esrtwork above by Mike Levin

Deadline: Sept 15, 2021

The Housing Central Virtual Art Exhibition will feature a wide variety of work. Themes include community housing, homelessness, mental health, addictions, resilience, co-operation and working together, healing, diversity and inclusion. Participation in the virtual art exhibition is free for selected artists. It will be hosted on the Housing Central Conference website from October 25 – December 31, 2021. You can view last year’s Art Expo here.

Eligibility

• BC-based artists whose work touches on housing-related issues, homelessness, mental health, addictions, dealing with or overcoming stigma, or themes of resilience, co-operation and working together, healing, diversity and/or inclusion
• BC-based organizations that provide arts-related services or programming to people at the margins. This includes people living in non-profit housing or who access social services, elders, people with physical or mental challenges, people struggling with mental health issues or addictions.

Artists may be:

• People with lived experience (e.g. homelessness, mental health and/or addictions, stigma).
• People living in non-profit housing or who access social services.
• Professional artists whose work deals with these themes.

We are actively interested in showcasing the work of Indigenous artists, artists of colour, and artists who find themselves at the margins of society.

How to Participate

Artwork may include any art form that can be shared on-line. This includes—but is not limited to—images of visual art; video documentation of performance art, poetry, dance; and film and animation. Videos to be shared as part of the exhibition should be less than 5 min in length but can link to longer works.

Send the following information to artshow@bcnpha.ca by Sept 15:

• Name and contact information (email, phone, social media, website)
• 4 – 6 high resolution images of artwork, or a link to up to 5 minutes of video
• Corresponding image list with title, dimensions, and optional short description, or list of video works with title, name(s) of artist(s) and collaborators, and optional short description
• A short artist statement explaining how the work relates to the themes of community housing, homelessness, mental health, addictions, resilience, co-operation and working together, healing, diversity and/or inclusion
• A bio of the artist OR A description of the organization and art program to be represented

Directory of Public Art

In addition to the virtual art exhibition, we are compiling a directory of public art in BC communities. The directory will speak to these same themes (housing, homelessness, mental health, addictions, resilience, co-operation and working together, healing, diversity and/or inclusion). Please send links and details of inspiring examples for us to share with conference delegates to artshow@bcnpha.ca. We will be encouraging delegates to take a self-guided regional art tour leading up to the conference.

If you are interested in participating or learning more about this opportunity, please email Robi at artshow@bcnpha.ca.