Public Dreams Society was a non-profit organization and registered charity to celebrate and strengthen community spirit in Vancouver. It was founded in 1985 by Dolly Hopkins, Paula Jardine and Lesley Fiddler. It promoted creative expression, turning passive consumption into active participation, and the experience of belonging within a community.
Its stated mission was to:
Create artistically, innovative, culturally inclusive and environmentally sensitive productions
Encourage creative collaborations and build fellowship among diverse communities
Foster the fertile ground necessary to create and enhance community vitality
Provide economic opportunities for local artists, communities and businesses
The Society disbanded in 2013, issuing the following message:
Goodnight and Good Luck, Vancouver!
For over 25 years, Public Dreams has been a forerunner in Vancouver’s cultural landscape, creating inspired original frameworks for the community to gather and share unforgettable creative experiences. As 2013 draws to a end, Public Dreams also joyfully announces its closure and takes a much needed rest knowing it achieved what it set out to do—connect communities through creativity. With this closure the current society membership and board sends endless gratitude to all who have helped it during its long life as one of Vancouver’s leading arts charities: founders, board members, artistic directors, producers, administrators, volunteers and more. Additionally, a very special thank you goes out to the people of Vancouver, for participating in all of the events Public Dreams has produced. The community’s involvement was the true magic and heart of the organization. And don’t fear—the legacy of Public Dreams will continue, with their two flagship signature events, Illuminares and Parade of Lost Souls being stewarded to other like-minded and very capable organizations. Watch for news of these in the coming months, we trust that the public will continue to support Illuminares and Parade of Lost Souls for years to come.
Artistic freedom can be defined as "the freedom to imagine, create and distribute diverse cultural expressions free of governmental censorship, political interference or the pressures of non-state actors." Generally, artistic freedom describes the extent of independence artists obtain to create art freely. Moreover, artistic freedom concerns "the rights of citizens to access artistic expressions and take part in cultural life - and thus [represents] one of the key issues for democracy." The extent of freedom indispensable to create art freely differs regarding the existence or nonexistence of national instruments established to protect, to promote, to control or to censor artists and their creative expressions. This is why universal, regional and national legal provisions have been installed to guarantee the right to freedom of expression in general and of artistic expression in particular. In 2013, Ms Farida Shaheed, United Nations special rapporteur to the Human Rights Council, presented her "Report in the field of cultural rights: The right to freedom of expression and creativity" providing a comprehensive study of the status quo of, and specifically the limitations and challenges to, artistic freedom worldwide. In this study, artistic freedom "was put forward as a basic human right that went beyond the 'right to create' or the 'right to participate in cultural life'." It stresses the range of fundamental freedoms indispensable for artistic expression and creativity, e.g. the freedoms of movement and association. "The State of Artistic Freedom" is an integral report published by arts censorship monitor Freemuse on an annual basis.
The Punjabi Market, also known as Little Punjab or Little India, is a commercial district and ethnic enclave in Vancouver, British Columbia. Officially recognized by the city as being primarily a major South Asian, Indo-Canadian and Punjabi population business community and cultural area, the Punjabi District is roughly a six block section of Main Street around 49th Avenue in the Sunset neighbourhood, named after its historically large Punjabi Sikh population.
Chicanismo is the ideology behind the Chicano Movement. It is an ideology based on a number of important factors that helped shape a social uprising in order to fight for the liberties of Mexican Americans. Chicanismo was shaped by a number of intellectuals and influential activists as well as by the artistic and political sphere, and the many contributors to the ideology collaborated to create a strong sense of self-identity within the Chicano community. Cultural affirmation became one of the main methods of developing Chicanismo. This cultural affirmation was achieved by bringing a new sense of nationalism for Mexican Americans, drawing ties to the long-forgotten history of Chicanos in lands that were very recently Mexican, and creating a symbolic connection to the ancestral ties of Mesoamerica and the Nahuatl language.
Glasgay! Festival was a gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender arts festival in Glasgow, Scotland.
Community art, also known as social art, community-engaged art, community-based art, and, rarely, dialogical art, is the practice of art based in and generated in a community setting. It is closely related to social practice and social turn. Works in this form can be of any media and are characterized by interaction or dialogue with the community. Professional artists may collaborate with communities which may not normally engage in the arts. The term was defined in the late 1960s as the practice grew in the United States, Canada, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, Ireland, and Australia. In Scandinavia, the term "community art" more often refers to contemporary art projects.
