On a sunny day there is a bright reflection coming from the blank wall across the street from my Kitsilano home. The expanse of matte-grey cinder bricks feels like wasted space.

The blankness of the wall is especially notable, given that other parts of my community have become striking canvases for public art. Much of the new colour comes courtesy of the Vancouver Mural Festival, which matches street and aerosol artists with privately owned buildings (and their businesses). In addition, the Festival celebrates public art with free tours and other events. This year’s Mural Fest (August 8-11) also includes a ticketed concert.

VMF Mural by Ilya Viryachev & James Knight. Photo by *lingling*

While the Mural Festival may have become the most prominent such event, there’s also a lot of other public art driven by businesses or business improvement associations trying to enliven their shopping areas. The City’s Integrated Graffiti Management Program has supported this sort of community-based art for a number of years now (although it needs to be noted: the City supports sanctioned art while requiring unsanctioned graffiti to be removed – so questions of ‘what is legitimate art?’ and ‘who gets to decide?’ serve as embedded tensions here, as in other cities).

My first exposure to mural art was as a child in Vancouver Island driving through Chemainus. I didn’t think about it much at the time, but over 30 years later I can still remember the bouquets of colour springing from the walls of this little town on Vancouver Island. Chemainus bills itself as “the city of murals.” Following the recession in the early 1980s, they adopted a progressive approach to placemaking – and looked to street art as a way to attract tourism and instill civic pride.

The Hong Hing Waterfront Store. Mural by by Paul Marcano Photo by Jasperdo. Chemainus BC

Another notable experience came on a trip to Berlin. It was 1997 and the city was undergoing massive, post-reunification renewal. It was a period of rapid growth, and there was an exuberance and tension in the city that was searching for different types of expression. The Kreutzberg neighbourhood where I was staying was one of a number that was slated for “revitalization” – and became a place for both legal and unauthorized wall art. Street artists proceeded to paint every possible surface with images and messages both edgy and dramatic.

Building Street Art – Bülowstraße, Berlin – Photo by Eye DJ

Today, Berlin is one of the global hotbeds of street art (check out some of the fine examples documented on the Street Art Berlin website). While graffiti in the city is technically illegal there are several spaces where artists can pursue their craft in a sanctioned fashion – purchasing permits from local businesses to paint on a particular piece of wall. Creating an official process like this may take some of the clandestine edge off the art, but it doesn’t seem to detract from what is in reality a very dynamic scene. Of course, there are murals too – and the city is home to a number of examples of art commissioned pieces.

Another city with a strong public art scene is New York. A lot of New York’s iconic graffiti scene developed organically, and came to define the urban landscape in the 1980s. Nowadays, the stealthy work of small crews of artists has also been supplemented by groups actively and overtly promoting public art.

One such initiative is the L.I.S.A. Project (the acronym stands for: Little Italy Street Art) started in 2012 by Wayne Rada, and now a registered non-profit. Recognizing the potential community development angle inherent in street art, Rada and his group started promoting murals as a way to revitalize the Little Italy neighbourhood. The project proved so successful that it spread to other neighbourhoods. Today, the group produces and promotes a number of art pieces each year throughout the city in SoHo, Lower East Side, East Village, Chinatown and Chelsea. Meanwhile, back in Little Italy, their on-going work has helped to create Manhattan’s “first and only mural district”.

Other cities and places, like Boston, Toronto, Venice Beach, and smaller communities like Lynn, Massachusetts, have experimented with other types of sanctioned space. Graffiti alley in Toronto is a marvelous corridor of street art. Signs hung on the wall say something magic: artists welcome. No permit is required.

Graffiti Alley, Toronto – Photo by John Piercy

When cities opt to legitimate graffiti or street art (which is a laudable goal!), a clear and accessible process is important. Artists need to know what to expect, what the approvals process is, whether funding is available, and how long their work will be shown. There ought to be a fairly broad latitude for political or personal artistic expression, but where there are boundaries it should be reasonably clear as to what is acceptable – and civic officials should expect this to be tested.
But does all street art need to be sanctioned? The work of notables like Banksy, Shepard Fairey and Roadsworth – to name just a few – are now the subject of movies, gallery exhibitions and even theft. How many of their pieces would have been given a stamp of approval in the municipal office? Here, ‘graffiti as folk art’ seems compromised by the idea of a permit process.

