At the heart of Shared Territories are the 2023 YVR Art Foundation Emerging Artist Scholarship recipients, a cohort of seven Indigenous artists whose works were exhibited at the Vancouver International Airport over the past year. Of these seven artists, four are Yukon First Nations. Their stories were carried from the North to the coast, and now home once more as we are honoured to share these works with the Territory.
The 2023 Emerging Artist Scholarship recipients are Mathew Andreatta (Qualicum and Musqueam), Olivia Cox (Teslin Tlingit), Karra MacIntosh (Kwanlin Dün), Shaina Richelle Stephens (Nisga’a), Dustin Sheldon (Teslin Tlingit), and Eila Vallevand (Kwanlin Dün), along with Mid-Career Artist Recipient, Jody Sparrow (Musqueam).
Recognizing the many years of connection between Yukon First Nations artists and the YVR Art Foundation, Shared Territories gathers a few past scholarship holders: Violet Gatensby, Jared Kane, Adanchilla Pauls Lepine, and Teresa Vander Meer-Chassé into conversation with the 2023 cohort. Many of these artists have shared that their scholarships strengthened their practice and offered their first opportunity to show work beyond the Territory.
Across beadwork, carving, painting, film, and textile, the works gathered here speak to home places, to the people who guide us, to the stories we inherit and carry forward. They remind us that art is not separate from community but woven through it, held in the land, and in the shared territories of culture and creation.
Founded in 1993 by the Vancouver International Airport, the YVR Art Foundation is an independent charitable organization dedicated to supporting the development and advancement of BC and Yukon First Nation artists. Through scholarships, grants, and opportunities for exhibition and research, the Foundation fosters artistic growth, cultural resurgence, and community connection.
Artwork in image: Jared Kane, Raven and Creek Mother, Yukon Permanent Art Collection.
