Arthur Charles Erickson was an award-winning Canadian architect and urban planner. He was born in Vancouver, BC on June 14th, 1924. Erickson gained formal training at McGill University, where he earned his Bachelor of Architecture in 1950. Throughout his career, Erickson designed private residences, city plazas, and buildings for governments, commercial enterprises, cultural centres, medical centres, universities, and colleges. His designs have been constructed or conceptually incorporated into buildings throughout the world, including in Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, Germany, China, Japan, Kuwait, and the United Arab Emirates.

Erickson’s buildings are known for their integration with their surrounding natural and urban setting, as well as their dramatic use of light and space. His distinct architectural aesthetic is influenced by modernism, as well as his travels in Europe, East Asia, and the Middle East. Notable works designed by Erickson include the Filberg House in Comox, BC (1958), Simon Fraser University (1963-1969), the Expo 70 Canadian Pavilion in Osaka, Japan (1967), the University of Lethbridge (1968-1970), the Vancouver Museum of Anthropology (1971-1976), the Helmut Eppich House in West Vancouver, BC (1972-1973), Robson Square and the Vancouver Courthouse Complex (1973-1981), Roy Thompson Hall in Toronto, ON (1976-1982), the Napp Laboratories building in Cambridge, England (1978-1982), the Hugo Eppich House in West Vancouver, BC (1979-1985), California Plaza in Los Angeles, CA (1980-1989), the Canadian Chancery in Washington, DC (1981-1988), and the Museum of Glass in Tacoma, WA (1996-2002).

While working as an architect, Erickson founded the Erickson/Massey Architects firm with Geoffrey Massey in 1962, as well as the Arthur Erickson Architects firm in 1972. He met his life partner and design collaborator Francisco Kripacz in 1961, who was responsible for the interior design of many of Erickson's most well-known buildings. Erickson passed away in Vancouver, BC on May 20th, 2009, at the age of 84.

The Indigenous Media Arts Group, or IMAG, was a Vancouver based non-profit organization founded in early 1998 to encourage and facilitate the promotion, development and dissemination of Indigenous media, arts and culture. The group grew out of the amalgamation of the First Nations Video Collective and the former First Nations Access Program at Video In Studios. Founding members included Dana Claxton, Cleo Reece, Zachery Longboy, and T’uy’t’tanat-Cease Wyss and membership was comprised of local media makers. IMAG was incorporated under the BC Societies Act on July 19, 1999. IMAG's activities included organizing the IMAGeNation Aboriginal Film and Video Festival, a festival that was held annually in Vancouver from 1998 to 2006, and a traveling film festival that was held in rural communities throughout British Columbia (Prince Rupert, Duncan and Enderby) in 1999 and in 2005. The group also facilitated workshops and training programs in media and arts administration and operated a resource centre for Indigenous people to access information regarding film and video making, media arts, cultural theory and media literacy. IMAG held its first media training program in 2000 and continued to offer training in subsequent years, including themed training programs, such “Healing Hands: Voices of Resistance” and “Repatriation: Returning Home” in 2004-2005. IMAG added a professional media arts training program in 2003 and an After School Media Arts Program in 2005.
IMAG co-sponsored programming events to encourage and facilitate communication, cooperation, and exchange among diverse Indigenous cultural and artistic communities. The group was run by a combination of paid employees and volunteers. IMAG had a board of directors, usually consisting of a group of Indigenous film makers who volunteered at IMAG. The group never received operating funding and functioned from grant to grant. By 2007, key individuals had left the organization and, without an operating grant, the group disbanded the same year.

The Women in View festival began in 1986 when Jane Heyman, along with Sue Astley, Sharon Bakker, Patricia Ludwick and Suzie Payne created View, the Performing Arts Society, a non-profit organization. The purpose of the organization included promoting the artistic growth of women involved in the performing arts; to provide increased opportunity for women in the performing arts and to encourage the participation of women from diverse cultural background. Between 1986 and 1988, View organized workshops, lectures, and networking sessions for women in the arts in Vancouver. From the beginning, the goal of the organization was to create a festival.
The first Women in View festival was held in Vancouver in 1989, and was a multidisciplinary arts festival showcasing work initiated by women. Over the following 10 years, until 1998, the festival was successful at providing opportunities for over 1,500 women in the performing arts from across Canada and around the world. Following the 10th festival, the board of Women in View faced a deficit of $20,000 and the resignation of 2 key organizers. Unable to gain funding for the 1999 festival, the board decided to cancel the eleventh festival and dissolve View at its annual general meeting in 1999. Women in View’s few assets, and its work, were taken over by La Luna Productions, a collective of professional women artists of colour.