Latest Classifieds in Giving Artists Money

Artropolis ’93

Woodward's

Artropolis was a re-occuring survey of British Columbian art that ran roughly every three years between 1987 and 2003. Styling

Artist’s Rendering

Vancouver

A rendering

Graffiti

PHS COMMUNITY SERVICES SOCIETY, 20 West Hastings

The Vancouver Police department tries to offset costs of graffiti removal onto a street team in the downtown eastside, consisting

The Fight for Ugly, Or Why Art Can’t Sell Condos, November 14, 2017

Fight For Beauty Exhibition Tent

Dorothy Woodend’s article for The Tyee compares Westbank’s Fight for Beauty to the Vancouver Art Gallery’s offsite installation, Salvage. Great line: “I would hesitate to call Fight for Beauty an art exhibit. Other words come much more easily to mind — PR campaign, propaganda, marketing bonanza — all combined with plain old garden-variety ego and hubris.”

Akimbo: Fight for Beauty at the Fairmont Pacific Rim

Fight For Beauty Exhibition Tent

This listing, written by Vancouver curator and writer Steffanie Ling, was published to Akimbo on November 8, 2017. It gives a brief review of the Fight for Beauty exhibition, including the apt line: “The broad consensus in the art community is that this is a nighmarish marketing scheme and public sympathy generator masquerading as a philanthropic project.” True. 

‘Displacement is not beautiful’: Critics slam Westbank’s Fight for Beauty exhibition, October 22, 2017

Fight For Beauty Exhibition Tent

This article for CBC News was one of the first to openly criticize Westbank’s Fight for Beauty exhibition for being ignorant of the neighbourhood and cultural impacts of large scale luxury developments. With regards to Fight For Beauty, Michael Braun, Westbank’s marketing and sales director, is quoted saying, “It’s philanthropy, in a way.”

Inspiring Public Art

Fight For Beauty Exhibition Tent

Here are excerpts from an essay by Reid Shier on the Westbank website, speaking to Westbank’s positive contributions to public art, and the nature of public art in general. What Shier fails to emphasize, between floral paragraphs on “what is good art,” is that Westbank is required by the City to produce public art based on the scale of their development projects. Though Shier mentions this in passing, the article as a whole appears to suggest that Westbank’s public art commissions are instances of philanthropy as opposed to obligation. And Westbank’s taste in public art is questionable, at best. 

City of Vancouver Victory Square Policy Plan, July 19, 2005

Woodward's

This plan for the neighbourhood around Victory Square was put forward by the Development Services branch of the City of Vancouver, and adopted by council on July 19, 2005. In it, there are valuable insights into how City officials regarded the neighbourhood around Victory Square. This plan acknowledges its decline and the need to bring businesses back to the neighbourhood, but it also passes judgement on existing businesses for supporting illegal drug activity. This document is at times thought-provoking and compassionate and other times misguided and ignorant.

The Vancouver Police Department Guide to Filmmaking

Vancouver Police Department Headquarters

This is a VPD memo that was circulated during the Woodsquat occupation, offering guidance for video evidence-gathering techniques. Police response

Minutes from the Development Permit Board Meeting No. 442, October 20, 1997 (8 pages)

Woodward's

The Staff Committee recommends that the Board approve this application,…