Art Connects: Tour and Conversation with Connie Watts at YVR Airport

Since pandemic restrictions began in March of 2020, the Vancouver Art Gallery has been hosting bi-monthly curator talks and tours online called the Art Connects series. The next virtual event will be a tour and conversation with Connie Watts at YVR Airport.

Tour and Conversation with Connie Watts at YVR Airport

When: January 14, 2021 at 2:00pm
Where: Online
Register: Online for free here

For this special Art Connects, viewers will go inside YVR’s Pacific Passage, a public art installation within one of the airport’s arrival gates that features the large-scale sculpture Hetux (2000).

I’ve chosen to highlight this particular event on its own as when I saw the listing, how much I really missed travel just really sunk in. There’s nothing like coming home through the Pacific Passage.

Hetux is Watts’ largest indoor sculptural work, and it greets guests and visitors to these unceded territories of the xʷməθkʷəyəm (Musqueam), Sḵwxwú7mesh (Squamish) and səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations. Named after Watt’s grandmother, this dramatic work represents the mythological Thunderbird—known as the keeper of the city—and shares knowledge and stories through motifs that can be deciphered through close looking.

Following this behind-the-scenes tour, Watts will speak to her multi-disciplinary art practice and how it relates to ideas of welcoming. She will also discuss how she chooses to share the stories that are carried through her ancestors.

This event will be moderated by Melissa Lee, Director of Public Programs, and Stephanie Bokenfohr, Public Programs Coordinator. Special thanks and gratitude to Kate Swaney of the Vancouver Airport Authority for helping to coordinate this program.

You can watch all 32 previous Art Connects events online for free.

About the Artist

Connie Watts is the Associate Director, Aboriginal Programs at Emily Carr University of Art + Design (“ECUAD”). She is an interdisciplinary artist, writer, curator, educator and designer of Nuu-chah-nulth, Gitxsan and Kwakwaka’wakw ancestry. Born and raised in Campbell River, Connie has a Bachelor of Interior Design from the University of Manitoba and a BFA from ECUAD.