Make Art History is presenting a public symposium on the current budget cuts to our Cultural Sector and the need for the development of a more sustainable art system. This is an important topic for all us artists

The panel, which is made up of seven distinguished individuals from different disciplines, will address the sustainability of our art system and the need for the development of new emerging artist economies. Further more, we aim to stimulate discourse related to the budget cuts and our Cultural Sector.

This is not to be missed!!
———————-2010 Panelists——————-

Bruce Haden – President of the Board, The Contemporary Art Gallery Vancouver

David Jordan – Executive Director of the Vancouver International Fringe Festival

Kate Armstrong – Artist, writer and independent curator, instructor at Emily Carr University

Amir Ali Alibhai – Executive Director for the Alliance for Arts and Culture

Marcus Youssef- Artistic Producer for Neworld Theatre

Spencer Chandra Herbert – MLA, Official Opposition Critic Tourism, Culture and the Arts (Moderator)

Keith Higgins – Administrative Coordinator Helen Pitt Gallery/Honorary Board Member Art Speak.

Background

In March 2010, the BC Liberal government has withdrew much of its support to the arts, culture, and heritage in BC by cutting the BC Arts Council Budget by more than 50% and Gaming Grants for arts and culture by approximately 50% in this year’s 2010/11 budget. This is a sector that employs 650,000 people, twice the number employed in either forestry or agriculture. Many governments have actually used art and culture to stimulate the economy; a sector that yields for every tax dollar spent a return of 1.04 to a dollar 1.35 in revenues. In fact, no other province in Canada has cut funding to the art and culture sector. Even prior to these cuts, the BC arts and culture sector received almost the least amount of arts funding of any Canadian province, a minuscule 1/20 of 1% of the provincial budget.

*Curated By Victor Wang

——————–BY DONATION———————

**We would like to thank**

Our presenting sponsor and partners:
The Cheaper Show
W2
HERE IS NOW

**Our Sponsors and endorsers**
Centre A
The Museum of Vancouver
Alliance for the Arts and Culture
The Blanket Gallery
The Western Front Society
The Vancouver International Fringe Festival
New World Theatre
Grunt Gallery
Helen Pitt Gallery Artist Run Centre
Opus Art and Framing.
Arts Umbrella

For more information see here

The Alliance for Arts and Culture, with the support of 2010 Legacies Now and the City of Surrey, is pleased to present Arts Summit 2010, Thursday, June 24 and Friday, June 25 at Surrey’s Chuck Bailey Recreation Centre (see photo below).

Arts Summit 2010 will bring together a diverse group of artists, arts organizations, presenters, facility managers, students, businesses and government representatives and create opportunities for dialogue, networking and professional development.

The 200 participants will hear keynote speaker Arlene Goldberg, author of New Creative Community: The Art of Cultural Development, speak on “Art and the Public Good” and take part in a variety of panel discussions and workshops.

The beautiful new Chuck Bailey Recreation Centre is 30 minutes from downtown Vancouver by Skytrain, one block south of the Gateway Skytrain station, at 13458 – 107A Avenue, corner of 107A Avenue and University Drive. (This is the correct address — google maps has wrong information lately, due to recent street name changes in Surrey)

Check-in begins at 8 a.m. both days, with the first event at 9 a.m. Thursday’s reception ends at 6:30 p.m. and Friday’s events conclude at 5 p.m.

The Full Two-Days’ Program Follows Below …


T H U R S D A Y

8:00 a.m.  REGISTRATION OPENS
The registration desk is open Thursday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.


9:00 am. OPENING
Host: Vanessa Richards, well-known artist and facilitator, will reprise her role at last year’s Summit and host this two-day event.

A First Nations Welcome will be made by Tom Oleman.

9:30 a.m. KEYNOTE
Art and the Public Good
Writer, social activist, and consultant Arlene Goldbard, author of  New Creative Community, The Art of Cultural Development.

Ms. Goldbard shares perspectives gained over many years and synthesized at a White House briefing with the Cultural Policy Working Group.  Arts Summit 2010 continues the conversation aimed at creating bold, coherent policy on culture in BC.  Goldbard believes such policy must recognize that culture holds the key to a future we can believe in. She argues that cultural action is a vital instrument of the public good and when tied to public purpose its power knows no bounds. Learn more at Arlene’s website.

