Vancouver Outsider Arts Festival (VOAF), returns for its seventh year, October 12-17 at the Roundhouse Community Arts & Recreation Centre. Presented by the Community Arts Council of Vancouver (CACV), this unique festival raises the profile of artists who self-identify as “outsiders”: those with committed art practices, but have faced physical, economic or social obstacles to showing their work in mainstream art spaces.
Expanded to five days this year, the festival will showcase 56 performing and visual artists from across Metro Vancouver. New this year, the public can also sign up for workshops to learn about handmade felt objects and Ikebana (Japanese flower arranging). Through a partnership with Culture Days BC, workshops will also be given on Kathak Movement and collaborative character design.
Finally, a new partnership with Helsinki’s Outsider Arts Festival (OAF) will culminate in a short film series about Finnish outsider artists who work in performance art, silent film, poetry and dance. This presentation on Oct. 16 will also include an online meet and greet with these artists.