Speaker Series
Our Speaker Series Program delivers dynamic public engagement through a wide variety of formats, including exhibition panel talks, cultural conversations with guest curators and artists, field insights from designers and architects, and deep dives into personal creative processes from contemporary artists.
Upcoming , 1 event
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Art Education, For Life: Reflections from Omer Arbel
Doors 6 PM, talk begins 6:30 PM.
Co-founder and Creative Director of Bocci and founder of Omer Arbel Office (OAO), Omer Arbel’s wide-ranging career offers a reflection on the lasting influence of creative education on his practice, which moves fluidly between architecture, sculpture, industrial design and materials research.
Trained in architecture, Arbel's approach is grounded in critical inquiry, spatial awareness, and experimentation. His work reflects the broader premise of Art Education, for Life: that early engagement with art and creative education are not simply preparation for a particular profession, but a way of approaching ideas, materials and problems over a lifetime. Through sustained experimentation with glass, concrete, metals, and light, Arbel demonstrates how curiosity and craft can form the foundation of an evolving creative practice.
This conversation offers audiences a rare opportunity to hear directly from Arbel about the experiences that have shaped that practice. Reaching back into childhood, he will reflect on formative encounters with art and making, and consider how they may have informed the interests, instincts and obsessions that continue to surface in his work today. For artists, designers, students and anyone curious about the creative process, the talk offers an inside look at what it means to build a life around inquiry, making and experimentation.
Past talks
Artistic Approaches in Dialogue: Responses to Jack Shadbolt: Alex Gibson, Chantal Gibson, moderated by curator Andrea Valentine-Lewis
June 6, 2026
We invite you to join us for a compelling conversation that brings contemporary artistic voices into dialogue with the legacy of Jack Shadbolt. Artistic Approaches in Dialogue: Responses to Jack Shadbolt centres on the creative processes and research practices of two artists featured in One Hundred Artists Deep: Alex Gibson and Chantal Gibson (no relation). Both artists undertook deep engagement with selected works by Shadbolt from the Gordon Smith Gallery & Artists for Kids Permanent Collection, drawing from their distinct histories, identities, and artistic practices.
Through their sculptural responses, Alex and Chantal offer expanded perspectives on Shadbolt’s work and its resonance in 2026. Moderated by Curatorial Fellow Andrea Valentine-Lewis, this panel talk invites audiences to consider how contemporary art responds to artistic legacy not as something fixed, but as material to be questioned, reshaped, and revalued in the present.
Art Education, For Life: Fashion, Cultural Memory, and Design as Living Practice in conversation with Rebecca Baker-Grenier
May 2, 2026
Join designer Rebecca Baker-Grenier in conversation for an afternoon exploring fashion as a form of cultural knowledge, creative inheritance, and contemporary expression. Grounded in regalia-making, material practice, and intergenerational learning, this talk considers how design can carry identity, memory, and responsibility forward. Through a discussion of process, visibility, and the evolving language of Indigenous fashion, the conversation asks what art education makes possible over the course of a life.
Art Education Unveiled: Perspectives from Prevailing Landscapes
May 9, 2024
Facilitated by Andrew Booth, Vancouver Art Blog (external site) founder
Join exhibiting artists and educators Stan Douglas, Ian Wallace and Karen Zalamea as they discuss the intricate relationship between art and education. This first installment of our new Speaker Series will offer a rare glimpse into the minds of artists who are shaping the landscapes of contemporary art and molding the future of artistic expression through their roles as educators.