Contributed by Vania Huang

Our 12th Annual INCLUSION Art Show has come to an end, and we’d like to thank everyone for your participation and support. This two-day event was held on October 26th and 27th at Heritage Hall, and provided local artists with a wonderful opportunity to not only show case their artwork, but also demonstrate the ability of art to transcend and break down barriers and perceptions of disability. This year, we featured over 900 pieces of artwork crafted by 250 artists from around the Lower Mainland!

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On the first night, guests had begun to trickle into Heritage Hall before the doors were officially open! The building was soon filled with the sounds of laughter and chatter as people milled about enjoying art, music, refreshments and the exciting promises of the silent auction located downstairs. A highlight of the night was definitely Katheryn, our guest musician who performed pop hits live on the accordion! Spirits were high, and many of the artists were present to show off and discuss their art.

Thursday was a new day filled with smiling faces both familiar and new as we opened our doors at 11am to once again welcome our guests. The fun-packed itinerary included raffle prizes drawn on the hour, live art demonstrations, and more silent auction items. A special congratulations to Jessica, the winner of our #IASContest, who is pictured here with the free art piece of her choice! The day flew by in a whirlwind of colours, and the evening was slightly bittersweet as we said our goodbyes at 7pm.

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Our 12th Annual INCLUSION Art Show had an amazing turnout, and we have a multitude of people to thank for that.

First off, we would like to extend a warm thank you to our lovely sponsors the BCGEU and Rona for their support, as well as the following individuals and businesses who made our silent auction possible:

  • Beautiful Life Studios, Vancouver
  • Bobacabana
  • Everything Wine
  • HealingPausePaws
  • Katheryn Peterson
  • Pacific Breeze Winery
  • Pickering Safety
  • PotteryWorks
  • Safeway, Lougheed Mall
  • Shoppers Drug Mart, Centrepoint
  • Starbucks, Highgate Village and Sapperton
  • The Body Shop, Lougheed Mall
  • Vancouver Whitecaps FC
  • Westwood Plateau Golf & Country Club

We would also like to thank our Art Show planning committee and volunteers for all their hard work in making this such a successful event. Of course, we can’t forget our posAbilities staff members and each and every one of the talented artists whom we had the pleasure of having at our show. Finally, we’d like to thank those of you who attended our art show and maybe even purchased an art piece or two!

We hope you enjoyed the show as much as we did, and we would love to see you again next year – in the meantime, share your photos from the art show on Instagram and hashtag #InclusionArtShow for a chance to be featured on our page! Follow this link to see more photos from the show.