About Us
The Community Arts Council of Vancouver (CACV) is excited to present the 6th annual Vancouver Outsider Arts Festival. Offering opportunities for exhibition, performance, connection and learning to visual and performing artists facing social exclusion and other barriers, the Vancouver Outsider Arts Festival is Canada’s first and only festival for Outsider Art. The artists may be self-taught or trained: they are all devoted to their creative practices, and come from a point of view that is outside the mainstream art world trends.
The Vancouver Outsider Arts Festival invites artists and performers from varying disciplines and experience to apply. We look forward to celebrating our artists and performers this October on the unceded territories of xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and Sel̓íl̓witulh (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations.
Disrupting Exclusion, Inviting Connection
Our primary values are inclusion and active participation towards strengthening a sense of creative citizenship among participants and the public. Eligible artists self-identified as outsiders and have strong creative practices, with wildly diverse aesthetics. Artists and performers are paid CARFAC fees and benefit from the free workshops, networking, and promotion included in their participation: this can be a significant professional opportunity for outsider artists.
The festival aims to increase awareness about Outsider Artists and to challenge stereotypes about who and what counts in the art world. Outsider Art is different, this art shakes up what you think you know about art and sometimes delves headfirst into challenging social and political issues. The festival provides a much-needed platform for visual and performing artists to gather, learn, and share their creative scope with the wider community.
Four festivals have taken place at the Roundhouse Community Arts & Recreation Centre and included individual artists as well as organizational partners, workshops for artists and the public, and hundreds of artworks on display and for sale, alongside live art and other performance forms.
Our primary values are inclusion and active participation towards strengthening a sense of community and creative citizenship among participants and the public.