TIN CAN STUDIO BLOG

Oh hi! We are Caroline & Jenny and we run Tin Can Studio, a mobile project space housed in a vintage 18ft Streamline trailer. Our fully mobile portable studio has been designed to transform to accommodate a variety of creative activities, and acts as a incubator, a hub, and an event space. We love to transform and pop-up in unexpected locations, where we can engage with a diversity of communities. www.tincanstudio.org

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We had a great day with the students at Windsor House School (aka Coywolves) last Friday, binding books in our mobile project space and exploring Cates Park in North Van. We’re stoked - we will be spending every second Friday with these new friends making art inspired by nature. Thanks to Artstarts for making it all possible!

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Culture Days - Port Moody, BC

Last weekend we were invited to participate in culture days at the Port Moody Arts Centre. It was an incredibly beautiful sunny fall day, and it was really nice to see the community come out to see the creative demos and activities inside and around the centre. 

We were there to show our space, and to talk about the possibility of Tin Can Studio running programs in and around Port Moody next summer. While we were there, local artist Jane Appleby immortalized us in oil paint. We met some really kind and supportive people while we were there, it really felt like being in a tight knit community. Hope to see you next summer, Port Moody!

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VIVA VANCOUVER 

Granville & W Georgia

We had a super fun day hosting an open studio and drawing session using our chalkboard walls. We asked passersby to participate in a collaborative chalk mural based on something we can all relate to - favorite delicious snacks. We had a great time chatting with the public about their drawings and all the delicious things there are to eat. Thanks for having us VIVA!

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Summer at Deer Lake Park

Oh hello!

Today we begin our summer-long project at Deer Lake Park as park of the Burnaby Art Gallery's public programming. This is our biggest project to date and we're so excited to roll it out and see what happens as we encourage park goers and participants to MAKE, MOVE, CONNECT & DISCOVER as they move around and explore the park and surrounding area. 

For our opening our ceremony we circumnavigated the lake and tried to get a physical sense of the space we've been thinking about for so many months.

We'll be moving around the park and experimenting with different locations throughout the summer, so if you can't see us right away have a little look around. 

For more information about the project click here. To follow our progress check out our SUMMER AT DEER LAKE PARK BLOG. And for a full schedule of events click here.

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the Nickersons + Fox & Flourish + Tin Can = AWESOME!

We were so excited to be invited by Sarah of the photography duo the Nickersons to participate alongside the super talented calligrapher Christina Luo of Fox & Flourish in a workshop give-away as part of the launch of the Nickerson's new website.

With a view of the city and the setting sun at John Rogers Park, Sarah and Christina put together an amazing afternoon for the lucky winners, complete with a lovely starter calligraphy kit, expert instruction and delicious treats. 

Such beautiful images, Sarah. Thanks to both of you for putting together this amazing day.

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Social Innovation Week / FUEL / 100 in 1 day

We are pleased to have been able to attend FUEL and the wrap up of Vancouver's social innovation week! Teaming up with 100in1dayVancouver we invited FUEL participants and attendees at Connect Vancouver at the MOV this Saturday to share their hopes, thoughts, ideas, images and words for the city in the form of a paper crane, all of which will be installed on June 7th for 100in1day. We had a great time connecting and having conversations about how we can collectively reimagine Vancouver, and got really excited hearing about what people care about.

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The Campfire Project

We were super pleased to present the CAMPFIRE BOOTH at the Yale Town Farmer's market this weekend, as part of the Museum of Vancouver's (MOV) Neighbourmaker project. 

The Neighbourmaker project is a public program and design challenge that supports and encourages artists, activists, students, designers, and members of the public to design experiences in public spaces to help build social connectedness.

(The Campfire Project team L-R: Peggy Wong, Robert Morton & Stuart Dow)

For this project, a team of CityStudio students were granted the space and small budget to create a "Campfire Booth", which offered a "campfire experience" complete with the warm glow of a (faux) fire, a starry sky, and even s'mores! The idea, part of a larger project called The Campfire Project, was to initiate a dialogue around creating legal fire pits at select public beaches.

Some great images of the event can be found here.

Thanks to the entire team at the MOV, City Studio and of course Peggy, Robert and Stuart for putting this together. What a great afternoon!