For more information on the event please visit The Alliance web page here

So  much to see and do.

Here are all the details, dont miss out : INFO

Motto Storefront

May 15th to July 22nd, 2010

THE WORLD FAMOUS RICKY POWELL SLIDE SHOW 25TH SILVER ANNIVERSARY EDITION featuring Ricky Powell (NYC) is coming to Vancouver,  HERE IS NOW is sponsoring the event so don’t forget to RSVP here.

Did I mention it’s FREE !!!

Here is some more info on Ricky Powell and the event:

Join the legendary photographer on a journey through his photo
archives, as he reflects on 25 years spent documenting the hip hop scene and hanging out with stars like the Andy Warhol, Keith Haring, Beastie Boys, Run Dmc and Method Man.

Born and raised in New York City, Powell graduated with an AA in Liberal Arts from LaGuardia C.C. and a B.S. in Physical Education from Hunter College. His work has been published in The New York Times, the New York Post, the Daily News, The Village Voice, Time, Newsweek, VIBE, The Source, Rolling Stone, and many other publications. He currently lives and works in the West Village.

Powell first fell into photography in 1985, at around the same time he connected with the up and coming Beastie Boys. At first he just hung out with them and went to a few of their gigs. Then when he heard they had gone to perform in Florida with Run DMC for the Raising Hell tour, Powell quit his job as a Frozade vendor and joined them on the tour bus. He shot a few photographs that became significant and was subsequently brought along on the License to Ill tour in ‘87 and Together Forever tour with Run DMC and then ‘92 Check Your Head tour and the ‘94 Lollapalooza. Ricky became known as Def Jam’s unofficial chronicler and famously as the alleged fourth Beastie Boy during the group’s Licensed to Ill and Paul’s Boutique era.

The original Rappin’ with the Rickster aired from 1990-1996, Powell interviewed numerous stars on the show including: Russell Simmons, Doug E Fresh, Harold Hunter, Kool Keith, Rahzel, Laurence Fishburne, and Cypress Hill.

Ricky Powell, also known as The Rickster, has seen a lot of history. He has worked as a busboy, bike messenger, Frozade vendor, substitute teacher, columnist, cable television host, comic and dog walker. But, he is best-known as a wisecracking, self-described “playground rat” who used his beat-up Minolta and party-crashing skills to become a nightlife fixture and a chronicler of the then-exploding world of hip-hop.–New York Times

Beau Dick

Pookwis


May 6th – June 27th, 2010

Opening Reception Thursday May 6th  6-9pm
Artist in Attendance

Blanket Contemporary Art Inc.
235 Alexander
Vancouver  BC
V6A 1E3

gallery 1-604-709-6100
www.blanketgallery.com

Beau Dick
Untitled (Pookwis, variation #3)
2010
Red Cedar, leather, feathers, cotton, horse hair, acrylic


Blanket is pleased to present Pookwis, a solo exhibition by Beau Dick, an
accomplished Pacific North West Kwakwaka’wakw carver.  In his first
exhibition with the gallery, Beau explores the stylistic diversity in which
the mythical character Pookwis can be resolved.

Beau presents sensuous, and irrational incarnations of Pookwis, the serpent
who was turned into a man and who lives under the sea.  By doing a deep
investigation into the canons of design he has inherited through
Kwakwaka’wakw culture, outside the anthropology museum, or the First Nations
art shops, he illuminates the meaning in relation to its use.

Unlike “Contemporary Art”, which is supposedly not meant to have an
instrumental function (although this is open to debate), Kwakwaka’wakw art
provides spiritual instruction, manifests the paranormal, and affirms
political power through the Potlatch system. Beau Dick straddles two
cultures and his work has both an aesthetic component and a “functional”
component, with the emphasis shifting from one to the other in response to
the purpose to which it is put.

However, these issues are hardly the driving force behind Beau’s work.
Experienced in the supernatural, a seer of ghosts, he leads us to the lush,
wooded coastline of the Northwest Coast.  Beau’s bold and visceral carvings
animate the gallery boasting of a world that can only truly be known through
stories and experience.

