The Drive Spring in the Step

Drive Mural
Originally uploaded by knightbefore_99

Easter Monday, beautiful rays of sunshine, open patios, coffee bars, people, beer, wine, and great food: This was Commercial Drive the way it was experienced just yesterday. After a good stint at the office in the morning, my late morning meeting with Steven R. Duncan, the creator and contributor to TheDriveIsAlive blog, resulted in us heading out take in some lunch up on The Drive.

After a stroll back and forth we settled upon Panevero Bakery and enjoyed a delightful soup and sandwich meal. The homemade style Turkey soup was very substantial and after filling ourselves we stepped over to Grandview Park to enjoy conversation, new company, and the beautiful rays of sunshine.

In the park, the families were out with their children playing, young people sat around the trees talking, and we parked ourselves on some large boulders to continue our creative brainstorming. Steven R. Duncan, a poet himself, also works directly with the Vancouver Arts & Culture community part-time, and continues his involvement and activities related to Arts & Culture with a strong focus on his current Commercial Drive neighbourhood. Our brainstorming will continue int he coming week(s) as we look to further the reach and positive impact of the LiveIn community sites, how it relates to other Bloggers and sites in the Community (we are after all a Community Portal website).

Creative City, creative people, and creative community describe Vancouver and The Drive very well. The City of Vancouver has a Creative City initiative, alongside many other current initiatives to make the city a better place to live. LiveIn is looking at how to maximize our impact and involvement alongside these initiatives to further promote and empower communities, their citizens and businesses. With a little luck and some hard work, we anticipate being able to secure some funding to deliver more to you!

Welcome to The Drive!

Public Input: Welcome to the Oasis

Commercial Drive is well-known for its vibe, its art, and its funk. The colour and controversy stroll side-by-side with all the social clashing assaulting the senses while they might be laughing and enjoying a conversation. Diversity and multiculturalism are the key cornerstone that sets The Drive apart.

With a strong Arts Community concentrated in and around The Drive, there are many opportunities missed to connect in meaningful, and potentially in meaningful creative ways. Arts is often seen as a solitary venture, and yet the artist that collaborates, or those who work in groups discover a deeper growth and development in their character and their work. Community, friends, and family are the very things that hold us up through the tough slog.

So a young woman arrives with a question about an idea worth considering: How can I create a residence / studio-mixed (non-threatening to safety) / gallery where live-in, neighbourhood, and travelling artists can congregate, share, collaborate, create, and grow? This sent the mind reeling over the City of Vancouver's Creative City Culture Plan 2008-2018 and wondering that there might well be approaches that could be followed to create such a space, and to gear it up to be fully-sustainable, self-supporting.

A draft brief overview titled Welcome to the Oasis outlines the basic premise to create such a work / live residence for artists. It needs further editing and honing. This is the perfect time to ask for your input.