Browsing “Public Spaces”

Our friends at the landscape architecture firm PWL Partnership just released this beautiful short that looks at some of their projects they’ve worked on from Yaletown to Coal Harbour, Granville Street to the Village on False Creek, and all the way to New Westminster. As a resident of Vancouver I imagine you’ve probably been to every one of the spaces featured below. Have a poke around their WEBSITE to get some insight into how they came to be, and how they work.

Video produced by New Street Productions, led by Jon Long with music composed by Ben MacDougall.

The Mayor’s Engaged City Task Force released its first report yesterday! What is this task force, you ask? It’s a volunteer citizen advisory group made up of 22 Vancouver citizens who represent a broad cross-section of ages, backgrounds and professions. What they have in common is knowledge, experience and commitment to community public engagement in Vancouver. They aim to collaborate on “improving the way the City communicates with citizens, engages immigrants and youth, consults on policy, increases voter turnout and enables community connection at a neighbourhood level”. Essentially they’re working to make your Vancouver a better place to live.

The first Engaged City Task Force report

The report outlines 16 recommendations that the task force hope to be implemented in the next 6 months. “Quick Starts” as they’re dubbing them. Their next task is to work on recommendations that have a broader scope and timeline, but for now chomp into THIS 40 page document that outlines what this whole thing is about, who is involved, and what they recommend.

If you only read one of the 16 recommendations (or none at all, and only read this blog post) let it be this one:

Here’s to a more engaged Vancouver, with the help from this team made up of some of Vancouver’s finest, many of whom we’ve collaborated with and/or featured here on V.I.A..

Here’s a great video from our friends at the Pacific Salmon Foundation showcasing how a donation from Newalta helped bring a super interesting project to life in a public park in West Vancouver, in turn helping ensure a future for our Pacific Salmon…

PROVOKE, ENGAGE, ANIMATE. Our vision at the Museum of Vancouver (MOV) is to hold a mirror up to the city and lead provocative conversations about its past, present, and future. Linking the historical record and the living experiences of its visitors to what is happening socially, politically, and culturally NOW; we honour the material culture of the city: mixing history, archaeology, visual arts, design, architecture, urban planning, music, performance, new media, design, fashion, popular culture, and photography. Check us out on our blog, talk to us on Twitter, or stay up to date through Facebook.

Talking about apps has been a big thing in the museum world lately – how do you use technology to engage visitors? How can you enhance a historical or artistic experience? What is the role of the museum in using technology to further their mission?

Some museums, like the Guggenheim, launched into the forefront of app development, taking the risk for the rest of us, spending years developing an app that later became irrelevant. Others, like the Museum of London, came in a bit later, developing their street museum only to discover
that it actually increased attendance to their physical location.

When the MOV launched Neon Vancouver | Ugly Vancouver (our neon sign exhibition here at our Kitsilano building) it sparked an unprecedented flow of stories from Vancouverites that
signaled how deeply enmeshed the city’s neon is with local history and ourcivic identity.

Of course, telling the stories of some of Vancouver’s most iconic signs — like the Vogue, Save-On-Meats, or The Orpheum — by bringing them into the MOV wasn’t an option (they’re still in use, and they’re so large they wouldn’t even fit in the building!). So we dreamt up the next best thing: a virtual exhibition and mobile app that would share 40+ stories about 50+ signs and use augmented reality technology to help with the visuals.

At the end of 2011 — with some much appreciated federal funding from Heritage Canada (Virtual Museums Canada) in hand — Hanna Cho, the MOV’s Curator of Dialogue & Engagement, rolled up her sleeves and began work with a talented team of archival researchers, visual storytellers, and interactive producers to create The Visible City.

Just 18 months later we’re thrilled to be releasing an app that is the first of its kind in North America. It takes augmented reality to the streets, and provides countless historical photos, audio stories, and contemporary insights from notable Vancouverites like Dal Richards (legendary big band leader), Vancouver punk icon Joe Keithley of DOA, architect Gregory
Henriquez, and Judy Graves, Vancouver’s advocate for the homeless.

