Vernon’s Caetani Cultural Centre is hosting a free workshop, intended to be “a conversation about being human and doing better.”
Romi Kim, Caetani Centre’s current artist-in-residence, will lead the workshop on August 22. Topics of the workshop will include explorations of racial stereotypes and discussions on how people can come together to foster a more inclusive society.
“As a second-generation Korean-Canadian queer person, I’m continuously questioning how I see myself and how others see me. I spent my pubescent years in Armstrong, the population of Koreans being just my family,” said Kim.
Kim’s background has led her to search for stories of belonging to explain society and its hierarchies. She searches through histories of the Caetani house in addition to her work as an artist.
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As an artist, Kim’s work is a blend of video, installation and performance. After spending two years in South Korea she’s returned to her old home in Armstrong, where she now does a performance piece involving walking the streets in full drag, wearing a hand-made paper gown inspired by the dress of Sveva Caetani.
(Sveva Caetani was a renowned Italian-Canadian artist who emigrated to Canada in 1921, and whose former home on Pleasant Valley Road is now the Cultural Centre.).
Kim obtained her Bachelor of Fine Arts at the University of Victoria in W̱SÁNEĆ and Lekwungen peoples territories in a double major of Visual Arts and Gender Studies. She was awarded one of Caetani Cultural Centre’s two-month artist-in-residence spots.
The free workshop and potluck takes place Thursday, August 22 from 5 to 7 p.m. in the Caetani Centre’s Studio Gallery at 3401 Pleasant Valley Road in Vernon.
For more information please visit www.caetani.org or contact the Caetani Centre at 250-275-1525.