September 2008 Archives

Final plans for W2, a 14,395-square-foot media-arts centre at the Woodward's project championed by Gallery Gachet executive director Irwin Oostindie, are in the city's hands.

But, according to Oostindie, city council must approve them before the November 15 civic election if he is to raise $2.6 million for finishing and operating costs for the facility to open by September 2009.

"They've pushed us back with a whole bunch of more questions," Oostindie said, referring to the W2 report submitted September 2. "They want a lot of detail from us, and we're a bit hamstrung because we're not able to embark on a fundraising campaign and identify our funders, because we're still waiting for city-council approval."

A proposal for W2, initially called the Centre for Creative Technology and Community Arts, was first submitted to the city in 2006, in response to a request for proposals from nonprofit groups for space in Woodward's.

Here's a familiar scenario. Artists band together to open exhibition spaces in low-rent urban areas. Gentrification creeps in. Landlords raise rents. Studios disappear. Galleries collapse.

Vancouver's Downtown Eastside is especially volatile, and artist-run centres such as Artspeak, Access, Centre A, Gallery Gachet, and the Helen Pitt Gallery, early stakeholders in and around the area, survive through dedicated boards and staff, energetic fundraising, and occasional grants. But what about the independent galleries, showing emerging artists and attempting commercial viability without subsidy? Here are three new or newish examples. They're some of the best of the Downtown Eastside--and slightly beyond.