#RichmondHasHeart through public art
10 June 2020
Richmond’s Public Art Program is launching a series of artist-initiated projects that explore new and meaningful ways to find community connection while maintaining physical distancing protocols in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. These four art projects are a part of the #RichmondHasHeart campaign and will be presented from now until September
Murmurations: A Score for Social Distancing by Lou Sheppard
Murmurations: A Score for Social Distancing is an outdoor performative artwork. 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. The work will be installed within the next couple of weeks in the Lansdowne Centre parking lot fronting No. 3 Road and will reference physical distancing directions that we now see in public spaces. Lou Sheppard is an interdisciplinary artist from K’jipuktuk/Halifax and the current Branscombe House Artist-in-Residence in Steveston. More information and updates about this project can be found at www.lousheppard.com.
Dearest by Keely O’Brien
Dearest 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. Keely 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
How has your relationship with food changed since the pandemic? Eating in the Time of COVID-19 is an online exhibition that captures culturally diverse and intergenerational experiences with food during the coronavirus pandemic. Local artists, Christy Fong and Denise Fong, have been exploring the use of digital media as an approach to community storytelling since 2015. In 2016, they 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.
Loving: Memories by Marina Szijarto
Through this project, Richmond residents are invited to create secular memorial shrines from easy, illustrated instructions and simple materials in memory of loved ones or to honour someone special. Marina 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, these 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