The Pollyanna 圖書館 Library operated at 221 East Georgia from 2017 to 2020. It was named after the unwaveringly optimistic archetype who always sees the bright side, despite walking through life’s hardships.
Carved out of a former gallery space, the 150-square-metre facility featured collection stacks and a reading room that could smoothly transition into an event space for public programming. The space was stewarded by 221A Fellows, as well as community partners like the Chinatown Action Group and the Vancouver Tenants Union, who were considered “keyholders.”
In a 2018 interview with C Magazine on libraries as a site of praxis, Jesse McKee, 221A’s Head of Digital Strategy, said of conceptualizing the space:
I noticed that I would always run into someone I knew in the library. They would tell me what they were reading, and I would tell them what I was doing there, and then we would have a conversation and it might send us off to look at something else, or consider something. I thought we needed a space where we can come together, where we can talk about the shifts we’re all experiencing in our lives and work and ask questions about how we can get through together. A library is a pretty standard way to collect ideas and knowledge — most of us seem to believe in that. It’s also an infrastructure that was one of the first infrastructures of the welfare state for education, and it was free.
The bright, almost highlighter-like yellow was notably featured throughout the Pollyanna Library’s website and labels. The 221A Fellowship Library, which opened at 825 Pacific in 2024, carried forward the work and spirit of the Pollyanna Library—collecting print materials, audio, video, objects, and artworks from 221A Fellows, and continuing to use the keepsake when-life-gives-you-lemons yellow.
Pollyanna Yellow is an honorary swatch in Other Colours, a research and initiative publication produced in 2019 in response to the Vancouver Heritage Foundation’s True Colours program which incentivize homeowners to restore heritage homes to their ‘true’ Victorian, Edwardian, and War-Time era (1880–1930) colours with paint swatches such as “Oxford Bluff” and “Edwardian Pewter.” In Other Colours, ten contributors provided alternative swatches based on their lived experience, culture, and artistic practices.
Other Colours
