Creating cultural and performance spaces

Artist's view of the Performing Arts Lodge

Cultural spaces and cultural facilities are essential to any community, and they are key to the economic health of our city.

Our cultural spaces serve residents, attract tourists, maintain businesses, and enhance our quality of life, yet ensuring access to appropriate and affordable cultural spaces is challenging.

To ensure that artists and arts organizations can afford to remain in Vancouver, the City works to sustain and enhance Vancouver's cultural infrastructure.

Creating cultural spaces: Part of a larger strategy

Culture Plan 2008–2018

Creative SpaceMaking Vancouver

May 9, 2013 – On June 12 and 13, join artists, architects, art and cultural organizations, business and community leaders, in a series of workshops and events on creative space in Vancouver. Creative SpaceMaking Vancouver is part celebration, part learning and part crafting a new roadmap for the sustainable creation and operation of cultural spaces in our city.

Learn more about Creative SpaceMaking and sign up

Live Performance Venue Regulatory Review

January 2011 – Report of the findings from a series of community roundtables to identify regulatory issues and opportunites. Participants included representatives from the arts and culture community, the creative industry, and staff from across City departments.

Read the Live Performance Venue Regulatory Review

Live Performance Venue Regulatory Review, Overview (2011)

Cultural Facilities Priorities Plan (2010)

Culture Plan Implementation Phase 1: 2008–2023 Cultural Facilities Priorities Plan

City of Vancouver Cultural Facilities Priorities Plan, Final Report (May 2008)

Cultural Facility Planning and Development: Self-Assessment Checklist

In 2009, a staff and community advisory committee was established to advise on the implementation of the Cultural Facilities Priorities Plan. The Facilities Team meets approximately six times per year and serves as a conduit for information to and from the members’ respective constituencies. Members include:

Rob Gloor , Executive Director, Alliance for Arts and Culture
Jeffery Boone, Executive Director, East Side Culture Crawl
Bob D'Eith, Executive Director, MusicBC
Kathy Gibler, Executive Director, Dr Sun Yat-Sen Garden (representing the BC Museums Association)
Jonathan Middleton, Director/Curator, Or Gallery, representing the Pacific Association of Artist-Run Centres
Eanor Stacey, Executive Director, Greater Vancouver Professional Theatre Alliance
Margaret Reynolds, Executive Director, Association of Book Publishers of BC
Camilla Tibbs, General Manager, International Writers Festival (representing the Arts Festivals of Metro Vancouver)
John Tylee, Director Policy & Communications, Vancouver Economic Development
Ryan McCormick, Director, Safe Amplification Site Society
City staff from Cultural Services, Real Estate, Planning Departments and the Park Board

Eastside Culture Crawl

The Eastside Culture Crawl provides opportunities for member artists to engage with the public through the creation of events, programming and partnerships that foster awareness, encourage visibility and promote artists and their work.

Safe Amplification Site Society

The Safe Amplification Site Society is a non-profit society dedicated to establishing a permanent all-ages space for music and other arts events in Vancouver.

MAX Guide

MAX is an acronym for Metro Arts Xperience. MAXguide is Metro Vancouver’s new online arts and culture guide that provides free listings of arts and culture events for arts organizations, individuals and selected arts and culture businesses.

Social Purpose Real Estate Table

Social Purpose Real Estate refers to property and facilities owned and operated by mission-based organizations and investors for the purpose of community benefit, and to achieve blended value returns. The Social Purpose Real Estate Table is a group of funders, investors and government representatives that engages in and has made investments in social purpose real estate.

non-profit Centres Network

We are a community of non-profit and philanthropic leaders and professionals from the financial, real estate, and public sectors dedicated to sharing their knowledge and networks for creating and operating quality non-profit workspace.

DIY Creative Placemaking

Artscape DIY offers information and inspriation to support creative placemaking in your community.

Project for Public Spaces

Project for Public Spaces (PPS) is a non-profit planning, design and educational organization dedicated to helping people create and sustain public spaces that build stronger communities.

Vancouver Public Space Network

VPSN is here to preserve and celebrate public space as an essential part of a vibrant, inclusive city. The VPSN is a grassroots collective that engages in advocacy, outreach and education on public space issues in and around Vancouver, British Columbia.

Creative City

The Creative City Network of Canada is a national non-profit organization that operates as a knowledge sharing, research, public education, and professional development resource in the field of local cultural policy, planning and practice.

Read the report - Under Construction: The state of Cultural Infrastructure in Canada

A report on the state of cultural infrastructure in Canada (August 2008), hosted on the SFU Centre for Policy Studies in Culture and Communities.