grunt gallery, VIVO Media Arts Centre and the Western Front, three of Vancouver’s oldest art institutions, are opening up their archives next week for seven days of public events, tours, screenings and performances. It can be said that the history of Vancouver artmaking rests in these archives, and Vancouver Independent Archives Week celebrates that shared legacy for the first time.
The focus of the week is as diverse as the archives themselves: the punk poetry of the Lenore Herb archive, the history of Al Neil and Carole Itter’s cabin, little-seen footage of Vancouver’s Gayblevision and highlights from four decades of independent music and literature.
“Vancouver artists have a long history as cultural innovators, activists and archivists,” reads the press release. “Their work, preserved in the distinct collections of the three participating centres, has captured moments in Vancouver’s cultural evolution, documenting important moments and alternative opportunities for social change.”
Often at the fringes of urban art culture, artist-run centres provide a unique, “grassroots” window into the alternative histories that have shaped Vancouver: Urban Aboriginal, visible minority, LGBTQ, feminist, social justice, environmental, and countercultural communities all figure prominently in their records, and each location will focus on a unique aspect of these shared histories.
Archives Week will kick off Sunday, Nov. 22 at 3pm with a 19+ screening party at Vancity Theatre. Other highlights include the launch of the Western Front's newly digitized Literary Collection (Nov. 24 at 7pm), a double book launch of Henri Robideau’s Eraser St. and Ethnographic Terminalia’s Terminus: Archives, Ephemera, and Electronic Art E-zine at grunt (Nov. 25 at 6pm), VIVO's Radical Rewind: Analogue Actions on the West Coast and Making Gay Tele-visible (Nov. 27 at 7pm) and more.
For complete schedule, go to archivesweek.ca.