The exhibition traces the rise, fall, and revival of neon in Vancouver, and enables people to explore the rich social and cultural histories associated with the signs. While there are hundreds of neon stories that pepper our city’s historical and contemporary landscape we couldn’t
possibly include them all (there were, after all, an estimated 19,000 signs in the 60s). We ended up focusing on some key signs and stories that illustrate the role of neon in Vancouver’s civic evolution. Do you think we’re missing a sign? We encourage you to add your own photos to the Flickr pool!

We hope you’ll download the app, take one of the two tours with a friend, and contribute your own impressions, stories, and photos to the exhibition!

The app is free to download from iTunes or GooglePlay, or to view online at www.thevisiblecity.ca .

A couple of fabulous announcements came out this morning at the Honda Celebration of Light press conference at Concord Pacific’s presentation centre in False Creek.

1. Red Bull Air Race Pilot Pete McLeod will be bringing his daredevil antics back to the skies in a brand new Eagle 540 aircraft! You may remember back in 2011 when he surprised us all by zooming in and performing a show that left of us in awe (VIDEO). Chatting with him this morning he explained that he grew up flying bushplanes in rural Ontario. Apparently that industry and job is a bit like the wild West (er, East) and he picked up a taste for the thrill of flight from it at a young age.

Here’s a Celebrity High Five from Pete!

2. The UK, Canada and Thailand will be the competing countries in this 23rd year of the fireworks, Vancouver’s longest running civic event. This is the first time Thailand has ever competed in the Celebration of Light. Below is the schedule.
…READ THE REST OF THIS ENTRY>>>

Vancouver Heritage Foundation is a registered charity supporting the conservation of heritage buildings and structures in recognition of their contribution to the city’s economy, sustainability and culture.

1932 Interior of Victoria Produce Co. VPL #7921 Photo by Leonard Frank. Victoria Produce Company, 1743 Commercial - Chinese market - Interior of market.

“Vancouver, like all cities, was at one time almost food-self-sufficient. The new urban farming trend is really reclaiming some of that past– bringing food production back into the city and into view.” Peter Ladner

 Vancouver Heritage Foundation‘s annual Heritage House Tour is only a month away on Sunday, June 2nd, and since one of the houses on the tour features urban farming, we are presenting a pre-tour lecture “Past Forward: How Today’s Urban Food Revolution is Reinventing its Historical Roots” with Peter Ladner, Author of Urban Food Revolution: Changing the Way We Feed Cities. In this illustrated talk, he’ll show how new approaches to growing food in the city are reinventing old urban traditions. It all takes place Tuesday, May 21st at 7pm, in the modernist Unitarian Church, 949 West 49th Ave at Oak St. Sign up here. And don’t forget to get your tickets to the Heritage House Tour to see a working urban farm for yourself! Peter will also be available during the Heritage House Tour to talk urban farming one on one.

Urban farming in Vancouver is nothing new. Places That Matter has been honouring the history of many sites where Chinese market gardens existed: Douglas Park, China Creek (Cycle Track), Gibby’s Field (Kensington Cedar-Cottage). “Most of the Chinese who came to Canada in the 1800s and early 1900s left small farming villages in southern China, and many knew how to grow food and crops for sale. In many small towns in British Columbia— including big cities like Victoria and Vancouver— Chinese Canadian farms grew much of the fresh produce that fed the people who lived there. They also used hand baskets and trucks to deliver the vegetables and produce to customers and to the grocery stores and restaurants that they opened in every neighbourhood.”(CCS) Watch the video  Covered Roots: The History of Vancouver’s Chinese Farms (produced by UBC’s Chinese Canadian Stories)

Present day urban farming... Image from article : http://rabble.ca/news/2012/04/vancouvers-urban-farming-movement-growing