Eastside Arts Society Wins National Award from Canadian Institute of Planners

The Canadian Institute of Planners announced today that Eastside Arts Society (EAS), producer of the annual Eastside Culture Crawl, is the recipient of the Award of Merit for New and Emerging Planning Initiatives as part of the 2021 Awards for Planning Excellence, for their 2019 planning report, City Without Art? No Net Loss, Plus! The national recognition honours projects that showcase planning excellence in the cultivation of Canada's communities.

City Without Art? No Net Loss, Plus! is the first report to identify the loss of artist production space and offer sustainable solutions for the urgent crisis facing visual artists in Vancouver's Eastside through empirical data, including a comprehensive artist survey, in-depth community research, and sophisticated mapping analysis. The report targeted the same geographical boundaries as the annual Eastside Culture Crawl: Columbia Street, 1st Avenue, Victoria Drive, and the Waterfront. Supported by a public forum and multi-venue art exhibition in October 2019, City Without Art? was co-directed by EAS Artistic & Executive Director Esther Rausenberg and EAS Board member, artist, and Stantec community planning consultant John Steil.

"We are thrilled and honoured to be the recipient of this national Award of Merit from the Canadian Institute of Planners for our report that shows evidence of the loss of artist production space. This is a critical issue that continues to threaten the very survival of Vancouver's artists today," says Esther Rausenberg. "Disappearing studio space has become increasingly problematic, and the report recorded a loss of 400,000 square feet of space over the past decade."

Since the report's release, studios have continued to close. In June 2021, the closure of White Monkey Design (496 Prior St.), a City of Vancouver building home to 20 artists, resulted in a loss of 16,000 sq. ft. Additionally, The Old Foundry Building (1790 Vernon Dr.), which is home to 30 artists utilizing 18,000 sq. ft., will be closing. This is home to sculptors and other 3D artists, whose artistic mediums make it difficult to secure studio space. It's anticipated that another 20,000 sq. ft. will be lost this year through the closure of Eastside Studios (550 Malkin Ave.)

Through a collaborative effort to engage various stakeholders, including artists, developers, building owners and city planners, the report's findings have encouraged the City of Vancouver to partner with the Society to identify policy and regulatory changes necessary to supporting a thriving artistic community. And in June 2021, EAS received a $300,000 grant from the Vancouver Foundation towards the three-year development of a strategic plan for the creation of a designated Eastside Arts District.

"As both a planner and an artist, it was a great experience to work on this bottom-up cultural planning study, driven by the arts community, to provide facts, recommend policies and tools to protect and enhance the arts production spaces on Vancouver's Eastside, and to gain community and political support so we don't become 'a city without art,'" says John Steil.

City Without Art? No Net Loss, Plus! was also the recipient of a 2020 Award for Excellence in Planning from the Planning Institute of British Columbia, announced on June 23, 2020. The society was awarded the Gold Award for Research & New Directions in Planning.

The following contributors and supporters in the creation of City Without Art? No Net Loss, Plus! are gratefully acknowledged by the Eastside Arts Society:

Contributors:

• Vancouver Economic Commission: Hashir Safi and Pietra Basilii
• Licker Geospatial Consulting: Aaron Licker and Kristi Silk, MAPPING ANALYSIS
• Ammar Mahimwalla, RESEARCH & WRITING

Supporters: City of Vancouver, Strathcona BIA, The Arts Factory, Stantec, Vancity, and Vancouver Economic Commission

For more information about City Without Art? No Net Loss, Plus! and to read the report, visit eastsideartsdistrict.ca.

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