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#RichmondHasHeart projects launched

The City of Richmond’s #RichmondHasHeart project is now being presented to the public, from now until September.

The City of Richmond’s #RichmondHasHeart project is now being presented to the public, from now until September.

Featuring a series of artist-initiated projects, the campaign is designed to “explore new and meaningful ways to find community connection while maintaining physical distancing protocols in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.”

One of the pieces, called “Murmurations: A Score for Social Distancing,” by Lou Sheppard, is an outdoor performative artwork that will be on display in the next couple of weeks in Lansdowne Centre parking lot fronting No. 3 Road.

Murmurations will reference physical distancing directions that we now see in public spaces.

According to the artist, up to seven participants at a time will be able to follow painted, colourful shapes placed on the ground to “move like birds flying in a flock.”

Sheppard is an interdisciplinary artist from K’jipuktuk/Halifax and is the current Branscombe House Artist-in-Residence in Steveston.

More information and updates about this project can be found at www.lousheppard.com.

The second is called “Dearest,” by Keely O’Brien, which is a community art project that “encourages connection, interpersonal exchange and safe methods of social contact through the lens of creative snail mail.”

Community members can sign up online to receive a pack of three artist-designed, pre-stamped blank postcards in the mail, to fill out with messages and mail to friends and loved ones.

O’Brien is an interdisciplinary artist based in Richmond whose practice incorporates intricately handmade objects with immersive, innovative theatre creation.

To find out more about this project and how to participate, visit www.keelyobrien.ca.

“Eating in the Time of COVID-19,” by Christy Fong and Denise Fong, questions if people’s relationships with food has changed since the pandemic.

Eating in the Time of COVID-19 is an online exhibition that aims to “capture culturally diverse and intergenerational experiences with food during the coronavirus pandemic.”

In 2016, the artist pair co-directed the documentary short “Under Fire: Inside a Chinese Roasted Meats Shop in Vancouver.”

Find out more about this project on Instagram at @richmondfoodstories.

Finally, “Loving: Memories,” by Marina Szijarto, invites Richmond residents to create secular memorial shrines from “easy, illustrated instructions and simple materials” in memory of loved ones or to honour someone special.

Szijarto is a Richmond-based artist with more than 25 years of experience in contemporary arts practices and has been involved with leading community art projects for the Richmond Maritime Festival and The Harvest Full Moon Project at City Centre Community Centre.

More information can be found at www.lovingmemoryshrines.wordpress.com.

Funded via developer contributions to the Community Public Art Program, the city says the four projects “promote mental health, well-being and creativity while fostering community connections during this unprecedented, destabilizing and challenging time.”

To find out how you can participate in these projects, and to learn more about the City’s #RichmondHasHeart campaign, visit www.richmond.ca/richmondhasheart.