Staff

Eric Lesage – membership and facilities

Eric Lesage is an interdisciplinary artist, occasional writer and constant factotum. Lesage was Artistic Director of the artist-run center La Maison des artistes in Winnipeg. Lesage’s practice is interested in the intersection of craft and conceptual art. Ideas of labour and handmade objects have led Lesage to engage in process based installations, performance, assemblage and site specific interventions. He has exhibited at the Winnipeg Art Gallery and Raw: Gallery of Architecture and Design, and most recently in Make: Alter:Repeat at the Comox Valley Art Gallery. He also collaborated with the ITWÉ Collective on their site specific installation MANIFESTIPI. He has written reviews for aceart inc’s Paperwait and for Liaison. He has also served on the Board of Directors of l’AGAVF and of CARFAC BC and CARFAC National.

volunteer@gachet.org

Eileen Stephens – finance and administration

Eileen is Gallery Gachet’s operations manager. Eileen has worked with non-profit boards of directors as support staff, as a director, and as an officer. She is a former director of the Vancouver Poetry House, was a founding member of the Toronto chapter of 100,000 Poets for Change, and was a community consultant for designing the Arbutus Greenway. Eileen’s education in media studies and visual arts informs her practice in bookmaking, printmaking, and text art.

operations@gachet.org

Kendra Place – programming

Kendra Place is a writer and artist. She has written essays, reviews, and parallel texts for C Magazine, Fuse, Artspeak, and Platform Centre for Photographic + Digital Arts. Her artwork, based in photography, video, performance, and writing, has been presented at NGTVSPC, Plug In ICA, Gallery 111, aceartinc, La Maison Rouge, Le Musée international des arts modestes, and the Leonard & Bina Ellen Art Gallery. Her research has been supported by arts residencies with Public Preparation and Est-Nord-Est, as well as grants from the arts councils of Winnipeg, Manitoba, and Canada. Kendra studied histories of art and architecture and critical theory in formal and informal contexts. As one-third of the Free Associates collective, she completed a two-year curatorial mentorship program with MAWA, a feminist art centre in Winnipeg, Treaty 1. She has worked with artist-run centres, community groups, and collectives as a coordinator, volunteer, organizer, curator, editor, and assistant.

programming@gachet.org

Veronique West – Programming Associate

Veronique is an artist, educator, and administrator, with a background in theatre/performance. Her practice, informed by her lived experience, focuses on the intersections of art, mental health and social justice. She has worked with Playwrights Theatre Centre, the Downtown Eastside Neighbourhood House, Magnetic North Festival, Arts Club, Boca del Lupo, Theatre Conspiracy, Neworld Theatre, South Asian Arts Society, and Gateway Theatre, among others. She is the recipient of a Playwrights Theatre Centre Associates residency and BC Arts Council Early Career Development grant, as well as a winner of Tarragon Theatre’s 20/20 Playwriting Competition. She has provided mental health peer support through the Looking Glass Foundation and the Vancouver Outsider Art Festival. As the Programming Associate at Gallery Gachet (a position made possible by a Canada Council for the Arts Professional Development grant), Veronique will project manage the 2019 Collective Show. She hopes to increase her capacity to support artists who are marginalized by their trauma, mental health and/or substance use experience. She is a settler of Polish descent, based on the unceded territories of the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh nations.

Sylwia Kisynska – communications and design

Sylwia is a graphic designer with a passion for photography and fine art. She developed her knowledge of art in Fine Art High School through to completing her Masters in Art History. Sylwia moved to Canada from Poland in 2006. She graduated from Design Essential program offered by British Columbia Institute of Technology and Emily Carr University of Art + Design in 2011. This program taught her how to use her background in Fine Arts to create various design solutions. Sylwia has been working at Gallery Gachet as a communications and design coordinator since 2011.

communications@gachet.org