Still Telling Stories

Students from Strathcona Elementary School and Britannia Secondary School visited Telling Stories: a visual art exhibition for a gallery tour led by Best B4 Collective Artists. After their visit to the On-Tak Cheung Gallery in the Chinese Cultural Centre Museum, artists visited classrooms to work with students and teachers to extend storytelling into writing, photography and ceramics projects. 






Students in Annie Simard's Grade 4/5 Class at Strathcona Elementary School returned to the gallery to interview Strathcona Elders
who in turn told them stories during group interviews. In their classroom, they worked with Alison Keenan and Phyllis Schwartz to write about elders and their observations about changes in Strathcona over the years. 


Students in Ariel Boulet's Ceramics class worked with Debra Sloan, Alison Keenan and Phyllis Schwartz to explore slip casting and experiment with sculptural forms. Edward Peck spoke about his Berlin graffiti project, and photography students explored the Strathcona and Commercial Drive Communities to find graffiti art as subject material for their digital photography. 



Student work is currently on display in the foyer at the Vancouver Schoolboard (1580 West Broadway) until the end of March.  These projects were partially funded by the City of Vancouver, the Best B4 Collective, the Chinese Cultural Centre of Greater Vancouver and Vancouver School Board District Fine Arts.  

Looking Back at BestB4 Collective Community Events — artist salon with Daphne Harwood and Debra Sloan

BestB4 Collective Salon featured a conversation between Daphne Harwood and Debra Sloan on Sunday, 06 December in the On-Tak Cheung Gallery at the Chinese Cultural Centre of Greater Vancouver. 

Daphne Harwood was one of the originators of the Imagination Market, a non-profit organization that promoted the reuse and repurposing of usable industrial discards. Now the building site where the Imagination Market was has been transformed by Vancouver City Council's approval of a 52-storey tower. Harwood spoke about how she has been documenting this transition in photography, journaling, quilt-making and assemblage.

Debra Sloan is a Vancouver-based ceramic sculptor and the 2015 recipient of the Mayor's Design and Craft Award. Her slip cast dogs, horses and baby figures challenge and surprise viewer assumptions and attitudes. Sloan's work has been exhibited locally, across Canada and internationally, and most recently awarded the Vancouver Mayor's Art Award and biannual Hilde Gerson Award by the Craft Council of BC. She spoke about her recent ceramic residency at C.R.E.T.A. in Rome.

Both artists discussed the influence that the environment had on their artist practice and bodies of work. Debra Sloan works in ceramic residencies that offer the opportunity to research both techniques and ceramics history. Daphne Harwood works from a documentary perspective, using journaling and photography as a starting point; her current work continues as Vancouver house progresses from the demolition of the original Imagination Market site to construction and eventually occupancy. 

Telling Story/a visual art exhibition continues in the On-Tak Exhibition Hall at the Chinese Cultural Centre Museum of Greater Vancouver (555 Columbia at Keefer) until Saturday, 19 December. The gallery is open Tuesday- Sunday (11 - 5 pm). The limited edition exhibition catalogue can be purchased for $20 at the Chinese Cultural Museum. 

Looking Back at BestB4 Collective Community Events — an artist tour and exhibition catalogue launch

BestB4 Collective artists Jim Friesen, Daphne Harwood, Alison Keenan, Sophi Liang, Colette Lisoway, Edward Peck, Phyllis Schwartz, Debra Sloan and June Yun guided visitors through a  tour of Telling Stories: A Visual Art Exhibition at the Chinese Cultural Centre Museum on Sunday 29 November. Artists told stories that enlivened their photography, painting, ceramics, fibre and installations and engaged viewers in dialogue about contemporary issues that weave together their collective exhibition. 


Telling Story/a visual art exhibition continues in the On-Tak Exhibition Hall at the Chinese Cultural Centre Museum of Greater Vancouver (555 Columbia at Keefer) until Saturday, 19 December. The gallery is open Tuesday- Sunday (11 - 5 pm). The limited edition exhibition catalogue can be purchased for $20 at the Chinese Cultural Museum. 

Telling Stories in the Community

Colette Lisoway: Printmaking Demonstration at the Chinese Cultural Centre Museum

June Yun's Calligraphy Workshop
at the Chinese Cultural Centre Museum of Greater Vancouver

Telling Stories/a visual arts exhibition invited community to extend the exhibition through participating in workshops offered by BestB4 Collective artists Colette Lisoway (printmaking) and June Yun (Calligraphy). Both workshops drew sizeable crowds for afternoons of skill building and story sharing. 

