While this text is not specific to Vancouver, there is much about the gentrification of space, and art itself, that may be useful to apply in a local context. Deutsche provides a thorough look at the transforming meanings of public art in New York in 1988, and the transformation of art that occurs when public funding influences the politics of art making. Rosalyn Deutsche also looks at how this transformation works to benefit private markets, which leads to patterns of gentrification.
Kenny explores the erasure of the past in commodifying depictions of Vancouver. Kenny refers to those inside and outside the Downtown Eastside (DTES) community in their portrayals and descriptions of the neighbourhood, which serves to illustrate the erasure of historically relevant contexts for the purpose of the expansion of global marketability. They go on to mark scholars that have connected gentrification in the DTES with ongoing colonial projects, further highlighting the power of private enterprise and municipal power to render in/visible the past, present or futures of the city. A useful resource for creating meaning from different configurations of time in public space.
Ley and Dobson explore how and why Vancouver's Eastside has defied expected gentrification patterns, particularly focussing on the Downtown Eastside and Grandview-Woodland area. While the article inquires about the curious decades of stalling against gentrification within East Vancouver, it can also be read for towards historical structures of resilience and interconnection in communities.
Chan looks at 'artwashing' in Vancouver during COVID-19. They begin by looking at the #MakeArtWhileApart murals on Robson and South Granville streets, affiliated with VMF. Chan goes on to look at the contradictions in VMF's objective of "[providing] a platform for the local [First] Nations' contemporary and traditional cultural expressions and histories"; while the source of funding for the projects lies within the real estate development markets, which rely on the consumption and displacement of Indigenous lands and communities. Chan compares the grants received from the City of Vancouver by VMF to the grants received by organizations such as the Arts Club Theatre, and notes a startling disparity in investments into arts organization with fewer to no ties to real estate development.
Hyde connects Vancouver's artwashing with global economic trends. He begins by explaining the front-facing portrayal of Vancouver Mural Festival, and details about the connections between VMF and Vancouver's "new (tech) economy", part of an economic trend on the west coast. Hyde points to the locations of VMF as coinciding with the retail and dwelling spaces that target the emerging upwardly mobile class of tech companies in the Mount Pleasant, Strathcona and Downtown Eastside neighbourhoods. Hyde refers to artwashing in Capitol Hill of Seattle, and Sham Shui Po of Hong Kong that have equivalencies in Vancouver
This article connects individual property companies with their artwashing practices in Vancouver. Ma covers the "Rave Against Renoviction" at the home of Chip Wilson of Low Tide Properties in 2019, a protest of Low Tide's role in the renovictions of arts organizations in contradiction to Wilson's charitable donations to Vancouver cultural events and artworks. Connecting Low Tide Properties to Vancouver Mural Fest (VMF), Ma compares disproportionately high grants received easily by VMF from the City of Vancouver to those received by Vancouver Arts Club and Ballet BC after rigorous application processes. Melody Ma, having sat on the Vancouver arts advisory council, notes that the grant to VMF occurres in the same year as a rejection to a request from arts leaders for an increase in cultural operating grants budget to reflect higher costs. Ma ends the article by offering means through which to stop artwashing- and notes that they are not new, they have been advocated for by arts organizations for some time.
Mckee and Nugent respond to CBC's Early Edition coverage of the Vancouver Mural Fest (VMF) by countering the forward-facing portrayal of VMF as culturally invigorating. They do this by tracing the funds and policies that allow the festivals to occur. The means through which start-up funding had been secured by the VMF, as uncovered by Mckee and Nugent, shows a commitment on the part of the City of Vancouver to serving the interests of developers, realtors and property owners. A mural on The Belvedere building is flagged as a "painful example" of "unprecedented cultural authority working in parallel with corporate land-owning interests in the selection and approval of art".
Pham, Tak. "From Affordability to Artwashing: An Inquiry." CanadianArt. February 5, 2019
This article shows the ways that gentrification seeks to control, erase and homogenize the memory of spaces and land. Pham connects artwashing in Vancouver with many of the same real estate developers engaged in gentrifying practices in Toronto. Tak Pham visits the site of Westbank Corp. Mirvish Village project in Toronto, where they reflect upon the tension of the public artworks displayed along the perimeter of the property slated for development. Pham connects the depictions of the 'past' of Mirvish Village on the murals into Gillespies' story of a 'history', and his role in a 'future' of Mirvish village through the development of upscale retail and dwelling spaces. Pham reviews the conflict Gillespie's exhibitions in Vancouver and Toronto. They note that cultural workers in Canada are typically in a precarious position and unfit to turn down work coming from patrons with projects that harm their communities.
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