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Vancouver on the Cheap: The Rennie Collection

If you were to create a Venn diagram where one circle was labeled "cheap" and the other labeled "awesome", the middle point where they cross over could be labeled "Vancouver on the Cheap".

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If you were to create a Venn diagram where one circle was labeled "cheap" and the other labeled "awesome", the middle point where they cross over could be labeled "Vancouver on the Cheap". In other words, this is a weekly series on things to do and places to go in Vancouver that fall into that magical category of being both cheap and awesome.

Art! It's a wonderful thing. I am of the general opinion that everyone in the world should be able to access and appreciate art, and that finances should be the very last thing to get in the way of that. For some silly reason, however, I never bothered to look into free art options in Vancouver. That is, until I heard about The Rennie Collection.

The Rennie Collection is an art gallery located at 51 East Pender in the awesomely historical Wing Sang Building. You may have noticed, if you're coming into downtown at night, a giant neon sign that says "Everything is going to be alright" - that's the place. While the building has been restored to be able to house an art gallery, they've kept some features from the original building that make the space itself into a sort of architectural installation art.

The neon sign is slightly less "brilliant" during the day, but you get the idea.

A piece of history: the original brick wall preserved inside the gallery.

There is something very unique about The Rennie Collection that I haven't seen in other art galleries: all visits take the form of a guided tour. Now, that does limit you a little bit, because you can't just drop in whenever you want to browse around, but it means that you get an in-depth look at the art and the artist, as well as the history of the building.

I love this for two reasons: one, I always associate guided tours with tourist traps, which means they're probably a little boring and definitely expensive, so I wouldn't think to take part in one. However (and this is reason two), by centering all visits around a tour, The Rennie Collection is automatically creating a conversation around the art. Instead of the intimidating silence that tends to overpower most galleries making you feel like every whispered comment is being broadcast to a room of people who probably understand the work better than you, there was dialogue and even a bit of a sense of unity among us as a group. Plus, I learned more about the artist and his inspirations and intentions than I ever would have known, allowing me to interact with the art more deeply on a personal level.

Other highlights:

  • The gallery staff are awesome. They were all friendly and welcoming, and I had a great chat with the receptionist on my way out about the gallery and even just art in general.
  • The tour ends on the roof of the gallery and if you happen to be there on a sunny day, the view is amazing. I could have sat up there all day.
  • Photography in the gallery is totally allowed and encouraged, food and drink are not.
  • Tours last about 45-50 minutes and then you can take your time browsing the work on your own.
  • Booking yourself in for a tour is super easy, visit their website and go for it. Enjoy an afternoon of art for free!