title.

lookin up.

with all the shit news about vancouver's economy and funds getting cut from the arts. friends losing jobs, shows getting canceled, i was feeling pretty bummed out. this refreshing article revived my trust in humanity, at least for now.

A fresh take on developing the Downtown Eastside
Jeremy Stothers, ctvbc.ca

While Vancouver's politicians and academics discuss solutions to the Downtown E

astside's pervasive poverty, one developer is rolling up his sleeves and getting to work.

David Duprey, with his punk tattoos and aggressive language, would look out of place in a boardroom business meeting. But in the Downtown Eastside, he seems to fit right in.

He speaks with conviction about the area, saying that Vancouver has been passive for too long, and his developments are long overdue.

"If you've got an idea, you just go out and do it. You don't sit around and talk about it for 10 years, you just do it," says Duprey.

And he is doing it. In the past two years, he has leased eight buildings across the city, five of which were vacant for more than a decade before he got them.

Duprey owns the Plank Gallery, a non-profit art space that was the first new business in over a decade to open in the 100-block of East Hastings, a block that is known for rampant drug use and extreme poverty.

He also owns the Grace Gallery at Main Street and 3rd Avenue, as well as the hidden bar, called the Narrow, in the back of Grace Gallery. It hosts DJs most nights, and is difficult to find unless someone points out exactly where it is.

Now, he's opening three more buildings: 108, 110 and 112 E. Hastings Street, buildings that have been empty for 14 years. The space inside is devoted nearly exclusively to art studios, and will provide a workspace at dirt-cheap rates to more than 40 artists. And one store-front is set to open very soon.

Saturday is the grand opening of the Goonies Gallery, an all-girls art collective at 108 E. Hastings Street that will host art shows, parties, movie nights and workshops. It will be the first for-profit business in the area in over a decade, according to Duprey.

Dirt-cheap rental rates

The Goonies pays about 75 cents per square foot every month, which is staggeringly cheap compared with monthly rates of up to $3.50 for a Single-Room Occupancy (SRO) apartment.

And with his seven-year lease, Duprey plans to keep the rents cheap, even if condos spring up around the studios within that time.

"My whole thing is to fight greed. I make money off this, I make enough, but it's not insane. Then I can turn over the rest of the money into decent rates for the people who are there," says Duprey.

But the man who made this happen is quick to shine the spotlight on his tenants. He says these artists are the driving force behind what is happening on this block.

"What I do isn't rocket science," says Duprey as he leans forward in his chair. "I rent out a building, I fix it up, then I rent it out again. C'mon! All over the world, they're doing this--except here in Vancouver."

The 40 year-old businessman was raised in Vancouver, but spent his 20s in San Francisco. He then moved to L.A., where he managed a bar before moving back up to Vancouver. After he got back, he was very surprised at the business climate in the city.

"I was shocked when I came back here by the lack of entrepreneurial spirit," says Duprey, who learned his approach in the U.S., where entrepreneurs are not as reliant on government grants or special assistance.

A fresh take on developing the Downtown Eastside

The approach may be exactly what Canada's poorest postal code needs to balance the local demographics. The artist studios will change the landscape dramatically.

"It's going to make this into a more multi-faceted neighbourhood," said Duprey. "Down here you've got only poor people, and it's boring. We should mix it up."

That is the same approach that was suggested by many speakers, who expressed their views at "The Fix," a recent UBC forum on the Downtown Eastside.

Former city councilor Jim Green has been a resident and an outspoken advocate for this area, and he says the Downtown Eastside needs more arts and culture as well as the basic essentials for living.

"These people, they're dying for culture, we can't just think of material needs, people need culture, too," he said at the forum.

Green also supports a policy that would create diverse neighbourhoods of one-third low income, one-third middle income and one-third high income earners.

This is aimed at creating mutual understanding between the groups and allows for upward mobility for the poor and increased compassion from the rich. It would also stimulate local businesses because some people would have a budget for buying products from local shops.

And Duprey agrees with this strategy.

"I think Jim Green's absolutely right. If that's what he's advocating, then he's 100-per-cent on the money," he said.

Development would also help to keep people in the area after they get a steady income.

"It would be nice if people wanted to stay once they started to get jobs. But I can totally understand; I wouldn't want to live in one of these skid-row places," said Duprey.

A simple appraoch

And he says that turning abandoned buildings into functional spaces won't make all the homeless and drug-addicted people leave.

San Francisco is a good example; in the 1990's, it had a poor neighbourhood called The Mission that aimed to recruit artists attracted by the cheap rent and gritty urban feel of the area.

