Queer Arts Festival

QAF welcomes new staff
The festival staff is growing! We have recently welcomed Meagan Thomas into the role of Administrative Assistant, and Kathy Atkins as our Volunteer Coordinator. Meagan is the Arts Director of CiTR radio, and a long time supporter of the arts. We are happy to have her on board!

Kathy is a former PiA Board Member and has been a featured visual artist at the festival as well. Her dedication to the festival now gets to shine as she corrals all of our enthusiastic volunteers. That’syou, right? Come on, you know you wanna! Email Kathy at volunteer@queerartsfestival.com
 George Stamos and Liklik Pik
For this month’s featured festival performer, we would like to introduce you to contemporary dancer and choreographer George Stamos. Coming from Montreal, George will be bringing his provocative duo piece, Liklik Pik, to QAF 2013.

Photo by Johnny Ranger
Liklik Pik is an intimate male dance duet emphasizing empowerment of the human body while following imaginative impulses and queer tangents along the way. George Stamos and his dance partner Dany Desjardins explore the animal urges in men, combining references to children’s stories, pets, lounge lizards, and gay “pig-boy” culture while toying with male sensuality in a body-based somatic score. July 26, 7:30pm, in the Roundhouse Performance Centre.

The following day he is offering a Contemporary Dance Improvisation and Technique workshop. Says George, “The way I teach is designed to develop the critical eye and awareness of methods for creating spontaneous, mindful movement in performance. This includes teaching the student how to auto tune their senses and engage their intellect and body systems. I am committed to providing a workshop environment that is a safe, mature, and queer place to learn skills and strengthen abilities.”July 27, 2-5pm.
 
Queer Public Art
QAF Artistic Director SD Holman’s newest work, BUTCH: Not like the other girls, will have 20 select portraits displayed as public art in transit shelters throughout Vancouver. So be on the lookout for some sexy Butches at a bus shelter near you. If you see one, snap a photo and share with us on Facebook!

A gallery exhibition of BUTCH: Not like the other girls will be shown with different pieces at The Cultch April 9 – 25, 2013, with an Art Party! on April 10, 6 – 8pm. Consider yourself invited!

 Poet Recognized
Canadian poet Rachel Rose‘s latest book, Song and Spectacle, has been shortlisted for the prestigious Audre Lorde Award for Lesbian Poetry, presented by the Publishing Triangle.

Song and Spectacle is the third collection by Rose, whose craft as a lyricist intersects with a deep notion of the world around her. Her words provoke an awareness of one’s self and, at the same time, create a sense of intimacy with the greater world.
Rose is the librettist for Canada’s first lesbian opera, When the Sun Comes Out, premiering at this year’s festival, August 5, 7, and 9.

Baby It’s Cold Outside…
… but things are warming up here at QAF.

Festival dates announced:
July 31 – August 18, 2012

28 weeks to go!
That might feel like a long way off, but soon enough the Queer Arts Festival will be upon us, presenting three incredible weeks of visual art exhibits, theatre, music, dance, and workshops. This year’s theme is ‘Random Acts of Queerness’- commemorating the centenary of experimental queer artist John Cage (1912-1992).

RaNDoM acTS oF QueeRNeSS

“Chance comes in here to give us the unknown.”
– John Cage

What’s in a theme? And who was this John Cage guy? An experimental, multidisciplinary artist, Cage is best known for championing Indeterminacy; a philosophy that opens up artistic practice to include the random as a way of radically breaking with tradition, convention and habit. Cage said,“Indeterminacy in art is made not as an attempt to bring order out of chaos nor to suggest improvements in creation, but simply a way of waking up to the very life we’re living.”

Cage’s multidisciplinary artistic practice, pioneering approach, and openly queer life elegantly exemplify QAF’s mandate and values. For this year’s theme QAF curators encourage artists to explore indeterminate elements in their work, whether it be Indeterminacy of Process, Indeterminacy of form or Indeterminacy of identity; perhaps risking the effects of random juxtaposition. What kinds of systems, symbols or strategies will you harness?

Visual Art Submission Deadlines

Wanna be a featured QAF artist?
Then you need to submit your work! The deadline for the curated art show, working with the theme of ‘Random Acts of Queerness’, is March 1. The deadline for the community art show, in which pieces do not need to be themed, is May 1. (please note the earlier date)
To learn more, and to apply, click HERE.

What is QAF?
Featuring a curated visual art exhibit, community art show, and three exciting weeks of workshops and live performances, the Queer Arts Festival is Vancouver’s multidisciplinary arts festival celebrating queer art and artists.

A taste of what’s to come
Boulez contra Cage dramatizes the friendship and conflict between composers John Cage and Pierre Boulez and Screaming Weenie brings us Turkey in the Woods.
Don’t miss the workshop performance of Canada’s first lesbian opera, When the Sun Comes Out; transgender pioneer Kate Bornstein performing her landmark solo show, On Men, Women, and the Rest of Us; and dancer/ choreographer Noam Gagnon’s astonishing piece, Thank You, You’re Not Welcome.

Save the Date:
The Opening Night Art Party is Tuesday July 31, 2012 at the Roundhouse Community Center.

New girl in the house
QAF welcomes Flora Ware, a Capilano Arts & Entertainment Management Student and currently the society’s Communications Intern for the spring term. A queer artist in her own right, Flora is a Soul/Pop/Jazz singer and Burlesque performer. Check out her website HERE

Queer Arts Festival
celebrating queer art & artists
July 31 – August 18, 2012

Birds do it, bees do it…
February love-letter

Spreadin’ the L.O.V.E.

