Youth Urban Arts Forums

ICASC hosted a gathering of young urban artists and activists in Vancouver in February, 2008. This was the second meeting of a group, brought together initially in January by the Governor General of Canada, the Honourable Michaëlle Jean, as part of a series of urban arts meetings across the country.

This first Youth Urban Arts Forum was attended by about 175 people, many of them youth activist artists who work in community settings in a variety of forms – from hip hop and spoken word to visual and media arts. The conversation took the form of a dialogue. There was great positive energy in the Centre A Gallery, which hosted the event. Many articulate and thoughtful remarks were offered by a wide variety of young artists and activists and there was a consensus at the end of the event that many in the room wanted to continue the conversation...with a view to action on a variety of fronts.

The follow-up meeting, this one hosted by ICASC, took place at Simon Fraser University Harbour Centre. Artists, administrators, funders and community activists who were at the first forum were joined by new participants to discuss many aspects of their work, including long-term visions and next actions of the group. Minutes of this meeting are posted below. We will continue to post information about this group’s activities.

As a consequence of these meetings, an informal national network has been created to link and support the work of young urban artists through the Governor General’s citizenvoices website at http://www.citizenvoices.gg.ca/en/themes/urban_arts.