About the Immigrant Book Project
The Arts Council of New Westminster was recently awarded a grant in terms of Assembly
of BC Arts Councils’ BC 150 Community Arts Program.
The Grant
The grant kickstarted the Vive La Différence / Celebrating the Difference project.
Our intention with this project is to enable the immigrant population - giving
it a voice to speak to the community by way of the written word. It will allow immigrants
to share their stories and how they have contributed to the tapestry that is British
Columbia and New Westminster.
The project consists of three parts:
1) Publishing a book entitled "Vive La Différence / Celebrating the Difference"
2) The book launch event
3) A movie festival.
The Book
The book will tell the stories as told by 20 immigrants. Each immigrant selected
will
be allocated two pages, one page will contain the story, and the opposite page will
have some art (a photo, a poem, a drawing, etc) shared by the immigrant.
Click here to view an example page.
The Launch Event
The book launch event will officially release the book to the public. At this gala
event, people will get the meet the participating immigrants, and may request their
books to be signed.
The Movie Festival
The movie festival will be an ongoing festival over a period of time. Each evening,
a movie from the country of one of the participating immigrants will be shown. The
immigrant will, if they want, read their contribution from the book, and members
from the immigrant's community can showcase products, culture, and food from their
country.
We gratefully acknowledge the financial support of the
Assembly of BC Arts Council and Province of British Columbia through the BC 150
Secretariat of the Ministry of Tourism, Sport and the Arts