Beau Dick was part of a two-person show Supernatural at the Contemporary Art
Gallery (Vancouver) in 2004, curated by Roy Arden. The artist’s work will
also be presented at The Beauty of Distance, 17th Biennale of Sydney curated
by David Elliott. Beau Dick lives and works in Alert Bay, B.C.

For further information please contact the gallery: info@blanketgallery.com
+604-709-6100

Signs of Change
Nicole Dextras
Thu, April 1 – Sat, May 8
Opening Thu. April 1, 8-11pm

In Signs of Change Nicole Dextras brings her sculptural text works from the last 5 years together along with new work created during her exhibition at grunt gallery. Signs of Change brings Dextras’ body of work in ice typography together through photographic prints and off-site installations. The photographs will depict past ice installations and the off-site component will feature ice text placed in the Vancouver land/cityscape on a weekly basis.

Dextras’ ice letters and eco-installations interrupt the expected narratives of the landscape. Using ice as a medium Dextras subverts the authority of the English language and the commerce of signage by representing them as vulnerable and shifting. Dextras originally created molds from old marquee letters, freezing them and then installing them within both urban and rural locations. Dextras’ installations have varied from 8-foot high ice letters on the Yukon River to 18-inch high letters set in downtown Toronto. The ice words are left on site and begin to change state from solid to liquid. This phase of transition becomes symbolic of the interconnectedness of language and culture to landscape, as affected by time and by a constant shifting and transforming nature.

April 16 – June 2, 2010

Reception Saturday, May 1, 5:30 – 7:00 pm

Concert at the Belkin Art Gallery

2 pm, Friday, April 23: UBC Contemporary Players

Conversations at the Belkin Art Gallery

12 – 1 pm, April – May: to be announced

Films at Pacific Cinematheque, 200-1131 Howe St

May 2-3. Double bill: “A bout de souffle” (1960) and “Psycho” (1960)

For info, see http://www.cinematheque.bc.ca

Conference please see below

This exhibition of painting, photography, collage, and prints includes work from the Belkin Art Gallery Collection, and loans from the Vancouver Art Gallery and Claudia Beck and Andrew Gruft.

The works draw a constellation of ideas and aesthetic propositions from Vancouver, Cape Dorset, and the San Francisco art scenes circa 1959-1960, including Canadian abstract expressionism, early Inuit Art, and the Beat movement; including work by:

B.C. Binning, Agostino Bonalumi, Velerios Caloutsis, Kenneth Coutts-Smith, Jean Dubuffet, Tom Field, Russell FitzGerald, Robert Frank
Gustave, Brion Gysin, Fran Herndon, Innukjuakjuk, jess, Ashevak Kenojuak, Kiakshuk, Ann Kipling, Roy Kiyooka, Marion Nicoll, Toni Onley, Margaret Peterson, Joe Plaskett, Rotraut, Jack Shadbolt, Shequak, Quppapik Simionee, Nancy Spero, Tudlik, Weegee, and Joyce Weiland.

Conference
The exhibition is held in conjunction with the conference Breathless Days: 1959-1960 on May 1 – 2, and 7, 2010, held at Irving K. Barber Learning Centre, Room 301, 1961 East Mall, UBC.

The conference brings together international scholars from history, art history, English and criticism. For more information, see the Conference website http://breathlessdays1959-1960.wikispaces.com

The curatorial group for this exhibition is Carla Benzan, Allison Collins, Shaun Dacey, Aldona Dziedziejko, Darrin Martens, Sarah Todd, and Scott Watson. We thank the Vancouver Art Gallery, Geoffrey Farmer, Claudia Beck and Andrew Gruft for lending works of art and the Canada Council for the Arts for its ongoing support.

MONTECRISTO is a lifestyle quarterly magazine that focuses on the more cultural aspects of life in Vancouver. Has  released their new spring issue featuring some of the most talented designers in the city, two of which I have had the pleasure of working with through the HERE IS NOW exhibit. Be sure to grab an issue!

Congratulations guys!