The artists opened galleries and started the hippest bars around. This encouraged development--some would call it gentrification--and luxury condos were built above Single-Room Occupancy apartments, which are affordable rooms aimed at housing low-income earners.

But the luxury condos didn't push the poor people out. They just made for a more diverse, interesting neighbourhood, according to Duprey, who says that Vancouver's Downtown Eastside could be the next most exciting and artistic area in the city.

Possibly Vancouver's hippest area

"It could be the coolest area, I think it's got tons of potential, but it's just too mono-economic," Duprey says. But injecting money into the area won't push the poorer people out.

"I don't care if they build luxury hotels. The SROs are still going to be here. So those people have to live with these people, and everyone has to get along, which I think would be awesome."

Duncan McCallum agrees. He is the manager of the building at 108 E. Hastings Street.

"I think what David [Duprey]'s doing here is really great," said McCallum.

Before managing the Hastings building, McCallum took care of a building on South Main.

"There was this dumpster out back with a great piece of graffiti on it... it said 'artists are the storm troopers of gentrification,' think about that; it's totally right," said McCallum.

And the artists who have moved in are aware of this, too.

PaperBird designer gets a fresh start

Mérida Anderson is the driving force behind the Goonies gallery and says that the people she meets on the 100 block of East Hastings are excited about the new place.

"I think it's good," she says. "People walk by and stop to take a look, they tell me 'I haven't seen this place open in like, 20 years.'"

But she knows that gentrification is soon to follow.

"In 10 years there's probably just going to be big, stupid condos everywhere, and it's a bummer. But what can you do?"

Anderson has sold previous seasons' garments from her clothing label PaperBird and is investing all her time, energy and money into this new space.

Duprey is quick to say it's people like Anderson--not himself--who are the real heroes.

"She's just awesome, that whole collective is awesome," said Duprey.

In addition to the Goonies gallery, two other store-fronts will open next door: a screen printing workshop and Vancouver Skate Shop.

But with a luxury condo already planned on the block, only time will tell what the lasting impact of these ground-breaking developments will be.

Slasmalsklubben.

check these folks out. i originally posted this video for the animation on my other blog {digital + interactive} but am getting hooked on the sounds. watch Slasmalsklubben's {Malmo Beach Night Party} and listen to them at their website. { http://smk.just.nu/ }

speakers at emily carr university of art + design.

AHIS 333 Interdisciplinary Forums Presents

Fall 2009 Featured Speakers

{Why Collaborate?}

Sept. 17 Situated Knowledges: Henry Tsang and Rita Wong

Sept. 24 CodeLab: M. Simon Levin and Jer Thorp

Oct. 1 Uts'am/Witness: Nancy Bleck and Chief Bill Williams

Oct. 8 Bumpy Road...Bumpy Road...HOLE in the Road! Hanif Janmohamed

Oct .15 The Art of Engagement: Tania Willard

Oct. 22 A Filmmaker’s Personal Approach to Collaboration: Thomas Riedelsheimer

Oct. 29 Living on the Edge: Bing Thom

Nov. 12 Intimate Portraiture and Dialogue: Sandra Semchuk and Lucie Chan

Nov. 19 Animated Collaboration: A Necessary Aspect of Production: Martin
Rose

Nov. 26 Cooperating with Animals: Carol Gigliotti

Dec. 3 A Conversation with Restaurateurs Vikram Vij and Meera Dhalwala

Dec. 10 Collaborative Culture and Art Making: Vanessa Richards and Sol Guy

{All Talks Commence at 3:50 pm

Free and Open to the Public

Lecture Hall 301, South Building

Emily Carr University of Art & Design

1400 Johnston St., Granville Island, Vancouver}

Bios:

Sept. 17 Situated Knowledges: Henry Tsang and Rita Wong

Henry Tsang is a visual and media artist whose projects incorporate digital media, video, photography, language and sculptural elements in the exploration of the relationship between the public, community and identity in the new global order. He is currently working on the public art project Maraya with Glen Lowry, M. Simon Levin et al, that reflects the uncanny similarity between Vancouver's False Creek and the Dubai Marina. Henry received the VIVA Award in 1993.

