Stir Cheat Sheet: 5 arts and culture stories to watch for in 2025
New developments for the year ahead span a Vancouver Art Gallery redesign and the opening of SFU’s Burnaby Mountain art museum
Artistic rendering by Hariri Pontarini Architects of SFU’s soon-to-be Marianne and Edward Gibson Art Museum on Burnaby Mountain.
AS ALWAYS, THE past year has held no shortage of news in the local arts, culture, and heritage community. From the reopening of the UBC Museum of Anthropology following seismic upgrades to the closure of SFU Woodward’s Cultural Programs, Stir was covering announcements of all kinds.
As we head into 2025, developments continue to unfold on projects-in-progress, and a few new ventures are emerging, too. Here are five major stories to watch for over the next year.
Redesign plans for the Vancouver Art Gallery
Last month, the Vancouver Art Gallery announced that it was abandoning its design for a new hub at West Georgia and Cambie Streets, a change that came due to the skyrocketing financial cost of the original plans. In 2025, we should get a better idea of what the re-envisioned project might look like.
The gallery has officially cut ties with Swiss architecture firm Herzog & de Meuron, which put forward the design for a 330,000-square-foot facility clad in woven copper. The decision comes after it was revealed in August that the cost to build the proposed gallery had increased by 50 percent (from $400 million to $600 million) over the past two years.
A Ground Awakening Ceremony was held in September 2023 to mark the start of remediation for the site downtown, and construction began in the following months. Activity at the site has halted since news of the change broke.
The Vancouver Art Gallery had raised $340 million of its $400-million goal for the scrapped building design, which most notably included a record-breaking $100-million donation from the Audain Foundation, $40 million from the Chan Family Foundation, $100 million from the provincial government, and $29.3 million from the federal government. The City of Vancouver donated the land for the site, valued at $100 million.
Any reimagined design plans for the new gallery are being kept carefully under wraps for now. Anthony Kiendl, CEO and executive director of the VAG, said in a December release that a series of opportunities to discuss the next phase of the project would be held at the gallery over the coming months.
“Our goal is to create a building that embodies a diverse and inclusive artistic vision while ensuring financial sustainability within a fixed budget....Together, we will create the outstanding and innovative art museum that we know Vancouver deserves,” Kiendl said.
When Stir spoke to Vancouver City Councillor Pete Fry before the end of last year, he shared that while he was disappointed to hear of the redesign news, he believes the gallery will bounce back with a new design that satisfies both funding partners and the general public.
“It is an overdue project and we have the land available and the cost was ballooning out of control,” Fry said. “It’s a great opportunity to retool and recalibrate with a design that works. I appreciate some of the concerns around this and want to see those significant donors on board with the project. I’m confident there are very thoughtful considerations happening around this.”
BIG BANG Festival. Photo by Jonathan Lorange
Vancouver’s first BIG BANG Festival
An initiative started by Belgium’s Zonzo Compagnie in 2010, the annual BIG BANG Festival is held in multiple locations globally as a series of music events designed specifically for young audiences. This year, Music on Main is presenting the concept in Vancouver for the first time at the Roundhouse Community Arts & Recreation Centre.
Fittingly scheduled for the Family Day long weekend on February 16, the festival will feature a vibrant mix of mini concerts, hands-on activities, and surprise performances for guests ages five and up. Artists will include Belgian singer Naomi Beeldens, a classically trained soprano who works across experimental music, theatre, and beyond; Iranian-Canadian santour player Saina Khaledi; and Taiwanese-born, Vancouver-based zheng player Dailin Hsieh.
Those who had the pleasure of seeing Music on Main’s intimate, venue-wide concert The Tempest Project last year may recall seeing Khaledi and Hsieh perform. Both were exceptionally engaging with audiences as they played their instruments in unusual locations around the Vancouver Playhouse.
Tickets go on sale January 15, with options for full-day passes or event-specific tickets (many of which are free or $5). A limited number of complimentary tickets for self-identifying Indigenous folks will also be available through Music on Main’s box office.
Steps forward for a possible new three-theatre complex
Expect announcements this spring on the feasibility of a major new performance complex downtown.
The Vancouver Concert Hall and Theatre Society currently has the nationwide architectural firm Diamond Schmitt doing a feasibility study for a purpose-built three-theatre complex. The firm is analyzing usage of the civic theatres the city now has, with an expectation it will show the venues face demand beyond current capacity. It’s also studying the needs and interests of each of the three proposed venues: an 1,800-seat concert hall, an 800-seat recital hall, and an 1,800-seat opera-ballet hall, all with advanced acoustics. The spaces are meant to fill the gaps between large 2,800-seat venues like the Orpheum Theatre and Queen Elizabeth Theatre and the 670-seat Vancouver Playhouse.
