Keynote Speaker - Art in the Social Sphere:

 

Rick Lowe is an artist who resides in Houston, Texas. His formal training is in the visual arts. Over the past twenty years he has worked both inside and outside of art world institutions by participating in exhibitions, and developing community based art projects. In 1993, Rick founded Project Row Houses, an arts and cultural community located in a historically significant and culturally charged neighborhood in Houston, Texas. In 1997, Rick and Project Row Houses were awarded a silver medal by the Rudy Bruner Awards in Urban Excellence.

 

Keynote Speaker – Artists + Community Symposium

 

Zacharias Kunuk won the Camera d’Or at Cannes 2001 for Isuma’s first feature, Atanarjuat The Fast Runner. He is president and co-founder in 1990 of Igloolik Isuma Productions, Canada’s first Inuit-owned independent production company. In 1981, Kunuk sold three sculptures in Montreal and brought home the Arctic’s first home video camera. Having completed the documentary Kiviaq versus Canada, Kunuk is shooting his latest documentary Exile. Kunuk is the winner of the National Arts Award, National Aboriginal Achievement Award and in 2005 was awarded the Order of Canada.

 

Artists + Community: ‘Un/Defining the Practice’

 

Leah Decter is Winnipeg based inter-media artist whose work integrates video and other digital media, textiles, performance and dialogic/social practice. She has exhibited widely in Canada and internationally in the US, UK, The Netherlands, Germany and Malta. Her work has been supported through numerous awards and is held in the collection of the Winnipeg Art Gallery as well as private collections in Canada, US and UK. Decter's social practice has included large-scale collaborative public art and intervention projects in Vancouver, Toronto and Winnipeg. She holds an MFA in New Media from Berlin-based Transart Institute.

 

Artists + Community: Stories + Best Practices Panelist

 

Columpa Bobb is the great granddaughter of Chief Dan George who was chief of the Tsleil -Waututh Nation. She has been active in many different art disciplines including acting, photography and writing poetry and plays. Bobb began attending theatre school at 16, and has been fully immersed in the arts ever since. She has been nominated for the Dora Mavor Moore Award and the James Buller Award. In 1997 she won a Jessie Richardson Theatre Award for Outstanding Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role for her work in Firehall Theatre's production of Drew Hayden Taylor's Only Drunks

and Children Tell the Truth.

 

Artists + Community: Stories + Best Practices Panelist

 

Jana McKee has been involved in Community Development (CD) and Education for the past 10 years, both in a paid and voluntary capacity, as a facilitator and as a participant. The last five years Jana has been practicing Community Development within the education system in Winnipeg, Manitoba. She is currently completing a thesis exploring the collaborative relationship between Community Development and Education.

 

Artists + Community: Stories + Best Practices Panelist

 

In 2006 Jeff Nachtigall developed an Open Studio model for healthcare. The Open Studio is based on the philosophy that we are all born artists and that art is our first language. This visual language transcends barriers and has the ability to bring people with diverse backgrounds together, and act as a vehicle for change, healing and hope.