First day of VABF, I was so excited to be there as this was my first time to Vancouver Art Book Fair. The Fair is around the corner of the gallery and has three floors. Noelle and I worked together as Exhibitor Room Floater, basically floating between two rooms of the third floor to see if there was any need for help. I was glad we got such a job as it was a great chance for us to know what’s going on there, and it was also a great chance for us to join into the event, getting chances to talk with exhibitors and artists.

When I was walking in, I noticed that all the stuffs were carefully set, and they could make you feel casual, for example, the setting of hydrogen balloon, colorful books and table cloth. Few minuets later, visitors walked in. The room then, filled with talking, laughing, emotions like satisfactory and exciting. The exhibitors could even go to others’ tables to have conversations or get others’ works. All of these experiences, discussions and settings make the atmosphere within VABF seemed to be easy going which was totally different from the gallery nearby, which seemed to be cheerless, totally surrounded by white wall, formal front, and all forms seem to be immutable.

Moreover, there was a digital art in the lobby near the second floor we found interesting. It was two different subject matters with different movement, one was about fire on a car and the other was about endlessly growing mushrooms. They were shown on screen of machines, but the machined might make people feel that such an artwork should have been in a gallery, as people could watch them but feel not free of touching them or bringing them home. However, it was so excited that Noelle and I found two flip books from one of exhibitors, they were exactly presenting the subjects in that digital art with same movements! It was tagged with price which means that it became accessible and one can bring this digital art home! I couldn’t find a word to describe my mood at that moment, because it was the time I could really feel the VABF’s existence of making art closer to public and I really felt art world does have connections with normal people …  It reminds me of what we learned from the class: because of these non-profit art organizations such as Vancouver Art Book Fair, people are getting close to art world and to artists, they could not only touch these art works but also have abilities to bring them home.

I also found that people here were polite, they showed respect to each other. For example, they took the book they hoped to see while they would put it back following the same position. Thus, because of such fine behaviors, I felt the public are welcome to art and they are interested and paying attention to what happens within art world now. Conversely, exhibitors and artists were also show their passion about this event as they are always excited talking to visitors about their works. “Take a free sticker, here! This is the last one! “ “-Can I take a photo? –Yes! Sure!”. Words were always warm spoken from them.

The final task for Noelle and I was back to the lobby, calling for donation but also handing out stickers which is also a logo of VABF. There was an older just finished his visiting, walking towards us and say:” Amazing place! You could hear artists express their own ideas about their own works. It’s a crazy place people gather together! It’s amazing… “ the conversation was quite brief and I lost some of his words but it made me rethink about the whole event during first day. It’s true that people are gathering discussing about the artwork with artists who did them or exhibitors who knew them well so that visitors could know the real meaning of the work or even progress of making it. While if a person stay in the gallery, he might be only thinking by himself and might be confused about that. So, people are getting close and getting to know each other through art in VABF and people are getting to know art through discussion with each other.

“Are you two also including in shows?”, also asked by the older. Lol, I guess, this sentence can be the perfect ending as the first day of VABF.