Creative Forces Feature #3: Sirish Rao

Meet the third feature in the Tyee's Creative Forces series: Sirish Rao, the co-CEO, of the Vancouver Art Gallery.

Rao is a creative force making powerful waves in the art world, guided confidently by his belief in art's healing abilities. You may have recently heard that doctors can prescribe time in nature to patients... well, what about the Emily Carr forest inside the Vancouver Art Gallery?

Through the recently launched Art of Wellbeing Lab, the Vancouver Art Gallery is ensuring community members have access to resources and partners that support wellbeing and health through the arts. This includes the incredible PaRX program from the BC Parks Foundation, which now allows health care providers to prescribe time at the art gallery. 

Rao says, "The reason why we do this - make art - is to reach out from one human soul to another human soul, to express what we as a collective feel, to offer healing for oneself in making it or for others in seeing it. To me, that's the core of the offering. What we've been able to do is formalize that."

Rao has been awarded the King Charles III Coronation Medal for his contributions to this country, as well as the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Hari Sharma Foundation. We are lucky to have Rao - his passion, his clear vision, and his belief in the power of art. 

Don’t miss the full interview at: 
https://thetyee.ca/Culture/2026/01/09/Sirish-Rao-Creative-Force/