Vancouver’s Dynamic Creative Scene: Diverse Artists, Writers, and Performers

Vancouver has a thriving creative scene that reflects its rich cultural makeup. As a hub for creatives, this city is the place for appreciating vibrant work representing a range of communities and artistic mediums.

Here are some places, events, and ways to connect with Vancouver’s artistic scene:

Visual Arts

Vancouver’s visual arts landscape is expansive, including large galleries mounting comprehensive exhibitions, boutique ones that spotlight unique local artists, as well as galleries specializing in contemporary Indigenous work.

The city’s biggest gallery is the Vancouver Art Gallery, located in the heart of downtown. Since 1931, the Vancouver Art Gallery has been celebrating innovative, primarily visual arts in a range of exhibitions. Current exhibitions include Shelley Niro: 500 Year Itch (until February 17, 2025), a retrospective on the multimedia artist from the Six Nations Reserve and Black and White and Everything in Between: A Monochrome Journey (until November 3, 2024), which draws from the permanent collection. The Gallery also holds numerous events, such as an upcoming Artist Tour on colour and visual perception with Annie Briard (October 29, 5:30pm) and an Art Party (November 2, 8pm-midnight) to launch the new exhibition on Firelei Báez (November 3-March 16, 2025).

Another premier gallery in the city is The Polygon Gallery in North Vancouver. The Polygon is not only a stunningly beautiful facility by the water, but it also holds provocative and engaging exhibitions, largely on photography and media-based art. Current exhibitions are Tales from the Crypt (until January 12, 2025), which draws from photographs from their vault, and Tau Lewis: Coloratura (until March 30, 2025), an outdoor installation consisting of flower vines.

For those interested in Indigenous art, the Bill Reid Gallery of Northwest Coast Art honours the legacy of the famed Haida master artist through a spotlighting of contemporary artists who have been influenced by his work. Currently mounted at the Bill Reid Gallery is GEORGE CLUTESI: ḥašaḥʔap / ʔaapḥii / ʕc̓ik / ḥaaʔaksuqƛ / ʔiiḥmisʔap (until January 19, 2024) and Formline Calligraphy: The Creative Synergies of Bill Reid and Bob Reid (until February 2, 2025). Coastal Peoples Fine Arts Gallery is also a great space for viewing and purchasing Indigenous art.

Other boutique galleries in the city are numerous, including Contemporary Art Gallery and the SUM Gallery. South Granville also contains numerous boutique galleries, such as the Ian Tan Art Gallery. Other facilities/buildings, such as The Beaumont Studios, Parker Street Studios, and City Centre Artist Lodge, house numerous artist studios.

You can visit these artists during monthly First Saturday Open Studios (next one is November 2 from noon to 5pm), or during the upcoming Eastside Culture Crawl (November 14-17), an annual event where artists and makers all across East Vancouver welcome the public into their workspaces to talk about their processes and creations.

Vancouver also has considerable public art, a lot of it due to the efforts of the Vancouver Mural Festival (VMF) who puts on the summer VMF and the Winter Arts Festival (February 2025). See their app for a map of murals in the city. Finally, Vancouver Outsider Arts Festival—which champions marginalized artists—took place earlier this month; visit their website to get a listing of participating artists.

Literary Arts

Vancouver’s location on the Pacific Northwest makes it a fertile place for creative expression. Writers producing all sorts of genres, including poetry, novels, plays, and memoirs, are based in Vancouver and take part in thought-provoking literary events. If you’re a fan of the written word, there are some amazing independent bookstores in the city. They include Book Warehouse and Hager Books (both owned by Black Bond Books), Upstart & Crow, Kidsbooks, and Pulpfiction Books. Upstart & Crow organizes some really cool gatherings, such as Party in a Bookshop, their annual fundraiser (November 7, 6-7:30pm and 8 to 9:30pm).

Meanwhile, Massy Books and Iron Dog Books are both Indigenous owned bookstores and great resources for Indigenous literature. The former also operates Massy Arts Society, which holds incredible literary events and workshops. Upcoming events include Whatever State We Are (November 7, 6-8pm) with poets Jami Macarty, Johanna Skibsrud, and Valerie Witte and the launch (November 15, 5-7pm) of When the Pine Needles Fall with Katsi’tsakwas Ellen Gabriel, Sean Carleton, and Harsha Walla.

The Vancouver Writers Festival (happening now until October 27) is also a great way to connect with local, national, and international writers as well as those who have a love of literature. The line-up is jampacked, including events like The Knowing, with Tanya Talaga (October 25 at 7:30pm at the Granville Island Stage); Chiller Thrillers (October 27, 2pm, Waterfront Theatre) with Drew Hayden Taylor, Emiko Jean, Roz Nay, and Robert J. Wiersema; and On Matriarchs (October 27, 11am, Waterfront Theatre) with Sadiya Ansari, Tessa Hulls, Anna Ling Kaye, and Minelle Mahtani. The Vancouver Writers Festival also holds events throughout the year.

Vancouver is fortunate to have a comprehensive public library system. The Vancouver Public Library (VPL) has locations all around the city, anchored by their distinctive Central Library located downtown. The VPL holds storytimes, classes, workshops, events, and author readings on a regular basis, such as Queer Monsters and Nightmares (October 29, 6pm-8:30pm, Central Library) with Tania De Rozario, David Ly, and Erica McKeen; and Marie Wilson: North of Nowhere (October 30, 7-8pm, Central Library) with Marie Wilson, one of the commissioners for the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC).

Live Performance Arts

Vancouver has an excitingly diverse selection of live performance companies, mounting crowd favourites as well as experimental, boundary-pushing events.

