ARTIVISM is back for its second year — and it's set to be bigger than ever. The on-campus multi venue arts festival kicks off Friday September 27 and runs until October 4.
The ARTIVISM festival seeks to celebrate creative resistance at UBC. Events are held across campus venues including the Museum of Anthropology (MOA), the Hatch gallery, Art History and Visual Art gallery and the CiTR studio. There’s something for everyone; the events are a wide range of activities including film screening, paint parties, slam poetry workshops and more.
"They're all focused on various ways on highlighting stories of QTBIPOC," said festival founder and co-organizer Angelica Poversky.
Although ARTIVISM is rooted in activism and resistance, Poversky said the festival is more about making room for people to show their talents than fight against a specific cause,
"I feel like this kind of activism is more like, we're creating the space. It's like, let's create these empowering spaces, and have people make art and be fully themselves."
Many of the events feature student created art, like the Finale Showcase on Friday October 4. If you're more into supporting student art that you can own, the Dive Pop-Up Shop on Friday will be selling tote bags, pottery, zines and other cool stuff.
Each day of the festival has free activities to attend as it aims to highlight the cultural exhibits all across campus that are open to all students, like the MOA or the Belkin.
This year's festival is three days longer and coincides with the BC Culture Days weekend. Planning for the festival started in the summer, and has taken sort of a collaborative approach with venues and organizations,
"It's going to people who are their themselves leaders in those spaces and being like, what can we do? Or what can we do together? ... a lot of it is like going up to those community partners and being like 'hey, we would love to make this space great for students. What can we do together to like, have it be around the theme, and what do you need from us? And what can we provide to you?"
Though we're only in the early months of what seems like an endless midterm season, it can be hard to motivate yourself to go out and take in culture. But you shouldn't let that stop you coming out and enjoying the ARTIVISM events,
"I think that it'll be really amazing and hopefully transformative for people to watch some of the art that people bring in, like, support their fellow student artists and share space together." Poversky said.
"I really feel like if you're not creating, and you're not in spaces that are creative, you literally die ... I feel like it's a great space to feel like you're a part of something and to be in a space that is engaging with you and making you feel alive."
For a full list of events during the festival, check the UBC Arts and Culture district Facebook page.