What does Nanaimo have in common with Vancouver? Well, for one thing, we share the phenomenon of new and proposed development – some of it large scale – replacing existing residences and building – some of it still occupiable and perfectly useful. Think of the development going forward on Nanaimo’s old Howard Johnson site. Or other projects that have appeared before City Council for approval in the last couple of years. And we share an acute shortage of affordable living and working space for our community of artists. That may not be considered a priority issue by voters, but it is an important problem for both cities. Art communities are one of the things that make us more than a collection of shopping malls and parking lots. Art communities, not development, generate our cultural riches – or our poverty. So why don’t we consider this experiment now happening in Vancouver also to be an experiment for Nanaimo? Why can’t we start doing something like this here? Talk about timely questions. We can ask them of and learn something about our current City Council candidates.
The Artist Motel: Inside a Vancouver Experiment. The Tyee. Septermber 23, 2022. “Visit the creative colony carved from a dying motel in a fast gentrifying city. A Tyee mini-documentary.”
September 25, 2022 at 9:41 am
While I don’t have background details, I believe a similar type of project is underway in Victoria spearheaded by an artist group called ‘Ministry of Casual Living (MoCL)’. They occupy the art deco Provincial government building at 780 Blanshard St (Fairfield and Blanshard). There website is:
http://ministryofcasualliving.ca
September 25, 2022 at 9:55 am
Comment re “Imagine doing this in Nanaimo”
It might be a temporary solution. But here in Nanaimo, we have a city-owned facility that, with minor renovation could be an ideal solution to the fact that, since the Art Gallery changed its mandate in 2011 – which effectively blocked local artists and art organizations form the main gallery, – they no longer have a place to meet, plan, exhibit, provide or attend workshops etc. The facility I refer to is 580 Fitzwilliam St. This facility was purpose built to serve the community as a library. With the library now n the convention centre, 580 Fitawilliam has been used by the fire department. They no longer need that space and the building can now be returned to its original usage – that of serving the needs of the community. In this case, that of the art sector as a centre for the creative arts.
This, in turn would be a partial solution to the proposed multimillion expansion of the art gallery and would once again serve the needs of the community.
This proposal was made to Council in January 2019. Council instead awarded that space to satisfy the needs of the RCMP. In other words, staff needs “trump” the needs of the community which have not had suitable or affordable space for its art sector for over 10 years. Dennis McMahon
September 25, 2022 at 12:10 pm
Nanaimo Artists have a number of needs for which community support is required. In order, they include; gallery space in the city centre, studio space near the gallery and equipment storage and maker space. Calgary has some excellent models for this kind of support. It helps to establish an annual commitment to make a space more or less permanent, otherwise it’s very hard to do programming.