Thank You!

A word from our Executive Director

I want to take a moment to thank you all for coming out and once again supporting Word Vancouver. It was an amazing day full of readings, panels, talks and loads of connection. Everywhere I turned people were bumping into old friends, making new connections and just being in community. The exhibitors stayed all day despite the chill in the air and kept talking and sharing and talking and sharing.

I know I keep thanking all those who brought this to you but it is important to me that you know our team because it truly is a team that made this grow this year.

Our guest curators, Michelle and Jen, who brought their unique perspectives to our rooms. Our new admin manager, Winston, who took on supporting and organizing all the exhibitors so late and aced it. Our marketing director, Alison, who always looks out for the best way to get the word out and grow our presence. Becca, who designed our website and made every single change asked right up to and including the day of. Yan, who designed every single piece of paper, sign and banner. Farah, our volunteer coordinator, who got all of you who came out to help us organized and on task. Barb, our outdoor production manager, who made sure every little thing was right where it should be, overseeing all the movements of chairs, tents and tables and, most importantly, the poetry tent mic.

A special shout out to our board of directors who stepped up to help with it all. They are dedicated people and I hope you had a chance to meet them all. Mary-Ann, Jacob, Taslim, Todd, David and Mary. To all the volunteers who got up early and stayed late, we wouldn’t be here without you.

Finally, on that note, while we want to end on a high, it is a sad reality that organizations like ours have been hit by huge funding cuts and are struggling to stay alive. We are no different. This year as we programmed and planned we watched grant after grant disappear. What does it mean?

It means that in the end, we come up short. We are putting it out to all of you with a final ask to help us finish off this year with a bang. Every donation between $10 and $30 would make all the difference to not just keeping this free but also allowing us to finish on a positive note. We know not everyone can afford to donate and we respect that but for those that can, we feel we bring an amazing amount of programming that would normally come with a ticket cost. We are passionate about creating access to the arts for everyone and we hope you will join us in continuing financially accessible arts programming in Vancouver for many years to come.

Dr. Bonnie Nish, Executive Director Word Vancouver