Eastside Culture Crawl 2021 Recap

A big thank you to everyone who helped make Eastside Culture Crawl, 25th anniversary edition, a wonderful success! Thanks to kind friends and family behind the scenes, to wonderful volunteers who generously gave their time and support, and to Culture Crawl Society for their vision and execution. Most importantly, thanks to those who fought to protect our artists from a 2020 eviction! Thanks to all who supported from near and far. Your encouraging likes, comments, visits and purchases mean so much. I am crazy grateful to be doing what I love. I work tirelessly to make and share my art. Simultaneously, I do everything I can to make help other artists. I’m deeply grateful to be part of the Eastside Atelier family. Everyone is so generous, passionate and creative. It is an truly epoch experience.

I love how art exhibitions bring people together. From those who I see frequently on social media but rarely, if ever, see in person, to dear friends and family who I wish I saw more often. I was thrilled to meet my music teacher, Mike Ferraro, who I have studied with online for over 15 months. A few other special visits include artists and muralists Jean Paul Langois and Christina Boots. Pandora Yeung, who was a huge help to me in 2020 when I launched Make Safe Brigade, a mask-making coalition, came by as well. So many guests said this was the first large event they had attended in almost two years due to the pandemic. It was so wonderful to see people safely exploring enjoying art and culture again! Finally, there were some great connections made for potential future collaborations. More on those later! It’s moments like all of these that make a show great and important to many. Studies have shown how seeing art heals. It’s can be a healer for maker and viewer alike!

Eastside Atelier Culture Crawl 2021 was held over seven days across two weekends, from Thursday, November 12^th to Sunday, November 21^st. I was lucky to be given the feature photo in “30 Things to Do This Weekend“, a high profile post by award-winning, rock writer Steve Newton. The event was tiring and exhilarating. The first weekend was by appointment and the second was an open house. Many artists and attendees said they liked the new format driven by Public Health. I advised the Crawl Society and they agreed many felt the same way. Maybe they will keep the extra weekend going forward? On the last Sunday, our building counter registered 1,110 attendees! There was a solid turnout on most days with the slowest day Thursday night. My guess is we had a total of 3,500 building attendees and I had 1,100 studio attendees. By far my largest Crawl yet! I was able to take a few short breaks thanks to some kind souls who volunteered.

Ten people helped during the event. These include, in no particular order, Annie Kuan, Lynne Probyn, Laura E., Leah Probyn, Anna Villaruz, Adrian Wong, Tammy-Jo Regier, Louise Souk, Linda Poon and Lily Eskandari. A special shout out to Tammy-Jo who travelled over four hours to my studio! She stayed overnight helping with anything she could do to keep me fed, laughing and on time. She also helped the following day. How lucky am I to have dear friend like that?! Thank you, Tam!!! Thank you everyone for the much-needed meal breaks, photos and laughs. Your company was fuel for my spirit and made all the difference!

Several works were sold including New Directions, a work that was curated into the Eastside Culture Crawl’s prestigious Preview Exhibit, Surfacing, at The Cultch. In addition, I was paid $360.00 in artist fees to be featured. The exhibit closes December 1^st. Here is a PDF of the page. While the pdf does not represent it well, if does give you a rough idea. I expanded my inventory to include greeting cards as well as museum quality, limited edition prints. Some of these also sold. I also began embellishing these, which as a great way to pass the time during the event while engaging people. Thanks to past Eastside Atelier artist, AF Wauthy, for guiding me in this direction. I love where this has taken my edition work.

I included over 40 artworks in the Crawl of many various sizes and mediums. I included a few of my few Sewn Open Series works to build context. My Reimagining Balance series included my Ageless and Evergreen contemporary embroidery work, acrylic paintings and a small assemblage. Thanks to Jen Tough Gallery’s Artist Alliance for inspiring this playful work. Reimagining Balance was made over a two year time period. If you missed any of my recent shows, you can view my 2021 artist talk on YouTube.

Thanks to all the artists who helped make Eastside Atelier’s Crawl a success. Namely, Jessica Craig, who is gave endlessly to lead us. Big thanks for Janine Breck who did an outstanding job marketing including a one-day Eastside Culture Crawl Instagram account takeover. To Bryan R. Marshall who shot videos of many of our artists and provided his beautiful studio map for updating. I believe Lee James Abbott connected us with documentary filmmaker, Ezra Wood, who recorded during the event. Correct me if I am wrong! Global News filmed as well. We had cleaning organizers, lobby gallery installers and vaccine checkers. It takes a village! Many attendees who know the venue well said it had never looked better! Yet other, regular Crawlers said they didn’t know we existed. That’s good news as it means our hard work attracted new visitors! Many artists had some sales. After a quiet couple years, this means so much! Thank you all for supporting local artists!

Finally, community building has always been important to me. It’s a great privilege to make art and to serve the art community. My latest initiative aimed at nurturing pride and solidarity while connecting artists and supporters. This has been achieved through our new logo and Instagram account. The account is managed by myself and a few guest posters. Discover the creativity of our talented artists. Follow us at @eastsideatelierartists! I also had the pleasure of updating the wayfinding signage focused on the new east wing of the building. In person, by appointment visits are always welcome! If you’re unable to visit in person for any reason, I’m also thrilled to announce that I’ve recently launched new 3D art studio tours. Learn more about the tours here!

Next up? I’m participating in First Saturday on Saturday, December 4^th from 12pm noon to 5pm at Eastside Atelier, 1310 William Street, Vancouver. Come by and see seventeen artists! Stop by! Say hi! Explore our First Saturday participating Eastside Atelier artists!

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