VA2007 - Vancouver Culture Guide

Arts and Culture

Arts Club Theatre
Stanley Industrial Alliance Stage, 2750 Granville St., Vancover, BC
Granville Island Stage, 1585 Johnston St., Vancouver, BC, 604-687-1644
Now in its 43rd season, the Arts Club operates both the Stanley Theatre and the Granville Island Stage, with productions that have included the musical Funny Girl and a moving adaptation of Carol Shields’s Unless.

Ballet British Columbia
604-732-5003
Innovative and uncompromising productions of such works as A Streetcar Named Desire and The Faerie Queen have wowed critics from Tokyo to New York City and garnered acclaim for artistic director John Alleyne’s collaborative approach to choreography.

Bard on the Beach
Vanier Park, 604-739-0559
Two giant tents are erected on the Vanier Park waterfront from June through September for staging old Will’s classics as well as more unusual fare. The mainstage tent is open-ended, so actors perform (on clear days, at least) against a backdrop of mountains and ocean. The 2007 season features Taming of the Shrew.

B.C. Sports Hall of Fame and Museum
Gate A, BC Place Stadium, 777 Pacific Blvd., 604-687-5520
The only place in town where you can find out how many goals Frank Patrick scored in 1910 to set a defencemen’s record. Find 20,000 square feet of monuments to B.C. athletes who made sports history, such as Terry Fox and Rick Hansen.

Burnaby Village Museum
6501 Deer Lake Ave., Burnaby, 604-293-6500
Unlike many historic villages that focus on pioneer times, Burnaby Village Museum reenacts the 1920s. A B.C. Electric Railway tram-stop village is created with heritage and replica buildings, along with staff dressed in period costumes and a fully restored 1912 CW Parker Carousel.

Canadian Museum of Flight
Hangar 3, 5333 216 St., Langley, 604-532-0035
In the ’70s a group of flight enthusiasts banded together to prevent the export of historic Canadian aircraft, pooling their resources to purchase the likes of a Handley-Page Hampden — and more than 25 other aircraft now on display. For the little folk, the Millennium Kids Room allows children to learn how aircraft fly and what makes an engine tick.

Chan Centre for the Performing Arts
6265 Crescent Rd., UBC Campus, Vancouver, BC, 604-822-2697
Designed as a kind of gigantic cello and outfitted with a 37-ton chandelier-like acoustic canopy system, the Chan is one of the choicest venues in town for theatre, opera and classical music performances.

Chinese Cultural Centre Museum and Archives
555 Columbia St., Vancouver, BC, 604-658-8880
Adjacent to the Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Garden, the Centre hosts a permanent collection of artifacts tracing the history of Chinese-Canadians in British Columbia, along with temporary art exhibitions with Chinese-Canadian themes.

Firehall Arts Centre
280 E. Cordova St., Vancouver, BC, 604-689-0926
Built in 1906, the Firehall stopped fighting fires in 1975 and has hosted arts groups ever since. Known for its boundary-pushing works, the Firehall Arts Centre produces between four and six theatre productions and three to five dance works each season.

Fort Langley National Historic Site
23433 Mavis Ave., Langley, BC, 604-513-4777
This is the site of the Hudson’s Bay Company trading post that is credited with the beginnings of the colony of British Columbia. Today, costumed interpreters demonstrate the arts of barrel making, blacksmithing and even gold panning.

Gulf of Georgia Cannery
12138 4th Ave., Steveston, BC, 604-664-9009
Discover the history of west coast fishing — including a canning line exhibit — in the heart of the historic fishing village of Steveston. End the day with a tour of the working fish boats for fresh-off-the-boat seafood.

H.R. MacMillan Space Centre
1100 Chestnut St., Vancover, BC, 604-738-7827
Thankfully planetariums and laser light shows didn’t disappear along with roller-skating rinks, because listening to Pink Floyd while staring at galaxies and pattern effects is as good now as it was when you were 16. Next door is an observatory with a half-metre Cassegrain telescope for some glimpses beyond the Vancouver metro region.

