Guest Blog: The Victoria Arts Council Continues to Connect Artists across the CRD
Submitted by Leah McInnis, Outreach Coordinator at Victoria Arts Council.
President Paul McNair and Executive Director Kegan McFadden with Natasha Benn – signing the papers to set up the Victoria Arts Council Endowment Fund. (Pre COVID)
The Victoria Arts Council is a non-profit arts organization that has supported the production and presentation of arts in the Capital Regional District since 1968. Looking back on the past 50 years of our organization’s history, it is apparent that we could never have made it this far without the support of our members and the community.
This is why we are pleased to introduce the Victoria Arts Council Endowment Fund, held at the Victoria Foundation. This fund will enable us to continue the work we do in helping artists produce and present their art in Victoria, the CRD, and beyond. Our programming includes rotating visual art exhibitions in our main gallery and within our eight satellite galleries. In addition to this, we host monthly workshops, artist talks and a number of other activities for our members and the public.
Recently, thanks to the support of the Victoria Foundation, we have begun publishing a digital publication, titled UNTIL Magazine. This interactive arts and literary magazine was first introduced to the public in March of 2020, in response to the shuttering of our physical gallery locations because of the COVID-19 pandemic. We worked quickly to develop a new form of sharing and connecting, in a way that still honored our mandate.
Amidst the uncertainty of last year, we managed to publish six issues in three months, featuring the work of over 100 artists, poets, writers, and musicians. In September of 2020, our gallery doors reopened with safety precautions in place, and we transitioned to a quarterly publishing schedule with the addition of guest editors for each thematic issue. We keep an archive of each issue on our website so that people can continue to download and share them across their networks.
The new Victoria Arts Council Endowment Fund gives us the opportunity to continue to help local artists create and share their work.
The Victoria Arts Council respectfully acknowledges the Lekwungen-speaking peoples on whose traditional territory it operates and the Songhees, Esquimalt and WSANEC First Nations whose historical relationships to this land and diverse cultural heritage continue to this day.
Website: www.vicartscouncil.ca
Email: arts@vicartscouncil.ca
Phone: 778.533.7123
Address: 1800 Store St, Victoria BC