WHAT WE DO
We create accessible art opportunities in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside and beyond through our Art Kits, Community Workshops, and Special Projects, meeting people where they are at and providing tools to explore creativity.
ART KITS
Art Kits are a collaborative effort!
We work with local artists to design the zine and select materials, then we assemble the kits together with peer workers, staff, and board members. The kits are typically distributed in the DTES or other neighbourhoods, with support from our team and peers. Whenever possible, we partner with a local non-profit (like Rahma Foundation) to provide meals, so we can offer a hot meal alongside the kits. We believe that supporting creativity also means supporting basic necessities, including access to food.
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An up to 14-page guide created by artists that help share knowledge about an art material or practice. We collaborate with artists that are aware of the communities we serve and the art skills/tips they share in the zine take in consideration the fact that many of the people receiving these kits are unhoused or precariously housed.
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These materials are related to the zine content. Past kits have included materials like beads, needles, and thread –for Haisla Collins’ beading kit– or things like watercolours, paint markers, and more.
Materials are purchased from local shops whenever possible, Rath Art Supplies is one our favorite shops!
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We provide with K/N95 masks and hand sanitizer. We seek to include the highest protection masks we can provide, in order to protect against as many health hazards as possible, like: COVID-19, norovirus, H5N1 (bird flu), wildfire smoke, and irritants from industrial processes like oil refining.
Art kits are made up of three components:
Zines, art materials and personal protective equipment (PPE)
Art kit Building Party
Each Art Kit Building Party takes about 3-4 hours and is led by WePress staff, along with 2-5 peer workers and board members or volunteers, who work together to assemble the kits in a way that accommodates everyone’s needs before sharing a meal together.
Distribution
Once the kits are completed, they are distributed through partner organizations such as VANDU, Aboriginal Front Door, Watari, and the Vancouver Aboriginal Community Policing Centre, as well as directly by wagon, on foot, or at community events like CRAB Park gatherings.
COMMUNITY WORKSHOPS
Free and accessible workshops
This program provides a paid opportunity for queer, low-income, BIPOC, disabled and/or neurodivergent artists to share their creative skills with residents of the Downtown Eastside (DTES) and other marginalized communities. Due to COVID-19, many of these workshops were moved online and in public spaces. However, we are now transitioning to offering workshops outdoors and encouraging participants to wear facemasks. These workshops are free to attend and serve as a way for communities to connect through art while also encouraging artists to explore and share new skills.
Past workshops have included:
Printmaking, drawing, zine-making, writing, and transcribing for non-auditory access, lino-cut printing, button-making, Peruvian sign-making, dancing.
Artists we collaborated with this past year:
Maria Cecilia Saba
Sarah Wong
Jotika Chaudhary
Jillian Christmas
Collaboration
These workshops are typically organized in collaboration with other non-profit or grassroots organizations, some of them are: VANDU, Watari, Powell Street Festival, Gallery Gachet, Yarrow Society.
SPECIAL PROJECTS
Radical Care Residency
2021-ONGOING
A low-barrier financial support for artists. Specifically for artists who focus on community care and for those who are excluded from traditional art spaces.
Community Kitchen
2020-2024
As a response to COVID-19, our programming focused towards making meals for residents of the DTES. WePress staff, volunteers and peer-workers would cook 200 meals per day.
What Bodies Know- Exhibition
2025
A group exhibition of artworks by three peer-workers of WePress. The exhibition is brought together in collaboration with the Surrey Art Gallery.
