After five-and-a-half years in Fairview, the Pacific Arts Market is packing up and moving to Vancouver Island.
Crystal Cornthwaite, the owner-operator of the gallery and market at 1450 W Broadway, says that while there's been local support for her business in the city, there have been struggles as well, and the Island is beckoning her business to cross the Salish Sea.
"Lately there has been an overwhelming pull from the Island community of artists that were already in my database," she explains to Vancouver Is Awesome. "Last year I started doing some scouting and research and I found there is a great community spirit over [there] well suited for this type of business."
She started Pacific Arts Market in December of 2018.
"I wanted to create a community space with some permanence for artists to develop and grow their businesses," she explains.
In that spirit, the market had a different business plan than most art galleries or shops. Cornthwaite rented space to artists, who were allowed to set up and curate their spaces as they wished, and Cornthwaite didn't take a commission on sales.
She says it was "basically the only place of its kind for artists" in Vancouver at that time.
"Artists were excited to have the opportunity to have their own dedicated wall or floor spaces in a gallery-type setting," she says.
Since opening, somewhere around 500 artists have been featured, Cornthwaite says. Some have only stayed for a few weeks (four weeks was the minimum length of time to rent gallery space) while others remained for years; there are still artists hoping to get in.
However, issues ranging from the fact the COVID-19 pandemic hit a year after opening, to Broadway subway construction, to issues maintaining the attached parking lot have made things more difficult, though she's adapted and been supported by the community, Cornthwaite adds.
"I felt discouraged by some things lately in Vancouver," she says, noting the economic environment here, including rent and other expense increases, also have played a role.
That, mixed with the pull from Vancouver Island, has led her to move the business. Recently she's been looking at spaces in Ladysmith, which she describes as a "thriving community," but no permanent location has been found.
"I've had to take a lot of things into consideration and a lot of people into consideration," she says. "The people matter to me."
There's a lack of arts spaces in the city, Cornthwaite adds, and her departure won't help that.
She notes that while the permanent space is closing, there may be a Pacific Arts Market pop-up sometime in the future, after a couple of successful experiences in the last year.
To celebrate the end of the space at 1450 W Broadway, there's a goodbye event planned for June 28 from 1 to 5 p.m. The gallery's last day is June 30.
"Thank you to Vancouver for a great five-and-a-half years," says Cornthwaite. "We might be back, especially with the pop-up concept; you never know what's to come for us."
