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Reimagining the community-engaged artist

Richmond in unique position when it comes to public art funding

While some fair-weather West Coasters lament September for its days of early onset autumn, one Richmond artist is choosing to celebrate the month through sustainable and community-engaged art.

“It’s a time when we can come together and celebrate Richmond’s rich agricultural heritage,” says Marina Szijarto about September’s full harvest moon. 

“We can create a harvest moon celebration bringing in different components — a potluck of ideas and a potluck of creations.”

Szijarto’s Harvest Full Moon project comprises of a series of workshops and drop-in sessions, culminating in a procession and celebration on Saturday, Sept. 26 at the new City Centre Community Centre at 7 p.m. 

The procession begins at Lang Park (at Saba Road and Buswell Street) where individuals will carry lanterns and willow-woven stars and moons made in the workshops to the new community centre on Minoru Boulevard. 

“I didn’t want to impose a vision onto the community,” says Szijarto. “I wanted to work with the community to do something, as a community-engaged artist, that’s my process. 

“It’s a way of changing the landscape, even if it’s only for an evening, so that the public re-owns it in a different way. Those who are in the procession or see the procession, it’ll change how they see that environment. Even when it’s gone, you still have that memory. There’s a necessity for a collective visual.”

Szijarto was brought on as an artist-in-residence by the City of Richmond to raise awareness for the City Centre Community Centre, which has its grand opening Sept. 19. 

She chose to focus on the harvest moon as it’s a celebration important to both Western and ancient cultures. Her project also commemorates Richmond’s rich agricultural heritage, while shedding light on environmental sustainability. 

Those who attend the workshops don’t have to participate in the procession, and vice versa. But, the items created in the workshops will be carried from the Lang Centre to be displayed in the City Centre Community Centre where there’ll be music, performances, and food in honour of the harvest.

“People are innately drawn to come together in some sort of celebratory or participatory way,” says Szijarto who’s been involved in art projects across the Lower Mainland. “We need that. Everybody needs that. It’s part of who we are.”

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Local artist Marina Szijarto held a workshop on sustainability as part of her Harvest Full Moon project in Richmond.

An engaged community is a healthy community

A main component of Szijarto’s practice is to engage the public with her work and create art that’s interactive, while also raising awareness about issues important to the place she’s working in.

Art plays a crucial role in bringing together a community and connecting the people who live within it, she says. 

“I just found it really interesting as an artist, to be able to actually have your ideas and your visions and your objects seen by people who wouldn’t normally see them. 

“On the street, you find people say and do amazing things when they interact with your work. What you get back is way bigger from the community. You see how a creation grows. An idea will be more than I can ever imagine because it’ll include so many more people.”

Szijarto is part of an emerging movement of community-engaged artists who strive to involve the cities they work in through their public artworks.

The Lower Mainland is at the forefront of this movement, as one of the biggest areas for community-engaged art, according to Szijarto. Artists in Vancouver and across the region produce work that’s recognized across the country.

Although she still has an appreciation for gallery-based artwork and sees its value, Szijarto moved away from doing gallery work because she felt it kept art separate.

“Art isn’t outside of the culture. Art is part of it and is just another form of being able to express what’s going on within the community you’re involved in.”

One such Vancouver-based artist who practises social engagement is Cameron Cartiere, known for her work in sustainability. 

Cartiere, an associate professor at Emily Carr University, co-founded chART Public Art — a partnership between the community of Marpole and Emily Carr, focusing on the sustainable, cultural, environmental, social, and economic impacts of public art within a community. 

Along with her graduate students, Cartiere transformed a bus shelter in Vancouver into a public art display by transposing large photos of clouds. Once installed, Cartiere’s team received feedback from the public about how the piece improved their commute and generally put them in a better mood.

“Ultimately, public art makes our place look better, more livable, more vibrant,” says Eric Fiss, City of Richmond art planner. “We have a variety of art to help us remember our history, tell our stories. The city becomes the living room of a community.”

Szijarto also made her case for the need for the role of art in a community, stressing its importance. “If we want a healthy city, we have to have connections with each other. 

“Both economically and socially, people have to feel like they’re part of a city. That’s what we’re paying for, people’s well-being. If we’re not creating ways for people to come together to share and celebrate, what are we doing?”

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A new art form, a new community centre

With community-engaged art growing and changing the artistic landscape of the Lower Mainland, the City of Richmond’s public art plan is evolving with it. 

The new City Centre Community Centre is part of this vision for a more artistically engaged public. 

It differs from other community centres in that it has dedicated music rooms, an art studio, and two public art pieces. 

