books and journals for independent scholars in the humanities and social sciences. Join us to learn about community archives, shadow libraries, open repositories, and more. Special attention will be given to reading materials related to liberation struggles in Iran and broadly, the MENA region. 

Participants will be equipped with a multitude of resources and can expect to leave with a better understanding of how independent research can also be politicized.


Accessibility: The gallery is wheelchair and walker accessible. If you have specific accessibility needs, please contact us at (604) 683-8326 or [email protected]

Centre A is situated on the unceded territories of the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh peoples. We honour, respect, and give thanks to our hosts.

Art + Feminism Wikipedia Edit-a-thon 2023: A Collective Investigation

Art + Feminism Wikipedia Edit-a-thon 2023: A Collective Investigation

Saturday, March 4, 2023

1 – 3 PM PST

Register HERE.

We are starting this year with another Collective Investigation, inviting you to examine the contents of Centre A’s reading room while taking part in a literary game. Participants are encouraged to bring a personal question, or be guided by our list of research questions on Iranian artists. This is a chance to have thoughtful conversations, share with each other our learning and interests, and get familiar with Centre A’s library collection. 

Originally designed by American artist Matthew Bakkom, Collective Investigation is a method for mapping an archive through a relational process. As participants explore Centre A’s library, they will be given numbered index markers to place beside a page from a book that offers insight into their question. The books are then lined up in the order of the index markers they contain. As their markers emerge from the pile, each participant will present their findings, taking turns to construct a narrative – similar to a game of exquisite corpse. Discussion may ensue as relevant or recurring themes and patterns surface with each presentation. Prepare to have fun and be surprised!

IMPORTANT NOTE REGARDING THE EVENT:

Due to Sun Wah Centre’s security measures, please locate the security guard posted at the front gate to be let into the building. Otherwise, please call Centre A at (604) 683-8326 during the event hours.


Accessibility: The gallery is wheelchair and walker accessible. If you have specific accessibility needs, please contact us at (604) 683-8326 or [email protected]

Centre A is situated on the unceded territories of the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh peoples. We honour, respect, and give thanks to our hosts.

Centre A Speaker Series 2022 EXTENDED: Sunil Gupta and Tom Hsu

Centre A Speaker Series 2022 EXTENDED: Sunil Gupta and Tom Hsu

Thursday, December 1, 2022

11 am – 1 pm PST

We have extended our Speaker Series 2022 and will wrap up this year with a virtual discussion that examines the intersection between photographic practices and racialized queer identities in the Western context. This talk will be moderated by Tom Hsu and Henry Heng Lu.

Register for the talk HERE.

Find out more about the Centre A Speaker Series 2022 HERE.

Sunil Gupta is a British/Canadian citizen, (b. New Delhi, 1953) MA (RCA) Ph.D. (Westminster) who lives in London and has been involved with independent photography as a critical practice for many years focusing on race, migration, and queer issues. A retrospective was shown at The Photographers’ Gallery, London (2020/21) and  The Image Centre, Toronto. He is a Professorial Fellow at UCA, Farnham. His latest book is “We Were Here: Sexuality, Photography, and Cultural Difference, Selected Writings by Sunil Gupta”, Aperture New York 2022 and his current exhibitions include; “Sunil Gupta: Songs of Deliverance, Part I and Part II” at the Hammersmith Hospital, London. His work is in many private and public collections, including; the Tokyo Museum of Photography, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Royal Ontario Museum, Tate and the Museum of Modern Art. His work is represented by Hales Gallery (New York, London), Materià Gallery (Rome), Stephen Bulger Gallery (Toronto) and Vadehra Art Gallery (New Delhi).

