DIY Art Walk

As mentioned in my previous posting, there is a lot happening in the DTES besides protests. The official ArtWalk is over, but many of the installations are still viewable and most are free to the public. There are also several Cultural Olympiad Art Installations in the DTES and now Bright Lights is on lasting until March 21st. So if your looking for something out of the ordinary and off the beaten track here is your own Do-It-Yourself Art Walk that you can try this evening or any evening for the next couple nights I imagine.

First the Trimpin: Sheng High installation is open daily till 6pm at 163 East Pender. It an unique multi-media sculpture by a world leading artist and certified MacArthur Genius.

Just up Pender heading West is one of the left over ArtWalk installations, look for the red door and the red light. I haven’t seen that one myself, but it was open last night while I was a few doors down at one of Bright Lights signature installations.

Again look for the red door and go into the last inner courtyard in Vancouver’s Chinatown and look up. They are also having walking tours, leaving at 6pm Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday, at the cost of ten bucks.

Next I went North down Carrall Street, where at the Hastings intersection there are art galleries on three of four corners.

The Pennsylvania Hotel has both a photo exhibit and the ION Magazine pop up store.

The Inter-Urban gallery has it’s own thing going on, including projecting images on to the outside of their building, it’s subtle and best seen in the evening or at least late afternoon.

Centre A has a big installation which is part of Bright Lights.

Then if you continue North down Carrall you will see a big building called Carrall Station, one of the commercial units is the Jeffrey Boone Gallery, which is featuring two artists and is part of the Bright Lights program.

From there you can head further East down Carrall to 88 East and the Gallery Gachet. They have an installation featuring many local artists.

If you really want to copy my route, I next went and got coffee, but if you’re thirsty for something else, such as more art, Heading West on Hastings towards W2 and Woodward’s will yield another Cultural Olympiad installation, whereas heading West down Water Street will yield many official ArtWalk installations and commercial galleries.

Enjoy!

Photos taken by me, BOB Staff (Lani Johnson), and gmacmullen.

Even the Lonely Planet is recommending visiting the DTES now!