Check out a real life ‘create your own adventure’! A mashup of public art, literary fiction and walking tours, the Active The Active Fiction Project creates short, fictional, stories set in a Vancouver neighbourhood that feature you, the reader, as the protagonist. The self-guided stories are ‘hidden’ in public spaces for readers to discover by walking, or biking, through the same neighbourhood in which the story unfolds.​

The Dunbar Chronicles is a great new walking tour quite unlike others… Brief anecdotes were collected from residents of the neighbourhood, and these anecdotes were then re-imagined into short fictional stories by local writers. The stories are located in public places (and a few other places) throughout the community as a literary walking tour.

The tour starts at the Dunbar Community Centre (4747 Dunbar St), where one can find maps of the tour. Maps are also available at the library a block away, or can be downloaded from the website (below). If walkers are really keen, it might take about 1.5 hours in total to visit all of the locations, but it works just as well by visiting just a few locations if folks don’t have time to complete the entire circuit. Also, the tour starts and finishes in Dunbar village where coffee, beer and food are available to start or end one’s trip! A surprising number of small patios await…

The Dunbar Chronicles is also part of the Salmonberry Days festival that occurs throughout the month of May.

There’s no tour leader, no start time, it’s a self-guided walk that can be taken anytime between now and the end of the month. However, some of the artists and writers will be on hand on a few dates to discuss the project – for more details go to the project website: https://workingholidayproject.wordpress.com/portfolio/the-dunbar-chronicles/.

The Dunbar Chronicles is part of the Working Holiday Project – a partnership of 3 community artists (Elisa Yon, Leah Weinstein and Jaspal Marwah) who are sharing a year-long arts residency at the Dunbar Community Centre.

Editor’s note: the original version of this post indicated that the West End and Grandview-Woodland Community Stories events were scheduled for Thursday, May 11 and Friday, May 12 respectively. The correct dates are Thursday, May 10 (West End) and Friday, May 11 (Grandview-Woodland).

It’s been a little while since our last newsletter and we wanted to give you a quick update on some of our projects, as well as some other awesome things taking place around town.

First, a quick organizational note: the VPSN has recently being doing some retooling work that will better enable us to offer a mix of engaging public space projects (the fun stuff that everyone loves) and broader, issues-based advocacy. We’ll be rolling out details of these changes shortly.

The more immediate news is that we have a lot of cool things in the works, including: a summer time long-table event called Lunch Meet, a transit-related competition for graphic designers, some public space mapping work in the downtown (help needed!) and a storytelling project called P.S I love you. And back by popular demand… laser graffiti.

And while we’re at it, there’s a few other current initiatives that we wanted to alert you to:

Space98 – Transforming an Unused Transit Stop

Sometimes it’s the small interventions that really get people’s attention. Recently, our VPSN Transportation team – led by Cycling Coordinator Brandon Yan – installed a peel ‘n stick chalkboard on a disused bus shelter at Granville and Broadway. Along the board itself, they left a nice quote by Jane Jacobs and an invitation to the community to imagine what the space might be used for. People loved it!

Coast Mountain Bus Company – who ‘own’ the shelter – weren’t sure what to make of it at first… but the opportunity to engage the community directly on questions like this has caught their eye.

So here’s a question for you: What sorts of unused or underutilized spaces exist in your neighbourhood? And how have you dreamed about activating these spaces. Send us your ideas. We’ll gather them into a compilation, map them, and share them back with you over the next few months.

:: Underused public spaces and places? Email eliana [at] vancouverpublicspace [dot] ca

:: More on Space98 – Brandon [at] vancouverpublicspace [dot] ca

Mobile Speakers’ Corner

Lots of other cities have Speakers’ Corners – London, Sydney, Toronto, to name just three – but not Vancouver. Strange eh? Thankfully, all that’s about to change – as the VPSN Democratic Spaces team is working on a mobile Speakers’ Corner for use around Vancouver.

Interested in seeing some good ol’ fashioned public debate? Hankering for your own 5 minutes on the soap-box? The Speakers’ Corner is being built this week and will be ready for roll-out shortly thereafter. Look for it around town… and get in touch if you want more details.

:: Email democraticspaces [at] vancouverpublicspace.ca

ENGAGE

New Community Plans in development for Marpole, Grandview-Woodland and the West End. Get involved!

Neighbourhood planning work is getting underway in Marpole, Grandview-Woodland and the West End. The City will be working with community members in each of the three areas to develop a long-range plan to manage growth and change. Community plans develop directions for a number of areas – including housing, land-use and transportation. Work will also engage the community on key aspects of public space – streetscapes, parks and public areas, public art and more.

This is a great opportunity for public space aficionados in these neighbourhoods, and the City is proposing a number of engagement opportunities along the way. The very first event – a storytelling evening hosted by local funny man Steve Burgess – takes place tomorrow night (Tuesday, May 1) in Marpole. The other two neighbourhoods have similar events taking place in just over a week. There’s also walking tours, open houses and bunches of other items in the hopper.

Check out the details on the various neighbourhood webpages and sign-up for the individual list-servs to stay involved! While you’re there be sure to register for the following events:

• Tuesday, May 1 – Marpole Stories @ Metro Theatre – vancouver.ca/marpoleplan
• Thursday, May 10 – West End Stories @ Denman Theatre – vancouver.ca/westendplan
• Friday, May 11 – Grandview-Woodland Stories @ the WISE Hall – vancouver.ca/grandviewplan
  

FEATURED EVENT

Saturday, May 5 – Sunday May 6 – Jane’s Walk

There are lots of ways that you can explore Vancouver’s great public spaces, but one of the best involves a leisurely stroll with a local expert. That’s what Jane’s Walk is all about.

Started in 2007 to honour the memory of Jane Jacobs, it’s now grown to a world-wide event. Vancouver alone has over 20 walks scheduled, spread throughout the city. Best of all, they’re free! Sign up and see your city in a whole new way.

:: Jane’s Walk – List of Vancouver Walking Tours