Vancouver artist creates open-source map of lost spaces, struggling community latches on

An open-source map created by Vancouver multi-disciplinary artist Leah Abramson lists the city's lost and surviving performance venues.

An open-source map is helping artists across Vancouver remember the city’s lost performance spaces, while tracking the venues that have survived.

The map, titled “Creative Vancouver: venues and art spaces past and present” was posted online by multi-disciplinary artist Leah Abramson last week ahead of the 20th annual PuSh International Performing Arts Festival—which runs from Jan. 19 to Feb. 5 this year.

It’s described as “a historical and current record of arts communities in Vancouver,” and includes 144 listings to date—80 of which fall under the “defunct” category.

“It’s just this long list of nostalgia and it was really so nice to see the community come together and remember and grieve and share memories,” Abramson told CTV News on Thursday.

The Vancouver Folk Festival is categorized as “status unknown” after organizers revealed this week that the 2023 event would be scrapped due to rising production costs.

The Cave, which formerly stood at 626 Hornby Street, is listed as one of Vancouver’s first nightclubs and live venues.

“My grandparents had their picture taken there once in the 1950’s!” One person wrote in the map’s data table, which suggests the space opened in 1937.

A vacant lot at 573 Homer Street used to be The Marine Club.

“Does anyone remember the jar of pickled eggs? I also remember Dan Mangan standing on a table and singing his heart out in this tiny venue,” another person wrote.

SEARCHING FOR UNDERGROUND VENUES

What the map lacks at this point is a full scope of underground spaces operating in Vancouver, which Abramson says are getting trickier to track down.

“Those are closely guarded secrets for good reason because they often exist in a legal gray zone and nobody wants to expose their space,” Abramson said. “Not everybody wants to publicize their space or tell everybody about it so finding where those things--it's often word of mouth.”

Normie Event Society is one example of the changing underground landscape. This year is the first in which the location of Normie events have been publicized, and may reflect recent funding from the City of Vancouver.

Last November, shortly after the new municipal government was sworn in, Vancouver city council approved more than $1 million dollars in grants for 46 cultural organizations.

Of that total, nearly $400,000 is going towards “making space for arts and culture,” which includes $15,000 for Normie Event Society.

The money is meant to go towards “planning on viability of a 250+ capacity venue, led by and prioritizing QTBIPOC members, performers and audiences,” according to the city’s Standing Committee on Policy and Strategic Priorities.

VANCOUVER’S GOLDEN AGE?

Abramson says it hasn’t been easy to be an artist in Vancouver for the past 15 years, though struggles to point to a time when venue spaces were plentiful.

“For me it probably would have been like 2008 or something along those lines, and I think for everyone it's going to be different,” Abramson said.

She points to the surge in development that was triggered by the Olympics as a major player in the disappearance of performance spaces.

“A lot of the venues that I’m researching are now condo towers and that's very common in the downtown core in particular, and then there was gentrification on the East Side too, so you see a lot disappearing along Commercial Drive.”

Abramson hopes the map will continue being a resource for the community after the PuSh Festival ends and encourages people to contribute.

“I just had this though of creating something around all the places that I’ve been to, all the spaces I played in that no longer exist,” said Abramson, who will use the findings to create a walk as part of the festival's industry-only event series. “But it’s not just a remembrance of things past, but also of where we are headed. Where are people making art now? How are they surviving now? How are people finding community?”