By Julia Pauselius, Event Production and Curatorial Projects Supervisor
The AGGV’s 2021 Celebration of Art wrapped successfully this July, thanks to the enthusiasm of the artists and the support from many members of our wonderful community here on Vancouver Island. 183 artists participated in this year’s program, and their contact information can be found on our Artist Guide microsite: https://td-artistguide-aggv.ca/, as well as in the print version of the TD Artist Guide which is available at the AGGV!
While we planned to celebrate both the artists that would usually be on Moss Street at the Paint-In, as well as the programming offered by the AGGV, we also had the great opportunity to join forces with creative community groups in the CRD. Thanks to our sponsor, the City of Victoria, we were able to highlight local artist-run centres and share their programming with the public.
For this series of short video clips, the AGGV visited local artist-run centres to film brief trailers that highlighted the work that each organization is doing in the local arts community. The AGGV was able to film content for many of the artist-run organizations in the CRD, including: Xchanges Gallery, The Fifty Fifty Arts Collective, The Ministry of Casual Living, errant artSpace, PRINT, and arc.hive artist-run centre.
These video clips featured tours of the different artist-run spaces and galleries, interviews with artists that are part of these organizations, and even one virtual Imagination Station in which Elena Hoh guided us through an activity that audiences were encouraged to do at home.
Celebrating Local Arts – The Fifty Fifty
In addition, we were also pleased to share a short video produced by staff at the Garth Homer Society Artworks program that featured some of the artists in the program:
Celebrating Local Arts – The Garth Homer Society
The playlist featuring all the participating artist-run centres can be found on the AGGV’s YouTube channel.
In addition to the creativity we were able to support in public, we also were able to reconnect to other community members due to the incredible support we received from this year’s program sponsors. With the help from our sponsor Opus Art Supplies, we were able to donate art supplies to both Our Place Society, and our friends at the Victoria Cool Aid Society, and stay connected to the artists we would usually have us join on Moss Street every year.
This year’s Celebration of Art would not be possible without the support of our new and recurring sponsors, as well as the wonderful community that makes up Victoria. Many thanks to our incredible sponsor TD Bank Group, as well as our local sponsors Lighthouse Brewing Company, Bosley’s On Yates, Duttons Property Management, Prestige Picture Framing, She’s Got Balls Decor, The Makehouse, Shampoo Hair Bar, as well as the City of Victoria. It would not have been possible without you!
