From Indigenous burlesque and the swan song of an internationally acclaimed dancer, to non-binary drag and speculative theatre, the 2020 QAF has some artistic surprises up their sleeve.
Vancouver, BC—The COVID crisis and elevated racist violence has created an unprecedented situation which has seen many 2SLGBTQ+ people isolated without vital support structures. Queer art has helped keep our community connected during the age of social distancing.
To ensure that this audience can continue to get their queer arts fix, the 12th annual Queer Arts Festival (QAF) has been re-imagined as a festival to be experienced online, from a safe-ish distance.
Not all of this year’s QAF will be digital however, as the Artistic Director of the Festival SD Holman explains: “We are all hard at work developing how our programming delivery is going to look because it’s not all digital. One of the things that was vitally important to us is that not all people have computers, not all people have access to Wi-Fi, free internet at public libraries isn’t available as they are closed… if they don’t have a computer, how do we make the Festival accessible? How do we deliver a festival to everyone?”
Welcome to our WICKEDness! From “zines to screens”, #QAF2020 promises a queerly-digital-visual experience across varied platforms ensuring everyone the opportunity to participate in this year’s Queer Arts Festival. WICKED features streaming art tours, on-line presentations of the performances, installations throughout the city, and a hard copy QAF free Zine that encompasses the entire festival with artist and programming notes, behind the scenes commentary and extra art surprises for the reader!
From a digital standpoint, our 11 days of featured programming, which includes the opening visual arts exhibit/celebration/tour, theatre, dance, workshops and even burlesque, will bring our audiences into the heart of the action with a simple click of the mouse (or tap of the screen). Audience members will be able to interact with each other online while enjoying the show.
QAF’s Wicked revels in the quintessentially queer traditions of scandal and excess with visual art, performance, theatre, music, dance, and literary events and runs 11 days (July 16th – 26th 2020) via our digital hub. Event highlights and tickets (by donation) on our website at (www.queerartsfestival.com).
The Queer Arts Festival (QAF) is an annual artist-run professional multi-disciplinary arts festival in Vancouver, BC., that is recognized as one of the top 3 festivals of its kind worldwide. QAF produces, presents and exhibits with a curatorial vision favouring challenging, thought-provoking work that pushes boundaries and initiates dialogue. Each year, the festival theme ties together a curated visual art exhibition, performing arts series, workshops, artist talks, panels, and media art screenings. QAF’s programming has garnered wide acclaim as “concise, brilliant and moving” (Georgia Straight), “easily one of the best exhibitions of the year in Vancouver” (Vancouver Sun) and QAF was voted Vancouver’s “Best LGBTQ Event” in the 24th Annual Georgia Straight Best of Vancouver Readers Poll (2019).