To make matters more interesting, the legal definitions of graffiti are somewhat at odds with the sorts of distinctions that many people will draw between “good” street art and tagging. For example, in Vancouver, the Graffiti Bylaw defines graffiti as “one or more letters, symbols or marks, howsoever made, on any structure or thing but does not include … a letter, symbol or mark for which the owner or tenant of the real property on which the letter, symbol or mark appears has given prior, written authorization.” And that basically means everything is graffiti – and subject to a removal order – unless you get permission.

In my view, good street art – whether a commissioned mural, sanctioned piece, or even something edgier and clandestine – has the potential to enliven blank walls and other forms of urban canvas. That’s not a blank cheque on aerosol art, but it is intended to speak to the possibilities inherent in the art form.

Don’t believe me? Go check out the great work of the upcoming mural fest, or take a tour of some of the previous years work.

And hey, while we’re at it, do you have a blank wall?

Anke Hurt is a recent graduate of the Langara Community Planning Program, a resident of Vancouver, and a big fan of the city’s burgeoning street art scene. 

The Vancouver Mural Fest runs now through August 11, 2018. Find out all the details at vanmuralfest.ca. 

Cover photo of Jeff Henriquez’s Brooklyn mural by Jada Stevens. And hey… we know who took the photos that we used for this article, but some of the artists remain unknown. If you have any details on the folks responsible for the works we’ve featured here, please drop us a note so we can attribute the pieces appropriately.

Studies have shown that time spent outside is beneficial to mental and physical well being – in a number of different ways. In adults, depression rates decrease with outdoor physical activity and prolonged exposure to vitamin D. Children who live a more active lifestyle, as compared to a sedentary one, consistently test higher in reading comprehension and math skills. Additionally, outdoor play exposes children to sunlight, fresh air, and natural elements, which in turn benefits the immune system, contributes to healthy bone development, and encourages a lifetime of physical activity. And these are just a few of the reported benefits!

In the summer, Vancouver offers an abundance of opportunity to reap the health benefits of being outside. As the days get longer and the weather gets warmer, Vancouverites emerge from our winter hibernation and begin to enjoy the numerous beaches, mountains, plazas, patios, walkable neighbourhoods, and world class parks that our city has to offer.

Yet in the winter, opportunities to enjoy the health benefits of being outdoors are often constrained by our need to be shielded from the elements. Cold, wet winters tend to drive people indoors, which has the add-on effect of removing us from a lot of the opportunities for outdoor social interaction that we get during the summer months. Outdoor physical activity also declines — and this, in combination with other factors (like the lack of sun), increases the likelihood of seasonal affective disorder and the winter blues. Of course, none of this is helped by the fact that many of our public spaces seem poorly designed for the rainy months.

Aware of the impact of winter on public life, designers, advocates and community groups have all recommended strategies to activate public spaces to encourage people to get outside on rainy days. In Vancouver, popular mid-winter activities like the Lumiere Festival the Christmas Market, and the Polar Bear Swim exist entirely outdoors, but only for a brief period of time. But what about deliberately designing permanently weather-proofed outdoor spaces to encourage continual physical and mental well being during the winter months? Among other examples that can be found from around the world, two recent ones from Toronto and New York City offer some ideas on how to design weather-proofed public spaces for the benefit of all.

Photo: The Bentway, Toronto. (Photo by The Bentway)

The Bentway, Toronto

Recently opened to the public in January 2018, the Bentway is a covered public trail and corridor space underneath the Gardiner Expressway. Spanning six Toronto neighbourhoods, a total of 70,000 residents live within proximity of this active recreational area. The design by Ken Greenberg and Public Work specifically considers families with children and seniors, and emphasizes winter activities in its programming. Since opening, the main attraction has been the ice skating trail, a figure-eight shaped sheet of ice which is host to ice breaking workshops and skate parties.

