Indigenous Capacity Building Program, in partnership with Rogers
VMF has partnered with Rogers to expand support for Indigenous artists through the creation of an Indigenous Capacity Building Program.
The focus of this program is to support Indigenous artists in becoming more visible online and to enhance their digital presence to make their work accessible on their own terms.
The Indigenous Capacity Building Program supports five artists: Levi Nelson, Siobhan Joseph, Kelsey Sparrow, Carrielynn Victor and T’uy’t’tanat Cease Wyss.
The program provides each of them with a new portfolio website, along with professional photography, coaching, 1:1 mentorship sessions, technical training, and more.
“It has been fantastic to be able to create a website with the support of the Vancouver Mural Festival and to equally support an indigenous website design company through it all.
As an indigenous woman artist who has worked for three decades in the field of digital media, I find this work to be revolutionary and decolonial in its foundations.
It is intrinsic to any professional to have their work present online. Having a digital space to send people to look at my work and to showcase the projects I’ve been involved with for three decades and this being my first true website that brings everything together I work on, is going to be a game changer in my practice and in promoting myself.”
Since VMF’s inception in 2016, we have supported over 450+ artists to create public art within the city, and Indigenous artwork has been a key part of VMF’s curation each year.
To date VMF has produced over 55 murals designed by Indigenous artists. Working with the Indigenous art community, our team learned that emerging, mid-career and established artists were seeking more support in developing their digital presence and online marketing assets.
Currently, it can be difficult to find examples of local Indigenous artists' work in one centralized place online owned and controlled by the artist. Instead, many artists’ work can mostly be found online through (non-Indigenous owned) galleries and websites.
“At VMF we’ve been trying different approaches to building capacity for our artists over the years, creating experiences and training for all of them making murals.
However, we came to realize how important it is for the artists to also have their own space online they control, being able to self-represent themselves, so that their work is accessible primarily on their own terms.”
We created this program with the goal of enhancing visibility of Indigenous artists in the digital space, as we already do in the physical space through murals. We reached out to Indigenous artists who didn’t have a website and asked them if they thought it’d be helpful for their career to have professional photography taken and have a portfolio page to showcase and archive their work, so that it all could be in one place.
Animikii, an Indigenous-owned digital agency on Vancouver Island, worked with the artists on the website design.
“This program has been so valuable, providing me with access to a knowledgeable team that helped me achieve something I’ve struggled to do for years.
Having my own digital space will allow me to share both a variety of my works, as well as details of work produced, in one place. I can now offer a single stop for interested clients to browse and contact me directly, as well as online gallery space.”
A huge thank you to our partner, Rogers, for supporting us in the creation of the Indigenous Capacity Building Program to further invest in the promotion and development of Indigenous artists.
Learn more about the program here: vanmuralfest.ca/community-projects/indigenous-capacity-building-program.
“On the behalf of the Rogers team, I would like to congratulate these wonderful artists who will be able to get the help from our partnership with VMF to promote their work both locally and nationally. This kind of partnership is a great way to help communities to be stronger by working together.”