Jen Castro is a community organizer and artist freshly relocated to Montreal, Quebec after 10 years in East Vancouver, British Columbia. She has been using digital and analogue tech to bring communities closer to where they want to go.
Her work has largely centered reframing projects to uphold dignity and traditional ways of being in communities whose rich cultures and histories are generally overlooked or imposed on by uninvited external forces.
In Canada, this has meant acting in service of Indigenous communities through digital media and event support. Jen’s work is grounded/rooted in active investigation of how industry, migration, displacement and social constructs intersect and impact both communities and individuals. Her cross-movement work with communities has recently included offering facilitation and training for people working towards social justice. In Vancouver, much of her work was fed or is fueled by community-based artistic practices and storytelling. While living in Montreal in the current context of limited access to communities due to health measures, she is focused on adapting materials and methodologies for learning to use Mapeo, and is driven to expand explorations of cross cultural communities through language, technology and art.
Jen has a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from York University in Toronto, Ontario specializing in the Visual Arts Studio practice. She also completed the New Media Design and Web Development program at BCIT in Burnaby, British Columbia.