Rita Wong investigates the relationships between contemporary poetics, social justice, ecology, and decolonization. A recipient of the Dorothy Livesay Poetry Prize and the Asian Canadian Writers' Workshop Emerging Writer Award, Wong is the author of three books: sybil unrest, in collaboration with Larissa Lai; forage; and monkeypuzzle. Her poems have appeared in numerous anthologies such as A Verse Map of Vancouver, Rocksalt: An Anthology of Contemporary BC Poetry, Shift and Switch: New Canadian Poetry. She is currently working on a research project exploring the poetics of water.

Sept. 24 CodeLab: M. Simon Levin and Jer Thorp

The public works of M. Simon Levin include gardens, telecommunication systems, utility trucks, alternative tours of cities, storytelling tricycles, whispering book carts and land care centres in Canada, USA, Mexico and Australia. As an extension of his art practice, Levin works with artists and non-artists, from students to policy makers in creating public works as a way of pushing social awareness of how public space operates and for whom it is designed to do so.

A former geneticist, Jer Thorp’s digital art practice explores the many-folded boundaries between science and art. His organic Flash experiments and generative artworks has been featured by The New York Times, The Guardian, BusinessWeek and the CBC. Thorp’s award-winning software-based work has been exhibited internationally and all over the web. As a developer and designer, Thorp produced work for Honda, the CBC, FOX, and the LA Kings. He is a contributing editor for Wired UK.

Oct. 1 Uts'am/Witness: Nancy Bleck and Chief Bill Williams

Chief Bill Williams, ta-lall-SHAM-cane siyam, has been on the Squamish First Nation Council since 1980, and the community’s Hereditary Council since 1995. He has played a leadership role among First Nations by successfully blending business and conservation efforts, and successfully negotiated Squamish control of 80% of the allowable cut in Squamish Territory. Chief Williams was awarded the 2005 Eugene Rogers Award for Leading Conservation Efforts by the Western Canada Wilderness Committee.

Nancy Bleck is an artist whose photography, film and video explores notions of the witness, nomadic subjectivity, ecology, embodied ethics, with an emphasis on collaboration and social change. Bleck is co-founder of the Uts'am - Witness project, 1997-2007, together with Hereditary Chief Bill Williams, mountaineer John Clarke, and the Roundhouse Community Centre. She teaches at Emily Carr. In 2007, Bleck received a ‘Woman of Distinction' award in the category of arts, culture and design.

Oct. 8 Bumpy Road...Bumpy Road...HOLE in the Road! Hanif Janmohamed

Hanif Janmohamed's human-centered, art-infused approach to design has resulted in award winning design for projects including the CD-ROM Glenn Gould: The New Listener; video exhibitions on the work of Frank Gehry; User Interface design for Nikon Digital; and Confluences -The Design and Rtealization of the Walt Disney Concert Hall. Janmohamed is currently exploring the design implications of the poetic object, and is part of a team developing a real-time collaborative web-based platform called OMBU.

Oct .15 The Art of Engagement: Tania Willard

Painter, printmaker, illustrator, writer, and comics artist, Tania Willard is also the editor of Redwire Magazine, an Indigenous youth magazine and website that is one of the only forums for independent aboriginal culture, art, and politics in Canada. She has worked with grunt gallery to coordinate the community arts conference and publication, Live in Public: The Art of Engagement; runs Red Willow Designs; and has artwork in the Stanley Park Environmental Art Project.

Oct. 22 A Filmmaker’s Personal Approach to Collaboration: Thomas Riedelsheimer

Documentary filmmaker Thomas Riedelsheimer is well-known for his Rivers and Tides about the artist Andy Goldsworthy. His films deal with a variety of topics and are increasingly of feature length for theatrical release. He has won major national and international film and television awards for directing as well as for editing and camerawork. Riedelsheimer is a member of the German and European Film Academy.

Oct. 29 Living on the Edge: Bing Thom

Bing Thom is one of Canada’s most accomplished architects and urbanists. A dedicated and artful city-builder, his global reputation has risen in consort with that of Vancouver, the city he has done much to protect and to improve. Ground-breaking buildings and urban designs produced by his firm have been published in most of the world’s leading architectural journals, and he has been recognized for his design accomplishments and civic stewardship by being awarded the Order of Canada.

Nov. 12 Intimate Portraiture and Dialogue: Sandra Semchuk and Lucie Chan

Lucie Chan’s drawing-based works and installations have been exhibited nationally, including the traveling exhibit Just my Imagination, the Foreman Art Gallery and the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia. In 2006, she was nominated for the Sobey Art Award. Chan has been teaching at NSCAD for the past four years and is a new faculty member at ECU.

