VMF2022 Neighbourhood: West End
The West End is known for championing a culture of celebratory inclusivity and prideful diversity. Renowned for being an openly queer space, the West End has long held an important role throughout the city’s socio-cultural landscape. Davie Village is the epicentre of this space, home to a variety of great boutiques, eateries, and clubs. With its rainbow crosswalk and colourful laneways, the West End is a sensorial delight.
In 2020, large scale art pieces by local Two-Spirit, Trans and Queer artists were premiered around Pride Week, offering a chance for folks to enjoy art in outdoor spaces. In our collaboration with Vancouver Pride Society there were three murals painted to create a Pride Mural Collection along the Pride Art Walk route.
In 2017, Vancouver city council voted unanimously in favour of naming eight West End laneways after local historical figures (source/more details: CBC). The recently renamed laneways honour local historical figures that have shaped our city and communities. In 2021, in an effort to encourage discovery and learning about these laneways and their namesakes, Vancouver Mural Festival—in collaboration with the West End BIA—began a mural series to highlight these laneways.
For 2022, VMF continues the series with three more laneways receiving murals inspired by their namesakes. This year’s three new murals in Rosemary Brown Lane, Jepson-Young Lane, and Ted Northe Lane, along with two from 2021, will shine a light on the important contributions made by their namesakes and act as a bridge between the neighbourhood’s history and its vibrant community of residents, visitors, and tourists.
Pioneering women, 2SLGBTQ+ activists, and HIV and AIDS educators are among the local historical figures celebrated in the naming of the eight West End laneways.
The Blossoming of Compassion
Mural artist: Kirk Gower
In his CBC series, the “Dr. Peter Diaries”, Dr. Peter documented his battle with AIDS and humanized the epidemic for many Canadians. Before his death in 1992, he founded the Dr. Peter AIDS Foundation creating a place where people with AIDS could receive compassionate care right through to the end of their lives. Today, the Dr. Peter AIDS Foundation is one of the world’s most recognized care facilities for HIV/AIDS. Throughout his life, Dr. Peter worked ceaselessly to sow seeds of compassion. Kirk’s mural uses symbolism to dive into this subject matter and approach the idea of compassion more abstractly. Wrapped in a red ribbon (a universal symbol for AIDS awareness and support), an open hand reaches outward to lift someone. Across from this is its mirrored image, blocked out in a dark green shadow-like form. In the shadow, the form sprouts flowers representing the beauty of compassion. Thus, they are a symbolic representation of the seeds of compassion sewn by Dr. Peter blossoming today.
Location: Jepson-Young Lane @ Denman
Thank you, Miss Rosemary
Mural artist: Sade Alexis
Statement: "Thank you, Miss Rosemary" is created to honour and remember the work of Rosemary Brown. Miss Rosemary worked to uplift and celebrate the lives and experiences of Black women in this city. As one of the first politicians in this city to discuss the complexity of being both a Black person and a woman, she was one of the first to discuss intersectionality within the context of Vancouver.
This mural calls to attention the most important work that Miss Rosemary did, cultivating community and joy for Black women and femmes. This piece is about joy by using bright colours and playful patterns to depict carefreeness shared between Black women and femmes, it is about the community that joy can bring about. It is about the beauty of Black laughter, and the boisterousness of Black Womanhood. The floral elements call to the shared experience of being from the islands, as Alexis’ paternal family is from Trinidad, and Miss Rosemary’s homeland is Jamaica. Alexis utilizes hibiscus flowers to signify shared Caribbean culture and the shared experience of Caribbean diaspora within Vancouver.
Location: 830 Denman Street
I am a human being
Mural artist: Matt Hanns Schroeter
This mural depicts Ted Northe, an influential gay-rights activist and drag queen, extending his arms out to a community of hands matching colours representing bands of the Progress Pride flag. Northe helped organize protests and fostered community building since the 1950s, contributing to the structure of LGBTQS2+ policy and rights in Canada, including the decriminalization of homosexuality on June 27, 1969.
Location: Ted Northe Lane @ Denman
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