Woodward’s redevelopment
B.C. art attack: W2′s Irwin Oostindie
Irwin Oostindie is Executive Director of W2, a community media and arts space in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside. Q. W2 is one of the newest arts organizations in the city. It was one of the real hubs of activity during the 2010 Olympics. How has W2 been impacted by the cuts to arts? How do you [...]
WV man donates $4M to SFU, Woodward’s redevelopment will benefit
West Vancouver philanthropist Djavad Mowafaghian is donating $4 million to performance spaces in the new home of Simon Fraser University’s contemporary arts school in the Vancouver Woodward’s development. When the school opens next month in its new location, two of its major performance spaces — a cinema and a world art centre — will bear [...]
Calling all music connoisseurs: SFU Contemporary Arts Open House at Woodward’s
COME TOGETHER is the theme for the celebration of the opening of SFU Contemporary Arts at Woodward’s. That’s because we are inviting all music connoisseurs to come together with theatre lovers, dance enthusiasts, film buffs and arts aficionados for a weekend of short performances that will provide just a glimpse of what Simon Fraser University [...]
Vancouver: SFU arts centre gets $4m boost
North Vancouver businessman and philanthropist Djavad Mowafaghian has donated $4 million to Simon Fraser University’s new contemporary arts campus at the former Woodward’s site in the Downtown Estside. When the campus opens next month it will have the 350-seat Djavad Mowafaghian Cinema and the Djavad Mowafaghian World Art Centre. Mowafaghian made his fortune as a [...]
W2′s Creative Technology Youth Summer Camps
W2 Community Media Arts Society is a Vancouver cultural institution dedicated to providing individuals and communities with access to technology, learning, production and distribution. W2 also operates creative spaces in Vancouver’s inner-city. Creative Tech Summer Camps are a fun way for young people to participate in art making, learning new skills, creating the future, and [...]
Vancouver: Public Dreams posts W2 Storyeum as new site for Illuminares
The Public Dreams Society has announced the venue for Illuminares will be at the newly renovated W2 Storyeum on 151 West Cordova Street. The group recently told the Straight that the annual lantern procession would be moving from its Trout Lake location to the Downtown Eastside on July 24. The new location was first announced [...]
Inside W2, Where the Cybertribe Works and Parties Olympics hangout for independent media offers tools, discussions and dance blowouts
“Look,” says Mark Smith, who is in Vancouver from Toronto to experience the Olympics. “It’s cauliflowering.” Smith is pointing to his computer screen, showing me an unfolding analysis of Twitter activity during the opening ceremonies. An online application on his laptop maps the tweets of, among others, VANOC and W2 Community Media Arts, the social media hub [...]
Interview with Robert Lepage: Using art to revitalize the neighbourhood
Robert Lepage, playwright, director, dancer and visionary, is surely one of the world’s busiest artists. He’s preparing a new Cirque de Soleil show launching in April and a full Ring Cycle for the Metropolitan Opera in New York while still operating his own company, Ex Machina, in Quebec City. So when he agreed to spend [...]
It’s curtain time for Woodward’s: Paint may not be dry, but show will go on and a whole lot more besides
It’s apt on several levels that the leadoff production at SFU Woodward’s new theatre is called The Show Must Go On. The Fei and Milton Wong Experimental Theatre, named for the philanthropist and former Simon Fraser University chancellor, was still surrounded by construction fencing and peopled with hard hats when we met the theatre’s cultural [...]
SFU’s School for the Contemporary Arts digging its new digs
Step into the courtyard of SFU Woodward’s off Cordova and you’ll see a huge, permanent illuminated photograph installation by Stan Douglas that highlights the history of conflict in the Downtown Eastside. Douglas recreated a scene of the Gastown Riot, which occurred Aug. 7, 1971 at Abbott and Cordova, in a parking lot near the PNE [...]
Creative hope for a troubled ‘hood
Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside is a subject the city’s artists have returned to again and again: Roy Arden’s photography, Rebecca Belmore’s performance art, Chris Haddock’s Da Vinci’s Inquest . Now, art is poised to serve not simply as a reflection of the neighbourhood but as an agent for change, with a large, innovative arts complex set [...]
Homecoming day; SFU School for Contemporary Art comes off the mountain and moves into new downtown digs
At the heart of the School for the Contemporary Arts, Simon Fraser University’s bold new downtown campus in the Woodward’s complex, sits the boldest thing of all — the Fei and Milton Wong Experimental Theatre. Milton Wong notes that some people felt the name was too long. “They said we should just call it the [...]
City staff recommend five arts groups for consideration as Woodward’s tenants
Arts groups make up five of the eight nonprofit organizations recommended in a city staff report for consideration as tenants in the city-owned section of the Woodward’s development at 101 East Hastings Street. At its Thursday (December 3) meeting, Vancouver city council’s planning and environment committee will vote on selecting the Community Arts Council of [...]
Blending town and gown in the downtown eastside (opinion)
‘Be bold or move to the suburbs.” That’s the slogan that the developer of the new Woodward’s building has been using to attract condo buyers. Simon Fraser University is moving its School for the Contemporary Arts from Burnaby Mountain into the new Woodward’s facility in January, and I wonder if they will succeed in meeting [...]
‘W’ well on its way to completion:Woodward’s project includes ‘significant’ arts space
Architect Gregory Henriquez calls it one of the most significant arts facilities to be built in Canada in recent years. Where is it? In the Downtown Eastside. Henriquez made the comment while overlooking what will be a performance theatre in the bowels of the Woodward’s redevelopment at 149 West Hastings. Still under construction, it will [...]
