Though we’re fans, followers, and patrons of Vancouver’s craft scene we don’t often get the chance to throw ourselves into the mix. Tomorrow night we will, hosting a DIY craft night with multiple workshops aimed at novice and seasoned crafters alike. The museum will be occupying interesting territory here, bridging the gap between the perhaps more traditional (classic?) craft world that is represented in Art of Craft, and the emerging, socially driven do-it-yourself/punk/rogue/craft 2.0 world. Two solitudes, as it were.
Art of Craft, meet DIY
MOV’s Most Wanted: Fox and Fluevog footwear from the 1970s
After the Cultural Olympiad shows roll out of MOV in April, we train our lens back on Vancouver with a look at locally loved shoe designers John Fluevog and Peter Fox. Opening in May, the exhibit chronicles the designers’ formative years in Gastown in the 1970s to John Fluevog’s independent work today. Their innovative experiments in shoe design and construction, narrative-driven business model (theatre-like boutiques! novella-like catalogues!), and famous fans (Madonna among them) make for the kind of Vancouver story we love to tell.
Needless to say, we’re amassing an incredible collection of footwear to drive the exhibit and specifically in need of Fox and Fluevog shoes, boots, and clogs from the 1970s thru to 1978 or so. Have a pair? Please contact Joan Seidl, the exhibit curator and MOV’s director of collections and exhibitions. jseidl@museumofvancouver.ca
Art of Craft opens tonight! Herewith, a preview
Here’s a task: design an exhibit that’s actually three exhibits in one, relying solely on images of the featured objects supplied in a PowerPoint file—objects that won’t arrive for months. Such was the challenge of Art of Craft, a rich, binational survey of contemporary craft presented with the Vancouver 2010 Cultural Olympiad that opens tonight. Exhibit designers Kirsti Wakelin and Darren Carcary of Vancouver-based Resolve Design opted for a simple, spare concept that belies both the complexity of the 173 objects on view and the themes each gallery incorporates in layer, upon layer, upon layer. The range of materials is staggering, too, covering ceramics, textiles, glass, wood, and metal, among others.
Return of the W!
It’s not the original “W” that crowned the Woodward’s building, of course (that “W” will be displayed inside the redeveloped building), but what a symbol! The new version, consisting of 6,700 lbs of steel and lit by LEDs, was hoisted to the top of the building yesterday. Media coverage abounded. The Georgia Straight has a good summary on their website with links to video; click here for it. Coverage on CBC.ca links to past articles on the—complex? storied? controversial? acclaimed?—redevelopment project.
This image was taken by Honey Mae Caffin. Her Flickr photostream (linked here) has other equally striking shots of the event. We loved them all.
What makes a ‘Great Street’? (Return of the Great White Way, part two)
If the Granville Street Fred Herzog photographed in the 1950s represents the area’s heyday, how do we get back there? (See images and intro in the previous post here.) Quick answer: we can’t and shouldn’t. The Orpheum and Vogue theatres are still around, sure, but there’s now an intense concentration of bars and nights clubs alongside them. (There are now more liquor seats in this section of Granville than anywhere else in the city.) In addition, Granville is now a regional transit hub where three subway lines converge onto a car-free transit mall. Downtown Granville Street isn’t Main Street, or even South Granville Street; it serves less charming purposes. A better question is whether the new Granville—the workhorse, not the neon fantasy—can become a beloved, vibrant street again?
Return of the Great White Way?
In 1959, Fred Herzog captured this image of the intersection of Granville and Robson Streets (a link to a larger image is found at the bottom of this post). Back then, the stretch of downtown Granville Street, between the blocks of Drake and Cordova, had earned the moniker “the Great White Way,” and it was a destination for live theatre and entertainment, lit up with neon signs. If you approached it up the hill to the south, the street radiated like an airport runway.
The 2010 Games loom. Will we be good hosts?
In this morning’s Globe and Mail, columnist Gary Mason says the success of the 2010 Games will depend on two things. One: medal count—including golds in Men and Women’s Hockey. And two: the quality of Vancouver’s hospitality. Will we make room on too-crowded city buses? Give directions when we see bewildered visitors with a map folded out in front of them? Mason argues we’re an aloof, phlegmatic bunch, writing: “Let’s just say, Vancouver will never be a city in which it’s easy to find volunteers for a pancake breakfast.” We’re nice. Gregarious? Not so much. Read the rest of the column here.
Farewell 2009! Here’s to 2010
Been a quiet holiday season at MOV (and quiet on the blog front! It’s been awhile!). Consider it the calm before the storm. In just under two weeks we’ll open Art of Craft, an exhibit that comes to us via the Cultural Olympiad. The exhibit is a national survey of Canadian craft with a section devoted to works from B.C. and the Yukon, and another section featuring 47 objects from Korea. (More posts on Art of Craft to come. Meantime, buy your tickets to the opening party on January 13 here.) A second exhibit from the Cultural Olympiad opens on February 4 and features the incredible immersive work Tracing Night by Toronto artist Ed Pien. Details here (and, again, more to follow in upcoming posts). In addition, we’ve extended the run of Working Wood, our look at the work of five Vancouver woodworkers, to February 7. Ravishing Beasts continues to the end of February. It’s a packed house.
