Facilitators
ERIN ALTOMARE (She / Her)
Peer Coordinator
Erin is an artist based in Vancouver, on the stolen unceded territories of the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh peoples. Erin’s art practice primarily centers around sound, photography, and performance. She created a show at the Remington called, “Show Was Great, No One Was There” as part of The Big Joy Festival (2014). Erin has helped organize and host various noise concerts at the Black Lab, Astoria, and other local venues, as well as touring Europe as half of the noise group Molena.
Erin has been a member of Gallery Gachet since 2013 and served on the board for many years. She is stepping into the Peer Coordinator role, orienting new members and volunteers so that they can find a way to contribute to the daily operations of the gallery.
INDIGO LAINAS (They / She / He)
XA Drop-in Facilitator
My name is Indigo Lainas, I am a queer, multi-disciplinary artist and facilitator living, making and working under my own name or the pseudonym Isabella Sprout on the unceded territories of the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh nations.
Currently I am focusing on co-facilitating Expressive Arts (XA) at Gallery Gachet, writing music and playing with my band, learning and making with textiles, experimenting in the kitchen, processing the world with photography, writing, comics, painting, community building and making zines about it all.
Having grown up in the small communities of the Gulf Islands (Saltspring, Mayne and Saturna), I find nature, caring for and connecting with the environment as well as community, and relationships to be recurring themes in my work and life. My art practices are strongly intertwined with bringing people together, and facilitation has always played a big role in my creative endeavours. I aim to bring others, especially those more marginalized than I, up with me in all that I do.
As well as working within the arts, I have been working with youth of all ages, as a preschool teacher and inclusion support worker, nanny, camp counselor, youth discussion group facilitator and my personal favourite, being an older sibling.
KATHERINE SOMODY (She / They)
XA Drop-in Facilitator
Katherine Somody is a dancer, artist, facilitator and mother. Her practice is rooted in the body, and its (our) potential for connection: to the land, to ourselves, and to each other. The moving body becomes a way of knowing, of inhabiting a highly circumscribed world in a new way: soft-bodied animals performing Parkour. As a dance facilitator, she is invested in cultivating physical autonomy in participants of all-bodies. Deep listening to our somatic experience as a radical and political action.
As XA facilitator at Gallery Gachet, Katherine prioritizes a horizontal and de-centered educational model, one of inclusivity, radical acceptance, and plurality of language. She is invested in breaking down complex concepts and making them accessible. In her style of facilitating, she allows for discord - and in fact, cherishes it in its honesty - while simultaneously creating a safe space where participants honour each others’ boundaries, histories and bodies.
She holds a BA in Art History from the University of British Columbia, and an MFA in Art from Cornell University.