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Neo-Native Drawings and Other Works: Lawrence Paul Yuxweluptun

Lawrence Paul Yuxweluptun

MAR 19, 2010 to
MAY 16, 2010

Guest-curated by Petra Watson
Opening Thursday March 18, 6 – 9 pm

Neo-Native Drawings and Other Works features three decades of drawings extending from 1980 to 2009. Yuxweluptun refers to his drawings as ‘preliminary studies’ serving as ‘background work’ and the ‘measuring-stick’ for developing the forms and ideas that have come to identify his style and reveal his pictorial inventiveness. These works on paper are often visual notes for his paintings. In addition, his most recent tree studies (2004 – 2009), as well as ovoid portraits (2002 – 2005), figurative works (1985 to 2009), etchings (1993 – 2009), watercolours (1980 – 1993), and a number of sketchbooks make up the first exhibition to focus on Yuxweluptun’s works on paper.

Paul Wong: 5 from sarah keenlyside on Vimeo.

Wednesday, March 3, 7pm

The speakers series is open to the public and free of charge. Join us at:

Langara College (map)
100 West 49th Avenue, Vancouver
Room A136a

The Langara College Centre for Art in Public Spaces invites you to join us for an engaging lecture. Artist Ken Lum will speak about his public art work, and will also present a short paper titledTo Say or Not to Say: Thoughts on the Relationship between Art and the Real.

About the Artist

Ken Lum’s art is concerned with the dialectics of the private and public construction of identity, space and politics. His public art work titled Monument for East Vancouver, installed on the northwest corner of Clark and Great Northern Way in Vancouver, is his third public art commission in Vancouver.

He has participated in numerous international art exhibitions including the Sydney Biennale (1992), Venice Biennale (1995, 2001), Istanbul Biennale (2007), Gwangju Biennale (2008), and Documenta XI in Kassel, Germany (2002).

Lum was Head of the Graduate Program in Studio Art at UBC from 2000 to 2006, and spent 2 years as a visiting professor at the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris. He also guest-taught at the Akademie der Bildenden Kunst in Munich, Germany, the China Art Academy in Hangzhou, China and the l’Ecole d’Arts Plastique in Fort de France, Martinique. He has published widely and is the founding editor of Yishu: The Journal of Contemporary Chinese Art. Lum was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1999, a Killam Award for Outstanding Research in 1998, and the Hnatyshyn Foundation Visual Arts Award in 2007.

He is presently working on two major public art commissions in Berlin, Germany and in Utrecht, Holland.

Twitter/Art+Social Media is an exhibition of work by artists who use social media for the inspiration, production or presentation of their work. The exhibition includes an open call for artwork and events at the Diane Farris Gallery in Vancouver, BC between April 1-May 1, 2010 as well as online components. Artists must be active users of social media and be interested in the theme of the show.



Since 1984, Diane Farris Gallery has been known for finding and establishing new talent. In the year 2010, the gallery recognizes the strong role played by social media in the production and/or promotion of artwork. We are particularly interested in how social media is affecting the practice of artists who use it to share feedback on their artwork, to promote their artwork, to organize shows or to produce artwork collaboratively.

Social media may include websites, blogging, instant messenger, rss feeds, social bookmarking, Facebook, Blogger, Flickr, MySpace, deviantART, LinkedIn, Twitter, YouTube, Skype and podcasts. Artwork may include painting, drawing, photography, printmaking and three-dimensional work as well as computer-based art, video and performance formats.

All contemporary artists who are able to deliver their work to the Diane Farris Gallery in Vancouver are eligible to apply. We regret we cannot accept shipped works of any kind. You must be an independent artist and not represented by a gallery or any other agent that will prohibit your submission to this show. (Via The Diane Farris Gallery)

I saw some of Anna’s sensory maps earlier this week, and I was surprised to find out the meaning behind her maps.

Sensory Maps of Vancouver
by Anna Ruth

Sensory Maps of Vancouver is a series of drawings that record the movement of city buses and reflect the experience of public transportation in the urban environment. Using simple drawing tools, Anna a Canadian artist now working out of Finland, lets the vibrations of each vehicle dictate the lines she translated to paper as she rode and moved from bus to bus during one 24-hour period. In the end she had twenty bus routes, one train line and one Seabus.

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Have you ever wondered what those massive spot lights are when passing over the Granville street bridge?

Well It’s all part of the Vectorial Elevation which allows participants to transform the sky over Vancouver using a three-dimensional interface, apparently by visiting there website you can design huge light sculptures by directing the 20 robotic searchlights located around English Bay.

