About 221A

Information

OFFICE HOURS
Monday to Friday
9:00am–5:00pm

HEADQUARTERS
700-825 Pacific Street
Vancouver BC, V6Z 1C3
Canada

Unceded Territories of the xʷməθkwəy̓əm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish) and Səl̓ílwətaʔ/Selilwitulh (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations.

CONTACT
General Inquiries: hello@221a.ca
Artist Studio (non-residential) Inquiries: spaces@221a.ca
Residential Studio Inquiries: housing@221a.ca
Coworking Memberships: coworking@221a.ca
Accounting: bill@221a.ca

Mission
221A works with artists and designers to research and develop social, cultural and ecological infrastructure.

Vision
221A envisions a pluralistic society in which all people have the means to access and make culture.

9ccb0088-16d0-16b4-113b-6c53c4de82f2 — Board and Staff of 221A, 2023.

Organizing Values

Access as an ongoing practice
Accountable to community and neighbours
Anti-disposability (no relational starts and ends)
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

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.