Art is not something static that belongs only on gallery walls. It's a living, breathing thing that permeates every part of life in a community.
That philosophy is behind a new event to Burnaby: Living Room Art in the Heights.
The Living Room Art event is set for Saturday, Oct. 18 from 5 to 9 p.m. in a private home at 3888 Yale St.
The evening is the brainchild of Yunuen Perez Vertti, a filmmaker who moved to Burnaby a year ago from Houston, Texas.
Before her husband's work brought the family to Canada, Perez Vertti worked with an arts organization called Voices Breaking Boundaries in Houston. That organization - which states that its mission is to "cross borders, sustain dialogue and incite social justice through art" - ran a series of living room art events, for which Perez Vertti served as production manager.
Once she came to Burnaby and started meeting people, she realized that the Heights was just the right kind of neighbourhood for a similar event.
"I just felt that this community would be so good for living room art because it's so artistic here, so community-oriented," she says.
Fittingly, it was art that brought Perez Vertti and her husband to the Heights in the first place - when looking for a good school for their two children, they found Confederation Park Elementary and its focus on education through the arts.
Perez Vertti says that once she first started talking about the idea of living room art, it caught on quickly.
"You just meet one person and tell them about it and they say, 'you should talk to this person,' and you talk to that person and they say, 'you should talk to this person,'" she says with a laugh. "The response has been great. The community is just so open to something like this."
She's putting it on thanks to a Neighbourhood Small Grant from the Vancouver Foundation.
For those wondering, yes, Living Room Art is just what its name suggests. It's an evening that takes place in a private home, with a wide range of artists coming together to showcase their work in performing, visual and digital arts.
Perez Vertti says the fact that it takes place in a private home is important.
"It has a very different feeling from a museum or an art gallery," she says, noting the idea is to make it comfortable and casual, so that people who might not be comfortable with going to a gallery will feel welcome to come out.
"It will open a different kind of venue for artists as well," she notes.
The program for the Oct. 18 evening includes a dance performance by Tango Burnaby, storytelling by Philomena Jordan and Mia Zhou, musical performances by Veronica Iza and Tara Bonham, and the screening of the documentary After the Vote, directed by Bonnie Kreps.
Other participating artists include Perez Vertti herself, along with visual artists Cindy Atkinson, Dino Pai , Beatrix Schalk, Jo Ann Sheen and Michelle Sound, textile artist Michelle Fowlie, and photographers Courtney Tran, Maybelle Santos and Grant Withers - whose home is being used for the event.
Though the exact schedule for the evening has not been set, there will be performances happening throughout the four hours, along with visual arts displays.
People are welcome to pop in at any time through the four-hour period and stay as long as they like - whether that's five minutes or the whole four hours.
And there's no need to buy tickets ahead; it's free, and it's a drop-in event.
"It's kind of like an art party," says Perez Vertti. "It's a celebration of the community, the artists that live here."
Want to know more? See www.livingroomarttheheights.wordpress.com for all the details.
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