Vancouver Tourist Tips: Vancouver Art Gallery’s Art Rental & Sales
Hidden down a hall that you can easily miss at the entrance to the Vancouver Art Gallery is the Art Rental & Sales gallery. Not only is it easy to miss the hall, but once you get there the doors are locked. You then have to go back down the hall and ask at an unmarked office space “If the Rental & Sales is open?” To which they say “yes, I can buzz you in!” You would think you are trying to get into “Fort Knox.”
Backstory: The Vancouver Art Gallery is currently located in an old courthouse building that is not ideally suited for all of the activities of a modern art gallery. Unfortunately when the renovations and adaptations were being planned the Art Rental & Sales was relegated to a space with poor access and visibility. Fortunately the gallery is getting ready to building a new building from scratch and it will have a designated space for the Art Rental & Sales gallery with good visibility and accessibility.
Friendly Staff
However once you are there, you are greeted by friendly staff who manage a small gallery space that hits above its weight (size) as there are 500+ artworks by 120+ different artists available for viewing at any given time via dozens of sliding walls, each with several artworks on each side. I am thinking I could use a couple of these walls in my home.
If you are really organized you can go online and view the 1,000+ artworks that are available starting for a little at $10 per month before you go. Yes, for the price of coffee, muffin and tip in an upscale cafe you could have an original artwork to enjoy at home all month. You can keep it for a long as want, or trade it in for something else, if you are looking for a change.
Want to keep it? Your first three months of rental payments will be applied to the purchase price. I was told that about 50% of the people renting, end up buying the art.
All of the artists are from British Columbia and the art ranges from realism to abstraction, from painting to prints, from sculpture to mix-media, from small to large and from emerging to established artists. It is probably safe to say there is something for everyone.
Tourist Tip: There are lots of smaller works that would easily fit into a suitcase and be a wonderful souvenir of your Vancouver visit.
The Art Rental & Sales department not only supplies art to budding collectors (young and old) but to Vancouver’s film industry and interior designers staging show suites in new residential towers nearby or homes in the ‘burbs.
Each year the Vancouver Art Gallery’s Art Rental & Sales pays out $500,000+ to local artists, as well as an undisclosed amount to the Vancouver Art Gallery. Impressive!
Background
There are art rental programs in civic public art galleries across Canada, with Vancouver’s being the most active and oldest. It was started in 1952 and was run by volunteers until 2012 when it became a department of the Gallery. It is currently managed by three paid staff and numerous volunteers including one who is now in his 90s and has been volunteering for 30+ years.
Unfortunately it is only open Monday to Friday, which seems strange given most people are working during the week. However, because of its location in the gallery it would require extra staff and security to open it on weekends. When I asked “why not Wednesday to Sunday hours?” I was told early in the week is key time for film and corporate renters. Who knew?
I was assured in the new gallery it will be open the same hours as the main gallery.
Last Word
Calgary might be the only major city in Canada that doesn’t have an art rental program. I am wondering if the renovations of the Glenbow Museum might include a space for an art rental program? Perhaps Contemporary Calgary (public gallery) might be planning on one as part of their future plans. I will have to check.
Looking for some more tourist tips?
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London UK: Top 10 Off The Beaten Path Picks!