Many people think of art galleries as sterile places, full of things that you’re not allowed to touch made by dead people. Not very fun; but not very true either. One of the major aims of the Integrate Arts Festival is to remind people that artists actually live here in Victoria and they are creating all kinds of interesting, modern, and relevant work. Not only that, but they want to share their art with the city. And some of it you even get to touch.
Zahra Stark, localities liaison for the festival, explains that Integrate is trying to entice people who already love art in the form of music and movies into spaces they might not think to go to: galleries.
The festival is aimed at everybody, says Stark, especially “people that maybe mostly go for dinner, drinks, theatre, to concerts, but don’t really think of a gallery as a space to go to spend social time.”
According to Stark, there will be more happening downtown than just pictures on a wall: music, yarn bombing, and even a street art competition are planned to get people excited about art.
“I can’t give away all of our secrets, we have surprises!” she says. “If you come down, especially on the Friday night, we’ve got some great pop-up performances, some great setups, one of which involves clay, where we encourage the community who comes out to engage and to participate in the art making.”
The artists are involved as well, either through performance or talks, and Stark sees this as an important part of connecting the public to the variety of art that Victoria has to offer. And the events are offered free of charge so that anyone can take part.
“We’re also opening our arms up to older generations of Victoria and families, and that’s why we have the second day,” she says. “It’s a longer period of the art crawl where people maybe more casually can go, spend a longer time in the galleries, and do it at their own pace.”
Though originally called the Off the Grid Art Crawl, Stark says the new Integrate moniker reflects the more inclusive nature of this year’s festival. Both small and large galleries are participating, plus local businesses (“localities”) where artists not represented in galleries can show their work.
“We have over 50 galleries in the CRD alone, so it’s a huge art community. We’re very much trying to show what’s going on in Victoria,” she says. “We have a diverse population and I think that’s one of the things that makes it special, that’s representative of the arts that are being produced here.”
Integrate Arts Festival
Friday, August 23 and Saturday, August 24
Various venues
integratearts.ca