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This Friday I had the chance to visit the Pendulum Gallery to see the opening of the new Tony Romano and Tyler Brett (T&T) exhibit. The sculptures that were exhibited where made from recylced cars, that reflect ideas of  sustainability, green architecture and technological progress.

If you have a chance I recommend going,

When:  February 5 – March 3, 2010
(during the 2010 Olympic Winter Games in Vancouver)
Opening Reception: Friday February 5, 6-8 pm

Where:  Pendulum Gallery
HSBC Building Atrium
885 West Georgia St.
Vancouver, BC, Canada
www.pendulumgallery.bc.ca

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EVENT PAGE

HERE IS NOW Presents: a series of weekly art socials introducing five artists each week in collaboration with our second installment of HERE IS NOW providing a series of unique programing with each social gathering

HERE IS NOW — ART SOCIAL

FEBRUARY 4.

Dan Siney

Luke Ramsey

Hana Pesut

Natasha Lands

Reid Stewart

MUSIC PROVIDED BY:

Edo Van Breemen

Make Out Video Tape

Dirty Beaches

AND! A Surprise Guest !

A Collection Of Films Curated By Erik Devereux

IN COLLABORATION WITH OUR FIRST SHOWING:

Jody Rogac // Salazar Collective // Heather Martin (Mono) //
Michelle Ford // Graham Landin // Tyler Lepore // Nathan Wiens // Kaput // Peter Taylor // Raif Adelberg // Nick Lepard // Camilla d’Errico // Andrew Pommier

*Also during the event we will have a POP UP SHOP (an in house store where all sorts of things will be sold) with:

Super Champion // LifeTime Collective // Anti Social // Mono // The Woodlands // The Wizard Gang // Kyle Scully// Peter Taylor // Andrew Pommier // kaput
AND MORE!

THANK YOU TO OUR SPONSORS: LifeTime Collective // Antisocial // Super Champion // Vancouver Is Awesome

Michelle was born in a small town 2 hours north of Montreal, QC.  Since moving to Vancouver and attaining her BFA in photography, Michelle has been doing some really amazing work. We are happy to present some of her work at our next Installment of HERE IS NOW











For more of her great photos visit:

Michelle’s website

Michelle’s blog

HERE IS NOW Interview With the Vancouver Courier

Andrew has done solo shows  in New York,  Sydney, as well as being in many group shows that have been either close to home or across an ocean or two.  He is currently preparing for a series of solo shows that will be taking place in France.







I cant wait to see his new work for Here Is Now.

They have finally  tallied up both in-store and online votes for the Art & Sole show that happened at El Kartel back in October, and the winners are as follows:

1. Robert Mearns
2. Shaun +Lindsay
3. Dave Barnes



Congratulations Robert !

Not only is Heather one of the nicest artists I’ve met, she also happens to be incredibly  talented at what she does. This is a preview of The Flight Series, to see more visit her website

THE FLIGHT SERIES 2010:

“Light Diffuses. A frayed web suspends within a delicate haze. An ethereal mist reflects a pale, muted spectrum. FLIGHT explores the diaphanous plane where the astral body departs from the physical form in a translucent vapour”.

Photography: Mark Maryanovich

PAST SERIES: SHARD

“The collision of twilight and night, the dissension of indigo and black, an exploration of the dark. SHARD seeks to unify that which is broken and torn, bringing fragments together in a moment of abstract stability”.

“Departing from the previous notion of harmony and balance within the Interlacing Opposing Thoughts series, SHARD explores the depths of darkness, mood and fragmentation”.

Photography: Christina Ladwig

Jody currently lives and works in Brooklyn, NY, but she will be in town for our show on the 29th!. To view more of her work check out her website

Lifetime Fall/Winter 2010 from LIFETIME COLLECTIVE on Vimeo.

I just drove by this statue located at the corner of Clark Drive and 6th Ave and its huge!. It was  made by the Vancouver artist Ken Lum, and is a fantastic addition to our city.

The piece itself puts East Van on the cross, as a symbol of the suffering that the people of East Van tend to go through.

