Something Collective consists of:
Using the body as a ‘social landscape’ through performance art and installation, Juliana Bedoya’s work explores subjects of culture, identity, conflict resolution and the stories she finds in the material culture of contemporary society. She has a keen interest in fibers, textiles and natural construction. Since 1997, she has worked in collaboration with diverse communities and interdisciplinary teams within the context of art projects that effect social change. She has facilitated the artistic component for different governmental and NGO initiatives including projects with public schools, communities in poverty, illiterate populations, ex-guerrilla and ex-paramilitary members, under age prostitution, and Afro-Colombian ethnic groups (in partnership with United Nations and City of Bogota Development Plan). She has also developed outdoor youth programs in natural parks in South and Central America, facilitating experiential art education. An artist committed to effectively voicing the visions, ideas and possible futures of each community she interacts with, her community based art projects involve a dynamic creative process that also incorporates elements from other disciplines. julianabedoya.com
Maggie Winston trained in puppetry and experimental performance at Sarah Lawrence College. Maggie’s passionately fuelled practice has inspired originally created performances with people of all abilities, ages, and backgrounds. As an art form that inherently incorporates all other art forms, puppet performance requires the diverse creative input of everyone involved. She has used the power of the puppet as an authentic vehicle for expression with children at Arts Umbrella, incarcerated youth in South Africa, ECE Educators at Frog Hollow Neighborhood House, and Chinese seniors in the Arts, Health, and Seniors Program. Creative process is realized through an emphasis on imagination, exploration, natural impulse, and technique. Inclusion and collaboration are at the heart of Maggie’s work. This has been reflected in her work with Vancouver Moving Theatre and Dusty Flowerpot Cabaret. As artistic director of Lost & Found Puppet Co., Maggie’s productions explore human relationships to objects such as stories about lost socks, giant junk monsters, or grandma’s memories in her recycled quilt. She was the recipient of the 2010 Vancouver Mayor’s Arts Award for Emerging Artist in the field of Community Arts. lostandfoundpuppetco.com
Natalie Gan is a contemporary dance artist based in Vancouver. With a double degree in Dance and International Studies from Simon Fraser University, she has continued her studies through training in theatre and contact improvisation. A passionate performer, choreographer and activist, she thrives on collaboration and creating work that brings people together in both process and product. Her artistic and academic curiosities led her to study music, dance and history in Western Africa. As a teacher, Natalie has taught workshops in schools and community centres to students from age eight to eighteen. Natalie is also co-founder of Art For Impact, a grassroots organization which raises awareness and funds for humanitarian and environmental causes through community arts events. When Natalie is not in the studio, she is finding creative ways to advocate for fair trade, as co-chair of the SFU chapter of the non-profit, Fair Trade Vancouver. artforimpact.ca
Flick Harrison‘s media-art practice includes community, activist, political, indie, underground, documentary, installation, theatre, and education work over decades, starting as a videographer on the national CBC series Road Movies. His work focuses on the boundary between propaganda and confusion, conflict and resolution, the way that certainties crumble while chaos coalesces into focus. He is currently designing media for GasHeart Theatre’s MacBeth: nach Shakespeare at Performance Works in May, and Arts Umbrella’s recital shows in June. Flick is developing new work with Dancers Dancing, Rodney DeCroo, Theatre Conspiracy, and Deer Crossing: The Art Farm; and wrapping up artist-in-residence projects at Windermere Community Secondary and École Pauline Johnson. He’s acted with Lucy Lawless, studied under Noam Chomsky, beaten the Sundance parking laws, interviewed Ed Asner to sleep, held hands with Negativland, wandered the tribal zones of Pakistan, and shown in the Museum of the Moving Image in New York. flickharrison.com
Flutist Laura Barron is equally in her element in Carnegie Hall, the classroom or the community centre. With a doctorate in music from McGill, she has toured from New Zealand to the Yukon as a passionate performer and educator. Explorations into the realms of jazz and world music have led her to more original composition and improvisation. As a former band coach at Portland’s Girls Rock Camp, she is developing plans to bring this empowering, team-building tool to a BC women’s prison where she recently taught yoga. A trained therapeutic musician, she is committed to sharing the healing power of music in facilities like Vancouver’s Cottage Hospice and various hospitals. Also a novelist, she finds her most creative endeavors in inter-disciplinary collaborations that she pursues with her non-profit, Instruments of Change. Other Instruments of Change activities include Classical Classroom school workshops in the Downtown Eastside and Giving Room benefitconcerts for the Saint James Music Academy and the Hearth & Stroke Foundation. With Something Collective, an Instruments of Change initiative, she is currently creating Artrike, a pedal-powered, multi-functional stage intended for community-engaged productions. This emissions-free creation will be an active piece of mobile art that provides a space for collaboration, innovation and education. laurabarron.net