Vancouver’s smart and edgy cultural scene is thriving

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Community voices: Stop the B.C.-bashing, Vancouver’s smart and edgy cultural scene is thriving

The grass is cooler at its roots

Vancouver Sun October 5, 2012

Been to the PuSh Festival lately? Vancouver’s mid-winter festival of moderately experimental interdisciplinary performance and live art features local companies and artists from around the globe. It’s edgy, smart and regularly sells out to a new generation of savvy culture-goers not interested in old-school “plays.” How about PechaKucha? This cross-disciplinary salon-cum-performance by local thinkers and artists is so popular it sells out within hours. I’m also a huge fan of the city’s small but vibrant public art commissioning program. Like all aspiring-yuppie residents of the Drive, I love the East Van cross (it makes me feel a lot tougher than I am).

Or the always sold-out In the House Festival, which presents a series of shows in people’s living rooms. Or Theatre Replacement, whose work is regularly commissioned and presented by festivals and theatres in Germany, Wales, Holland and beyond. Or cellist Peggy Lee and songstress Veda Hille, both national art music icons in their own rights. And on and on. But my bet is most Vancouverites have never heard of these (cough, cough) world-class artists and events.

I think that’s partly because a lot of Vancouver’s cultural success is being achieved outside the frame of the large, signature institutions like the Playhouse, where we have traditionally imagined “culture” to take place. But times have changed. It’s a postmodern game now, with artists and small companies working collaboratively, penetrating international markets, starting spaces, converting warehouses and creating participatory experiences that blur the boundaries between creator and audience members.

These artists are bringing Vancouver to the world, and the world to Vancouver. And, although I know it’s not very Canadian (or very Vancouver) of me to say, given the real challenges the sector faces in this city, these artists are a very big success. Even better, what they’re up to is pretty damn cool.

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