Participants of the Joining Hands program showcasing their work (Submitted photo/Vernon Community Arts Centre)

By Liam Verster

Call For Artists

Arts Centre seeks artists for Joining Hands ‘Art for All’ initiative

Apr 13, 2022 | 3:15 PM

A program that gives people with disabilities a chance to practice their art is looking for local artists to help lead the programs.

The Vernon Community Arts Centre’s Joining Hands program provides local adults living with mental and physical challenges with various opportunities to explore and develop their artistic abilities.

The program is funded by the province and provided free of charge to participants, most of whom come with support workers or as part of groups.

To enhance and expand the program, the Community Arts Centre is seeking artists living with disabilities to lead the participants in their artwork as part of the ‘Art for All’ initiative.

“We’re looking to identify an artist who lives day-to-day with a disability or experiences disability on a day-to-day basis, but is also a working artist, for them to come and to share their experience, to share their journey that’s got them to where they are,” said Rodney Goodchild, Vernon Community Arts Centre manager, adding that this will also give the artist a chance to showcase their own art.

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Speaking with Vernon Matters, Goodchild added the program can give participants the confidence to try new things and push their limits.

“One of the main reasons we’re excited to do this is to give inspiration to our participants so they can further envision themselves in the community as artists the way anybody would using the arts centre,” Quinn Vienneau, an instructor with the Joining Hands program, told Vernon Matters.

Vienneau said that they are looking for multiple artists to get involved in the program.

“The guest artists event is going to have two artists in the spring and then again two artists in the fall so that we can try to include different mediums, different artists that are using other mediums, not just a painter or not just somebody in ceramics. It could be all sorts and give them each equal opportunity to inspire our participants,” said Vienneau.

The guest artists will be compensated for their work, thanks to a grant from the B.C. Disability Alliance.

In addition to artists with disabilities, the Joining Hands program is looking for Indigenous, people of colour, and LGBTQ+ artists to get involved.

“The grant was asking us to look for people on the intersecting lines of being marginalized or who are experiencing other sorts of diversity in our community, so that we can give them a platform to be artists recognized publicly in our community and with the arts centre,” said Vienneau.

Goodchild told Vernon Matters that it can sometimes be difficult to get the message of diversity and inclusion through art out to the public, but they hope this call for artists and subsequent showcasing of their works will help spread that message.

The Joining Hands program offers three ‘Art for All’ classes a day on Wednesday and Fridays, with no start dates set as yet.

Anyone interested in being a guest artist in the ‘Art for All’ initiative with Joining Hands can apply by emailing joininghands@vernonarts.ca with a brief bio and an example of their work.

Anyone interested in participating in Joining Hands programs can call 250-542-6243.