New Blood for the Bleeding Arts Community

I often wonder why there are no art galleries in Yaletown, which of course is unfair, because I know there are many. But One Point Six is small and quietly unassuming, The Contemporary Art Gallery doesn't always have things you would want to hang in your house, OR Gallery is down a long dark hallway in a nondescipt building, and I have been working beside the Art Works Gallery for 2 years now and I am still not totally sure where the door is. Not exactly the most welcoming for prospective buyers. South Granville knows where the money is and targets it unabashedly. Yaletown is full of wealthy young people, many of who are actively interested in the arts. It's not hard to make the connection between emerging (potential) art collectors and the upcoming powerful generation, but for some reason the communnity doesn't seem to be capitalizing on this. San Francisco's Hang Art does an amazing job of bringing newer artists and collectors together. Another service they provide is renting out art to individuals and corporations.

Galleries are holding tight to the idea that they are places where people come to stand and stare at the walls, bookstores are stuck on the image of being a place where books are purchased, and so on. The Straight ran a heart-breaking article about how taxes are affecting the arts in Vancouver and when I say heart-breaking, I really do mean that it makes me want to cry when I think of institutions like Granville Books going under and others struggling to make ends meet. Yes, land prices and taxes are going up exponentially, but who wants to live in a city where all the art and creative types have been forced out? Not me.

So what can we do? Tax cuts and subsidies are one answer. The flip side is to anticipate the change. Get out there. If people are not coming in to see (and more importantly, *buy*) the art, then bring it out to them. Rent out your art to corporations, individuals who maybe can't afford to purchase it, and events that may lure the art-lovers in the crowd. This is a way to cultivate an appreciation and interest in the arts in those who may be too shy or nervous or disinterested to make the rounds of the galleries. Why not have an author read at a wine-tasting, or a fashion show? Why can't there be more overlap? It has to be possible to merge art and business in a way that is not selling out or starvation.

Bob Cole, of the now defunct Granville Books, knows this, and he has an idea. His new venture Wordplay is a space that is part bookstore, part cafe, part late-night cinema, and part gallery. He wants to integrate the arts, not only with themselves, but with the community and customer as well. Business in Vancouver quotes Cole as saying, "Once you put people withing the space of WordPlay you generate internal demand, you generate business and you create a community. The whole idea in the advanced format of doing this is that the boundaries between business and community and customer get fuzzier and fuzzier." That sounds just about right where we want to be. Any investors in the crowd? Call Bob.