HERE IS NOW is proud to announce the following additions to the show:

1) Andrew Pommier – http://andrewpommier.com/

2) Sincerely Hana (Glory Days, Golden Girls)

3) Vancouver Is Awesome

MORE INFO HERE

Here is a video recently done by the Salazar picture collective called Wizard Smoke



Wizard Smoke from Salazar on Vimeo.

I’m excited to see what the Salazar collective will be doing for our next show coming up on the 29th.

We have a surprise artist and deejay joining the roster for the January 29th show (soon to be announced). Also stay tuned for an exciting event we will be doing for the month of February.

Here is an image we just received from Nick Lepard,


cool.  here is one.  any problems let me know.

the long now
2009
oil on canvas
66 x 54 inches.

FACE BOOK EVENT PAGE



We will also have a POP UP SHOP with:

Super Champion

AntiSocial

LifeTime Collective

The Woodlands

Mono

And More

I’m really excited for our next show that’s on the 29th of Jan. We have a really amazing group of artist that will be exhibiting their work at the Chapel (an amazing space off of Hastings). Our last show was so busy that this time we had to find a space that has two floors, so it wont be so crowded.

Here is one of the versions of the flyer for the show that our designer Maggie did.



The image is of Grouse Mountain, because this may be our last show in Vancouver before we start our West Coast Tour. We really wanted the image to reflect Vancouver and its environment, and Vancouver’s mountains are one of the many elements that really define our cities landscapes.

Stay tuned for updates.

JR

Myoung Ho Lee

VANCOUVER, BC.- Visitors from around the world during the Vancouver 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games will see British Columbia through the eyes of the province’s renowned artists at the Vancouver Art Gallery. Presented from January 23 to April 18, 2010, Visions of British Columbia: A Landscape Manual is among the largest exhibitions of British Columbia’s visual art ever mounted. This landmark survey occupying two full floors of the Gallery will showcase artworks from a wide variety of media throughout the province’s rich artistic history.(read more)

VICTORIA – The B.C. government has rejected more than 60 per cent of funding requests by arts and culture groups made this year through the community gaming grant program, information released by the government shows.

The government has approved 350 of 953 grant applications made by arts and culture groups through the grants, totaling $8.9 million. Last year, the government gave out $18 million to 840 arts and culture groups through the same program.

Released Thursday, the interim report provides the first comprehensive look at the gaming grants since the money started to be handed out, and follows months of protests over previously announced cuts to funding through the program.

The documents show that $100.4 million has been handed out so far to close to 5,000 groups.

The documents also confirm that despite millions in new money added after the initial uproar, most categories of organizations funded directly through provincial gaming revenues will see a reduction in funding during the current fiscal year.

In arts and culture, the government says the program will contribute a total of $23 million through the program to that sector by March 31, 2010, the end of the current fiscal year.

But almost half of that amount will be channeled through the BC Arts Council, money that before this year had been provided by government, but not taken from the gaming grant program.

New Democratic Party critic for arts and culture Spencer Herbert said the resulting cuts are having a dramatic effect, including in smaller communities where large corporate sponsors are not present to pick up the slack.

“It’s pretty bleak out there,” he said, adding many organizations are hoping the government will come forward with other sources of funding.

“A lot of people are just hanging on,” he said.

“If this continues, it’s lights out.”

Minister of Housing and Social Development Rich Coleman was not available for comment on Thursday.

In the area of public safety grants, funding is down by $600,000 from last year, meaning a cut of about 10 per cent from last year.

The documents show that government will hand out $6 million to 181 groups this year, an amount that includes $180,000 to provide liability insurance to search and rescue groups.

Last year, the government gave $6.6 million to 182 groups.

Sports funding through the gaming grant program is down $10 million, with 938 groups set to receive more than $19 million.

Last year, 1,079 sports groups received $29 million through the program.

In total, the government says it will hand out $175.3 million through the gaming grant program this year, including $15.2 million that was previously distributed through CommunityLINK and the $10.9 million that has been redirected to the BC Arts Council.

Last year, the province gave out $156 million in direct grants to 6,685 organizations.(Via) The Vancouver Sun

The city of Vancouver has ordered the removal of a mural hanging outside a Downtown Eastside gallery depicting the Olympic rings as four sad faces and one smiley face.

The gallery says in 10 years, it has never before been asked to remove any work.

