The Eastside Arts Society in Vancouver has won a national award of merit from the Canadian Institute of Planners for its 2019 report City Without Art? No Net Loss, Plus!
The report details the loss of artist studio space in the city and presents specific policy solutions, including tax measures and zoning changes. Over 400,000 square feet of artist production space has vanished in the last 10 years.
“It’s extraordinary how quickly spaces are disappearing,” says the society's director, Esther Rausenberg.
By the end of 2021, another 54,000 square feet of space will be lost with the closure of White Monkey Design, The Old Foundry Building and Eastside Studios, the society says.
Despite this, Rausenberg is optimistic for the future, especially as Vancouver emerges from the pandemic. Over the last year, she says people have come to realize “what our society is like without art.”
Vancouver's Eastside has one of the largest concentrations of artists in any Canadian neighbourhood, and the society is worried even more studio spaces will be lost unless governments intervene.
“I think that there are solutions and it is doable,” Rausenberg says. “We can stop the bleeding. It’s going to take all three levels of government to address this issue.”
The Eastside Arts Society recently received $300,000 from the Vancouver Foundation to develop a strategic plan for the creation of an Eastside Arts District, which it says will help formalize the status of artists in the area.
Rausenberg says that the Eastside Arts Society will continue to push for change. “There comes a time when you have to start shouting it from the rooftops,” she says.