Here's to starting a conversation, to meeting our neighbours and to campfires on city beaches!

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MOBILE CIVIC RENEWAL LAB - JAM

We were honoured to be asked to speak to the Vancouver Design Nerds at the Mobile Civic Renewal Lab Jam, their most recent design jam about mobile spaces and pop-up intervention sites. The design nerds host these regular events, as well as being the brains behind a few of Vancouver's most interesting and innovative projects including the Hive and the Car Park.

At this design jam, the focus was on exploring possibilities around building a mobile space as a tool for civic engagement. One day, they'd like to see this project come to life under the moniker of the Civic Renewal Lab. It was fun to give our two cents on running our own mobile space, our design process and the opportunities and challenges that have arisen over our time with Tin Can Studio. 

Thanks for having us, Design Nerds!

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VIVO OPEN HOUSE

ViVO Media Arts is an important part of Vancouver's cultural landscape, and one of Canada's earliest artist-run centres in operation since 1973. When VIVO's production technical coordinator, John Brennan, asked if we wanted to participate in their upcoming open house, we jumped at the chance.

For this event, John used our studio to create an interactive installation - installing a computer and mixing board in the studio. Throughout the evening performances happening simultaneously in various spaces inside VIVO were fed into the mixing board in the Tin Can, which was parked right outside the front door on Main street. The public were invited to come and put on some headphones, and mix all those performances into a longer track that was being recorded. We even hosted some of the performances in the Tin Can alongside the installation - plus had lots of friends drop by for fun times.  In fact, we think we might have broken our capacity record, with a whopping 19 people inside the space!  

More info about who performed at the event can be found here: http://www.vivomediaarts.com/vivo-at-large-open-house/.  

The Open House on March 28 was held to thank the larger community that supports the space and bring attention to the recent sad news that VIVO is being forced to leave its current long held location.

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ARTIST PROFILE : Hillary Webb

Meet Hillary Web!

Though Hillary is a recent transplant to Vancouver, she already feels like an old friend and we’re thrilled she’ll be participating in our workshops this winter leading the Tattoo Inspired Embroidery Workshops.    

You are new to Vancouver, welcome! How has your experience been so far? I am thankful everyday for how great my first year in Vancouver has been, particularly for the communities I’ve found and the friendships I’ve forged. I start each workday by bombing down Ontario Street on my bike and the view of the mountains blows me away every time. Because I work at Emily Carr I’m surrounded by inspiring people and projects, and in many cases those people have introduced me to a creative culture in the city that would have taken ages for me to discover on my own. I try to keep myself incredibly busy and love meeting new people, so my first year here has been hectic in the best way - very social, very creative, and very challenging.

Can you tell us a little about your work? What draws you to thread and stitching? 

I’ve been making embroidered art for nearly 10 years, since studying textiles at the Ontario College of Art and Design. My first attempts at needlework were in my teens when my father and grandmother taught me how to smock. My great-grandmother Grace moved to Toronto from England in 1919 and started a smocking school and smocking supply company. The company was passed down to my grandmother Doris, and then to my father who still sells fabric, lace, patterns and books. Using textiles as my creative medium seemed like such a natural choice. My grandmother continued embroidering into her 90’s and we loved sharing our stitching projects with each other. The process of my work consists of using natural dyes on vintage textiles, staining these with beeswax, then drawing and stitching on the fabric. Recently I’ve started embroidering through vintage postcards and photographs. This is an exciting new direction I’m going to experiment with for my next body of work. 

We are loving your illustrations for the kits… What inspires you about tattoo imagery?

 I wanted to create a series of drawings that were playful and meaningful. I’ve always been a fan of tattoos, even when I was a kid. I now have a few and am drawn to some of the traditional designs. I see the shaking hands as a symbol of friendship and honesty, and the knot tied to the finger symbolizes the act remembering. The chicken was inspired by Mexican Day of the Dead illustrations and my two beautiful backyard hens. The ‘hello’ font was inspired by the fabulous typography books in the Emily Carr Library. Lettering is one of my favourite things to doodle and I thought it would be really fun to stitch.

THANKS HILLARY!!!