eastside culture crawl

Vancouver’s Eastside Culture Crawl celebrates its 20th anniversary this year from November 17 to 20, 2016. The beloved four-day celebration of visual arts, design, and crafts welcomes the community into open studios, homes, and garages throughout Vancouver’s Eastside community (bounded by Columbia Street, 1st Avenue, Victoria Drive, and the waterfront.) Drawing more than 25,000 visitors from across Metro Vancouver and beyond, attendees can look forward to an impressive assortment of singular creations from more than 475 participating visual artists at this year’s monumental event.

Planning your visit to Eastside Culture Crawl

Having experienced the Crawl year after year, here are some of our tips for navigating the ECC:

  • Review the participating artists and highlight an area on the map to start with. The larger buildings such as Parker Street Studios, Mergatroid, Railtown Studios, and MakerLabs are popular starting points (especially for first-timers), but do note they get quite busy – start your day early on the weekends, or venture out on the first two evenings, which tend to be a bit mellower.
  • Dress in weather-appropriate layers and comfortable walking shoes.
  • Bring friends and a thermos of hot coffee or cocoa to keep warm along the route.
  • Be respectful of the art and artists’ spaces – they are happy to share their work but be mindful that you are entering their personal live/work spaces.
  • Bring cash and credit cards – this is an opportune time to buy some unique pieces from local artists for yourself or as gifts.

Participating Artists

With over 475 participating artists and makers, it’s nearly impossible to shortlist our favourites. Here’s a sample of who we’re looking forward to seeing this year (new and returning):

Tracy McMenemy (first time, mixed media) – Primarily self-taught, her mixed media work blurs the lines between painting and photography.

Rachael Ashe (returning, mixed media) – Rachael creates mesmerizing, intricate paper cut work and installations. Recent commissions include a folded paper construction made from reclaimed maps for Vancity Credit Union, as well as the engineering of ten full-sized paper musical instruments for Giant Ant creative studio.

Marty McLennan (returning, furniture, metalwork) – An award-winning freelance photojournalist in the travel and leisure industry, Marty ties his decades of experience in architectural image creation with the crafting of three dimensional functional objects that are not only sensual to the eye and touch, but functional as well.

Robinson Studio, (returning, sculpture) – In David Robinson’s own words: “It seems to me that my sculptures, before they are anything else, are manifestations of fitful waking dreams; narratives whole and smashed, images, ideas, all distilled through the passage of time and the particular resistance of matter.”

Hobo Woodworks, (returning, furniture, leatherwork, wood) – Using reclaimed wood indigenous to BC, the two brothers behind Hobo blend of old and new wood to create their pieces.

A Cagey Bee, (returning, painting, jewelry) – Inspired by vintage storybooks her mother read to her as a child, Kris G. Brownlee loves to bring her imaginary friends to life on canvas.

Richard Tetrault, (painting, murals, returning) Fun fact: Richard is one of the founders of the Culture Crawl; he came up with the name and crow logo. A Vancouver-based painter, printmaker and muralist, Richard’s work has been shown in more than 80 exhibitions locally and internationally.

Jessa Gilbert (painting, drawing) Merging her love for art and adventure, Jessa has a fascinating #getoutoftownvibe series – it was created outside during her journeys along the road, paths, beaches, and cliff sides. She’s over at The Gam Gallery 110 E Hastings this weekend.

Eastside Culture Crawl Special Events

Additionally, the Culture Crawl features numerous showcases including demos, talks, and special exhibitions. For the full lineup, visit the Culture Crawl events page. Here’s a few we’ve highlighted for this year:

As The Crow Flies A juried exhibition and preview showcasing the wide range of works presented by some of the Culture Crawl’s most esteemed and dedicated artists from the past 20 years, located at three of Vancouver’s most beloved arts spaces: Arts Factory (281 Industrial Ave.): October 21 – November 6, 2016, Firehall Arts Centre (280 E. Cordova St.): November 2 – 28, 2016, The Cultch (1895 Venables St.): November 2 – 28, 2016

Moving Art: 3rd Annual Film and Video Projection Series A showing of evocative, art-based, contemporary silent films, running throughout the Crawl at Charles Clark Gallery, located within Strange Fellows Brewing (1345 Clark Dr.)  November 17 – 20, 2016, noon to 11pm daily

The SnackArt Collective vending machine is an interactive presentation of digital photographs printed in limited editions and made available to the public in snack-sized, consumable pieces. Outside the Crawl, you can also catch The SnackArt Collective’s exhibit at the Pendulum Gallery November 7 – December 3. November 17-20, 2nd floor of 1000 Parker Street.

Live Chainsaw Carving Vancouver stump artist Jesse Toso will be carving pieces of wood into unique pieces of art using chainsaws! His one-hour demonstrations will take place rain or shine outside Töso Wood Works, Studio #101 at the northwest corner of 1000 Parker Street by the railroad tracks. Saturday, November 19 and Sunday, November 20, 3pm.

Are you a first-time or long-time Crawler planning to attend this year? Let us know who your favourite artists are and who you’re most excited to see! Don’t forget to find us on Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter – we’ll see you out there! Eastside Culture Crawl 2016 runs Thursday, November 17 and Friday, November 18, 5 pm – 10 pm, Saturday, November 19 and Sunday, November 20, 11 am – 6 pm.

One thought on “Eastside Culture Crawl 2016

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *