Art at Work invites artists to explore regional opportunities in Metro Vancouver

Art at Work: Exploring Regional Public Art Programs will invite local creatives to explore artist opportunities in Metro Vancouver on March 7 from 10:30 am to noon at the Richmond Cultural Centre.

The presenters from each municipality include the City of Port Moody Community Arts Coordinator Sara Graham, City of Coquitlam Cultural Services Manager Hilary Letwin, City of Surrey Public Art Planner Cris Mora, and Biliana Velkova, who is a public art planner for the City of Richmond.

Velkova says Art at Work is a professional development program the City of Richmond has been offering for emerging and established artists, professionals, and the general public.  

“The program is geared towards artists who want to learn about different aspects for their art career,” Velkova says, adding that it offers workshops on taxes, creating artist budgets, reviewing portfolios, and putting together applications for a gallery show or other public art opportunities.

The workshops are free, Velkova says, and there are two to four of them as part of the program.

She says feedback from artists who attended workshops in Richmond in recent years included suggestions to explore art opportunities within the region.

“We started it last year, and I invited a few colleagues from other cities who talked about their public art programs. It was a really good opportunity to hear all the different programs that are available within different cities in Metro Vancouver,” Velkova says.

Working with artists through the program encourages more Richmond-based artists to apply for opportunities, she says.

“We have a specific roster for Richmond-based artists called the Urban Infrastructure Art Program Artist Roster, as well as No. 3 Road Art Columns, which is an exhibition of temporary public art that we change every six months along the Canada Line guideway at the Aberdeen and Lansdowne stations,” Velkova says. 

Mora says that the upcoming workshop will help get a general understanding of the program and what types of skill sets artists need to participate, among others.

“Generally, in public art, we are commissioning artists to create new works,” Mora says. “So that could be smaller commissions like utility-box wraps, medium-sized commissions like murals, or larger commissions like large-scale sculpture.”

He adds the talk will also cover how the cities find artists, what the process is like, and the different kinds of commissions they might see.

Velkova says public art programs allow local artists to enrich their cities with their artwork.

“The city is evolving, the culture is evolving, and having artists participate is very important for a city,” she says. “So we always encourage artists to get involved. Artists are great in telling the story of the city and connecting with the community.”

Velkova hopes artists will get familiar with not only Richmond’s art programs, but meet the representatives from Surrey, Coquitlam, and Port Moody and listen about their respective art opportunities.

For more information, visit www.bit.ly/4tOhTno.