Lori Weidenhammer Résumé
Education: University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Bachelor of Arts, Honours (Drama and Fine Arts)
2022-2023: President/co-chair of the Native Bee Society of British Columbia, of which she is one of the founding members.
Native Bee Society of BC website
Co-created the NBSBC Bee Tracker project on iNaturalist and has identified over 13, 000 local native bees.
2022 Recipient of the Entomological Society of Canada’s Norman Criddle award for her work as an amateur naturalist.
Artists in Community Residencies:
2023: Artist in residence HCMA, Victoria, BC.
2020: Victory Gardens for Diversity: recipes for community-based ecological engagement was an eight month artist residency project at Terra Nova Park in Richmond, BC. Our team included lead artist, Lori Weidenhammer, Lois Klassen, Crystal Lee, Jenn Pearson, Catherine Shapiro, and Lori Snyder: gardening, bioblitzing, cooking, stitching, dyeing, and making paper.
Victory Gardens for Diversity website
2018: Lori was the lead artist with nine collaborators in the yearlong Super Bloomers Community artist residency at the Renfrew Park Community Centre. Examples of this work can be seen on the Superbloomer blog.
2014 to 2017: Lori worked at the Moberly Arts and Cultural Centre in east Vancouver to establish a community artist garden for growing food and pollinator habitat. She worked with the Moberly Elementary School and the seniors, creating original seasonal programming. The garden was recently given an award by The David Suzuki Foundation.
Selected Gardening for Bees Talks and Workshops:
2016-Present: University of Saskatchewan, Green Streets Vancouver, Colony Farm Community Garden, Dunbar Garden Club (Salmonberry Days), Riley Park Community Garden (Chinese seniors, community gardeners) Galiano Island Conservancy, Mayne Island Conservancy, Lynn Canyon Ecology Centre, Coos Bay Oregon Master Gardeners, Langley Environmental Partners Society, VanDusen Gardens Seedy Saturday, Saanich Seedy Saturday, Calgary Seedy Saturday, Edmonton Seedy Sunday, Russell Nursery Anniversary Lecture Series (North Saanich, Vancouver Island), Kamloops Master Gardeners, Saint George’s High School (Vancouver), Vancouver Master Gardeners, Richmond City Hall, Richmond Beekeeper’s Club, Surrey Beekeeper’s Club, North Vancouver Beekeeper’s Club, and the UBC Botanical Garden.
Bee Safaris: 2016-Present
Leading bee walks and talks exploring local bees in local parks in Vancouver and other locations in the Lower Mainland collaborating with several community partners with hands-on interaction: Maplewood Flats, Memorial South Park, Terra Nova Sharing Farm, reLocal Vancouver, St. George’s Secondary School, Riley Park Community Garden, Renfrew Park Community Centre summer camp, Habitat Acquisition Trust, Victoria BC, Vines Festival, UBC Botanical Garden
The Slofemists:
Since 2013, artists Lois Klassen and Lori Weidenhammer have hosted Slofemists as a series of social craft events during which participants have collectively embroidered feminist content onto linen squares. Through commonalities and conversation Slofemists patterns have developed while circulating the little known knowledge and accomplishments by women artists and ecologists. In 2016 the embroidered panels were sewn together to make Slofa – a colourful patchwork which, when laid over a couch or other seating surface, designates a dialogical feminist space. Sept/Oct 2019 The slofemists will be artists in residence for four days at the Dunlop Gallery in Regina, as part of programming around La Nuit Blanche and the Stitch in Time exhibition.
Selected Writing
2021: Artist Book: Feeding the Migration (Painted Lady) published by Reading the Migration Library
2016: Victory Gardens for Bees: A DIY Guide to Saving the Bees published by Douglas and MacIntyre
Essay about Lori’s work by Lois Klassen:
More Caught in the Act: an anthology of performance art by Canadian women, 2016.