The Philippine Independence Day Parade, in New York City, the world’s largest outside the Philippines, takes place annually in the United States along Madison Avenue in the Manhattan borough. The parade is held on the first Sunday in June. Its main purpose is to create awareness of Philippine culture and to raise funds for charity projects in the Philippines and the United States.
Illuminares is an annual lantern festival formerly held every summer in John Hendry Park in east Vancouver.
Jeunesses Musicales International (JMI) is the largest youth music non-governmental organisation in the world, created in Brussels, Belgium in 1945, with the mission to "enable young people to develop through music across all boundaries". JMI has established four priority activity fields: Young Musicians, Young Audiences, Youth Empowerment and Youth Orchestras & Ensembles.
The Barbados Land-ship is a cultural movement and organization, known for its entertaining parades, performances and dances. Members are said to mimic the British Navy, dressed in naval uniforms and marching and performing to the music of the Tuk band. However, it is a lot more than entertainment. The organization was started in the island of Barbados after Emancipation, by the earliest plantation workers of African Descent to help them develop socially and economically. The Barbados Land-ship Association is the umbrella body and is essentially a Friendly Society. Each community had a Land-ship. It is based on a cooperative system, operating within communities and providing common services to them. The Land-ship, as it is locally known, has been an oral tradition handed down from members to members from the time of its establishment in 1863. It is held among the ranks of Barbados' cultural symbols such as the "Mudda Sally" and the "Shaggy Bear", but in much more esteem as a "cultural icon unique to Barbados". It is thought that the Land-ship existed long before it became officially established and that the ways of the Land-ship were practiced within the plantation communities of African slaves long before Emancipation Day. This would account for the interpretation of Land-ship maneuvers as re-enactments of the Middle Passage, an experience that would have been embedded into the minds of the first shipments of enslaved Africans to Barbados. During the latter part of slavery, slaves were bred and the plantations had very little need for imported slaves.
The Vancouver Pride Parade and Festival is an annual LGBT Pride event, held each year in Vancouver, British Columbia, to celebrate lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people and their allies. It is run by the Vancouver Pride Society (VPS), a not-for-profit, volunteer-run organization that seeks to "produce inclusive, celebratory events, and advocacy for LGBTQAI2S+". Vancouver's Pride Parade is the largest parade of any kind in Western Canada.
The Carnival Band is a marching band and community orchestra based in the Commercial Drive area of East Vancouver, Canada. It is a part of the Activist Street Band movement, which is best known in the United States through the HONK! festivals.
The Parade of Lost Souls, is an annual event in Vancouver organized by Dusty Flowerpot Cabaret, which took over in 2013 from the Public Dreams Society. It takes place in East Vancouver, at a secret location disclosed the night before. It occurs the Saturday closest to Halloween. Though it is an annual event, it did not occur in 2005 due to logistical concerns.
Luton International Carnival is a large carnival in Luton, Bedfordshire. The carnival is commissioned by Luton Borough Council and is artistically produced by UK Centre for Carnival Arts, which is based in Luton town centre.
Margo Gwendolyn Kane is a Cree-Saulteaux performing artist and writer known for her solo-voice or monodrama works Moonlodge and Confessions of an Indian Cowboy, as well as her work with Full Circle First Nations Performance.
The Cinematheque, founded in 1972, is a Canadian charity and non-profit film institute, media education centre, and film exhibitor based in Vancouver, British Columbia.
World Culture Open (WCO) is a non-profit organization that promotes cultural diversity and unprejudiced cultural exchange around the globe. WCO has its regional offices in New York City, Seoul, and Beijing.
The Stanley Park Ecology Society (SPES) is a non-profit organization founded in 1988 that works alongside of the Vancouver Board of Parks and Recreation to promote stewardship and conservation in Stanley Park. The park is an urban oasis located in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada and is important because it adds value to the city while providing environmental and cultural benefits. With an abundance of wildlife, the Stanley Park Ecology Society protects the species of Stanley Park through conservation.
The Freedom Theatre is a Palestinian community-based theatre and cultural center in the Jenin refugee camp in the northern part of the West Bank.
All Souls Weekend is an event in Tucson, Arizona. It draws on Mesoamerican, Spanish Roman Catholic, and Mexican rituals, incorporating many diverse cultural traditions with the common goal of honoring and remembering the deceased.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
