Our Velo-City exhibit is now in its final days, but it’s not going away quietly… This weekend we’re playing host to two bicycle-inspired music events. The first is a concert by The Receptionists, the self-described “bike-courier band from Van city.” Their frontman is Toby Alford, whose portrait and fixie bike are featured in the exhibit. (To the uninitiated: a fixie bike is one without gears and brakes. The ride is somewhat comparable to that of a skateboard’s—and just as unforgiving). For a preview of the set list, listen in on their MySpace page, linked here. The concert happens at the Museum this Friday (August 28); doors open at 8 p.m. Bonus: it’s half-price night, so tickets go for $5.50; click here to buy them now.
Velo-City concert series at MOV this weekend
The Power of the 2010 Brand
Quick post. Some months ago, I spotted this on Poppytalk—the excellent local design blog—and saved the image to my desktop. It was designed by Jeff Gluck, a student at the Ramapo College of New Jersey, and earned silver at Mississippi State University’s annual Pix(elated!) competition.
Every time I look at this, I’m amazed by how foreign it seems. It’s been well over four years since the official 2010 Winter Games logo was unveiled, and, love it or hate it, the colourful inukshuk is such a part of the scenery here that all other interpretations are startling somehow.
(p.s. If you’ve stumbled upon other unofficial 2010 logos, post a comment with the link.)
Image credit: Poppytalk
Out With Your Heads! Head trophies sought for Ravishing Beasts
We’re about to dramatically shift gears here: Velo-City closes September 7; on October 22, Ravishing Beasts opens. The Museum goes from a look at local cycling culture to exploring the history and present-day revival of taxidermy. An unlikely follow up, you might say. Velo-City was a strong example of the Museum’s new direction and, to our minds, prescient; Ravishing Beasts explores our past, fitting elements of our collection into a contemporary context. The exhibit features taxidermy and other items from our natural history collection that have not been on public display since the Museum moved to its current location in 1968. Expect an eclectic and dramatic round up of exotic and local species alongside taxidermy-influenced artwork by artists like Vancouver’s George Vergette. Also expect interesting debate about the past, present, and future course of the Museum of Vancouver—and the changing nature of museum collecting in general—in the months ahead.
Bicycle Parking at Canada Line Stations: A missed opportunity?
I rode the Canada Line from the King Edward station last night and noticed these mud-brown boxes (pictured left) just outside the entrance. At first glance, they appeared to be electrical transformers. They’re actually bike lockers, 10 stalls in all. No signage. No way to access them without a key. No number to call for rental information. A bit of sleuthing reveals that C Media, a company contracted by TransLink, operates similar “lock and ride” boxes at many SkyTrain and West Coast Express stations. The lockers rent for three-month periods at a cost of $30 (plus GST and a security deposit). The lockers outside Canada Line stations won’t be operational until next week, with billing and rental agreements scheduled to start September 1. No details about this on C Media’s website yet, so it’s unclear how many lockers there are and which stations actually have them, but you can download the rental agreements and get the process going. The page is linked here.
The Souvenir of the Day
Here’s a late post (a caption, really). Pictured left is a boarding pass for the first Canada Line train. These passes were given to VIPs who gathered at Vancouver International Airport early this morning for the first northbound departure. Something to add to the Museum’s collection, perhaps?
Image credit: Rosemary Poole
The Canada Line opens Monday. What happens next?
Vancouver is just days away from opening its new rapid transit system, The Canada Line. It’s a big deal here, one decades in the making, and remains unpopular in some circles, a landmark achievement in others. There has been much debate about this line—where to locate it, how to build it, who should pay for it, the impact of construction on businesses along it, etc. etc. Add to that the many recent station open-houses and photo opps, and one can’t help but feel the official opening is somewhat anti-climactic.
It’s hard to pinpoint precisely where the firsts are here. The Canada Line is functionally a SkyTrain (something we’ve had since the mid-’80s), but serves a denser, more urban swath of Vancouver than either of the two SkyTrain routes, and the Vancouver portion of the line is entirely underground. Our first subway! It’s certainly the biggest construction project in the city’s—and the province’s—history, at least in dollar figures. $2.05-billion in all. And if nothing else, it comes at a time when few other cities are building transit projects of this size and scale; it’s the equivalent to a 10-lane highway and expected to remove 100,000 cars from the daily downtown commute.
Extreme MOV Makeover: Rethinking museum spaces
Along with our new name and brand has come a rethinking of our spaces. The question: how to physically translate the premise that we’re not a museum of objects, but a museum of ideas? The ‘translation’ or makeover is now well underway, kicked off by the completion of our new MOV Studio in May (pictured left), and now progressing gradually on many fronts.
It’s a long project. The end is years away.
In many ways, the process has become the plan (a Vancouver idiom, if ever there was one). We’re actively researching and drawing inspiration from our visitors, our members, and from some of the most creative spaces around the world.
Curiosity sparked!
A (belated) thank you to the 100+ invited guests who attended “Spark! Ignite Your Curiosity,” a gala the Museum hosted last week to showcase items from our collection, and introduce our new vision, new website, and new public programs. Champagne and Pilsner Urquell flowed, Goby Catt and the Catt Pack played jazz, and our views of English Bay offered an incredible vantage point for the “Celebration of Light” fireworks displays that capped off the evening. We hope you enjoyed the night as much as we did.
Image credit: Philippe Antes
How to create a sense of place in new neighbourhoods: Two examples
We’ve reached the halfway point in our “Vancouverism by Bicycle” tours, which examine the recent history of urban planning and architecture downtown and around False Creek. (The tours run Saturday mornings at 10 a.m. from now til August 22. Click here for details or to register.)
Condensing decades of history into a two-hour format—including riding time between stops—has been a fascinating, challenging project. We’ve been forced to reconsider how people, be they tourists or locals, experience the city’s built form. One recurring discussion point has been the role public art plays in creating a sense of place, particularly in shiny, new neighbourhoods that have been all but wiped clean of their past, or were previously undeveloped. Two examples stand out.
