BC Artscape Approved to Operate New Cultural Amenities Space
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The following is excerpted from a communication issued by the City of Vancouver.
On March 10, 2020, Vancouver City Council approved BC Artscape as the operator of a future City-owned building at 825 Pacific Street, a new cultural hub for Vancouver-based artists, cultural practitioners, and cultural organizations. The new stand-alone facility will feature over 21,000 square feet of shared multi-tenant and multi-purpose arts and cultural space, including ground floor presentation space and six floors of artist studio production and office space.
Grosvenor Americas is currently in the early stages of preparing this cultural amenity space designed by IBI Group Architects, and will transfer it to the City as an in-kind Community Amenity Contribution upon completion of the space, anticipated in 2021.
BC Artscape
BC Artscape is a not-for-profit organization that develops and operates affordable spaces serving the needs of artists and arts organizations, as well as the local communities in which they are located.
They currently operate B.C.'s largest community cultural hub — the 48,000 square foot Sun Wah project in Vancouver's Chinatown, and will be partnering with the Community Land Trust Foundation of B.C. to operate 30 units of social housing for artists and 4,000 square feet of production space in an upcoming City-owned cultural amenity space at Main Street and 2nd Avenue.
BC Artscape will complete tenant improvements at 825 Pacific, developing it into a cultural hub through a process of engagement with stakeholders from the arts and culture community, including underrepresented and/or underserved communities, and an understanding of the neighbourhood cultural landscape. The multi-tenant hub will provide affordable and secure space for artistic production and presentation, as well as administration and access to shared services. It will provide a platform for collaboration and space for publicly accessible cultural events and programming.
Tenant Selection
In consultation with City of Vancouver staff, BC Artscape will develop and implement a selection process for sub-tenanting the 825 Pacific cultural hub on a cost recovery basis, including opportunities for Vancouver-based professional artists, cultural practitioners, arts and culture non-profit organizations, coops, charities, collectives, and Musqueam, Squamish or Tsleil-Waututh Band Councils.
Located in the downtown core, the space will complement other cultural venues in Downtown South including the new Howe Street Studios, The Cinematheque, Cineworks, The Dance Centre, and the Vancouver International Film Centre. It will also serve as a connection to the adjacent downtown entertainment district and Granville Island, helping to animate this burgeoning cultural neighbourhood.
In partnering with BC Artscape, the City will be taking an important step towards meeting Making Space for Arts and Culture targets of securing 800,000 square feet of affordable, preserved, renewed, expanded, or new cultural space over the next 10 years, which was approved by Vancouver City Council last September, as part of Culture|Shift: Blanketing the City in Arts and Culture.
