19th annual Culture Crawl returns to New West

It’s been a busy few weeks for the team running the Arts Council of New Westminster (ACNW) as it launches the New West Cultural Crawl, now in its 19th year.

While the main event is scheduled for Saturday, Oct. 15 and Sunday, Oct. 16, ACNW executive director Laura Grady says there will be events in the lead-up to the big weekend. This includes a gallery at Queen’s Park that people can visit, called The Best of the Crawl.

“The mandate that the arts council lives by, and our mission statement, is to bring the community together through the arts. I think that's what the cultural crawl does,” Grady tells New West Anchor. “Not only does it shine a spotlight on the diversity of artists and a diversity of culture we have in this city, but it really brings the community together for a fun event, and I think it draws people from outside of our borders.”

The event will feature more than 100 artists spanning 25 venues in the city. People will be able to view the art and shop for artisan goods at unique locations. One of them will include the art department at Another Beer Co.

A crash course on the crawl:

• Like most crawls, people will be able to access a map that will guide them through the various arts stops in the city.

• The event goes over a two-day period from 11am to 5pm.

• The event first began in 2003 as an art walk with about 400 guests and eight venues. Since then, ACNW says the crawl has grown to host more than 100 artists over 32 venues, and estimates 4,000 people from around Metro Vancouver come to check it out.

Grady says it’ll be important to shine a light on New Westminster artists, especially with the loss of some spaces vital to the creative community.

“We all know 100 Braid St. shut down a few years ago, but we still have a large population of displaced artists. Thankfully, the Massey Theatre is housing about 10 artists, the River Market is housing a bunch of artists, but it really does shine a spotlight on the fact that these folks do not have working spaces in this city, and there's definitely a shortfall,” says Grady.

And despite Grady working to ensure this year’s crawl goes well, she’s already looking ahead to the 2023 event.

“Our application for the 2023 crawl will probably pop up in February or March, so it's not that far off,” says Grady. “The application process with cultural crawl is very low barrier. We try and make it as easy as possible for participants to join us.”

Be sure to check out the full brochure online.