 

Tom Hsu is an artist currently residing and working in unceded Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh territories (also known as Vancouver). His practice focuses on the observation of spaces and how bodies exist in them. Using a 35mm camera, Hsu approaches his subjects from odd angles, cropping out the larger scene to focus on specific forms conveying a gentle intimacy. His camera finds everyday, mundane moments and interactions that are often overlooked and gives them a poetic and expressive. His work has been exhibited at numerous galleries, including the Libby Leshgold Gallery, Centre A, Macaulay & Co. Fine Art, Burrard Arts Foundation, YACTAC, UNIT/PITT (Vancouver); and Gallery TPW (Toronto). 

Credits: Photo of Sunil Gupta by © Charan Singh; Photo of Tom Hsu by © Alk

Centre A would like to acknowledge the generous support of the Canada Council for the Arts and the BC Arts Council for supporting the Centre A Speaker Series.


Accessibility: The gallery is wheelchair and walker accessible. If you have specific accessibility needs, please contact us at (604) 683-8326 or [email protected]

Centre A is situated on the unceded territories of the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh peoples. We honour, respect, and give thanks to our hosts.

Panel Discussion: What Water Teaches

Panel Discussion: What Water Teaches

Saturday, November 12, 2022 

1 – 3 pm PST 

Register HERE.

Centre A is pleased to present a panel discussion, What Water Teaches, encompassing water’s health, agency, and role in intergenerational dialogues in relation to Indigenous epistemologies and community building as part of the ongoing work towards climate justice through decolonization. The conversation will be held between Kayah George ‘Halth Leah’, Audrey Siegl, and Rita Wong. The online program is presented in conjunction with Centre A’s current exhibition, Ed Pien: Tracing Water.

Kayah George ‘Halth-Leah’ (she/they) carries the teachings of her Tulalip and Tsleil-Waututh Nations and has been on the front lines fighting against the Trans Mountain pipeline for more than half of her life. She is a young Indigenous environmental leader, activist, and filmmaker. Kayah has spoken globally about climate justice and shared the teachings of her nations to honor and care for the earth. She has worked with several environmental organizations, including Indigenous Climate Action (an Indigenous-led organization guided by a diverse group of Indigenous knowledge keepers, water protectors, and land defenders), to build capacity for an Indigenous-led divestment movement. Kayah is currently working on a short film that shares the intrinsic connection the Tsleil-Waututh people have to the ‘Burrard’ Inlet.

Audrey Siegl works with teachings and medicines passed on to her from her Musqueam family and ancestors. Lots of this medicine comes from the healing work she was blessed to witness and was shared with her by the Old Timers who raised her. The connections that they made, the ways they loved, cared & made a place for her in this world are why and how she does what she does. She has worked extensively with teachings and medicines across Turtle Island and is rooted in West Coast and Musqueam medicines. She is proud and honoured to carry on the work of her grandparents and ancestors.

Rita Wong is a poet-scholar who attends to the relationships between water justice, ecology, and decolonization. She has co-edited an anthology with Dorothy Christian entitled Downstream: Reimagining Water, based on a gathering that brought together elders, artists, scientists, writers, scholars, students and activists around the urgent need to care for the waters that give us life. A recipient of the Dorothy Livesay Poetry Prize and the Asian Canadian Writers’ Workshop Emerging Writer Award, Wong is the author of current, climate (Wilfrid Laurier UP 2021), beholden (Talonbooks, 2018, with Fred Wah), undercurrent (Nightwood, 2015), perpetual (Nightwood, 2015, with Cindy Mochizuki), sybil unrest (Line Books, 2008, with Larissa Lai), forage (Nightwood, short-listed for the 2008 Asian American Literary Award for Poetry, winner of Canada Reads Poetry 2011), and monkeypuzzle (Press Gang, 1998).

Wong works to support Indigenous communities’ efforts towards justice and health for water, having witnessed such work at the Peace River, the Wedzin Kwa, Ada’itsx/Fairy Creek, the Columbia River, the Fraser River, the Salish Sea, and the Arctic Ocean watershed. She understands that when these waterways are healthy, life will be healthy too, and that we cannot afford to endanger and pollute the waters that sustain our lives.