“We really see it as a place where people can come hang out, get to know their neighbours, and build an appreciation for the arts,” says Kirsten Close, the centre’s coordinator. “We’re bringing the arts into a community centre setting, accessing a different pocket of the population. Art provides a unique way to address a community’s needs and issues, and facilitate discussions.”

Community building and environmental sustainability were key focuses when designing the new centre, according to Close. 

“We’re absolutely going to be doing more community art pieces,” says Fiss, about the City Centre Public Art program. “That’s an important area. Many artists are working in that field to have more participation with the community in their art projects. The Harvest Moon project is taking that even another step forward. We’ll definitely be doing more as we get better at it and plan to have more of these artist-in-residence programs where the community is engaged.” 

Due to the flurry of development in the city, Richmond is in a unique position when it comes to paying for all this art. 

Funding for public art mostly comes from the pockets of private developers, says Fiss. Similar to other municipalities, each new development has to either have public art built into it, or the developer can put money into a reserve that the city then uses to fund pieces elsewhere. 

The large Quintet development, a five-tower complex in the city centre, funded the public art pieces in the community centre lobby, after the developers put money in the reserve. 

Funding for the Harvest Full Moon project also came from this development.

“There’s so much development happening and because of that, it’s helped to create a healthy economy for public art,” says Cartiere. 

“There’s also opportunity to really do things different, not only the financing for it, but there’s sort of a collective will to let it happen, an amazing environment.”

Sustainable art, activist art

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But beyond community engagement, both Szijarto and Cartiere see art having a more activist and educational role in a society. 

Their particular focus is raising awareness surrounding environmental and sustainable issues. 

Szijarto held one of her workshops for the Harvest Full Moon project last Saturday called Plant Technologies at Garden City Park. 

About seven participants braved the rain warnings and gathered on the grass to learn about Richmond’s plants and how they can be used to make art. 

She came armed with an overflowing cart of handmade baskets, jewelry, oils, and books. She used basket-making as an important example of artistic and economic sustainability.

“The person who receives the basket uses it, but it’s not forever, it’ll break down and that’s part of the understanding,” she says. 

“It can literally get tossed and not do anything negative to the environment. There’s respect for the environment, respect for craft, craftsmanship and making art. It keeps things local. If we lose how to make things, when we reach peak oil time, we’re going to be in a difficult position.”

Richmond is home to a plethora of vegetation and unique materials such as willows, rushes, and reeds. Willow, in particular, can easily be regenerated. After being picked, during the right season, willow can be placed back in the ground and it will re-root itself. 

“Doing things like live willow sculptures and environmental artwork would be a completely natural fit in Richmond,” says Szijarto. “If we’re going to talk about the idea of public art, it’d be interesting to talk about creating things that are ephemeral. When you look at plant-based artworks and materials, there’s the impermanence of it. We can reflect on the impermanence of reality. 

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Artist Cameron Cartiere stands near her Duck Abacus in Vancouver

“It also regenerates. You have this big sculpture, but after five years it’s gone and you have to get another one, instead of having this giant figure that’s up there for 100 years. It’s an interesting idea of looking at what permanent art is and how public art is seen.”

Back in 2013, Cartiere created Duck Abacus using an old bus shelter and 3,000 rubber ducks that had been left over from a river race fundraiser on Vancouver Island. 

If unused, the ducks would have been thrown away. The artwork currently sits near a playground in Vancouver and serves as an educational tool about sustainability and environmental impact. 

Now, she’s working with bees in Richmond through the Bath Slough Pollinator Project. Earlier this summer, she transformed the slough into a colourful pasture of wildflowers to serve as a vital food source for the bees. 

She will also be leading a number of bee-themed, community-engaged programs, exhibitions, and events in the city this fall. 

Public artists in Richmond are required to meet certain environmental standards, according to Fiss. Materials can’t be used if they are deemed wasteful. 

However, Fiss added that most artists are right at the forefront of sustainable practices and want to discuss these issues in their work.

“By using things like local plants and reusable materials, we’re using art as a way to do educational work and different types of advocacy for the environment,” says Szijarto.

She has seen first hand the value of socially engaged art when she’s used it to build healthy connections amongst both seniors and street-entrenched youth in Vancouver.

“I really have seen a change,” she says. “If you go into communities and you work with street youth, you see people’s lives turned around. People get off drugs, people find a home. It’s amazing. It can really change lives.”

Szijarto’s next drop-in workshop, Stars and Full Moons, takes place on Saturday, Sept. 5 at Minoru Park during the Richmond World Festival. 

Participants will learn how to create willow woven stars and moons for the procession. Learn more about the Harvest Moon Project at harvestfullmoonproject.wordpress.com.