Stanley Park Environmental Art

Project Overview

The Stanley Park Environmental Art Project was born out of a desire to respond creatively to the windstorm that devastated the park on December 15, 2006. After two short hours of gale-force winds, some reaching 119 km/hr, the storm subsided leaving a level of devastation that had not been seen since Hurricane Frieda in 1962, and for the first time in over 40 years the entire park was closed to the public. The storm had a tremendous impact on the park, but out of the devastation, opportunities to renew, restore and improve the park presented themselves. One of these opportunities is the Stanley Park Environmental Art Project.

Our goal with this art project is to honour the park and its special place in the hearts of the citizens of Vancouver by giving six talented artists the opportunity to create art works that will engage us through discussion and hands-on workshops; inform and interpret our natural surroundings; and help us to re-envision our relationship with nature so that we may find new ways to co-exist within the environment upon which we all depend. This project is a partnership between the Vancouver Board of Parks and Recreation, the Stanley Park Ecology Society and the Community Arts Council of Vancouver .

Learn more about the storm and the restoration process here.

Through a juried process, four artists/artist teams were selected to create works employing environmental art practices that would either leave the landscape unharmed, or produce an ecological benefit, by using only natural materials and with sensitivity towards the habitat of the plants and animals of the park.

Conservation Manager Robyn Worcester of the
Stanley Park Ecology Society leads the artists
on a walk through Stanley Park

The artists receive an orientation from
Park Board Forestry Technician Bill Stephen

Envisioned as a collaboration between artists, ecologists, park stewards, environmental educators, and the very ecology of the park itself, this two-year art project started with the creation of ephemeral works in the summer and fall of 2008 and was completed with the installation of the semi-permanent works in summer 2009.