B.C. has lost one of its most passionate proponents for arts and culture. Yulanda Faris was most associated in recent years with Vancouver Opera, according to her daughter Reema, and she also chaired the Community Arts Council of Vancouver’s SWITCH fundraiser and was active with Saint James Music Academy in the Downtown Eastside.

Faris died on April 23 at the age of 77 after being diagnosed with cancer in September.

“For Mom, the reason she loved the arts and she loved education is because that’s where she saw the promise and value in what we do as human beings,” Reema Faris said. “Our fullest expression comes from things we can create, make, and share. And so I think those are the things that really drove her forward.”

Faris was also keenly interested in health care, volunteering in the past for North Shore Family Services and organizing fundraisers for St. Paul’s Hospital.

According to her daughter, Faris “couldn’t say enough kind words about the nurses” who worked in the community and at Lions Gate Hospital, where she had surgery last year.

Faris was born in Jamaica and traced her roots back to Lebanon, which is where her husband, Moh Faris, was born. In 2010, the couple received the Ramon John Hnatyshyn Award for Volunteerism in the Performing Arts.

In addition, Faris received the Vancouver Mayor's Arts Award for Support of the Arts in 2008 and the B.C. Women's Women in Music Award from the Minerva Foundation in 2007.

“It is about the contributions we make; it is for us to look beyond our self-interest and our own needs,” Reema Faris said. “I think that’s what Mom tried to do.”

Moh Faris was the driving force behind the creation of the Scotiabank Dance Centre in Vancouver, and this art form was always a passion of her mother's dating back to her support for Judith Marcuse's dance company.

A celebration of Yulanda Faris's life will be held at 11 a.m. on May 15 at the Kay Meek Centre.

In lieu of flowers, the family has requested that people consider donating to the Yulanda M. Faris Young Artists Program at Vancouver Opera.