John Bermingham
Province
Jane Wolsak has painted in her Prior Street studio for 17 years, but, if Vancouver City Council approves a development plan for the building she shares with 29 other artists, she will have to move. Photograph by : Jason Payne, The Province
It’s not a pretty picture for Vancouver artist Jane Wolsak, who has been painting for 17 years in the same studio on Prior Street and now faces possible eviction.
Next Tuesday, city council will decide whether to allow a developer to turn her studio — and 29 others in a five-storey building next to the Cobalt Hotel — into apartments.
Amacon, the owner, plans to refurbish the building and add a nine-storey tower behind it.
Wolsak says artists’ spaces in Vancouver are getting squeezed by the condo craze. Vancouver artists are packing up and moving to cheaper spaces in the suburbs, she says.
“The property values are going up to the extent that people are cashing in,” said Wolsak. “We’re going to be losing them all, one after another.”
Richard Wittstock of Amacon says the company will help the artists find new studios over the next year.
But, with new projects going up in False Creek and Chinatown, it makes sense to redevelop, he said.
“Artists are a really important part of our community,” said Wittstock. “We can’t fight the reality. The city is changing. You can’t fight a trend like that.”
Vision Vancouver Coun. Heather Deal said there’s little or no protection for artists who work in the city.
“As downtown marches east, the property values are driving artists out,” said Deal. “We’re in a real danger of losing our creative zones in the city, as artists are forced out of the downtown core.”
She wants to allow visual artists and writers to work on industrial land. Developers could also be rewarded for protecting art spaces.
Valerie Arntzen, who runs the annual Eastside Culture Crawl, said other art spaces in Vancouver are threatened.
Rents have doubled for some artists at the Parker Street Studios, which houses 90 artists.
“It’s not like we cannot afford it,” said Arntzen. “We just need the space.
“We need to protect what is here right now. And that is what is scary. We’re moving too fast.”
NPA Coun. Elizabeth Ball said the city is completing a study into how many art spaces are left in Vancouver and how many have been lost.
Ball, an artist, would like art studios in every new apartment building.
“It makes all the difference between wanting to live in a city and not wanting to,” she said.
© The Vancouver Province 2008
