Artivism 2026

From September 14 to October 16, dare to listen to our ecologies at ARTIVISM: More than human.

ARTIVISM is Exposure UBC’s flagship arts and culture festival — a student group of UBC-affiliated creatives building conscious community and uplifting marginalized voices.

For the 10th edition of this iconic UBC festival, ARTIVISM brings together artists, thinkers, ecologists, and communities to explore ways of knowing that exist beyond the human. Rooted in the belief that knowledge, memory, and meaning live in the ecologies around us, the festival invites audiences to encounter the world differently through art, performance, conversation and community. With programming spanning visual arts, live performance, sound, film, and workshops, More than Human asks an urgent question: what becomes possible when we stop placing our ways of knowing at the center?

More than Human is produced by Exposure UBC, a Vancouver-based arts organization committed to expanding the boundaries of cultural practice. This annual festival brings together a diverse community of artists whose work draws from multispecies thinking, the climate crisis, and sensory and embodied practice. Through live performances, creative workshops, community-led projects and archival work, ARTIVISM becomes a platform for imagining a future where ecologies remain at the center of our politics, creation and practice.

“This year, ARTIVISM turns to non-human ecologies as sources of knowledge, resilience, and imagination. How do we, as humans, de-center our ways of knowing to make space for other intelligences? How does that de-centering help us reflect on colonial and extractive narratives that have shaped our relationship to the living world? And how can centering ecologies open pathways toward post-colonial, community-based futures — for all species, not just our own? More than Human seeks to start a conversation rather than deliver an answer, through art, collaboration, and reciprocity.” – 2026 Director, Carmen Toledo Bores

Festival events

Upcoming and ongoing

Since 2021 • That Which Sustains Us • Exhibition • Museum of Vancouver • “The story of Vancouver’s forests and natural environments through a unique narrative”

From Fri. Sept. 11 • FREE • Jana Sterback: Dimensions of Intimacy • Exhibition • Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery • Czech-born Canadian artist’s exhibition “features innovative early work that pushes sculptural norms”

Friday, October 16 • Pickling Workshop. Join Roots on the Roof at the AMS Nest in discussing the relationship of humans with micro-organisms and the land.

Thursday, October 22 • Graphic Theory: On the Production of Knowledge and Culture for Palestine Today. In this live event with the Public Humanities Hub, “Xaytun Ennasr and Jasbir Puar discuss This Death Is Not One, a collaborative project … unfolding across theory, image, translation, land, and the wounded body”

Past events

Fri. Sept. 11 @ 6pm • FREE • Sex and the War on Terror at 25 • Live Event • UBC Public Humanities Hub • Queer and feminist scholars “examine how gender and sexuality function as technologies of governance and securitization”

Mon. Sept. 14 @ 2pm • Comparsa • Film • Vancouver Latin American Film Festival • “From the shadows of a Guatemalan barrio scared into silence, sisters Lesli and Lupe lead a rebellion-unleashing joy, art, truth” • $10+

Sat. Sept. 19 @ 1:30pm • Understanding Myself As An Amphibian + Nature Girl • Film + Short • Vancouver Queer Film Festival • “Drawing on queer ecology across Turtle Island, the film reveals the fascinating science of sex-changing amphibians, same-sex animal families…” • $7+

Tues. Sept. 29 • FREE • The Carbon Wave: A Story of Parenthood, Activism, and The Race to Save Our Planet: Book Launch • UBC Centre for Climate Justice • Leah C Stokes works on energy, climate, and environmental politics

Friday, October 2 • Field Herbarium with Suhaila Ng (MSc Plant Sciences) in collaboration with exposure UBC. Join us in this live workshop to learn about native plants in Musqueam Territory and create your own herbarium!

Tuesday, October 6 • Music Beyond the Human Experience in collaboration with UBC Brain and Music. This event features a talk with a professional who works in music and human experience, ethnomusicology, and music cognition.

Thurs. Oct. 8 @ 7pm • Naomi Klein and Astra Taylor: End Times Fascism and the Fight for the Living World • Book Talk • UBC Centre for Climate Justice • “Deny the pervasive belief in impending doom, defend human dignity, imagine futures rooted in collective care, solidarity, hope” • $30+

With the support of the UBC Public Humanities Hub and UBC Department of Art History, Visual Art and Theory, and in partnership with:

UBC Centre for Climate Justice, “Naomi Klein and Astra Taylor: End Times Fascism and The Fight for the Living World” • Vancouver Latin American Film Festival • Morris and Belkin Art Gallery, Jana Sterback: Dimensions of Intimacy • Museum of Vancouver, That Which Sustains Us • Vancouver Queer Film Festival • and much more!

Past Festivals