ECU Associate Professor Sandra Semchuk is a co-founder of The Photographers Gallery in Saskatoon, and her artwork has been widely exhibited internationally. As a feminist, she uses autobiography to locate herself in resistance to colonialist narratives. Semchuk has collaborated with her father, Martin Semchuk, and her recently deceased husband, Cree actor/writer James Nicholas, and is working on a photographic book about the internment camps during WW1 in Canada where more than 5000 Ukrainians were interned.

Nov. 19 Animated Collaboration: A Necessary Aspect of Production: Martin Rose

Martin Rose has been an independent animation filmmaker in Vancouver for two decades. He is also a producer at the National Film Board, Pacific & Yukon Centre where he coordinates auteur animation projects such as The Trembling Veils of Bones, an Irish-Canadian co-production that involves combining a live actor and computer-generated animation; an abstract experimental film; and a stereoscopic modern fairy tale. Rose is Associate Professor in Animation at ECU.

Nov. 26 Cooperating with Animals: Carol Gigliotti

Dr. Carol Gigliotti’s has been involved in new media since 1990 and writes about ethics and technology. Her forthcoming book, Leonardo's Choice: Genetic Technologies and Animals, includes essays by philosopher Steven Best, literary theorist Susan McHugh, feminist biologist Lynda Birke and a dialogue between Gigliotti and cultural theorist Steve Baker. She teaches Environmental Ethics, Critical Animal Studies and Interactive Media at ECU.

Dec. 3 A Conversation with Vikram Vij and Meera Dhalwala

Vikram Vij opened the original 14-seat Vij's Restaurant in Vancouver in 1994, and has since cooked on many television shows and for such events as the Montreal Festival of Lights and the James Beard Awards in New York. A certified sommelier, he is passionate about pairing wines with Indian food.

Meera Dhalwala has worked with international non-profit organizations in Washington, DC, on human rights and development projects. In 1995, she joined Vij's. Their philosophy is to keep spices and cooking techniques Indian, while using meats, seafoods and produce that are locally available.

Dec. 10 Collaborative Culture and Art Making: Vanessa Richards and Sol Guy

Vanessa Richards is a musician, performance artist, poet and facilitator. As founder and Artistic Director of London-based Mannafest, her performance art and music toured premier clubs, concert halls and galleries including The Jazz Café, Fabric, South Bank Centre, and Tate Modern.

As one of Canada’s leading music executives, Sol Guy is co-founder of DCM and co-creator, co-producer, and host of 4REAL. He has worked with artists such as Lauryn Hill, P Diddy, India Arie, k-os, Rascalz, The Roots, Outkast, Kardinal Offishall, Dead Prez, B.I.G. and The Wu-Tang Clan. His Direct Current Media with Josh Thome utilizes the power of media and the Internet to educate, inspire and empower others to make a difference.

excited about green living.

fall 09 semester has begun, and one class i'm very excited about is Eugenia's exhibit design. we are to design Lighthouse's sustainability showcase, which is much more exciting than it sounds. here are some super links that helped with my research, and pertain to eco, and green living. enjoy.

{this is it}
a highly creative design laboratory that encompasses product & furniture design, architectural installation, graphic and exhibition design and public art.

1551 lockyer rd. Roberts Creek, BC

{energyware}
this is pretty clever, the PowerTab. i love the idea of displaying the cost of the home's electricity use.
Suite 604, 134 Abbott Street. Vancouver, BC

{pure}
a eco furniture design company that uses only sustainable materials: bamboo, organic cotton, hemp, organic dyes, biodegradable natural latex rubber.
1830-148 A Street. Surrey, BC

{ecoholic}
canadian best seller, personal favourite. a must-read resource for practical tips and products for a happier, healthier you, and greener home.

{yolo colorhouse}
premium, environmentally responsible paint products with a user-friendly color palette.
3909 NE Martin Luther King Jr Blvd, ste 201, Portland, OR.

{Lighthouse}
a non-profit sustainable building centre. a resource centre for businesses and homewowners. they provide a "first-stop" integrated service shop that connects British Columbians with the inspiration, information, services and skills they need to implement sustainable building solutions. education, training and outreach programs are also offered as well as support community engagement, research, partnership development, technical assistance and consulting services.
2060 Pine Street, Vancouver, BC
{top ten tips for homewowners}
{top ten useful websites for homewowners}
{green your home kit}

arts protest.

thank you to everyone who made it out to the vag today to protest kevin krueger's decision to cut funds from vancouver's arts.

tara mcpherson

{tara mcpherson's art}

bat for lashes.

{natasha khan}
{bat for lashes}