Stir Cheat Sheet: 5 insider tips for tackling the Eastside Culture Crawl this week

The “Witch Walk”, the new north-of-East-Hastings hub, and food-truck spots, plus ways to beat the crowds

By Janet Smith

Georgia Art Studios. Photo by Joshua Wright

Cara Bain’s Nest.

The Eastside Culture Crawl runs on November 14 and 15 from 5 to 10 pm and on November 16 and 17 from 11 am to 6 pm

FACED WITH A DIZZYING array of 500 artists across 55 buildings, you might find plotting out a trip to the Eastside Culture Crawl feels like trying to see Paris in a weekend.

Relax. We’ve got you covered for the event that will sprawl between Columbia Street, East 1st Avenue, Victoria Drive, and the waterfront from November 14 to 17.

Start by consulting the handy-dandy Crawl map and choose a neighbourhood to tackle. Take Gore Street: it offers an easy evening jaunt between five or six studios with a wide range of media—from upcycled baby-doll sculptures and planters to truly stunning quilts. Ditto for Clark around East Pender and Francis Streets, where you’ll find some of the Crawl’s coolest textile and collage artists.

If you’re an old hand, you’ll also want to scan the Crawl website for new artists—there are a whopping 90 this year, so there’s no chance to catch them all. Note there’s also a brand new pop-up venue at Progress Lab 1422 for all those East Van artists who work from home and don’t have a studio to open to the public.

And for a quick Crawl preview, don’t forget to hit the salon-style exhibit at various venues, including the downtown Pendulum Gallery and The Cultch; it shows sample works from more than 90 artists to help you plan what you want to see more of.

We look at a range of artists in articles here and here. And here are a few more tips from our own experience, and from our inside sources at the Crawl:

The garage-turned-studio at 1630 Salsbury.

#1

Venture out to the farthest reaches of the Crawl

Artist Cara Bain wins the prize for being situated farthest off the beaten Crawl. Venture into her cozy residential garage-turned-studio at 1630 Salsbury Drive for original oil paintings of landscapes and figurative works, as well as experimentations with copper patinas. She’s also got an array of small landscape prints. Think alpine vistas, transcendent West Coast sunsets, and enigmatic women.

#2

Artwork by creamy skeletons (Jocelyn Sanchez), at Makehaus Studios

Astral Eye

Hit the Witch Walk

Grab your broom and scoot over to the 4th annual Witch Walk, where “four witchy art studios” are concentrated in an area between 902 Commercial Dr, 831 Commercial Drive, 512 Victoria Drive, and 1861 Franklin Street. Art spans doll making, candles, jewellery, drawing, painting, and more. Some of the highlights: Astral Eye’s ever-watchful watercolour paints, witchcraft based candles, and apothecary oils; spooky artworks by Jocelyn Sanchez, who works under the suitably mysterious moniker “creamy skeletons”; and Inner Wolf’s stunning jewellery, featuring silver crow and eagle claws, coiling snakes, and raw stones (designed by Ashya Elizabeth).

The Hamilton Bank Building

#3

Head north of East Hastings Street

The Crawl has seen its biggest growth in the neighbourhood north of East Hastings, off of Victoria Drive. We highly recommend starting with a stop at CoLab (the Vancouver Community Laboratory), a cooperative workshop in a former car-repair shop at the corner of Victoria and Triumph streets. Because the space allows for it, you’ll find metalworkers like Mick Bryant and Andrew Buszchak, as well as Ron Simmer, who crafts mesmerizing works out of found materials. And there are more than 20 talents tucked away into Pandora’s Box Studios, including mixed-media collage artist Alex Asai and ceramic artist Kennedy Snider. And at the Hamilton Bank Building, check out multidisciplinary artist Kate MacDonald; conceptual photography, screen printing, and surface-design innovator Les Sears; and the wild world of 3D visual developer Weird420XL. There are many more packed into this ’hood—with a few of the city’s best craft brewpubs (hello, Parallel 49) to hit between studios.

#4

Fuel up at food trucks

By now, seasoned Culture Crawlers know they can find eats outside the labyrinthine studio central at 1000 Parker. This year’s offerings include the ooey-gooey greatness of Mom’s Grilled Cheese/Melt City Grilled Cheese, healthy plant-based dishes at Chickpea Food Truck, and Korean bowls and baos at Disco Cheetah. But what you may not know is there will be two other food trucks parked around this year’s crawl: at Eastside Atelier (1310 William Street), grab a delicious sloppy Joe made from Two Rivers ground beef with sweet and smoky homemade sauce at Midnight Joe’s; and at the blown-glass haven at the Mergatroid (975 Vernon), get some grab-and-goes at Pakoras.

Anne Mann’s studio at 1000 Parker. Photo by Joshua Wright

#5

Avoid the crowds

And finally, if rubbing shoulders with the masses is not your jam, head out Thursday and Friday night, when studios are open 5 to 10 pm and the vibe is usually chill. Otherwise, our sources at the Crawl recommend you head out right at the 11 am opening time on Saturday and Sunday for popular spots like 1000 Parker, and then hit up some of the smaller studios later in the day.  

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