“It’s very clear from their studies to date that Vancouver is underserved by performing-arts seats,” former BC Attorney General Suzanne Anton, chair of the VCHTS, told Stir at the end of 2024. “They are also completing the interviews that they have done with all the participating organizations.”
She reports those groups supporting the project now number 22—including Vancouver Symphony Orchestra, Vancouver Opera, Ballet BC, DanceHouse, Vancouver Recital Society, Vancouver Chamber Choir, Vancouver Bach Family of Choirs, Early Music Vancouver, Chor Leoni, Vancouver Chopin Society, and Coastal Jazz and Blues Society.
The VCHTS is now meeting regularly and preparing to unveil the business case for the long-talked-about building in the spring. “They [Diamond Schmitt] are going to have recommendations ready, probably by March, as to what kinds of facilities are needed, and some possible locations,” Anton said. “And we will then post a report on our yet-to-be website at the end of April. After that we will then look to move to a second phase, where we will do more in terms of pinning down location and having some concept ideas of what new facilities might look like.”
Arts groups have talked about the need for new facilities to be added to civic theatres for decades in Vancouver. By spring, we should finally know if, where, and how that could happen.
“I do believe that, with this combined effort, this is a historic opportunity, and we intend to keep working forward so that we get solutions that we need in Vancouver,” Anton said.
Artistic rendering by Hariri Pontarini Architects of the Marianne and Edward Gibson Art Museum’s South Gallery, with SFU Art Collection works by Roy Kenzie Kiyooka. From left to right: #2 Ottoman; #2 Haida; #2 Corinth; #2 Iberian; #2 Polynesian. All screenprints, 1971. Gifts of Toronto Dominion Bank, 1998.
SFU’s new Burnaby Mountain art museum
It’s been a year and a half since construction began on the Marianne and Edward Gibson Art Museum, Simon Fraser University’s new 12,000-foot space on its Burnaby Mountain campus. The facility is slated for completion this fall.
A few internal changes will take place in the lead-up to the art museum’s opening. SFU Galleries, which currently oversees programming and operations of the SFU Gallery on the Burnaby Mountain campus and the Audain Gallery at the Goldcorp Centre for the Arts, will transfer direction of the Audain Gallery back to SFU’s School for the Contemporary Arts. Under the school’s oversight, the multidisciplinary downtown Vancouver exhibition space will hone in on student-led initiatives and exhibitions by international artists through the Audain Visual Artists in Residence Program.
Upon opening, the Marianne and Edward Gibson Art Museum will replace both the physical SFU Gallery and operational entity SFU Galleries, becoming the new home for the 5,800-work Simon Fraser University Art Collection.
The expansive single-level facility designed by Siamak Hariri of Hariri Pontarini Architects will feature several galleries and programming spaces (including an art studio, courtyard, salon, and forum). The new building’s sleek appearance aligns with Arthur Erickson and Geoffrey Massey’s original architecture vision of the Burnaby Mountain campus.
Brian McBay, nonprofit organization 221A’s founder and executive director.
221A’s latest Cultural Land Trust reports
More progress is being made on 221A’s Cultural Land Trust, an initiative that would offer groundbreaking real-estate support to artists and arts organizations across B.C. The trust is an independent nonprofit entity capable of purchasing and managing land, which would result in benefits like stable rent, long-term leases, and pathways to ownership for artists—particularly those who are 2SLGBTQIA+, BIPOC, low-income, and disabled.
Brian McBay, nonprofit organization 221A’s founder and executive director, recently described the Cultural Land Trust to Stir as “a collective model to acquire and decommodify cultural properties before further displacement takes place”. The trust’s long-term goal is to secure 30 properties in B.C. by 2050.
Over the past few months, 221A has been conducting two new reports with findings scheduled for completion this month. The first is a jurisdictional scan of cultural infrastructure across B.C., Alberta, Ontario, and Quebec to analyze how a Cultural Land Trust might impact the real-estate market for the better.
“Since the vast majority of small- and medium-sized cultural spaces are being operated in commercial real-estate markets, we make the argument that operational viability and economic resilience would be greatly improved if organizations could purchase their spaces in collaboration with the Cultural Land Trust,” McBay said. “The research also identifies anticipated economic and social costs if investments in cultural infrastructure are not made as more spaces face imminent closure.”
The second report compiles the legal and financial research that 221A is investing into Indigenous reciprocity within the Cultural Land Trust. This would come in the form of a “voluntary tax” model; for each property the CLT operates on Indigenous territory, it would provide compensation to that host nation through consultations and approval.
While an initial $15 million in seed funding has yet to be allocated toward the Cultural Land Trust, 221A will hold more meetings with government members over the coming months “to push for funding and policy changes”.
“The BC NDP have included an expanded Arts Infrastructure as part of their platform,” McBay said. “But we also know that there is high budget pressure facing the province in this shortened budget cycle, so we are focusing on sharpening the economic argument for a Cultural Land Trust.” 
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