VIVO Media Arts Centre Looks for New Home

After 20 years on Main Street, VIVO Media Arts Centre will be searching for a new home. The building that houses the organization has been sold, and VIVO must vacate by May 1, 2014. 

VIVO currently occupies a 6000 square foot warehouse space, and the search is on to find a suitable, affordable location in Mount Pleasant. It is important to the organization to stay central and rooted in this vital art community.

This transition coincides with the organization's 40th anniversary. Founded in 1973, this non-profit organization has been at the forefront in the development of independent media and video art. Incorporated as the Satellite Video Exchange Society, it is one of Canadaʼs oldest artist-run centres, and for decades has remained one of the countryʼs most important facilities for independent media art production – it has been an influential laboratory for the education, production, exhibition and distribution for new media art forms. VIVO has provided services to hundreds of thousands in Vancouver, across Canada and internationally.

VIVO's Board of Directors and staff are up to the strategic and financial challenges ahead to find and relocate into a space that will be better suited for present and future needs. From 1973 to 1986 VIVO (then known as Video In) operated out of a 2800 square foot storefront at 261 Powell Street, and then from 1997 to 1993 in Yaletown and in 1993 moved to Main Street. The organization has shifted and expanded alongside the development of new digital technologies. As a result, VIVO has outgrown its current facility. VIVOʼs desire is to purchase a building in Mount Pleasant that will be renovated to accommodate the wide range of needs and uses, including housing the vast archive of 5000+ videotapes and thousands of paper documents, classrooms for workshops, a large multipurpose studio that can accommodate productions and public events, space for screenings and exhibition, equipment storage and administrative offices.

For further information, please contact:

Emma Hendrix, General Manager
admin@vivomediarts.com
604.872.8337 ext. 4