Tenants are artists. What makes some forms of culture attractive to real estate and developer interests? Does the support of art by real estate make Vancouver a culturally vibrant city?

First, we hear from Alice, an artist and tenant at The Belvedere building in Vancouver’s Mount Pleasant neighbourhood, who organized with her neighbours to fight round after round of profit motivated evictions.

If you live or work in Mount Pleasant, you’ve probably noticed the large amount of murals going up around the neighbourhood — there’s even one on the Belvedere. Mural Fest is one of many art projects backed by developers. Helena and Sydney talk a little bit about the organization and some other protests that artists and anti-displacement activists have had against Mural Fest donor and large scale developer Westbank.

We then play footage from a radio segment that aired on Coop Radio 100.5 FM covering the Rave Against Renovictions, where artists held a rally outside Mural Fest donor, developer and Lululemon founder Chip Wilson’s house. These were in response to recent evictions of artist spaces by Wilson’s company Low Tide Properties. Helena speaks with artist and organizer Tascha Speck about the event.

Episode Credits:

Produced by Helena Krobath and Sydney Ball. “Rave Against Renovictions” originally aired on Vancouver Co-op Radio. Thanks to VIVO Media Arts Centre, BC Arts Council, Vancouver Tenants Union organizers, and tenants who shared their stories