Lee explores how artists navigate institutions and why the fringe remains one of culture’s most vital places for new ideas to emerge.
Adventurous artists rarely remain within a single discipline. Driven by curiosity rather than convention, they move fluidly between mediums, building a creative language that draws from each new form. Over a career spanning film, music, broadcasting, performance, and writing, Sook-Yin Lee has embodied this spirit of exploration, embracing experimentation, collaboration, and the unexpected.
In this intimate conversation, moderated by Marigold Santos, Lee reflects on a career shaped by creative risk-taking and cultural production across multiple worlds. They will explore how artists forge their own paths, sustain an independent practice over decades, and why the fringe continues to be one of culture’s most fertile grounds for new ideas.
Sook-Yin Lee is a Canadian filmmaker, musician, actor, multimedia artist, and award-winning radio and television broadcaster whose career spans film, music, visual art, dance, and performance. She has worked across CBC, the BBC, and MuchMusic.
BUMP Festival returns August 3–17, 2026, transforming Calgary through murals, sculpture, music, placemaking, and artistic dialogue. Running August 13–15, the BUMP Urban Art Conference is the festival’s ideas hub—a three-day gathering of artists, thinkers, musicians, and cultural leaders exploring the forces shaping public art and the cities we share. Learn more at yycbump.ca and follow @yycbump on Instagram.