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PAARC Membership Appoints New Board Officers

For Immediate Release September 25, 2020   On July 27, 2020 the Pacific Association of Artist-Run Centres (PAARC) membership gathered via video conference for their Annual General Meeting. Members received a report on the activities…

For Immediate Release

September 25, 2020

 

On July 27, 2020 the Pacific Association of Artist-Run Centres (PAARC) membership gathered via video conference for their Annual General Meeting. Members received a report on the activities of the 2019-20 fiscal year, which included the initiation of the organization’s first Strategic Planning, followed by the presentation of the Financial Statements. Furthermore, members agreed to the appointment of Zandi Dandizette c/o The James Black Gallery as President, Katrina Orlowski c/o grunt gallery as Vice-President, Laurie White c/o Or Gallery as Treasurer, Julia Prudhomme c/o Oxygen Art Centre as Secretary, Casey Wei c/o VIVO Media Arts Centre as Membership Secretary, and Manuel Axel Strain c/o Gallery Gachet as ARCA Representative. The new appointments represent a significant shift in the organizational succession. PAARC wishes to extend a special thanks to outgoing Board officers who left the Society with an expanded and engaged membership base, and who will continue to actively participate in regular meetings. PAARC thanks all members for their ongoing support and  participation and welcomes the new officer appointees.

The Pacific Association of Artist-Run Centres (PAARC) is a non-profit organization that represents the collective interests and development of Artist-governed organizations based on the Unceded Indigenous territories known as British Columbia through advocacy initiatives, actions of solidarity, mutual accountability and resource-sharing.

PAARC’s Board of Directors (2020-21) include: Manuel Axel Strain, Brit Bachmann, Katie Belcher, Bopha Chhay, Zandi Dandizette, Doug Jarvis, Brian McBay, Katrina Orlowski, Julia Prudhomme, Casey Wei, and Laurie White.

President c/o The James Black Gallery

Zandi Dandizette is a nonbinary new media installation artist and cultural worker on the unceded territories of the  xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish) and səlilwətaɬ/selilwitulh (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations. They graduated from Emily Carr University with a Bachelor of Media Arts (2014). Zandi is the Founder and Director of the James Black Gallery (2014) as well as a founding member of VALUCO-OP and Arts and Cultural Workers Union (2019). Zandi previously was the membership coordinator for CARFAC, BC (2018), national AGM coordinator of CARFAC National (2019), and executive secretary on the board of VIVO Media Arts Centre (2018 – 2020). 

Vice-President c/o grunt gallery

Katrina Orlowski is a writer in various forms, an occasional video artist, and a cultural worker who has spent 15 years steeped in the media arts communities and artist-run cultures of Vancouver and Toronto. She holds a Masters in Communication & Culture from York University and is particularly dedicated to community engaged practices and exploring labour in the arts. Katrina is a settler on the unceded territories of the  xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish) and səlilwətaɬ/selilwitulh (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations and works at grunt gallery.

Treasurer c/o Or Gallery
Laurie White is a curator and writer based in Vancouver on unceded Musqueam, Squamish and Tslei-Waututh territories. Her research considers forms of ecological practice in contemporary art. Most recently she curated pi’tawkewaq | our people up river, a solo exhibition by Meagan Musseau, for grunt gallery, Vancouver. Her writing appears in the catalogue Beginning with the Seventies (Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery) and she co-edited the catalogue Beau Dick: Devoured by Consumerism (Figure 1 Publishing) for Fazakas Gallery. Laurie holds an MA in Critical and Curatorial Studies from the University of British Columbia. She is currently Program Coordinator at the Or Gallery.

Secretary c/o Oxygen Art Centre

Julia Prudhomme is a curator and an artist who lives and works on the unceded traditional territory of the sn̓ʕay̓ckstx, Sinixt Arrow Lakes, and the Yaqan Nukij Lower Kootenay Band peoples. She holds an MFA in Interdisciplinary Studies from the University of British Columbia and is currently a PhD candidate at McMaster University (2017-present). Julia has contributed to small town art galleries and artist-run centres in numerous capacities for over ten years and continues this work as Executive Director at Oxygen Art Centre in Nelson, BC (2019-present).

Membership Secretary  c/o VIVO Media Arts Centre

Casey Wei is an interdisciplinary artist and arts-worker based in the area known as Vancouver, on unceded Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh territories. Currently she is Video Out Distribution at VIVO Media Arts Centre, Co-founder and Editor at ReIssue.pub, and at Stills: Moving Image Tract, and Founder and Executive Director of Artworld. Her label Agony Klub releases projects under the framework of the #popularesoteric.

ARCA Representative c/o Gallery Gachet

Manuel Axel Strain is a 2-spirit interdisciplinary artist with Musqueam/Simpcw/Syilx origins, based in the occupied territory of the Katzie/Kwantlen peoples. Although they have attended Emily Carr University of Art + Design they are more appreciative of the knowledge they have gained from their mother, father, siblings, cousins, aunts, uncles, nieces, nephews, grandparents, and ancestors. Strain uses their lived experience as a source of agency to investigate different ways of healing and knowing. Invested with personal and political histories, their practice includes painting, photography, sculpture, performance, and installation, through which mental and spiritual well-being take paramount significance. They have contributed work to the Capture Photography Festival through Richmond Public Art, the Vancouver International Airport, and The Musqueam Cultural Centre, and have exhibited work in many places in the land that is now called Canada. They are a guest lecturer at the Vancouver Community College, where they curated the Indigenous Art Symposium “Indigenizing Higher Education.” Some of their most meaningful curatorial and community projects include “My Blood Can’t Feel the Land” with Gallery Gachet and The Talking Stick Festival, “Resistance and Resurgence,” a 2-Spirit exhibition at Interurban Art Gallery, “Destigmatization and Harm Reduction” at the Musqueam Cultural Pavilion, “Transcendence” at the Rising Sun Gallery, “The Land Can’t Hear Your Voices,” created during a residency as the Maple Ridge Artist in Residence, as well as open studio events at Lookout Housing and the Phoenix Society.

 

Media Contact

Zandi Dandizette, President, PAARC, 778-835-9819 or info@paarc.ca 

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