By Carol Thorbes

Visual arts graduand Andrea Creamer hails from the small town of Ladysmith, British Columbia.

But her passion for making art accessible to disadvantaged communities and creating art that incites public discussion is creating a big footprint for community engagement in Vancouver’s downtown eastside.

After completing a community recreation diploma program at Langara College, Creamer worked on literacy programs for new immigrants and Aboriginal people through 2010 Legacies Now.

The experience exposed her to discussions about art and public spaces, hosted by SFU’s School of Communication, and ignited her five-year study of relational aesthetics, also called socially engaged art practice, at the School for the Contemporary Arts.

The field marries the study of art history and art creation with meaningful social engagement to spark social and economic improvement at a community grassroots level.

Along the way, Creamer began volunteering with the Vancity Office of Community Engagement at SFU Woodward’s, assisting with Contemporary Arts 101 and Journalism 101.

Offered in conjunction with community partners, these courses, respectively, engage downtown eastside residents directly with artists through a speaker series and help them acquire writing and reporting skills that they parlay into published work.

Creamer’s relentless questioning of people’s socio-political experience of public places and what she views as governments’ colonial-based regulation of public and private property inspired her to pepper several Vancouver parks with her trademark art. 

Her strategically placed vinyl text installations, posters and other graphic work seek to encourage passersby to contemplate the ironies and paradoxes underlying many municipal park regulations. 

“I often find myself exploring political and social justice conversations of space, land, language and commodity culture,” says Creamer. “For example, why are there physical barriers in parks that often prevent people from comfortably sitting on a park bench that invites them to enjoy their scenic surroundings?”

Visual arts professor Sabine Bitter says Creamer exemplifies student engagement at its best.

“I am sure that we will hear of Andrea's work for many years and that she will make a place for herself within Canadian art.”