Outsiders and Others Art Society

The Outsiders and Others Art Society (OOAS) is a not for profit with a focus on bringing non-traditional artists to the forefront. This includes outsider, folk, self-taught, visionary, intuitive, naïve, and artists with disabilities.

OOAS is the only art gallery in Vancouver dedicated to showing a wide range of Outsider art, a genre of art not commonly recognized in Canada even though there are art galleries and museums around the world dedicated to the genre. With two locations, our main gallery is at 716 East Hastings Street where we host a new exhibition every month. The other is a window gallery located at #100-938 Howe Street where we host a new exhibition every other month.
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We pay exhibiting artists an exhibition honourarium, we retain low commission on art sales, we assist artists with framing costs when needed, and we offer practical advice through the entire exhibition process. Many of the artists we show have never shown their art in a gallery before so we want to make the experience as easy and rewarding as possible.

Some information about our Director Yuri Arajs.
Please allow me to share a bit about my background. I studied at Cranbrook Academy of Art in the U.S. whereI earned a Masters in Fine Art. While I continue to be a practicing artist, my professional career for the last 25years has been driven by championing marginalized artists. This journey started in 1999 when I worked at Interact Center for the Visual and Performing Arts in Minneapolis, Minnesota, a pioneering art center for adult artists with disabilities ranging from downs syndrome and developmental disabilities to mental illness, where I directed the Visual Arts program and put the public gallery on the map in Minnesota. I then went on to co-found Outsiders and Others in downtown Minneapolis, where I served as Artistic Director for five years and operated a 1:1 mentorship program.

During this time, I was fortunate to propel many Outsider artists from every walk of life into professional careers as working artists through a robust and diverse monthly exhibition schedule, and Outsiders’ legacy lies in the success of the artists it launched. The Outsiders and Others gallery quickly became an epic enter of the active Twin Cities social, cultural, and gallery scene, a popularity that did not waiver in those five years. Lastly, I was recognized in 2008 as the Most Influential Curator in the state ofMinnesota by MN Monthly Magazine, a well-respected local publication.

Now Outsiders and Others is in Vancouver and opened in June 2020, at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. We started as a window only gallery which turned into a walk-in gallery and now we have both a window and walk-in gallery in two separate locations which gives us more opportunities to share the art of the artists we work with.