The city issued the order under its graffiti bylaw, but it comes in the wake of a debate over a controversial city sign bylaw that opponents feared would allow officials to stifle anti-Olympic expression.

“It was pretty clear to me that it was because of the context of the work,” says Colleen Heslin, who runs the Crying Room, a small studio focusing on emerging artists.

Ms. Heslin points out that over the years she has hung about 30 murals there, and has never had any trouble. She has also used that space as a giant chalkboard, allowing passersby to write or draw whatever they wanted (which included swear words) and was never asked to remove that either.

In fact, when her landlord, Peter Wong, received a notice from the city telling him to remove the graffiti from his building, he had no idea what they were talking about. “I called them and said I cannot find the graffiti. And they said the sign [the mural] is graffiti.” This surprised him, because the murals have been up for years and he had never heard from the city about them before.

“ It has nothing to do with content. ”— Vancouver spokesperson Theresa Beer

The mural – black paint on varnished wood – may look grittier than other works that have hung on the front of the gallery in the past, but the artist, Jesse Corcoran, says he has no doubt it was ordered taken down not because of a misunderstanding but because of its anti-Olympic content. “I think that they were very careful to try and just term it as graffiti … but let’s be honest: it’s on the front of a gallery that has had a rotating series of art pieces. So I think that’s just the kind of terminology [they used] to avoid it seeming like it was being removed because of the Olympics.”

Vancouver spokesperson Theresa Beer says a city inspector viewed the work as graffiti, not a mural, noting “black graffiti tags on wood panelling covering a window.”

“It has nothing to do with content,” Ms. Beer added.

While this removal was ordered under the city’s graffiti by-law, a sign bylaw in Vancouver has faced heavy criticism. First passed in July, it was accused of stifling debate by giving police and city officials broad power to seize signs and placards, with one civil libertarian saying the city was at risk of becoming “Beijing 2.0.” The law was revised last month to apply only to commercial signs, with Mayor Gregor Robertson saying the city’s “commitment has always been the protection of people’s Charter Rights and Freedoms.”

Ms. Heslin removed the mural on Nov. 16, complying because she likes to rotate the art there anyway (the work had been up since Sept. 25). Also she didn’t want to cause Mr. Wong any grief, as he allows her to install the murals without restrictions – a great freedom, she says, for someone running a gallery with no funding.

The mural is unquestionably an anti-Olympic statement. Mr. Corcoran, who works at a homeless shelter, feels that the Olympics have not served marginalized people of the Downtown Eastside well. He is upset that some key gathering places for homeless people – such as Oppenheimer Park – have been shut down for pre-Olympic renovations. “The oppressive nature of the Games is what I wanted to capture and how the majority is suffering for the minority.”

And for everyday Vancouverites like himself, Mr. Corcoran says, the Games are simply inaccessible. “I live in Vancouver and I pay taxes and I’m not going to be able to go to the Olympics. I can’t afford to go to the Olympics. So basically on a lot of people’s backs like the taxpayers of British Columbia, the Olympics are being staged and it’s not really for us. I find that frustrating and I think there’s a lot of issues that should be dealt with before we have to worry about increasing our ability to host sports events.”

Patrick Smith, director of Simon Fraser University’s Institute of Governance Studies, said the removal of the sign is symptomatic of the high demands the “Olympic movement” places on its host cities. He believes Vancouver will be the beginning of a shift away from the modern Olympic era, with communities saying the cost of hosting is too high.

“A lot is asked of communities, and it seems to me this is a perfectly good example of where we’ve gone too far,” he said. “There’s no other way to describe it other than overreaction, but it’s the city trying to protect a brand that’s not the city’s brand. It’s the Olympic movement’s brand.”

It’s the latest in a series of cases where the Olympic interests have trumped Canadian or local interests, he argues, citing other examples such as a recent court ruling that Canadian women ski jumpers couldn’t claim a spot in the Games under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, or a new B.C. law that allows police to force homeless people into shelters in severe weather. Civil libertarians argue the law is simply a tool to sweep Vancouver’s homelessness problem under the rug during the Games.