In addition to the rink, visitors also find warming stations, a dog play area, rotating public art and light installations, and a fitness area shielded by the nearly 5 story high, cathedral-like concrete form of the overhead expressway. In the summer, the skate trail will convert into a walking and rollerblading space with room for public markets, film screenings, an urban amphitheatre, and community gatherings.

Visited by roughly 20,000 in its first two days of operation, The Bentway has proven that Torontonians have a desire to escape their hibernation and to be physically active, outside, in the winter months

While we have one skate park and one playground located under bridges – the Bentway example highlights other possibilities for these covered areas. It raises a good question: how might we use other “under bridge” areas in Vancouver?.

Pier 2 Park – New York City – Photo Julienne Schaer

Pier 2, Brooklyn Bridge Park, New York

In an effort to foster an active lifestyle among a diverse population, NYC has been investing in the year-round programming of community parks. The Brooklyn Bridge Park, opened in 2010, is an 85-acre post-industrial space on the Brooklyn side of the East River.

Pier 2, one of six five-acre piers within the park, is dedicated to year-round active recreation. Protected from rain and snow by the roof of a former warehouse, visitors to the park can make uses of five fully accessible and covered basketball courts, fitness equipment, children’s play areas with seating for parents, handball and bocce courts, and shuffleboard. A roller rink, complete with live DJ, is equipped for in-line skating, roller derby, and roller hockey.

In addition to these activities, the park hosts winter walking tours, with subjects ranging from history to horticulture. Outdoor public BBQs, picnic tables and lounge areas are available year round, with a spectacular view of Brooklyn Bridge and downtown Manhattan.

The adaptive re-use of these old industrial buildings – and even just the presence of a canopy – makes all the difference here. Another example of something we might also consider in Vancouver.

Designing urban public spaces that invites a diverse group of people to spend time outdoors year round can improve inclusiveness, limit social isolation, and foster a greater sense of emotional and physical wellbeing through the benefits of active recreation.

With a little imagination, Vancouverites could reap the rewards of deliberately designed outdoor recreational spaces that shield from rain while offering engaging places for children to play, seniors to gather, and communities to come together.

Do you have examples of good rain-friendly public spaces that you’d care to share? Drop us a line and let us know. And while you’re at it, stay-tuned for more on our upcoming Life Between Umbrellas Design Ideas Competition.

Jada Stevens lives downtown and can be found enjoying Vancouver’s public spaces year round. Among her favourite spots are the beaches and trails of Stanley Park, and the many fantastic people-viewing vistas of Robson Square.

Lead Photo: Wylie Poon

Skating at Nathan Phillips Square, Toronto

Nathan Phillips Square, located at the forefront of Toronto’s iconic City Hall building, is a popular place for residents and visitors alike. It’s where the city’s recent New Year’s festivities took place and it also plays host to concerts and other civic activities throughout the year. There’s even a lovely (if often lonely) speaker’s corner located on the SW corner, inspired by the one in London’s Hyde Park, that was installed in the late 1980s.

But in winter time, the big draw is the outdoor skating rink. Kids have field trips to the place, office workers pop over for a few quick turns before work or on lunch break… and late at night it’s not uncommon for a game of shinny to break out.

The day after I landed in Toronto, my nine year-old godson and I felt that it was appropriate for him to take a day off school so we could check it out. Neither of us skate very well but it was great fun nonetheless, even if the really young kids were doing circles around us. We had a good run at things… and used the outing as an excuse for an unholy meal of hot chocolate and poutine afterwards.

Cities, skating and the wintertime of gendered space.

Later that night I was thinking about the popularity of the outdoor rinks at Nathan Phillips and home, in Vancouver, at Robson Square. Both these, and the many other outdoor rinks that you find in places where people entertain themselves with the coldness of winter, have been part of public consciousness for some time. Indeed, the rinks are important enough that they occupy some of our most central, most important public spaces of northern cities.

(In many respects the presence of ice skates also stands as part of our Canadian identity. Hockey may be our national game, but the primary tool of hockey – the skates that people whiz around on – allow the cultural component to travel even further.)

A few months ago I had the chance to hear Adam Gopnik deliver one of his five-part series of Massey lectures out at UBC. The theme of the quintet was winter (“Five windows on the season“) and Gopnik’s lectures focused in particular on the changing perceptions that people have had to ‘the bleak season.’ And, rather unexpectedly at the time, the UBC portion I attended zeroed in on the rise of winter sports such as skating.

