10th Annual Vancouver Outsider Arts Festival
The Outsider Arts Festival is Vancouver’s premier platform celebrating visual artists and performers working outside mainstream art institutions. Hosted annually at the Roundhouse Community Arts Centre, VOAF shines a light on self-taught, visionary, neurodivergent, disabled, and underrepresented creators, offering space for artists to share their raw, authentic, and unique artistic visions.
From immersive visual art exhibitions and clay comics to live music, theatre, and drag performances, VOAF invites audiences to engage with powerful stories of identity, healing, resilience, and creative liberation.
VOAF’s commitment to amplifying independent creators and outsider perspectives brings crucial intersectional stories forward. Participating visual artists and performers bring lived experiences to their work, addressing topics such as trans and queer identity, mental health, neurodiversity, and disability.
Launching in 2017 under the direction of the Community Arts Council of Vancouver to create dedicated space for self-taught, visionary, and non-traditional artists the free entry festival hosts annually at the Roundhouse Community Arts Centre. The festival has established a platform to address the systemic barriers present in conventional gallery and performance spaces. By providing paid opportunities, exhibitions, and workshops, the event supports local creators navigating social, economic, or institutional marginalization. Over the years, it has developed into a key community showcase, bringing together independent artists alongside grassroots community groups like Alternative Creations Studio and the MPA Society to center lived experience and creative equity in British Columbia.
Admission to the Vancouver Outsider Arts Festival is completely free. Presented by the Community Arts Council of Vancouver at the Roundhouse Community Arts Centre, the festival offers free access to all visual art exhibitions, live stage performances, and community workshops without requiring an entry fee.
FESTIVAL WEBSITE HERE
Including Visual Artists
Alex Reeder (He/Him)
Medium: Narrative ceramics & comic art
Themes: A self-taught queer ceramicist whose clay comics blend ancient craft with modern illustrative styles, exploring queer identity, disability, and ceramic storytelling.
angel gunn / translantis (They/Them)
Medium: Visual art / Mixed media
Themes: Exploring non-binary/trans identity and liberation through their project Translantis.
Jae Sterling (They/Them)
Medium: Visual art
Themes: Intersectional works highlighting queer, trans, and racialized experiences within outsider art spaces.
And Performances
Lemon Ham Productions (Drag, Singing, Live performance)
The trio Lemon Ham Productions (LHP)—composed of neurodivergent 2SLGBTQiA+ artists Chap L Moan, T. Winky Dink, and Mx. Shoop Dumplin'—is scheduled to perform on Saturday, October 17, 2026, at the Roundhouse Community Arts Centre. Their performance brings together drag, political satire, live singing, lip-syncing, and performance art as part of the festival's live stage programming.
(Additional full bios and specific scheduling details can be viewed on VOAF's 2026 Artists & Performers page.)