Edited by Johanna Householder and Tanya Mars, Published by YYZBOOKS and Artexte Editions
Selected Performance
2011-2022: Various appearances as the Queen Bee
2018: Carlotta the Cuckoo Bumblebee at the Valley Centre Library Pollinator Festival in California
2013: Director/Performer, The Starling Cloud Choir, The Rain Gatherers (Second Site Collective) Dr. Sun Yat Sen Classical Chinese Garden, Vancouver
2012: Reply Whore, Htmelles Festival, Montréal
2012: Madame Beespeaker, Aberthau Mansion 100th Anniversary, Vancouver
2012: Queen Bee, Coquitlam Canada Day Celebration, Colony Farm Midsummer Fête, and UBC Farm Market
2012: Beekeeping Stories for Raincity Chronicles “What Feeds Us” at the Salt Building, Vancouver
2011: Mystic Moth, a solar powered performance installation at the Twilight Tea Party in the Means of Production Garden, Vancouver
2009: Madame Beespeaker at the Means of Production Garden Tea Party Series, the Colony Farm Midsummer Fête curated by Marina Szijarto
2006-8: Madame Beespeaker at the Visualeyez Festival, Latitude 53, Edmonton; VanDusen Gardens, Vancouver; The Regina Folk Festival, Neutral Ground; UBC Farm market, Vancouver
2000-2 Brain Dress, in collaboration with Peter Courtemanche, Video Pool, Winnipeg, Grunt Gallery, Vancouver, High Tech Storytellers festival, Tribe, Saskatoon and the University of Regina
1998: Co-creator/performer of the musical comedy Six Dead Wives and an Inflatable Henry withe Foursight Theatre, Canadian and UK tours
1998: Eating Swan, Heritage Hall, Vancouver
Dame Magma, at the Re-Inventing the Diva Cabaret, Western Front, Vancouver
Man and his Condominium, Woman and her Boudoir at the Kootenay School of Writing, Vancouver and in the Millenium Towers Performance Festival, Pitt Gallery, Vancouver
Hurricane Sally, at the Women in View Cabaret, Vancouver
Stella the Seamonkey, at the Unspeakable Cabaret, Vancouver
1997: Cleaning the Hive, a performance collaboration based on the work of Aganetha Dyck, performed by Lori Blondeau, Bradlee LaRocque, Paul Shultz, Joanne Bristol, Catherine McGrath and Vern Chekosis
1995: Co-creator/performer of the musical drama The Trout Sisters with Foursight Theatre
Don Juan Envy at Struts Gallery, Sackville, N.B., the Winnipeg Fringe The Tongue of the Slip, Vancouver, and Exchanges Gallery, Victoria
Goodnight, Aubergine at the Western Front in Vancouver
1994: Tour of Lies About Betty, and the Truth About Zucchini: Banff, Regina, Winnipeg, Calgary, Montreal, Halifax, Saskatoon, Victoria
Design and Installation:
2016: Member of the green design team for the Riley Park Community Centre, Vancouver
2015: Created 10 garden designs for the book Victory Gardens for Bees: A DIY Guide to Saving the Bees
2014–2016: Artist residency and community garden design and build Moberly Arts and Cultural Centre which was recently awarded a plaque from the David Suzuki Foundation
2010: School Pollinator Garden, Simon Fraser Elementary
2009: Means of Production Bee Garden
Selected Teaching/Workshops:
2017: Artstarts project–Tupper High School (Vancouver). Lori Weidenhammer, lead artist and project creator. The Bees’ Knees brought science and art together in a hand-on engagement with bees in the classroom and 4 local public green spaces
2016: Artist residency with Walter Moberly Elementary (kindergarten, grades 1 and 3) with weaving, gardening, drawing, and ephemeral art made with natural materials
2016: ArtStarts Residency at Sexsmith Elementary with a team of artists and biologist Erin Udal with gardening, performance, drawing, textile art, and the installation of a pollinator hotel
2015-16: Co-created several Slofemist workshops and event with Lois Klassen including craftivism, DIY spa treatments, quilting and embroidery.
2015: ArtStarts residency with Second Site artists in Walter Moberly Elementary, grade 4/5 investigating ground-nesting bees, vermiculture, and wind-powered art
2014: Artstarts Residency Moberly Elementary with gardening, sculpture and drawing.
2013: multiple workshops as part of artist residences at The Dr. Sun Yat Sen Classical Chinese Garden, The West Point Grey Community Centre and The Moberly Cultural Herb Garden
Native bee workshop: Langara College, recreational admin. Students
2012: Instructor, community workshops at the Richmond Cultural Centre Rooftop Garden, Moberly Arts and Cultural Centre Community Herb Garden, ArtStarts Gallery and World in a Garden Permaculture Summer Camp and adult Permaculture certificate course, UBC Farm
2011: Cultivating Connections Residency with MOPARRC at the Moberly Community Herb Garden, teaching workshops to families, seniors, and students in grades 4/5
2011: ArtStarts residency at Mount Pleasant Elementary creating habitat for wildlife with workshops from kindergarten to grade 7
2011: ArtStarts residency with Sharon Kallis at Alpha Elementary, Burnaby exploring biodiversity and identity
2010: Garden to table workshops, and veggie prayer flags, Mount Pleasant Elementary2008-9 Summer Camps: UBC Farm, Kimount, Moberly Arts and Cultural Centre
2008: Tupper High School: Pollinator Prayer Flags (grades 9-12) Artstarts Residency
2007-8 Volunteer at UBC Farm’s Landed Learning Program