Artist in Residence
Kemi Craig has been selected as the 2022-2024 Artist in Residence
Victoria-based dancer and visual artist, Kemi Craig has been selected as the City’s third Artist in Residence. (Image credit: Cedar Coast Photography)
Kemi's Projects in Victoria
Current: Request for Sounds of Victoria
Each summer, CFUV 101.9 FM and the City of Victoria host Eventide, an all-ages, free concert series showcasing Victoria’s independent music scene.
This year Kemi Craig is asking for your help to create public art as part of her curated session at Eventide. Learn more here.
Past: Storefront Animation at 707 Douglas Street
In January 2023, Kemi will be curating video projections for a storefront space in downtown Victoria. The windows feature a series of video loops from a performance presented by Kemi entitled the space between.
Learn more about this storefront installation here.
Meet and Greet
The public was invited to meet Kemi Craig at a Meet and Greet event in the Antechambers at City Hall on Tuesday, November 22 at 6 p.m.. The free event featured an artist talk and demonstration from Kemi, as well as an opportunity for the community to ask questions.
About Kemi Craig
Through her lived experience as a woman of African descent, Kemi’s art utilizes dance, analogue and digital visual technologies to center experiences for people with racialized and gendered bodies. She is inspired by Black history and Afrofuturism, dance that expresses and augments what we do every day, DIY culture and by visual histories and pop cultural production.
Kemi is a graduate from the Emily Carr University of Art Design with a Masters degree in Fine Art. Since graduating she has exhibited and performed through local arts centers as well as across BC and Canada. Her film and video work has been exhibited at local galleries such as Legacy Art Gallery, Flux Gallery, the Ministry of Casual Living as well as the Victoria International Film Festival and Antimatter Media Arts Festival. She has worked with the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria and Xchanges Gallery as an artist educator/mentor and curator. For the past three years, Kemi has been the Artist in Residence with Dance Victoria, and has danced as a solo artist and company dancer local community events and shows and in a documentary about the experiences of local Black dancers. Most recently, she performed at the Art in the Open Contemporary Arts Festival in Charlottetown, PEI.
Her aim during her residency is to create multi-sensory, site-specific installations and performances, embedded with community and audience engagement. Kemi believes that it is important to share opportunities for the community to be involved in art making. “I am excited about the process of making art and working collaboratively to create performances that share agency with the other artists and create opportunities for audiences to participate by becoming activators and storytellers,” says Kemi. “The opportunity to serve as the Artist in Residence for the City of Victoria will assist me in bringing art to public spaces. I look forward to creating alongside you all.”
About the Artist in Residence Program
The Artist in Residence program aims to provide the opportunity for a professional artist to work collaboratively with City staff and the community to identify and develop creative artworks and projects, and augment capital projects over a two-year term.
The Artist in Residence is embedded in the City’s planning process, providing a unique creative and collaborative approach to enhance the value and aesthetic appeal of upcoming capital projects in Victoria, while broadening community involvement in the arts.
Previous Artist in Residence
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