Urban skating, according to Gopnik, came to the fore in the middle of the 19th century with the introduction of the one piece skate. (Prior to that, whenever you went skating you had to manually strap blade to boot). And with this change “skating became less laborious than it had ever been; more people skated.” But it was also, says Gopnik, “a social change.”

The mid-1800s, after all, saw markedly different gender roles for men and women – which often manifested themselves in the actual spaces that each were supposed to occupy. This ‘doctrine of separate spheres’ meant that certain components of the public realm were seen as more or less off limits to women of proper virtue, where conversely the private sphere (in particular the domestic space of the home) was seen as being more appropriately feminine.

Into this environment came ice-skating, which, says Gopnik “… was one of the few things urban people could do in public as an acceptable form of flirtation and sexual display.” It was recreation, but it immediately recognized – and accepted – as being much more than that.

Indeed, ice-skating seemed to be one of the things that confronted the notion of segregated spaces for men and women. It shifted the terrain and appears to actually mark a point of transition in how public space was used by people of both genders.

When Central Park was built by Olmsted and Vaux in 1861 there were two separate areas for skating – one in front of what’s now the Dairy and a ladies’ pond over on the west side, not too far from where the Dakota is now. The ladies’ pond was meant for ladies – it was in operation for about ten years and then was closed and later drained because not enough people wanted to skate there. The idea of there being a separate female pond was so against the purpose of skating that it was left virtually unused. The Great Rink, on the other hand, became a place where, hard as it is to believe, as many as thirty thousand people were said to come on a Saturday afternoon to skate or to watch.

I wondered if any of this dynamic was apparent in Vancouver… and for that matter, what the history of skating in this city looked like.

Skating in the new city.

Given Vancouver’s relative newness, it’s not surprising that the history of the sport is at least as old as the city itself. A skating rink was in operation in 1887, a year after the City was incorporated. And for much of the city’s history the winters would often get cold enough that people could skate on either Lost Lagoon or Trout Lake – something that hasn’t happened for some years.

But as for the gender aspect, it’s hard to tell. The oldest image of skating is likely this one – from the early 1890s. It shows a group of rather stately men skating and standing about on Trout Lake.

Men Skating on Trout Lake, Cedar Cottage, 189–?, Item #M-3-11.3

There’s less than a handful of photographs from the 19th century, all of which predominantly (though not exclusively) feature men. Not a great sample to work with. But then, nine years hence, a picture from 1900 shows this elegant couple arm in arm – also at Trout Lake:

Man and Woman Skating on Trout Lake, 1900, Item #: SGN 870

Now, just for fun, a leap further into the 20th century. Fast forward four decades and you can see the marked change in fashions and frivolity. Here’s another shot from Trout Lake in 1929 taken for the Star newspaper (notice all the trees are gone!). A row of men and women, all holding hands, skates towards the camera.

Skaters on Trout Lake, 1929, Item #:CVA 99-1900

And here’s a snap of four fashionable young ladies taken for the same paper. Perhaps it captures a bit of the essence of public display and flirtation that Gopnik writes about. If nothing else, I think the gentleman behind them is hoping to catch their eye.

Skaters at Trout Lake, 1929, Item #: CVA 99-1902

And here’s another picture from the same year down at Lost Lagoon. It may not be 30,000 people, but that’s quite the crowd skating about.

Skating, Lost Lagoon, 1929, Item #: CVA 99-1976

My cursory research – if you can call it that – didn’t turn up anything conclusive on the question of separate spheres and skating in Vancouver… but it’s an interesting enough issue that I’ll do some more digging on my next trip to the Archives or Museum.

It did, however, raise another question. Is public recreational (and non-hockey-related) skating still as popular as it used to be? Gopnik’s essays speak to a decline in the sport, but in Vancouver it’s also hard to tell since it seems like many of the spaces that were once used for outdoor rinks aren’t anymore… if for no other reason than the fact that it’s not been cold enough.

What do you think? If you’ve got some skating stories from Vancouver (or elsewhere) please post them here.