IMAX Theatre at Canada Place
999 Canada Place, Vancouver, BC, 604-682-IMAX
Been there, bought the T-shirt — or so you think. But there’s nothing quite so mind-blowing as coming face to face with a six-storey 3D dinosaur.

Kokoro Dance
604-662-7441
Performing the beautiful, scary and amazing dance known as Butoh, rooted in post-Second World War Japanese forms, the company appears in various venues throughout the year, including an annual performance at Wreck Beach.

The Lookout
555 W. Hastings St., Vancouver, BC, 604-689-0421
Save this for a clear day: from the 50-storey Harbour Centre Tower, visitors can walk around the circular room and get their bearings on the city below with views ranging as far as Mt. Baker in Washington State, 140 kilometres away.

Museum of Anthropology
6393 N.W. Marine Dr., UBC Campus, Vancouve, BC, 604-822-5087
The Museum of Anthropology’s present collection includes 535,000 ethnological and archaeological pieces from around the world, with special focus on B.C.’s First Nations. Unique “visible storage” areas allow viewing of masks, basketry, weapons and thousands of other objects.

Pacific Cinematheque
1131 Howe St., Vancouver, BC, 604-688-3456
Much like an art gallery for film, Pacific Cinematheque celebrates the work of directors through the ages (and from the present, too) with ongoing themed showings of both classics and undiscovered works. International film festivals tour through this spot, as do locally curated events — such as a recent showing of the Buffy the Vampire Slayer musical.

Playhouse Theatre Company
Hamilton St. at Dunsmuir St., Downtown Vancouver, BC, 604-873-3311
The Playhouse stages at least six groundbreaking plays each season, with the 2007 season featuring works by Morris Panych and Robert Lepage, among others.

Playland at the Pacific National Exhibition
2901 E. Hastings St., Vancouver, BC, 604-252-3583
Open from mid-April until October 1, Playland offers midway rides for thrill seekers of all ages.

Science World
1455 Quebec St., Vancouver, BC, 604-443-7443
Find hundreds of “teachable moment” interactive displays that are actually fun, including optical illusions, live science demonstrations, virtual musical instruments and Omnimax films on a fivestorey dome screen.

TheatreSports
Granville Island, Vancouver, BC, 604-738-7013
Started in 1980, TheatreSports has managed to keep its shtick fresh for more than 200,000 audience members each year (Ryan Stiles of TV’s Whose Line Is It Anyway? is just one of TheatreSports’ famous alumni). In addition to competitive improv, there’s usually a funny riff on some current TV phenomenon (CSI and The Apprentice are past victims).

Vancouver Aquarium
845 Avison Way, Stanley Park,  Vancouver, BC, 604-659-3474
Open seven days a week, year-round, its 154 displays feature more than 70,000 animals, from West Coast mammals (sea lions, sea otters and harbour seals, among others) to exotic species like Amazonian caimans and electric eels.

Vancouver Art Gallery
750 Hornby St., Vancouver, BC, 604-662-4719
Even if the featured exhibits at one of the continent’s leading contemporary-art venues don’t ring your bell, the ongoing display of significant works by Emily Carr justifies the $15 admission alone.

Vancouver International Film Centre
1181 Seymour St., Vancouver, BC, 604-683-3456
The centre is home base for the annual Vancouver International Film Festival (September 27 to October 12), but the rest of the year it’s a great place to view celebrated films, both art house and international. Recent showings include a collection based on the theme of Black History month, a series dedicated to the Czech New Wave and the 2006 Academy Awardnominated short films.

Vancouver Maritime Museum
1905 Ogden Ave., Vancouver, BC, 604-257-8300
The best part of the museum is the St. Roch, an RCMP schooner that patrolled the Canadian Arctic in the ’30s and ’40s, but there’s plenty more in the way of pirates, warships and shipwrecks. Kids can get hands-on at the Alcan Children’s Maritime Discovery Centre.

Vancouver Museum
1100 Chestnut St., Vancouver, BC, 604-736-4431
Museum holdings include everything from an Egyptian mummy to First Nations’ artifacts, while feature exhibits have explored less traditional territory, such as local hippie culture (with original footage of the Stanley Park Be-In) and skateboard design.