Staff
MOROTI GEORGE (He/They)
Director/Curator
Olumoroti Soji-George (Moroti George), is a MA candidate at SFU’s School for the Contemporary Arts and a curator living in Vancouver. His research and curatorial practice revolves around envisioning accessible and community-centred art spaces, highlighting the stories of individuals in communities who shape and create new monumental environments. Moroti believes in using space to encapsulate agency and the lived experiences of individuals who are not only recognized, but valued and respected.
AsDirector/Curator at Gallery Gachet, Moroti fosters connections between the DTES, the Vancouver art scene, and the rest of Canada. Moroti aims to mentor early career and underrepresented artists, to support them in exhibition and to ground their work in a pedagogy that furthers their stories and shares their profound experiences through their art. Moroti’s socially engaged programming is a testament to Gachet’s mandate to find space in this city to make art accessible and strengthen community through compassion and activism.
VIVIENNE BESSETTE (They/Them)
Membership and Exhibitions Director
My name is Vivienne, I am a queer interdisciplinary artist and community organizer. I am a settler of (French, Croatian, Irish) & Métis descent from Red River and Cayer Manitoba on the lands of Cree (Nehiyaw) and Anishnaabe in Treaty 1 and 2. After earning a BFA from Simon Fraser University I joined multiple art collaborations, my friendships and community have been the studio of shelter, comfort, family, joy and fighting for Landback on stolen and unceded territories of the xwməθkwəy̓əm, Sḵwx̱wú7mesh and səlí̓lwətaʔɬ Nations.
My art practice shifts in and out of the studio, the garden, the kitchen, the bed, the street, and the notebook. I am passionate about plants and cooking for friends. I am neurodivergent and have always struggled with how current arts and academic institutions use written language as a measure of intelligence. This impacts my personal practice and pushes me to open up alternative avenues for folks to learn how to make these systems more accessible, supporting the work they are doing as artists and in their communities.
Over the past 15 years it’s been my honor to organize with a lot of amazing people here in the DTES and across the city. Fighting for tenants rights with The Vancouver Tenants Union taught me about the legal system that governs tenants in B.C and the importance of strong community connections when we fight those systems. Working towards drug user liberation at VANDU taught me about how civil disobedience and direct action can change violent & unjust laws.
SOL HASHEMI (He/Him)
Communications Director
Sol Hashemi views his artworks as mushrooms popping up occasionally from a vast mycorrhizal web. His practice spans many niches, including foraging, experimental product photography, stoneworking, cooking, organizing, conceptual floral design, writing, curating, brewing, and the internet. His exhibitions include Henry Art Gallery (Seattle), James Harris Gallery (Seattle), Annarumma Gallery (Naples), Sculpture Center (Long Island City, NY), Ditch Projects (Springfield, OR), Portland Art Museum, Kunstverein München, as well as the NW Flower and Garden Show (Seattle). Hashemi received his MFA from the University of British Columbia (2021), BFA from the University of Washington (2009). He was a co-founder of Veronica (Seattle) and is a recipient of the Kayla Skinner Award from the Seattle Art Museum. His book, Excerpt from Baker’s Dozen, was recently published by Artspeak (Vancouver, BC).
SOPHIA SANTOS ENGLISH (She/They)
YCW Curatorial Assistant
Sophia Santos English is a filmmaker, emerging curator, writer & digital alchemist based in ‘Vancouver, BC’ working on the traditional unceded territories of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm, Sḵwx̱wú7mesh, and səlilwətaɬ Nations. She is currently in the process of graduating from Simon Fraser University in 2024 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in the Film Production Program. Her work investigates her Filipino heritage through family archives and community memory; calling upon the magic of the moving image to uncover the visible/invisible in our daily diasporic ecosystems. She draws connections to the land, body, sea, and family, as a foundational structure through which she frames her practice.
