Vancouver Foundation

GRANTS AT A GLANCE Projects Vancouver Foundation and our donors recently supported WePress Plastered on transit shelters across East Vancouver, the block-printed poster of Raise the Rates, a campaign that seeks to increase welfare rates, stands testament to the power of a simple placard. Bold, arresting and clear in its message, it demonstrates the mission of WePress Vancouver, a collective-run print shop based in Chinatown. "We wanted to make a letter press, which is usually difficult to access, accessible to all sorts of people," says Kathy Shimizu, a graphic designer and member of the collective. Established in 2016 as a studio that would connect artists, community organizers, low-income residents of the Downtown Eastside and others interested in printmaking, the studio houses a unique mix of printers – an old Reynolds letterpress inherited from the former Woodward's Department Store, a set of 8,000 Chinese characters from the Ho Sun Hing Print Shop and a 3D printer. WePress offers courses and classes to help fund its activities, but its core mission is to fight for social justice by empowering its community with print-making tools – an endeavour made possible in part by two Vancouver Foundation grants ($10,000 and $75,000). Says Shimizu: "We really believe in the power of art advocacy." Friendships through photography There is a particular sense of dislocation that comes with immigrating to Canada. "Sometimes when we're new here, we're isolated," says Mary Blanca Villa y Battenberg, who came from Mexico, where she owned an art gallery. Last year, Battenberg and her friend Elena Lis, formerly a photography studio owner in her native Ukraine, wanted to tackle that sense of isolation. With a $500 Neighbourhood Small Grant from Vancouver Foundation, they organized a photography seminar for new Canadians. The response was enthusiastic – 20 Burnaby residents from places like Iran, China, Iraq, Colombia and Bangladesh turned out to learn about lighting techniques and camera angles. Then they went out and captured images of their community, their homes, and vistas from Burnaby Mountain. "It was interesting how they see this city that is new to them," says Battenberg. Those photo sessions culminated in an exhibit called Burnaby through the eyes of immigrants and refugees that toured the city's public libraries early in 2017. There was another important aspect to the project – the sessions helped the participants build friendships. "It was good for us to have a point of meeting together. This project united all of us," says Lis. "It helps to share my vision, my experience. I think it helps to communicate with people." p a g e 4 I V a n c o u v e r F o u n d a t i o n l 2 0 1 7 Photos: (top) John Endo Greenaway; (bottom) Elena Lis

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