Vancouver makes, shakes, retaliates!

This week’s MOVments have tallied up yvr’s points and prongs from policy to film.

In Mount Pleasant, despite loud controversy, the new Rize development has been approved by city council. This will mean a 19-story development smack in the middle of Mt. Pleasant. OpenFile has curated some great comments from the twittersphere.

Down Broadway at Granville street, the Vancouver Public Space Network transformed a bus shelter  into a public message board to house your comments about Vancouver!

In film, the Projecting Change Film Festival is underway and bringing Vancouverites a special panel discussion along with their screening of Miss Representation this Saturday. Simultaneously, our MOV Youth Council will be hard at work editing their films. More on this in late May.

In foliage, nature lovers gathered outside the Van Art Gallery recently to throw a giant flash mob for cherry blossom season. Simultaneously, across the Georgia Straight, the Association of Vancouver Island and Coastal Communities threw their hands in the air to pass a resolution for the decriminalization of pot! This means the UBCM will vote on this issue later this year.

Lastly, if you’re an aspiring journalist, you’ll appreciate this workshop on Perfecting your Pitch, put on by the Tyee’s Freelance Survival Series.

The quest for truth is always on our heels, and as many of us head into Easter, this week is no different. In true Vancouver fashion, “chicken classes for urban farmers”, aims to teach us which barnyard animal truly lays the Easter eggs around here. On the other side of the proverbial fence, Vancouver is just shy of joining the ranks of online cities using techno-power to engage tourists and citizens. Interestingly, however, green-thumbed gardeners are using their ithumbs to connect garden-to-garden. Now if only there was an app to actually garden the garden…

Local robot-lover and handsome musician Dan Mangan has walked away with two Juno awards including best new artist. Luckily, the witty folks at CBC Music provide some helpful tips on how to win a Juno. At MOV, we wonder all these years later, whether or not it was the hard work and enthusiasm of folks like Red Robinson who led the way for Vancouver’s thriving musical-talent base. In recognition, Happy Birthday Red Robinson!

In contrast, in Northern BC young people are adamantly opposing the Enbridge Pipeline project by declaring a hunger strike. Check out this video on the Tyee’s website http://thetyee.ca/Video/ for more information. In tying together ideas of political willpower and video production, a video contest is asking participants to pontificate on how parliament would look with a 75% female cast (rather than the current 75% male representation). Good question - particularly as we hear the news that CBC is being forced to cut 650 jobs in the next three years.

At the MOVeum: MOV Youth Council begins this week! Congratulations to the participants. We look forward to meeting you.

Additionally, Ivan Sayer’s Curator’s Talk and Tour is this Thursday April 5, 2012 is SOLD OUT. Next opportunity is June 7 - book early! Or, at our MOV AGM, which is for MEMBERS only, and May 30

Greeting, MOVers. Just as Canada’s West produced harrowing hail while the East saw seducing sun this week, Vancouver’s sightlines are equally diverse. Caught between the closing of little YVR gems like The Book Warehouse and the growing movement of BC schools to offshore destinations, one is left to wonder about values and priorities when it comes to staying in the city.  Did you know 300 BC certified teachers are employed in 29 BC offshore schools?

Should I stay or should I go? Your local radio program, On the Coast, is hosting a series of conversations on housing affordability as conversations out east say the next federal budget should stretch its long arm of policy reform to put the rental housing market “on solid ground”.

This way to Grandma’s… Of particular interest to MOVers is where this stay/go dilemma intersects with visual history and our built city. Recently Vancouver knocked down an old building to reveal a new (old) ghost sign for Grandma’s Boy.
Should it be saved? Maybe this is a question for Vancouver’s museum professionals. If you’re interested in what Museum educators have to say, you might be interested in the upcoming un-conference, Then/Hier.

Cut a Rug. Or… some other fine fabric… As you may know there’s a fashion design challenge happening at the MOV around our new exhibit, Art Deco Chic. In tune, this article explores the question, Can historic garments be used for contemporary fashion? In small-business response, the owner of Musette Bicycle Café thinks so. This Italian-vintage-cycling-attire-inspired café recently opened off Hornby bike route and we think it pulls off the contemporary-glam thing quite well.

In other worldly affairs, the LA Times is examining the ups and downs of Vancouver’s Climate Action Plan, 5 years post instatement. And for those of us interested in the goods behind the Canadian Economy, a free dialogue is being held at SFU Woodwards Wednesday night.

At the MOVeum: Veda Hille @MOV Songs of False Creek Flats

& Big thanks to everyone who came out to Mini MakerFaire Fundraiser last week! Here are some photos.   

[Photo care of http://trextrying.tumblr.com/ ]

You like us!

Thanks Vancouver – you’ve put us right up there with the VAG and the MOA for your top three public art gallery/museums in Vancouver, and we couldn’t be happier. From exciting talks about city planning and food resiliency to the opening of our upcoming exhibit on Art Deco fashion from the 1920s and 1930s, things just keep rolling along over here in Vanier Park and we’re so glad to be your museum for the curious.

As a special treat, some digging in our archives has revealed an interesting thread to Vancouver’s past. Did you know Vancouver was once home to a Toy Library? A brave venture that was left out to dry as it was unsupported by city council in 1973… Likely if Jim Green had been on council at the time, he would have made sure a legacy project like a Toy Co-operative would have prospered in Vancouver. With regrets we acknowledge Jim’s passing today, and recognize all the wonderful things he did for our city.

These days it seems our province is finding it very difficult to communicate with its people as negotiations with the BC Teacher’s federation grow increasingly sticky. This might be a good time to announce the MOV is releasing applications for its second-ever Museum of Vancouver Youth Council this week!

Into the veins and arteries of city life, OpenFile Vancouver wonders if we can ever have a truly sustainable transit system at the same time as the Vancouver Sun questions the brilliance of people moving from rural countrysides en masse to metropolises! Perhaps we’d be best to move our dreams of lush green parks and walkways underground just like this proposal for a “Lowline” in NYC?

At the MOVeum: Food Resiliency talks tonight and the opening of Art Deco Chic next week!