Community Arts Council of Vancouver affirms the positive impact of the arts on health.

We have conducted projects in the downtown eastside of Vancouver through contracting with the Downtown Eastside Centre for the Arts. It is not a building, but a place of creative exploration, spirit, engagement and expression that is located at the core of the community. Through artistic exploration of theatre, music, dance, and other art forms, people at the heart of the city create connections with self, one another and community.

It occurs wherever residents of the community gather together for arts-based activity guided by the elders and artists of our creative team, led by Dalannah Gail Bowen, resident, community activist and one of Vancouver’s premier vocalists.

A safe and welcoming space, rich with ideas, materials, encouragement and curiosity. A place that gives children, youth, adults, and older folks, access to the materials, tools, training, support and mentoring that art-making require.

The home for Downtown Eastside Centre for the Arts’  programming is the Interurban Gallery, operated by the Portland Hotel Society, which has contributed time and space for this project.

CACV and Downtown Eastside Centre for the Arts are committed to developing programs which are relevant, which respond to the needs and nurture the creative interests of the people of the downtown eastside and which provide structured and unstructured opportunities for the artist in everyone. We collaborate, complement, contribute to and enhance other initiatives and enterprises in the community.

Our intention is to give everyone interested in contributing to the cultural, social, and community development of the neighbourhood the opportunity to participate in these projects.