There’s long been talk of Vancouver and its dying art scene. After all, it’s hard for a scene to thrive with overpriced real estate and less and less access to venues. But the Eastside Arts Society (previously the Eastside Culture Crawl) wants to change that as “Vancouver’s Eastside has one of the highest densities of artists in the nation”. They’re proposing an Eastside Arts District (EAD).
You probably have no idea how sorely this is needed. In 2019, the Eastside Arts Society did a study that found that 400,000 ft2 or almost 10 football fields of visual art studio space has been lost over the past decade. This directly correlates with the gentrification of the Eastside.
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While this loss might not seem super alarming to you, Vancouver isn’t much without its artists. Sure the city is beautiful but that’s only helped by a vibrant arts scence, not harmed. So a new Eastside Arts District would help to preserve the character of Vancouver’s Eastside. It will help the Eastside by creating a “formalized organization with stable funding and secure long-term facilities for artists and cultural venues”.
We’re keeping our fingers crossed that this can become a reality as we’d love to see Vancouver keep some of its originality. If you’re wondering, the new district will be around the “geographic area where many artists currently live or work”. You can probably ascertain where that is. If you’d like to learn more you can click here.
