Vancity streets

Discover Vancouver's street art scene

‘Public art’ in Vancity has flourished forever. Take a walk down the back alleys of the Gastown entertainment district (where the Sketching in Practice symposium will be held on June 24th) and you will see all manner of graffiti, tags and street art. Taking the medium of drawing to the streets with markers, paints and whatever implements are available (or freely available) has been a mainstay of local graffiti writers and recently this rich practice has been documented in a piece from Vancitybuzz, “Exit through the alley: Discover Vancouver’s street art scene“.

A recent app developed by three Vancouverites, Curb, maps where the street art is in numerous cities. In an image gallery style, users can view pictures of street art and find their exact location on a map.

There are many opportunities to explore drawing in Vancouver year round, but we hope you join us June 24th for a celebration of sketching in practice, whether your practice is in Art, Design, Education, or something we haven’t touched on, your proposal is awaiting to be considered here.

 

Draw by Night

Vancouver has long been a hotbed for drawing enthusiasts in the areas of life drawing, graffiti and animation to name just a few.  But over the past few years Draw by Night has been hosting social drawing events and bringing artists together in a new way. Inspired by other drawing happenings such as Kid Koalas long standing “Music to draw to” nights in Montreal, Myron Campbell has curated (almost) 44 evenings of a shared drawing experience through the Vancouver Film School.

DBN

The next Draw by Night is coming up THIS WEDNESDAY, and I hope to be making it down there to  catch some of the action, and to see if there may be some lessons we can learn from their success.

The Sketching in Practice symposium will be hosting a reception of *some description* after our full day event, an “after party” of sorts.  Stay tuned here as it comes together,

Our call for proposals is still open, and we invite you to consider joining us for what is sure to be a drawing filled day! (and night 😉 )

 

 

 

 

Keynote announcement!

We are excited to announce that Dr. Nick Sousanis, a scholar, educator, and artist has agreed to serve as the keynote speaker for the 2016 Sketching in Practice Symposium. Dr. Sousanis is the author of the ground-breaking book Unflattening (Harvard University Press, 2015. Described as “an experiment in visual thinking,” Unflattening “defies conventional forms of scholarly discourse to offer readers both a stunning work of graphic art and a serious inquiry into the ways humans construct knowledge.” The book is “an insurrection against the fixed viewpoint” that uses the collage-like capacity of comics to show that perception is always an active process of incorporating and reevaluating different vantage points.” [1]   Dr. Sousanis is currently a post-doctoral researcher in comics studies at the University of Calgary and a much-sought international speaker.

Find out more about Nick Sousanis at his blog Spin Weave and Cut http://spinweaveandcut.com/.

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[1] Quotes from the Harvard University Press catalog: See also http://spinweaveandcut.com/unflattening/ for links to reviews.