Find Us
Office
16-1265 Howe Street
Vancouver BC, V6Z 1R3
Canada
Unceded Territories of the xʷməθkwəy̓əm (Musqueam),
Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish) and Səl̓ílwətaʔ/Selilwitulh
(Tsleil-Waututh) Nations
General Inquiries: hello@221a.ca
Accounting: bill@221a.ca
+1 604 568 0812
Mission
221A works with artists and designers to research and develop social, cultural and ecological infrastructure.
Organizing Values
- Access as an ongoing practice
- Accountable to community and neighbours
- Anti-disposability (no start and no end)
- Anti-racism
- Artists’ work is essential
- Communities self-organizing
- Embrace complex (salty) conversations
- Encourage learning between age groups
- Instrumentalize dominant structures against themselves (Billy-Ray Belcourt)
- Joy of cultural work
- Kinship and kindness as method
- Love as process
- Moving at the pace of trust
- No market housing in battleground neighbourhoods
- Nurture relationships amongst cultures and across generations
- Nurture the ecosystem
- Regenerate the art and design sector
- Repair infrastructure
- Transparent communication with artists
Constitution & Bylaws and Membership
Annual Report
Board of Directors
Julia Aoki, Vice-President
Jeff Derksen
Kathy Feng
Krystal Paraboo
Katy Young
Marisa Espinosa
Neeta Soni
Virginia Hong, President
Staff
Afuwa, Associate Director
Tao Fei, Program Producer
Michelle Fu, Head of Finance & Equity
Aubin Kwon, Technician
Madison Mayhew, Admin & Governance Coordinator
Brian McBay, Executive Director
Jesse McKee, Head of Strategy
Tosan Omatsola, Project Director
Stephan Wright, Head of Facilities & Production
Nicole Kelly Westman, Education & Learning Programmer
Sungpil Yoon, Tenancy Relations Coordinator
Vision
221A envisions a pluralistic society in which all people have the means to access and make culture.
Brief History
Beginning as a student-led initiative in 2005, the organization was initially animated by an opposition to the division between contemporary art and design. Leaving the university grounds in 2008 to establish its first public exhibition space, the organization would be shaped by the history and upheavals of its new home in Chinatown, the embattled neighbourhood itself a microcosm of a global economic recession and the transformation of Vancouver before and after the 2010 Winter Olympics.
221A Artist Housing Society
221A Artist Housing Society (221A AHS), is a newly formed non-profit society registered for the purposes of operating and providing housing for low-income Artists and their families. The Society currently operates a 30 units at 187 E 3rd Ave in the Mount Pleasant neighbourhood.
x̱aw̓s shew̓áy̓ New Growth «新生林»
x̱aw̓s shew̓áy̓ New Growth《新生林》nurtures ecological processes and community members alike. It provides a forum for the public, artists, groups, and 221A’s programs, and introduces us to healthy relationships with the land and each other. Through a collaborative educational curriculum led by 221A fellow T’uy’t’tanat-Cease Wyss, a Skwxwú7mesh/ Sto:Lo/ Hawaiian/ Swiss artist, ethnobotanist, and educator, this site was designed and redressed from a vacant lot into a public garden with flora indigenous to this territory. Read more at semi-public.
Fellowships
221A works with artists and designers as Fellows to conduct research over a period of 3 to 24 months. Each Fellow is supported to lead new research on potential social, cultural or ecological infrastructure. Staff work alongside Fellows to resource and translate research into programs and operational plans towards infrastructure. 221A defines infrastructure as the core facilities and systems of a society. 221A seeks to develop facilities and systems that exceed or cut across traditional forms of production in their capacity to respond to fluctuating realities and needs. 221A develops the work of its Fellows into public infrastructures for the cultural, ecological and social commons.
Sector Work
221A leads initiatives that includes cultural, real estate, government, technology, and academic sectors. These initiatives develop policy, grow relationships between industries, engage in public consultation through programming, all in the aim of furthering long-term infrastructure.