Accessibility: The gallery is wheelchair and walker accessible. If you have specific accessibility needs, please contact us at (604) 683-8326 or [email protected]

Centre A is situated on the unceded territories of the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh peoples. We honour, respect, and give thanks to our hosts.

Centre A Presents: A Collective Investigation

Centre A Presents: A Collective Investigation

Saturday, October 29, 2022 

1 – 3 pm PDT 

Register HERE.

Presented as part of Art Book Month with the Vancouver Art Book Fair, A Collective Investigation invites participants to explore the contents of Centre A’s Reading Room, home to a sizeable collection of artist books, exhibit catalogues, and monographs related to Asian and diasporic Asian art. Participants are encouraged to prepare a research or personal question in advance. As they examine the library’s contents, they will be given numbered index markers to place beside a page from a book that offers insight into their question. The books are then lined up in the order of the index markers they contain. As their markers emerge from the pile, each participant will present their findings, taking turns to construct a narrative – similar to a game of exquisite corpse. Conversation may ensue as relevant or recurring themes and patterns surface with each presentation.

This activity allows participants to establish personal connections to the archive while learning about each others’ interests, potentially forming new relationships. Following the workshop, Centre A staff will scan the selected pages to compile into a PDF that serves as a record of the event and a map of the intersections between a specific audience’s attention and the library’s contents. Participants will receive a copy of this PDF as a memento.

Join us!


This event is being held as part of Art Book Month organized by Vancouver Art Book Fair. Art Book Month consists of community organized events supported by VABF and hosted in Vancouver, online and worldwide by artists, curators, collectives and institutions who are actively creating and presenting work in this medium.

Accessibility: The gallery is wheelchair and walker accessible. If you have specific accessibility needs, please contact us at (604) 683-8326 or [email protected]

Centre A is situated on the unceded territories of the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh peoples. We honour, respect, and give thanks to our hosts.

CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS – TROPICAL CAFE: 2022 CENTRE A HOLIDAY ART MARKET

 

CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS

Tropical Cafe: 2022 Centre A Holiday Art Market

Application Deadline: November 6, 2022

It’s that time of the year again! Centre A is bringing back its thematic Holiday Art Market after last year’s inaugural edition.

With a cold winter approaching after a warm fall, you won’t have to get on a plane to change your scenery! Come enjoy the sun and tropical vibes at Centre A and shop art for the holiday season!

This year’s theme is Tropical Cafe, and we will be transforming the gallery into a cafe-like space that will be furnished with artworks submitted to us by local and regional artists. The Tropical Cafe is not only a gathering place, but also a site for exchange, ignition, and clashes of ideas and ideals.

Artists are encouraged to submit works that explore (or not) the concepts of tourism, labour, commercialized exoticism, and the way it is associated with rest, leisure, and luxury.

The selected artworks will be featured and on display at Centre A (Unit 205, 268 Keefer Street, Vancouver, BC V6A 1X5) for silent auction from November 26 to December 17, 2022.

Submission is free, and will be juried by the Centre A curatorial team. Works of all mediums and scales are welcome.

 An opening party will be held on Saturday, November 26, 2022. Mark your calendars!

Go HERE to complete our online submission form.

Selection process:

– All selected artworks must be ready to be dropped off at Centre A for installation by Saturday, November 19, 2022.

– Accepted artists will receive a complimentary Centre A membership for a year.

– Accepted artworks will be bid on in the gallery during the exhibition period.

– Accepted artworks must be priced between 20 and 500 Canadian Dollars.

– Accepted artists will receive 60% of the selling price of their artwork(s) sold during the exhibition. The remaining amount will go towards supporting Centre A.

— The selling price is determined by a silent auction, while the Artist determines the starting bid. The artwork will not be sold lower than the starting bid.


Get in touch with us at [email protected] if you need assistance with your submission.