Colette Lisoway explained the different techniques of transferring an image through a screen onto fabric or paper and also a discussion on colour. Very quickly the students loaded paint onto their screens and then the magic began. Everyone eagerly participated and at the end of the session each had an art work to take home.

June Yun's Calligraphy Workshop introduced the four treasures: rice paper, writing brus, ink and ink slab. Her hands-on teaching approach offered participants an opportunity to learn and practice calligraphy techniques with helped to better understand Chinese art and culture.

Telling Stories/a visual art exhibition continues through Saturday, 19 December in the On-Tak Cheung Gallery at the Chinese Cultural Museum (555 Columbia Street at Keefer), 11AM - 5 PM.

Sunday's Salon — two artists telling stories about their stories (Part 2)

Debra Sloan: Whisper Sweet Nothings

Join the BestB4 Collective Salon for a conversation with Daphne Harwood and Debra Sloan this Sunday, December 6 (2 - 4 pm) at the Chinese Cultural Centre Museum (555 Columbia Street at Keefer).

Debra Sloan: Maple Tree

Debra Sloan is a Vancouver-based ceramic sculptor and 2015 recipient of Mayor’s Design and Craft Award. Her slip cast dogs, horses and baby figures challenge and surprise the viewers’ assumptions and attitudes. Her work has been exhibited locally, across Canada and internationally and most recently awarded the Vancouver Mayor’s Art Award and biannual Hilde Gerson Award by the Craft Council of B.C. Debra Sloan has recently returned from a six-week residency at C.R.E.T.A. in Rome.

Sculptural work by Sloan in Telling Stories is from Horsing Around, a series that grew out of her experience as Artist in Residence at the Leach Potter in St. Ives. This series of horse and rider continued a solo exhibition at the Gallery of BC Ceramics(2015).

Debra Sloan: The Edge of Nowhere

Over time, says Debra Sloan,my figures have become what I call proto-human, neither male nor female, adult or baby. Landscapes and architectural references are about my environs and provide opportunity to add contextual layers. Placing my figures and images within metaphorical constructs, and outside of how we normally encounter them, is how I comment on our interaction with environments and society.

Debra Sloan: On the Merry-Go-Round

Debra Sloan: Riders to the Coast

Sunday's Salon — two artists telling stories about their stories (Part 1)

Join the BestB4 Collective Salon for a conversation with Daphne Harwood and Debra Sloan this Sunday, December 6 (2 - 4 pm) at the Chinese Cultural Centre Museum (555 Columbia Street at Keefer). 

Clay Model of Imagination Market (1989, artist unknown)

Daphne Harwood was one of the originators of the Imagination Market, a non-profit organization that promoted the reuse and repurposing of usable industrial discards. Now the building site where the Imagination Market was has been transformed by Vancouver City Council’s approval of a 52-storey tower. Harwood has been documenting this transition in photography, journaling, quilt-making and assemblage.

Harwood's work for Telling Stories is about two projects in her neighborhood. One project was The Imagination Market that was housed in 1435 Granville Street between 1986-89. The other project is happening right now: the building of a 52 story condo called Vancouver House, designed by Bjarke Ingels.  The installation pieces by Harwood look at the land and the transformations that have taken place on this land from 1850 until the present.  It maps the transition from virgin forrest near a tidal inlet, to a large land-clearing lumber operation, to a zone for light industry that gave way to homeless people, then to a complete razing in preparation for erecting a dramatic building and a new neighborhood complex.

Photo Essay of the transition
from Imagination Market to Vancouver House

In her own words:

I look at these neighborhood projects through several lenses: Impermanence—of buildings & land allocation & communities. Re-use—of materials that are generated by humans. This was a key feature of what Imagination Market did by collecting scraps from industries & business that could be reused for art, craft & play. And re-use is vividly shown in the demolition, excavation, & construction in the block where Vancouver House will go. The Non/Traditional Quilt in the show is made from scrap material. Mapping—my memories are often held in maps that I make of where I went, what I did.  Finally, people often say of quilts, “If the patches could talk what tales they would tell.” I wondered about all the occupants of 1435 Granville Street which was built in 1942. The building is now deceased and its body dispersed, but I did want to think about the “life" of this building. This is the lens of Honoring. The workers, engineers, architects, occupants,  tools, sewer line diggers, & new technologies and old.