“I think the city has kind of caved in to a whole serious of events here,” said Prof. Smith, also a past chair of SFU’s department of political science. “It [the Olympic movement] dictates an awful lot to local citizens. It’s not as if the event isn’t interesting and doesn’t grab the attention of people around the world, but [the Olympic movement] goes to far and it asks too much.”
(VIA) The Globe And Mail

A mural by Jesse Corcoran that was posted at the Crying Room, an art studio at 157 East Cordova. It was taken down after the city deemed graffiti and ordered the landlord to take it down.
Photograph by: Handout, Vancouver Sun

Artists and a leading civil libertarian criticized the city yesterday for forcing the removal of an anti-Olympic mural outside a Downtown Eastside studio, claiming the city is censoring free expression.

The mural depicts the Olympic rings, with just one ring showing a smiley face and four sporting unhappy faces.

The mural’s creator, the studio owner and the BC Civil Liberties Association said yesterday the city is censoring anti-Olympic art.

City officials “were saying that it was graffiti but not saying that it was because of the Olympics,” said Colleen Heslin, who owns The Crying Room studio at 157 E. Cordova St., where the art was first displayed on an outside wall in September.

“But they had never previously asked me to take anything down,” she said.

Heslin said she’s had more than 30 murals in the front of her studio since 2003, rotating them about every two and a half months.

Heslin’s landlord received a warning from the city that the mural was considered graffiti and he then asked Heslin to remove it last month.

Peter Wong, the landlord, said he didn’t fight the warning because he doesn’t understand the anti-graffiti law.

“I don’t think that’s graffiti,” he said. “But they think it’s graffiti, so I cannot argue with them.”

Heslin said she removed it because it was time to rotate another mural into the spot.

Penny Ballem, city manager, said buildings around the intersection of Main and Cordova, including the building in which the studio is located, are frequent targets of graffiti artists.

Ballem said the drawing appeared on a piece of wood placed on the outside of the window, so an inspector probably thought it was graffiti.

The city spoke to the owner, and he never indicated the piece was artwork, she said. The city then followed up with a letter on Oct. 22 demanding its removal.

The issue arose just a week after city councillors reassured civil-liberties groups at a council meeting that the city would not use its bylaws to crack down on free expression that criticizes the Games.

David Eby, executive director of the BC Civil Liberties Association, said the city is breaking that promise.

“This is an excellent example of our worst fears,” he said.

On Friday, Robert Holmes, president of the civil-liberties group, sent a letter to Mayor Gregor Robertson and Vancouver City Council, criticizing the city for failing to protect free expression.

“The majority of this Council, the Mayor and the police chief have been quoted in the press as saying that you have no intention of using the law enforcement resources of the City to limit freedom of expression,” he wrote.

“We urge you to review and reform your processes to ensure that this does not happen again, although we are losing confidence in your political will to ensure that all voices are heard during the Olympic period, despite your repeated public assertions to the contrary.”

Councillors Geoff Meggs and Suzanne Anton both expressed disappointment and said the removal was an unfortunate incident. They said council intends to protect free expression, even if art expresses negative views of the Olympics.

Anton said enforcing the bylaws is complex and the art probably violated the bylaws.

But she said it was “heavy-handed” to crack down on public art at a studio.

And, she added, “It just doesn’t look good for the city that [the mural is] the first piece that’s taken down.”

The artist, Jesse Corcoran, a community-care worker with a shelter for people who have mental-health issues and substance-use issues, said the mural illustrates that just a few people will benefit from the Olympics, while many will suffer.

He said the city is pushing the homeless out of Oppenheimer Park so it will look good for the Olympics.

“The priorities are in the wrong place and that mural kind of exposes the idea,” he said.

Demanding the removal of the mural “is a convenient way to silence this social criticism,” Corcoran said. “There needs to be freedom to critique the Olympics.”

Though city officials deemed the mural graffiti, the city has a program to encourage people to replace graffiti with murals.

“A mural can act as a deterrent to future graffiti, enhance the aesthetics of the building and community as well as provide a medium for artists to display their work,” the City of Vancouver website notes.

The city says it will even “provide the paint supplies you need to help bring a mural to life your neighbourhood.”

Counc. Meggs said city staff told him the mural could be posted legitimately in a nearby area designated for murals.

“It’s really an unfortunate mix-up because the content to me is really fine,” Meggs said. “It would be good if the art could be reinstalled somewhere where it was not graffiti.”
(VIA) The Vancouver Sun