Each location for FLEET will bring different contexts and opportunities for arts and culture programs. FLEET programs are guided by place, local community needs, and how to best advocate for and alongside ongoing arts and culture activities in each location. FLEET explores collaborative models for how the studios are used, engaged with, and activated over the course of the studio’s stay in a location.
Programs are delivered by a small team consisting of artists, arts workers, curators, planners, and architects. The team’s approach is to build and sustain responsive, respectful, and reciprocal relationships with artists, community partners, municipalities, and the public with a priority of removing and/or reducing systemic barriers to access FLEET as a resource.
The inaugural year of FLEET programming reflects these ongoing relationships through the lenses of care and community.
Upcoming Programs
Visiting Artist: Mohamed Assani
e are excited to welcome Mohamed Assani, who will be activating the FLEET studio in Edmonds Park from November 2024 - January 2025. While visiting, FLEET, Assani will be using the opportunity to write an original piece of music for the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra featuring sitar, tabla and full orchestra.
Visiting Artist: Jordan Hill
We are excited to welcome Jordan Hill to FLEET: Granville Island for an artist residency as part of the Emerging Indigenous Artist Residency Series! During his visit to FLEET, Jordan will be experimenting with an interactive new-media installation, interrogating the purpose of facade imagery used around urban development projects. Over the course of his residency he will develop sculptural structures equipped with monitors and vinyl that the public will be invited to interact with. Through the FLEETS studio on Granville Island, he hopes to further understand and recontextualize our relationship with public spaces and moments that otherwise discourage our critical attention.
Visiting Artist: Sidi Chen
We want to give a warm welcome to Sidi Chen, who will be activating the FLEET: Edmonds studio during January and April 2025. Sidi’s project at FLEET has two parts; in the winter they will invite the public to contribute rain vessels for a sound walk and recording project, and in the spring they will hold workshops creating home-made chalk using eggshells for a community mapping project.
Horta: Un-making/Re-making Workshops with Bianca Del Rio Kodato
Join Bianca Del Rio Kodato for a series of workshops invite participants to reconnect to the significance of food in their lives by coming together to share stories through the making of bags. The bags will be created through textile manipulation; by un-doing, and then re-binding, existing food bags (rice bags, coffee bags, onion bags, lime bags, etc.) into new re-contextualized bags. Participants are encouraged to manipulate the bags using techniques from their own lives, heritages and cultures, turning them into carriers of stories (as well as memories, traditions and dreams) of both the bags’ histories and the histories of the ones who are entwining them together.
Visiting Artist: Kay Slater
During Slater’s residency at FLEET: Edmonds in February 2025, they will explore the intersection of accessibility and digital innovation within public spaces using VR and AR technologies. Their work will focus on testing these technologies on public Wi-Fi, particularly how they can enhance wayfinding and interaction for d/Deaf/HoH and d/Disabled individuals. Additionally, they will engage the public to gather insights and feedback, refining the practical applications of these tools to create more inclusive cultural spaces. Concurrently, they will conduct their annual voice-off project, practicing non-verbal communication in public and community spaces. This initiative encourages hearing and verbal communities to explore non-aural engagement methods, promoting the visibility and validity of non-verbal, gestural, and signing interactions in public spaces. By doing so, they aim to demonstrate that verbal communication is not the only way to participate fully in community life.
Artist Talk: Jordan Hill
Join us for an artist talk with Jordan Hill during his artist residency at FLEET: Granville Island. This artist talk is free and open to the public, and will reflect on his visit to FLEET and his practice.
Visiting Artist: Adhoc Plots Collective
FLEET is excited to welcome artist collective Adhoc plots to FLEET: Edmonds over the winter and spring. Adhoc plots collective will gather together intermittently at FLEET: Edmonds over the next few seasons to work on a large basket sculpture that incorporates woven patchwork pieces made with plant waste and found materials. The materials used for this basket will be gleaned locally with care, and in consideration of the historical context of the place. We will invite the surrounding community to join us in the creation of this project, so keep an eye out for upcoming gleaning walks and weaving workshops in spring 2025.
Quilting Workshop with the Pacific Spirit Quilters' Guild
Join us for a quilting workshop with the Pacific Spirit Quilters' Guild on April 15, 2025 at FLEET: Edmonds. This workshop accompanies the pop-up exhibition Small Quilts in Small Spaces. Come and learn how to make your own small quilt block with fabric, paper, threads and glue. This workshop is designed for children (7+ years old); children must be accompanied by an adult. Everyone will have their own quilt block to take home.
