June 26, 2018
221A is pleased to announce its re-certification with the Living Wages for Families. 221A is part of a list of BC-based employers who have set in place policies to pay employees at or above wages and standards set by the Living Wage for Families campaign. The 2018 living wage rate for Metro Vancouver is $20.91/hour.
April 11, 2018
In 2013, non-profit artist organizations 221A and UNIT/PITT Projects entered into a joint venture agreement to renovate and operate 236 E Pender Street, to become the UNIT/PITT gallery and artists’ studio. 221A led early renovations of the 9,000 square foot building and UNIT/PITT became the active manager of the gallery space and studios.
Understanding that their most generative, fulfilling and satisfying programming is not gallery-based, but better realized in digital media, broadcasting, publishing, and public actions, UNIT/PITT Projects have determined that they will seek a new home for their activities. In light of these operational shifts, 221A assumed the management of the storefront unit and studio spaces under a cost-recovery operating model as of April 2018.
March 23, 2018
Amy Nugent is a Vancouver-based cultural worker and resource developer. As the former president of Artspeak’s board, she has been recognized with a 2016 Mayor’s Arts Award from the City of Vancouver. Her own research over the past five years has focused on the history and restitution of sculptors Frances Loring (1887–1968) and Florence Wyle (1881–1968), the current state of Canadian art collections and the limited acquisition funds to support them.
From March to July, 2018, Nugent will be a 221A fellow. Her project continues to examine the history of artists Frances Loring and Florence Wyle, who were crucial members of Canada’s early 20th century art history. The contributions of these artists has been unfairly eluded in national art history, and as a way to fulfill the final wishes in their last wills and testaments, Nugent’s research will develop The Sculpture Fund, a resource available to collecting institutions, public galleries, museums and schools for the commissioning and acquisition of sculpture work by woman and non-binary artists. A collection at Pollyanna 圖書館 Library will accompany Nugent’s research, and public programs are forthcoming. Future program announcements relating to The Sculpture Fund will be posted at https://polly-anna.ca
March 7, 2018
Throughout the Spring season, 221A hosts sum of the parts, a curatorial research project by Jenn Jackson which brings together a selection of films, performances and installations by artists who activate personal histories which are drawn from familial and public record. Artists, Deanna Bowen, Felix Kalmenson, Divya Mehra, Krista Belle Stewart, and Casey Wei, present compelling excavations of the past, by drawing from familial, historic, and archival sources; visualizing narratives of race and class, and their recognition within official records.
Each film and performance provides a framework for a larger narrative of archival complexities—offering a visual key to examine discourses on the commodification and construction of historic record in relation to the business of archival storage, preservation, and dissemination within the public realm. In mining the potential of the private and public archive, these artists interrogate the visual and material nature of historical reference and activate immaterial records. Research associated with sum of the parts will form a new collection at Pollyanna 圖書館 Library.
For the second event in the series, join media analyst Svitlana Matviyenko and curator Jenn Jackson at Pollyanna 圖書館 Library for the screening of artist Felix Kalmenson’s films Neither Country, Nor Graveyard (2017) and A House of Skin (2016), Wednesday, May 16 at 7 pm.