What’s been inspiring you lately? Do you have a favorite piece of public art or architecture in Vancouver?
This past weekend, Planning Institute of British Columbia (PIBC) hosted an amazing mural walk where I learned a ton about the 100 Vancouver Mural Festival (VMF) murals activating the streets of Mount Pleasant.
I am obsessed by the way public art and architecture work together to activate public spaces and build community.
Suffice to say, I was beyond excited to participate.
Some fun facts that I took away from the tour:
🌈 City Engineering approves the permits for murals (sometimes due to timelines VMF begs forgiveness vs. asking permission!)
🌈 30% of the artwork in the mural festival is indigenous
🌈 The festival has a full-time graffiti curator who assesses connotations of certain graffiti fonts
🌈 There is a mix of local and international artists involved in the festival
🌈 VMF normally does 20-30 murals per year, but did 60 in 2020 during the pandemic (leveraging extra budget from working with mostly local artists)
Especially after my trip to Australia earlier this year—I’ve been captivated by opportunities to introduce more public art anchored, activated, engaged public spaces throughout British Columbia (particularly around transit).
And—I’m grateful to initiatives like the Vancouver Mural Festival for reminding us to celebrate and engage with this beautiful city.
What’s been inspiring you lately? Do you have a favorite piece of public art or architecture in Vancouver? Write back and let me know!
Tegan
PS – In a twist of events related to community building and how we make communities fabulous…. Did you see the provincial announcement yesterday about shifting from negotiated CACs to a new ACC fee? It’s going to be messy for the next little while… but, in my view it’s a good thing for unlocking housing supply in BC (while not losing sight of the importance of place-making).