Mandate: to research and identify artists and arts organizations that give voice to the Japanese Canadian community

The programming committee includes, for example, representatives and/or organizers for the following disciplines: Literary, Music, Theatre, Visual Arts, Dance, Media Arts, and New Media / Interdisciplinary. The committee ensures that emerging and established, contemporary and traditional, local and national (and international) artists are all represented in programming efforts.

Actions

In consultation with the General Manager

• Researches, reviews and recommends long-term program plans
• Presents ideas for possible programming, and committee members may also program and coordinate special projects
• Liaises with local organizations in order to identify and implement specific programs (ie. Sponsor Japanese film in other film festivals, co-present a Japanese artist at a dance festival, etc.) and assist in the development of co-operative events and programs
• Identifies specific social issues in contemporary art practice

If you would like to join this committee, please contact Julia at gm at powellstreetfestival.com or 604.683.8240.

Current Members

Julia Aoki :: Chair
Kristen Lambertson
Naomi Horii
Yuriko Iga
Kaori Kasai
Boon Kondo
Miko Hoffman
Susanne Tabata
Catrina Longmuir

Members’ Bios

Julia Aoki has been involved with the Festival as a volunteer and three-time volunteer coordinator since 2004. With each passing year, she is increasingly in awe and admiration of the dedicated community members that keep the festival going, which in no small part inspired her recent graduate work on Oppenheimer Park, completed through York University’s Programme in Communication and Culture.

Kristen Lambertson has a background in dance and studied art history at Concordia University and the University of British Columbia. Prior to joining the Powell Street Festival as the General Manager and Programming Director, she was an assistant curator at the Kamloops Art Gallery. She has experience working in non-profit galleries in BC and in Quebec.

Naomi Horii is a visual artist working with painting, drawing, storyboarding, and film. She contributes to artist communities by encouraging the production and exhibition of art work as part of social justice work and teaching arts empowerment to marginalized youth. As well, Naomi teaches yoga as a way of reading the body as the site of memory; remembering; language; learning; listening.

Yuriko Iga was born in Winnipeg and raised in Calgary with Japanese parentage. Her experience of the traditional Japanese house and family, combined with her work in the post-modernist art field, have led her toward a broadened conception of art as the creation of installation or social space always ignoring the boundary between art, multi-media, design, and life. A graduate of the Alberta College of Art and Design, Yuriko’s many artistic endeavours include running a gallery in Calgary called Kisaten from 1994–1996; working with the collective Colours for Industry; and curating music out of a space called Squibb. Now based out of Vancouver, Yuriko’s recent project is called Blim, a sound gallery and art facility which showcases local and international experimental sound, dance and performative or visual art projects.

Kaori Kasai artist-in-motion, graduated from art school in Tokyo, traveled to live and work in San Francisco, Hong Kong, and now Vancouver. She creates her own world of eccentric creatures and personalities which bloom into the void: gigantic space dotted with tiny, intimate kinships and spirits bumping into one another, narrating signs of life across a dreamt universe. Her works have been exhibited at gallery 1 (Japan), Giant Robot, Little Otsu and SOMARTS (San Francisco), Compound Gallery (Portland) and the site of Helen Pitt Gallery (Vancouver). In ’07, Kao was invited to accompany the screening of her new animated short “Duet” at San Francisco’s Asian American Film Festival and AAIFF (NY). Graduated from art school in Tokyo specializing in fashion Illustration. Also trained at the British Columbia Institute of Technology (Canada), learning new media design, CD ROM & web development. Teaching New Media use Mac computer at Art School to age 9 -12 yrs. Currently making a children’s book for Simply Read Books. For more information on Kaori Kasai, visit her website at www.kaorikasai.com

Boon Kondo is a graduate from UBC in Sociology. He has written for Discorder, Ion, Rice Paper, Capital magazine and been an online contributor to Schema Mag blog. He has also been a volunteer for 4Real/Direct Current Media and New Forms Festival. Boon is a second generation Japanese Canadian who, at 32 years of age, joined the 32 annual PSF committee for the first time.

Miko Hoffman coordinated the Powell Street Festival in 2000/2001 and was the General Manager for the Society from 2003-2008. She has been involved in the local non-profit arts community for more than 13 years in curatorial, programming and volunteering capacities, and writes and performs in various musical projects. She is currently the Executive Director of National Nikkei Museum and Heritage Centre.

Susanne Tabata is a small format documentarian and digital media producer, instructional designer, researcher, and historian. She recently designed, wrote, produced and directed the 10 part ethnography series for the Japanese Canadian National Museum called Ohanashi: Stories of Our Elders a detailed examination of the experiences of Japanese Canadians who were interned during World War II a story familiar to her father whose experiences are shared in the series. Most recently created Bloodied But Unbowed and thepunkmovie.com the documentary film and on-line site which chronicle the Vancouver punk scene of the late 1970s. Tabata has a background as an instructional designer, creating learning resources which advance the discussion of social justice.

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