Indigenous Capacity Building Program

Since VMF’s inception in 2016, we have supported over 450+ artists to create public art within the city. As muralists in our festival, artists are provided production training; including lift training and support on producing their work at scale. Over the years of working closely with so many artists, we recognized there was a deep need for capacity building, to help further develop and strengthen skills, professional assets, and artistic resources in addition to technical training.

In the Indigenous art community, we were also hearing that emerging, mid-career, and established artists were seeking more support in building their career, be that through improved digital presence outside of social media, building marketing assets, or access to mentorship and further training. Currently, it can be difficult to find examples of local Indigenous artists' work, bios, and CVs in one centralized place owned and controlled by the artist. Instead, many artists’ work is primarily found online through (non-Indigenous owned) galleries and websites. 

Indigenous artwork is a key part of VMF’s curation each year. To date we have produced over 55 murals designed by Indigenous artists. As part of our commitment to observing local Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh (MST) cultural protocol, the Festival’s annual guest curation program (which makes the majority of selections for the festival), guarantees a position to an emerging or established MST curator. With Rogers’ support, we have been able to further invest in the promotion and development of Indigenous artists through the creation of a pilot Indigenous Capacity Building Program. The focus of this program is to allow artists to be more visible online and to be accessed on their own terms.