Heather Lamoureux steps away from artistic director role at Vines Art Society
Society founder grew the Vines Art Festival from a one-day event into a multiday celebration of live music, dance, and more in city parks
Heather Lamoureux
Vines Art Festival. Photo by Sheng Fo
VINES ART SOCIETY FOUNDER and co-artistic director Heather Lamoureux has announced she’s stepping away from her role.
With roots in contemporary dance, Lamoureux drew on her passions for social justice and the environment to create a unique event that would celebrate both the arts and the land. Since founding the organization in 2015, Lamoureux has watched her original idea for a one-day event where people could experience art outside grow to a multiday festival that brings artists from a variety of disciplines and cultures to city parks for 10-plus days of free public performances. This year’s fest in August spanned live music, drag performance, dance, spoken-word, and hands-on workshops, culminating in the traditional daylong multidisciplinary celebration at Trout Lake.
Along the way, Lamoureux has also built an inclusive arts society that has brought a fresh way of thinking to how a cultural organization could be run.
Lamoureux was praised today for building Vines through a caring sense of experimentation, and a belief that art—and the organizations that support it—can be boldly different.
Over the past year, Lamoureux and Manuel Axel Strain have led Vines as co-artistic directors. Strain will continue as sole artistic director, while Lamoureux will remain connected to Vines as an advisor.
“Through Heather’s vision and unwavering commitment, Vines became far more than an arts organization,” Musqueam Elder Mary Point reflected in the announcement today. “It became a place of belonging, a place where people could bring their whole selves, learn about and share their gifts, and be celebrated for who they are. As she steps away from Vines, please know that her legacy is carried forward in every artist who found their voice, every performer who was welcomed onto a stage, every relationship built through mutual respect, and every person who learned from the example she set.”
“Heather Lamoureux is a visionary artist, a land-based and community-engaged decolonial gardener extraordinaire who is in true allyship with Indigenous peoples, IBPOC, and LGBTQ2IA++ communities,” added artist, ethnobotanist, and Vines Art Society board co-chair Cease Wyss. “She created a beautiful land-based festival that included so many communities throughout our incredible city, and wove her intentions through the land, through communities, and through our hearts and minds. She brought us an incredible decade of beautiful artistic and community-based stories and art in so many forms, reminding us just how creative human beings can be when given an opportunity and a space to create and share.” 
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