Ever lost your way? Felt disoriented? The North Shore Culture Compass (NSCC) is a free online map that interactively pulls people together. A showcase of the marvellously magnetic North Shore (Greater Vancouver) launched this spring within three municipalities: West Vancouver, North Vancouver City, North Vancouver District, and two Coast Salish Nations: the Squamish and the Tsleil-Waututh.
From your desktop computer or mobile device, NSCC provides a quick-and-easy way to navigate cultural diversity. The North Shore Culture Compass has 10 distinct UNESCO-based categories. Discover a festival or event. Position yourself in front of public art. Find an asset in a cultural organization, industry, space or facility. Trace North Shore First Nations’ heritage. Find a public institution or service organization. Let its GIS (geographic information system) help you track your way.
North Van Arts (NVA) Executive Director, Nancy Cottingham-Powell says, “Culture maps have been done across the country for a long time… we’re doing this, which is quite unusual, (as) a non-profit agency.”
When Nancy took over the NVA directorship from Linda Feil in 2014, Michelle Richard, the NVA Communications & Grants Manager, realized Linda held an immense array of cultural knowledge after 20 years of leadership. The groundwork to document key information about regional points of cultural interest began. Thanks to grant monies from the Department of Canadian Heritage, two project managers have a three-year timeline to complete the project.
“All of us, even with the depth of experience we have, have never done anything like it,” says Nancy.
Culture is like a tree with visible and invisible parts. The tree’s flowers bloom in what we read, eat, wear, listen to, watch and observe. Under the bark are less tangible traditions, rooted in local knowledge.
Let’s get oriented with some compass coordinates (and coordinators).
Xwalacktun (Rick Harry) has designed and carved for over 30 years in wood, metal and glass. He shows me a red cedar work in 12 laminated pieces for the entranceway at Moscrop Secondary School in Burnaby. The Coast Salish traditional canoe that the artist has depicted reflects Xwalacktun’s months-long collaboration with students, teachers, parents and administrators.
“The canoe symbolizes the Earth – that we’re all in this together,” says Xwalacktun who plans to set it within a larger circle, a medicine wheel or moral compass.
“I always have work on the go… I’ve worked with all mediums.”
Up next is a healing pole for Vancouver General Hospital, lit from within in yellow cedar.
“It’s all about bringing people together, about growth, not just for our generation but the ones coming after us; that’s my focus in the artwork. As we get older, we think back… ‘is there anything I could have done better’… to share with the younger ones?”
“My steps were drawn towards North Vancouver Community Players (NVCP),” says Anne Marsh.
In Hendry Hall’s much-updated 76-seater, Anne reminisces.
“They were putting on one-act plays,” says Anne. “I acted in a couple… they appointed me as secretary, then as president, then as president of Theatre BC, the umbrella organization. Really, I wanted to act, but when you are good at administration, they grab you with both hands.”
Local drama groups join the NVCP for a week of professionally-adjudicated plays at Presentation House Theatre. The winner goes on to Theatre BC’s Mainstage Festival.
Anne handles membership, periodic newsletters, e-blasts and publicity for NVCP. She also handles publicity for Deep Cove Stage Society, Theatre West Van and Theatre BC North Shore Zone Festival of Plays.
From the information desk, to collections, to the website’s digital platform, Sue Kent is now Head of Communications at the West Vancouver Memorial Library.
“I went to U of T Library School (Toronto). I’ve been at this library for almost 30 years,” says Sue.
“The year 2000 was a turning point when we started the North Shore Writers’ Festival, a celebration of Canadian literature,” she says.
English-language-learning programmes occur in English, French, Farsi and Mandarin for all ages.
“Partnerships are a big factor,” says Sue. “In our honouring reconciliation programme, we have a cultural advisor in Chief Janice George from the Squamish Nation, a panel discussion, a film series, a book by a BC indigenous author, learning circles, planned walks… all that is part of us now.”
With monthly special events, movies and music, patrons learn for free in smaller bytes on a come-as-you-are basis. The technology lab offers computer programmes and online services, devices and resources.
“When I started here, we would have one or two events per year. Now, people are thirsty… for entertainment (and) learning,” says Sue.
Reid Shier is director-curator of The Polygon Gallery (formerly Presentation House Gallery) in North Vancouver, the largest non-profit gallery of its kind in Western Canada (admission by donation).
When Reid was hired in 2006, the PHG had been professionalized through the 1980s and 1990s, with historical and contemporary photography and media art destined to give the new space an identity. Over 25 years of planning saw the reflective-aluminium Polygon arise in 2017 from Burrard Inlet’s north bank.
“We’re part of something that has become a destination,” says Reid. “It is a testament to a lot of hard work by a lot of different people… where the community can gather.”
The 25,000-square-foot facility brings retrospection to the region in upcoming exhibits like The Canucks: A Photo History of Vancouver’s Team or last summer’s cinematic sensation, The Clock, a montage in actual time.
“Through my practice as a multi-disciplinary visual artist, I discovered a passion for making exhibitions… we follow where the art form is going,” says Reid.
The North Shore Culture Compass under the leadership of North Van Arts Director Nancy Cottingham-Powell is helping us find our way.
“Having grown up on the North Shore… if you wanted to do anything hip or happening, you went downtown… the evolution of the North Shore is starting to make its own identity,” says Nancy. “[The Culture Compass] is going to help define North Shore culture. We are a unique community unto ourselves.”
COVID ALERT: North Van Arts has been promoting aspects of the North Shore Culture Compass to keep us safely engaged. The ‘Public Art’ layer allows for physically-distanced walks; the ‘First Nations’ and ‘Intangibles and Stories’ layers connect us with history from the comfort of home. This month, satisfy your staycation by checking out the online map as it leads us back to North Shore spaces as they re-open.
To learn more, visit www.northshoreculturecompass.ca.
Joan Boxall is author of DrawBridge: Drawing Alongside My Brother’s Schizophrenia https://caitlin-press.com/our-books/drawbridge/
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