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Vancouver Mural Festival to include expanded 3-week celebration

"Murals can help transform public spaces and serve as catalysts for addressing many socio-cultural issues."
Elana Shepert
Elana Shepert
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Photo: vanmuralfest / Instagram

The Vancouver Mural Festival returns this summer with an expanded three-week celebration of murals across the city.

Over the past five years, organizers state the VMF has produced over 200 murals in Vancouver and the surrounding area. Now, they say have re-imagined the celebration to include more murals. 

This spring, the VMF painted over 60 temporary murals on boarded-up storefronts with the #MakeArtWhileApart project. Afterward, the VMF says it received overwhelmingly positive feedback from people who needed to stay hopeful and connected during the initial phases of the COVID-19 pandemic. While people were forced to stay physically distanced, the inspired artwork brought them together through healing, joyful and thought-provoking creations. 

Now, VMF has announced the dates for its expanded 3-week festival: Aug. 18 through Sep. 7. It will feature over 60 new murals in 9 neighbourhoods across the city. Plus, a new mobile App to help you discover them all.

"Murals can help transform public spaces and serve as catalysts for addressing many socio-cultural issues. Together, we can help reignite and connect our communities," writes the VMF in a release.

"Our original call for artists was during the month of November 2019 for this summer's festival. That seems like ages ago! In the meantime, we have expanded the festival beyond our original neighbourhood of Mount Pleasant to paint murals in neighbourhoods across the city. This enables more people to celebrate murals within their own communities, while supporting local businesses by encouraging exploration across the city."

This year, instead of a massive Street Party, Vancouver Mural Festival has been reimagined to share the positivity and spirit of VMF with even more people and communities across our city. In addition to its original home in Mount Pleasant, VMF will bring over 60 new murals to 9 neighbourhoods:

  • Mount Pleasant 

  • South Granville

  • Robson

  • West End

  • Downtown

  • Strathcona

  • Gastown 

  • River District 

  • Marpole

VMF is organized by Create Vancouver Society, a Registered Non-Profit dedicated to artistic and cultural development in the Lower Mainland. The annual festival takes place for a week in August in the Mount Pleasant neighbourhood, and VMF works throughout the year with neighbourhoods around the Lower Mainland to highlight the local culture and vibrance of their area.

Highlights for the 2020 Vancouver Mural Festival include: 

  • Aug.18: Vancouver Mural Festival mobile App launches 

  • Aug.18-Sept.7: VMF Pop-Up Patio featuring Live Music, Comedy, Drag, and more. Aug.18-Sept.7: VMF: Year 5 Art Exhibit (online) featuring 100+ original works of art by VMF alumni and local artists. All originals and limited prints will be available for sale.

  • Aug.18: VMF Curator Talks (online) - learn about VMF’s curation process with Lead Curator Drew Young, Graffiti Curator Scott Sueme and 2020 Guest Curators, Krystal Paraboo and Sierra Tasi Baker. 

  • Aug.18-Sept.7: Free Daily Mural Tours presented by Herschel Supply. 

  • Aug.18-Sept.18: Downtown Shopfront Mural Exhibit at the Pendulum Gallery. 

  • On-going: Artists painting 60+ murals throughout the city 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

As part of VMF's commitment to amplify Black voices through our platform we have dedicated ourselves to continue to feature more Black artists and creators both locally and worldwide on our Stories and Feed. Though we are committing time to our own outreach and research efforts we welcome Black artists and creatives to DM us or leave a comment with your artist handle if you wish to be featured. Today we acknowledge Juneteenth as a day of celebration for many but also as a reminder of the work that must be done in order to break down the systemic racism so ingrained in our society. We acknowledge that much of Canada’s wealth was created from the systematic exploitation of slavery and endentured servants and encourage continued reading and education on the history which surrounds this day. Join us in solidarity with the #juneteenth Freedom March @freedommarchvancouver today starting at Jack Poole Plaza at 4 p.m. “If the cruelties of slavery could not stop us, the opposition we now face will surely fail. Because the goal of America is freedom, abused and scorned tho' we may be, our destiny is tied up with America's destiny.” — Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Mural by: @johnniexmas on 11th and Main for VMF 2017 First photo credit: Michelle Lee Photography Second photo credit: @yvrstreetart #amplifymelanatedvoices #blm #blacklivesmatter #juneteenth

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Today is National Indigeneous Peoples Day. We acknowledge that we live and work on the ancestral territories of the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh Nations, and that these lands are unceded and were never surrendered. Throughout Canada’s history (both as a colonizing project of Britain and as an independent Nation) Indigenous people have endured cultural genocide, systemic violence and oppression by the Crown. This colonial system has been perpetuated by programs like the Residential School System, The Sixties Scoop and by a continuing pattern of police violence against Indigenous people across Canada. In the last few months, several Indigenous people have lost their lives at the hands of the police. These are their names: Eishia Hudson. Chantel Moore. Stewart Kevin Andrews. Everett Patrick. Jason Collins. Rodney Levi. If this is news to you, please research these cases and learn about what has been happening and what currently is happening in Canada. As an arts organization, we are committed to being in solidarity with the culture and the people who continue to be the hosts and protectors of these lands. Because many of us are uninvited guests, we feel it is our responsibility and privilege as a cultural organization shaping public spaces to use our platform to enhance and support the cultural work already being done by Indigenous artists, organizers and organizations. Since our beginnings in 2016, we have been committed to positively impacting the reconciliation and redress process by providing increased visibility to Local Coast Salish & Indigenous Cultures in the public spaces of Vancouver. Let's all work together on this, the time to get more engaged is now. Mural by @brettrobinson369 for VMF's #MakeArtWhileApart Project. Photo by: @gabrielmartinsphoto

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Find out more information HERE.