You know you love us. We know you love us. Make it ‘official’ by attending our AGM in April.
So mark Tuesday April 10 down, because you have a hot date with us.

Exciting festival updates, sizzling financial reports, and getting down to official business! Afterwards there will be eating, drinking, and discussion with your fave queer artists and board members. You know you wanna!

QAF receives commissioning grants for ground-breaking lesbian opera

We are pleased to announce that QAF is the recipient of two commissioning grants from the Canada Council and the BC Arts Council, to create Canada’s first lesbian opera.

When the Sun Comes Out, written by composer Leslie Uyeda and librettist Rachel Rose, is being presented in a workshop performance on Thursday August 2, 2012 at QAF. Starring soprano Teiya Kasahara and baritone Joel Klein, this compelling new chamber opera is being directed by Robert McQueen. The fully-staged performance will premier at QAF 2013.
Deadline reminder:

Artists who wish to submit a proposal to be considered for the Curated Art Exhibit, working with the theme Random Acts of Queerness, must apply before March 1, 2012.

Community Art show deadline is May 1, and works do not need to be theme-related.

Please click HERE for instructions and more information.

Friends with benefits:

Do you want to help the Queer Arts Festival operate like a well-oiled machine? Like getting to see shows for free?

We need volunteers to help before, during and after the festival in varied capacities such as: publicity team, gallery greeters, ushers, delivery drivers, and tear down.

Get more info HERE.

Queer Arts Festival 2013: TransgressionNow
July 24 – August 9

Welcome back! Summer may seem a long ways off, but the Festival team is already in full swing. So mark your calendars, because from July 24 – August 9, another incredibly diverse, cutting-edge, and exciting Queer Arts Festival is coming to Vancouver!

About this year’s theme:
Queer art and politics have always included notions of transgression but in the media age ideas of transgression have changed radically. What we once saw as transgressive is now commonplace when the internet can put any manner of visual and digital material on everyone’s screen in seconds. But the digital age is also embedded in one of the most conservative social environments in many decades creating many dichotomies and contradictions. TransgressionNow looks at where Queer artists still transgress social, gender, and political boundaries and what that looks like now.

QAF is thrilled to announce the curators of this year’s Visual Art Exhibit are Paul Wong and Glenn Alteen.

Paul Wong is a Canadian multimedia artist. An award-winning artist, curator, and organizer of public interventions since the mid-1970s, Wong is known for his engagement with issues of race, sex, and death.

Glenn Alteen is a Vancouver-based curator, writer, and director of the grunt gallery, established in East Vancouver in 1984. We can hardly wait to see the artists and work they bring to the festival.
 Community Partnership profile
We are excited to be partnering with The Cultch and the IGNITE! Youth festival this year in a unique outreach activity involving some of the talented youth. After IGNITE!, select performers will be chosen for a theatre project to develop and stage a show, Fruit Flambé, as part of the Queer Arts Festival.

Auditions for IGNITE! Youth-Driven Arts Festival 
Do you know some teens who love to perform? Or maybe it’s you! Auditions are open for the 2013 IGNITE! Youth-Driven Arts Festival.

With themed shows including a night for music, word, dance, collaborations and Fruit Basket- a variety show about gender, sex and sexuality – the festival is looking for a wide range of artists. Please come by and audition – you name it, we want to see it!The IGNITE! Arts festival takes place from May 6-11 at The Cultch.The deadline to apply is March 1st.
To audition send an email to
auditions@igniteyouthfest.caOpera Magic

Many of you will remember Teiya Kasahara, the beguiling soprano who played the role of Solana in When the Sun Comes Out, the QAF-commissioned lesbian opera written by Leslie Uyeda and Rachel Rose at last year’s festival.She will be returning to play that role in the fully-staged performance of the opera this year, with three performances August 5, 7 and 9!Next month she will be performing the iconic role of Queen of the Night in Vancouver Opera’s upcoming production of The Magic Flute. We are pleased to announce our community partnership with Vancouver Opera this year, and their support of our production of When the Sun Comes Out.

This original production was conceived in 2007 with the guidance of First Peoples’ Cultural Council and an advisory group of First Nations artists. This re-imagining of Mozart’s classic is set in the timeless Coast Salish realm.

Six performances-
March 9 -17.
Buy Us a Coffee?
Like you, we believe passionately in the transformative power of the arts. We ask you to consider making a monthly donation of $10 — for less than the price of a weekly latte, you can make the magic happen.

Every donation of $20 or more annually will receive a charitable donation tax receipt.

The Pride in Art Society’s 2011 Annual General Meeting on April 19 was well-attended by board members, staff, artists and volunteers.

Pride in Art is pleased to welcome Arli Nikkel as our newest board member! Returning board members have stepped up to new roles in the Executive: Joel Klein as president, and Sherri Charters as Vice-President. Andrea Hector is staying on as Secretary/Treasurer.

PiA would like to express special thanks to Jeff Gibson, who stepped down from the board this AGM, after many years of devoted service. Jeff has taken part in Pride in Art since 1998, and been our president since 2006. He will be sorely missed on the board, but we are very happy that he will continue his work with QAF as a curator for the Visual Arts Exhibition.