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 Kristen at gm at powellstreetfestival.com or 604.683.8240.

Current Members

Kristen Lambertson :: Chair
Naomi Horii
Yuriko Iga
Boon Kondo
Alia Nakashima
Michael Tora Speier
Lyndsay Sung

Members’ Bios

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.

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.

Alia Nakashima graduated with a BFA from Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design and currently works as a producer at an animation studio in Vancouver. She is the treasurer of the Powell Street Festival Society and is a performing member of Sawagi Taiko.

Michael Tora Speier, painter, craftsperson and “mixed race media” specialist has recently created an illustrated contemporary kid’s myth and a giant multiracial and interactive skateboard. Since the late ’90s, Michael has been involved with various community arts organizations as a programmer, curator and project coordinator. In 2004 he was funded by the California Civil Liberties Public Education Program to design Japanese North American scenes of history in the forms of snowing souvenir globes.

Lyndsay Sung is a multidisciplinary artist working in video art, music, drawing, simple acts of performance and whatever interests her at any given time. She is a graduate of the University of Victoria with a degree in Women’s Studies and Film Studies, and a recent graduate of the Emily Carr Institute of Art + Design, obtaining a degree in Integrated Media. Her current interests include experimental documentary, music-making, ice cream recipes and indie fashion design.

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