Vancouver Opera presents incredible productions of both beloved classic and more modern productions. Last season’s Carmen was phenomenal in its talent as well as its elaborate staging. This season promises to be equally as phenomenal, with an upcoming mounting of Strauss’ Die Fledermaus (October 26 to November 3), a farcical comedy that involves masquerade and revelry and well known songs like “King Champagne.” The other productions this season are Flight (February 8-16), which centers on the story of an Iranian refugee trapped in the Charles de Gaulle Airport for 18 years, and the dramatic Madama Butterfly (April 26-May 4).

Broadway Across Canada is bringing The Book of Mormon back to Vancouver November 12-17. Meanwhile, The Arts Club Theatre Company, the biggest local theatre company, with venues across town, has many shows in the works. With Jersey Boys wrapping up October 27, they’re on to their holiday shows: Dolly Parton’s Smoky Mountain Christmas Carol (November 14-December 24, Stanley), Miracle on 34th Street (November 21-December 29, Granville Island Stage), and The Gingerbread Men: A(nother) Holiday Cabaret (December 5-22, Newmont Stage at the BMO Theatre Centre).

Other theatre companies/venues include The Cultch, with their ever popular East Van Panto returning with Robin Hood (November 20-January 5, York Theatre); the Firehall Arts Centre with Ridge (October 26 to November 3), by Brendan McLeod and The Fugitives, which uses live music, storytelling, and verbatim theatre to represent the battle of Vimy Ridge, and the musical Reflections on Crooked Walking (November 30-December 22). Other theatre companies in the city include Gateway Theatre (Yaga from October 24 to November 2), Pacific Theatre (The Hobbit from November 13-December 21), and The Improv Centre (Merry/Happy/Jolly from November 21 to December 29).

In terms of orchestral performance, the VSO has a calendar full of concerts, with upcoming shows ranging from Gene Kelly: A Life in Music (November 15-16, Orpheum) to Tchaikovksy & Bruckner 6 (November 22-23, Orpheum), featuring French cellist Victor Julien-Laferrière. Music on Main has also launched their 2024/25 season, with upcoming concerts including Music for the Winter Solstice (December 11-12, Heritage Hall) with performances by Rachel Iwaasa and others.

Dance in Vancouver also encompasses all the many styles, including ballet and modern. Ballet BC opens their season with Dawn (November 7-9, Queen Elizabeth Theatre), which will feature the world premiere of New Pontvianne choreographed by Pierre Pontvianne, Heart Drive choreographed by Imre and Marne van Opstal, and Frontier by Crystal Pite. DanceHouse, which brings international dance companies to Vancouver, has an exciting line-up this fall that begins with Agustina Videla's Social Tango (October 24-26, Vancouver Playhouse); the next performance is by Compagnie Catherine Gaudet from Montreal with Les jolies choses (The Pretty Things) (November 22-23, Vancouver Playhouse). And The Dance Centre at Scotiabank Dance Centre has some really interesting upcoming performances, such as Corporeal Imago (October 31), which combines contemporary dance, visual theatre, and aerial acrobatics; the biennial Dance in Vancouver 2024 (November 20-24), which spotlights BC contemporary dance; and Company 605’s Iossy (November 20), which examines possibilities for the future.

Finally, there are venues, big and small, where you can enjoy both local and international singing sensations. In addition to the large venues like Rogers Arena and BC Place, other popular venues include The Commodore Ballroom, the Vogue Theatre, the Hollywood Theatre, The Pearl, and the Fox Cabaret. Smaller venues like 2nd Floor Gastown and Batch at Plaza of Nations and Kitsilano also feature performances by local artists. Concerts range from Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band November 22 at Rogers Arena to folk artist Michael Bernard Fitzgerald November 16 at The Fox Cabaret.

Multidisciplinary Festivals

Numerous festivals occur throughout the year that celebrate multidisciplinary artists doing groundbreaking work. Below are some upcoming ones.

TRANSFORM Festival (November 6-9, Vancouver Playhouse) is co-curated by Corey Payette and Heather Redfern and supported by Protocol Keeper, Quelemia Sparrow. The festival includes performances in diverse disciplines, such as drag and circus, by Indigenous artists. One concert to look forward to is In Spirit (November 8, Vancouver Playhouse), hosted by Payette with guests Chor Leoni and Vancouver Youth Choir. The concert marks National Indigenous Veterans Day and will play works by Payette, Alexis Vollant, and Russell Wallace.

This year’s IndieFest (November 15-23), presented by re:Naissance, is taking the theme “Transformation and Transcendance” as inspiration in its showcasing of local artists, particularly talented IBPOC and LGBTQ2S+ creatives producing noteworthy work. Performances are diverse and innovative, including Eurydice Fragments (November 15-17 at Signals Studio at the Centre for Digital Media), which incorporates dance, vocal performance, and technology; and Soft Tongues by Jami Reimer (November 22 at Lobe Studio), which involves recordings of local frogs.

Heart of the City Festival also returns this autumn from October 30 to November 10. This Downtown Eastside festival, presented by Vancouver Moving Theatre in association with the Carnegie Community Centre and the Association of the United Ukrainian Canadians, consists of over 100 events focused on the theme of Threads of Connection. Performances include The Prop Master’s Dream (November 2, Vancouver Playhouse) by Vancouver Cantonese Opera with Chinese Canadian rap artist Gerry Sung and Haudenosaunee/Irish actress and singer Cheri Maracle; and Kin (November 9, KW Production Studio), a flamenco performance, by artists AJ Simmons and Kelty McKerracher.

Your calendar will certainly be packed with all the exhibitions, performances, and shows happening this fall throughout Vancouver’s creative scene.