This week, HCUBC sat down with UBC’s Visual Arts Students’ Association (VASA) president, Simran Anand, about her life at UBC, her involvement with VASA, and her insight into the field of Visual Arts. Check out what she had to say:
HCUBC: Tell us the basics about yourself.
Simran: As hard as it is to say it, I’m in my sixth year here at UBC working on my undergrad. I’m working towards a double major in psychology and visual arts honours. I work on campus in Fairview Crescent as a residence advisor and I recently started a work learn position at the Belkin Gallery on campus. Other than that, I’m also the president of VASA.
HCUBC: What is VASA and what is your role with the organization?
Simran: VASA is the Visual Arts Students’ Association, and our goal is to build and provide a community for visual art students to further their skills and recognition at the University of British Columbia in partnership with the Department of Art History, and Visual Art Theory. We provide students with technical workshops to improve their skills in furthering themselves as artists and students. We also recognize visual art students each year, for example, VASA showcases student work in an exhibition open to all years and faculties. In my role as president, I lead my team in meeting our goals and organizing events.
HCUBC: What type of events does VASA put on?
Simran: We’ve had so many cool events this year! We started off the year with Art Week in collaboration with UJAH ( The Undergraduate Journal of Art History Visual Art and Theory). During Art week, we had an event called Academic Speed-dating, which gave students a chance to talk with professors and people from the department of Art History, Visual Arts, and Theory outside of the classroom environment. We’ve had life drawing, coloring and tea night, gallery tours, artist studio visits and more! This term, we are taking students to Whistler for a behind the scenes tour of the Audain Art Museum. We also have an art show about community titled ‘Venn’ coming up at the Hatch gallery that opens on February 8th.
HCUBC: What is your dream achievement?
Simran: My dream achievement, that’s an interesting question, I guess I don’t really look at the future in terms of one particular concrete goal. I like to think of my education here at UBC as preparation for the vast opportunities that are out there as an artist and as someone that values public programming and community outreach. I think VASA and working with the Belkin on the Emerge series has really instilled a passion in me towards public programming and making, the sometimes daunting, art-world more accessible to a wider audience. So what I’m trying to say is that my dream is to follow multiple dreams and see where they take me, I think that’s what’s most exciting about the unpredictable life of an artist.
HCUBC: What does leadership mean to you in your field?
Simran: Of course there’s the famous artists like Picasso that people look up to and epitomize as leaders in art; there’s also leaders in terms of researchers, famous art historians and theorists. While sometimes we might think of artists as ‘the sole creative genius’ I think it’s more than that. It’s about building a connection with others, collaborating and allowing other voices to be heard, looking out for others and hearing and understanding what they really have to say. I think a huge part of being a leader is bringing other people to the table and being open to new ideas and things you wouldn’t have been able to come up with on your own.
HCUBC: What would you like people unfamiliar with visual arts to know about the subject?
Simran: That there’s so many professions that you can get into with a visual arts degree. It’s funny, since most people love to pin us all as starving artists, but in reality many artists work as artists but others go into other careers in the visual arts, such as public programming at galleries, curators, researchers, professors, teachers, art therapists and more.
HCUBC thanks Simran for her wonderful interview and introduction into the world of visual art. Make sure to check out the Visual Art Students’ Association on Facebook!