2026 Young and Emerging Artist
Amanda Niekamp – Lantern Making
The Big Picnic // March 28 10am-4:30pm
amandaniekamp.com // @acniekamp.net
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Amanda Niekamp is a Vancouver-based painter and illustrator and a graduate of Emily Carr University of Art + Design. Her work draws from the rhythm of the West Coast landscape, modernist principles, and the dialogue between art and architecture. Known for her tangible, expressive style, Niekamp captures the immediacy of mark-making, bridging the intuitive playfulness of childhood with the structured sensibilities of design. In 2021, Niekamp participated in an artist residency at Château d’Orquevaux in France, an experience that led to her first international exhibition in Milton, Australia. Her work has also gained recognition within Vancouver’s architectural and design community, where it is celebrated for its dynamic integration of colour, texture, and spatial awareness. Visit more of her work at: www.amandaniekamp.com @acniekamp
Anella Schabler – Block Print Making
The Big Picnic // March 28 10am-4:30pm
anella-schabler.myportfolio.com // @greenisch.tint
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Anella Schabler is a mixed-race multidisciplinary artist based in ‘Canada’ who explores exchange, perception, and sentimentality. Schabler captures sensitive aspects of everyday life through identity and culture, intermingling personal and cultural symbols as a form of reimagining and truth-seeking. Schabler’s works are process-based, deeply handmade, and intentionally laborious. By depicting the complex processes of identity building, cultural resistance, and the act of reminiscence and pensivity, Anella’s art aims to serve as a touchpoint for curiosity and self-conversation. Schabler received an Honours Bachelor of Arts degree in Visual Studies and Art History from the University of Toronto and intends to pursue a career in fine art, with a lifelong passion for arts education and teaching at the University of Ottawa. You can find Schabler’s work on Instagram @greenisch.tint and anella-schabler.myportfolio.com.
Jasper Berehulke – Cardboard Embroidery
The Big Picnic // March 29 10am-4:30pm
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Jasper Berehulke (he/they) is a transgender, two-spirit Syilx Okanagan and Ukrainian artist based on MST lands. Working with cardboard embroidery and non-solvent oil painting, they explore identity, representation, and cultural reclamation through accessible and eco-friendly artmaking.
Julia Vasileva – Card Making
The Big Picnic // March 29 10am-4:30pm
dreamist-art.com | @dreamist_art
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Julia Vasileva is a Vancouver-based illustrator and picture book maker. With a background in literature, her work ranges from children’s books and print work to public art and community-engaged projects. Her most recent picture books include “Lewis and Lou,” which she wrote and illustrated, and “One Cosmic Rock,” written by Karen Krossing. She is a member of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators.
Nishi Praveen Kumar – Glow-in-the-Dark Spirograph
Blossoms After Dark // March 27 6:30pm-10pm
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Nishi is an emerging South Asian artist, and Designer based in Vancouver. Trained in architecture, landscape and urbanism, she brings a deep passion for art, community-building, and people-centered design to her work. Her practice sits at the intersection of art, public space, and community storytelling. Through murals, participatory workshops, and collaborative art-making, she creates spaces where people of all ages and identities can express themselves freely. Nishi sees art as a boundary-less space—one that welcomes messiness, reflection, and connection—using creativity as a way to bring people together and foster belonging in shared public spaces.
About The Program
VCBF has provided opportunities for young and emerging artists to share their talents with the community at our events since the festival’s inception 20 years ago. With this project, our aim is to formalize this process into a mentorship opportunity. We have often heard that young or emerging artists have hesitations or fears about applying for government or foundation grants. Our aim is to provide an opportunity to apply for a micro-grant through a supportive process.
Examples of art activations include: cedar bark bracelet making, block printing, felt flower making, paper fan decorating, etc. Event attendees could participate in creating art for free.
Through the program, chosen young and emerging artists will experience how to apply for, execute and report on a micro-grant project. Our staff team will support the artists through the entire process and provide templates for budgets, workplans, surveys and reports that the artists will then customize to fit their particular project and artistic genre. The artists will all activate at The Big Picnic or Blossoms After Dark on March 27-29, 2026. Both events are at David Lam Park.
Artists will:
1) Develop a proposal for an interactive, engaging activity for a public event
2) Create a budget and workplan for their activity with deliverables and dates
3) Practice facilitation and public speaking skills by guiding event attendees through their proposed art activity
4) Collect feedback from participants and create a mini report for VCBF
We believe that by participating in this process young and emerging artists will be enabled to apply for other grants and to expand their portfolios. This opportunity will also allow young and emerging artists to showcase their art form to a relatively large audience at a public event. We believe this is an important project at this time because post- pandemic, cost of living has increased so much that many artists can’t afford to share their art form and that creating art together is a way to combat loneliness and boost community connection.