Community Engagement

Community care, reciprocity, and knowledge-sharing are central to bailey’s art practice. they approach engagement as a creative and relational practice: building spaces where stories are shared, skills are developed, and Indigenous, queer, and disabled voices are centred. For bailey, community engagement is inseparable from making art—it informs, expands, and challenges the work they produce.

Selected Projects & Initiatives:

• Indigenous Engagement Coordinator, Nanaimo Art Gallery – Leading programs, workshops, and exhibitions that centre Indigenous voices, support emerging artists, and make cultural knowledge accessible to broad audiences.
• Queerpreneurship, Nanaimo Hub Leader – Supporting 2SLGBTQIA+ and BIPOC youth in creative entrepreneurship, including upcoming zine workshops and mentorship programs.
• Workshops & Teaching – Facilitated workshops across British Columbia and Nanaimo Art Gallery (painting, printmaking, cyanotype, textiles) that emphasize accessibility, identity, and collaborative making.
• Collaborative Art Projects – Co-created publications, zines, and installations (e.g., Red Paper with Cole Pauls) to engage community audiences in shared storytelling and creative practice.

Other Engagements:
Artist talks, panel moderation, mentorships, residencies, and facilitation with organizations including Vancouver Comic Arts Festival, IndigenEYEZ, and the BC Museums Association. Projects often center Indigenous futurity, disability justice, and queer representation, combining teaching, storytelling, and participatory art-making.

Through all of these experiences, I aim to create spaces that are equitable, generative, and responsive—where learning, dialogue, and creativity circulate between artist and community, and where artistic practice and social care are inseparable.