About the Crawl

Stay tuned for the 2008 Crawl!

The Eastside Culture Crawl officially began in 1997 with 45 artists in 3 Strathcona area studio buildings and was attended by a few hundred people. This year will mark our 12th year!

The Eastside Culture Crawl is an annual 3-day November event that involves artists who live in Vancouver's Eastside in an area bounded by Main St., 1st Ave., Commercial Drive, and the Waterfront. Painters, jewelers, sculptors, furniture makers, musicians, weavers, potters, writers, printmakers, photographers, glassblowers; from emerging artists to those of international fame... these are just a sampling of the exciting talents featured during this unique chance to meet local artists in their studios.

Purchase something that strikes your fancy, commission something to be uniquely yours, or just browse through the studios and meet the artists, learning about their specific works of art, materials and tools, approaches and techniques. This is a once a year opportunity to meet many diversely talented artists and view their creations in the studios where they work. Be part of this exciting event, which brings people from all over the Lower Mainland, and share in the imaginations that enrich our neighbourhood and lives.

The following is a brief history of the development of the Crawl:

1994: Paneficio has an open studio/fundraiser (Clayoquot arrestees travel costs to Victoria) 4 artists participating.

1995: 1000 Parker Street has an open studio event with 25 artists called the Show and Sell. 300 people attended. Paneficio has an open studio event/fundraiser (4 Artists with Aids) 6 artists participating.

1996: The "Open Studio Event" joined 1000 Parker Street, Glass Onion and Apriori Studios. About 50 artists participated and audience numbers more than doubled to 1000. Paneficio has an open studio event/fundraiser (Victims of neighbourhood fire) 8 artists participating.

1997: The name Eastside Culture Crawl was adopted this year and 45 artists in three studios, Glass Onion, Paneficio and 1000 Parker Street. About 1000 people came to this arts festival.

1998: Attendance surged to 3000 people. Numbers jumped to eleven buildings and 100 artists participated.

1999: A volunteer coordinator, Valerie Arntzen organizes the 150 artists in 14 buildings event.

2000: Several one-person studios in the community joined the Eastside Culture Crawl bringing the totals to 16 buildings and 160 artists.

2001: This year 170 artists opened their studios in 20 different buildings. The Crawl partners up with the Strathcona Community Centre and opens the information booth with 3 artists creating work there and we sponsored the Strathcona Chinese Dancers to perform.

2002: The Eastside Culture Crawl has steadily grown to host more than 200 artists, 22 buildings and was attended by over 8000 people. The Crawl sponsors Mentally Challenged Artists at the Victory House who put on a show which sold out.

2003: Joining the 250 artists in 25 buildings, is the Brittania Library Gallery celebrating 10 years and the Firehall Centre (with spoken word and a show by two of our participating artists) celebrating 20 years. We also had the Mosaic Group giving historical talks about the sidewalk tile mosaics and our participating historical buildings. About 10,000 people attended this year. We are now a non-profit society thanks to Rob O'Dea, the president of the Crawl.

2004: We have 35 buildings this year and over 250 artists. Lots of small studios with one and two artists. The buildings we are sponsoring this year are Firehall Arts Theatre with theatre and spoken word and a preview show with two of our artists, St. James Society Victory House for the second time, with several mentally challenged artists, The Kettle Friendship Society is new to us this year so will be exciting to see how their art program helps their mentally challenged artists and The Purple Thistle Group with several at risk youths producing artwork. The Ukrainian Community Centre joins us with homemade perogys for sale. With 6 preview shows this year you can see art starting at the end of October through to the end of November.

2005: Up to 38 buildings and 300 artists this year. Mayor Larry Campbell wrote the welcome in our invite as he has attended our event for years. We sponsored The Kettle Friendship Society: their art program with mentally challenged artists, Firehall Arts Theatre with spoken word and a preview show with 2 of our artists and Bantleman Court, a residence for Youth at risk. We added food stops on our map with a list of our sponsors who serve food and three of the community centres, we sponsor, serving ethnic food. Our Collectors Workshop was well attended and our panel entertained, enlighted and educated the attendees about their art collections. We combined it with a Preview Show opening at the Vancouver East Cultural Centre and a lot of fun was had by all. The Yale Hotel hosted a launch party for us with two of our Crawl bands, Mimosa and Generations of Soul, volunteering their music. Money was raised, through ticket sales, donations for auction, T shirt sales and food was provided by Edible Planet and Union Food Market. Our very first T Shirt was launched at the Yale Hotel party. With attendance of 10,000 people our efforts at helping people get the most out of the weekend have worked. Our artists reported that they usually had the same number of people over the weekend but it was staggered so there was more time for talking to clients. Our "Tips for the Crawl" on our invite is working.

2006: Our 10th anniversary! We are having our 10 year birthday party at the Yale Hotel on November 2, 2006. Two Crawl bands, fashion show by our Artists, video screening of past Crawls by King Anderson. Preview shows at Firehall Theatre Gallery and Vancouver East Cultural Centre and Vancouver Home and Interior Design Show. We also have a brand new fabulous website created by www.sharkbite.ca and we say good bye and thank you to Ryan Dalyrmple as our webmaster for the past seven years.

2007: Our 11th year and a very successful weekend. 45 buildings and 300 artists. Once again we welcomed our 10000 visitors to revisit their favorite artists and also see new additions. We have worked hard in encouraging new work and there was lots to be enjoyed. The Echo Chamber our after party at the Chapel Arts was awesome with 2 nights of music, spoken word, film and a 22 artist visual show. A huge thank you to Orchid Highway who organized all the performers and played as well. The sad part for us this year is the threat of losing 901 Main Street. The building was sold a couple of years ago to a developer. They are developing a new building for artists but it will be out of our zone.  901 Main will be with us for at least 2 more Crawls and then we will lose some of our favorite artists.