VIVO Media Arts Centre

VIVO Media Arts Centre
Name	VIVO Media Arts Centre
Formation	1973
Type	Nonprofit arts organization
Location	Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
Fields	Media arts, video art, experimental film, new media

VIVO Media Arts Centre is a community-based non-profit arts organization in Vancouver, British Columbia, founded in 1973 to support experimental media production, distribution, exhibition, and archiving. It evolved alongside networks of artists, activists, and institutions, intersecting with film festivals, artist-run centres, and cultural policy developments in Canada and internationally. VIVO facilitated collaborations among filmmakers, video artists, curators, and cultural workers from diverse movements and remained a hub for media preservation and community media practices.

History

Founded in the early 1970s amid a wave of artist-run initiatives, VIVO emerged contemporaneously with National Film Board of Canada decentralization, the rise of Fluxus, and dialogues within Guerilla Television. Early connections included exchanges with Artist-Run Centre Network peers such as Western Front (arts organisation), Video In, and KOM International affiliates. Throughout the 1970s and 1980s VIVO intersected with festivals like Toronto International Film Festival, Vancouver International Film Festival, and Yamagata International Documentary Film Festival, while engaging artists associated with Nam June Paik, Bill Viola, and Pipilotti Rist through touring exhibitions and screenings. The organization negotiated municipal and provincial arts funding alongside programs from Canada Council for the Arts and British Columbia Arts Council, responding to policy shifts during the administrations of Pierre Trudeau and Brian Mulroney. In the 1990s and 2000s VIVO adapted to digital media, collaborating with institutions such as Simon Fraser University, Emily Carr University of Art + Design, and University of British Columbia archives, and participated in discourses with Media Art History conferences and Documentary Organization of Canada. VIVO weathered changes in cultural infrastructure, including redevelopment projects involving Granville Island, Gastown, and Strathcona, and engaged with local groups like Downtown Eastside Residents Association and Coalition of Child Care Advocates of BC on community media initiatives.

Programs and Exhibitions

VIVO hosted screening series, artist residencies, distribution programs, and touring exhibitions connected to entities such as Pacific Cinematheque, National Gallery of Canada, Museum of Modern Art, Tate Modern, and Centre Pompidou. Regular programs included artist talks featuring practitioners linked to Stan Brakhage, Hollis Frampton, Trinh T. Minh-ha, Harun Farocki, and Laura Mulvey; collaborative projects involved curators from Documenta, Venice Biennale, and Sundance Film Festival. VIVO coordinated with community partners like Vancouver Public Library, Vancouver International Jazz Festival, Talking Stick Festival, and Pacific Association of First Nations Women to present cross-disciplinary exhibitions alongside collectives such as Riot Grrrl, ACT UP, and Queer Film & Video Collective. The centre's distribution program circulated works to venues including Anthology Film Archives, The Kitchen, Institute of Contemporary Art, and university cinema studies departments at York University, Concordia University, and McGill University.

Facilities and Collections

Facilities included screening rooms, editing suites, transfer labs, and an audiovisual archive assembled through donations and acquisitions from artists associated with video art pioneers and collectives like Ant Farm, Video Freex, and Portapak users. Collections incorporated analogue formats (U-matic, Betacam, VHS) and digital files preserved through partnerships with Library and Archives Canada, British Columbia Archives, and campus special collections at UBC Library and SFU Library. Equipment inventories mirrored technologies used by practitioners such as Nam June Paik, Paik-Abe, and Vito Acconci, and the archive documented exhibitions at venues like Granville Island Public Market, Vancouver Art Gallery, and Western Front. Conservation practices drew on standards from International Federation of Film Archives and collaboration with technical labs at National Film Board of Canada and the Canadian Filmmakers Distribution Centre.

Education and Community Outreach

Educational initiatives included workshops, youth media programs, and community-access training developed with partners including Vancouver School Board, BC Teachers' Federation, Citizens' Committee for Cultural Planning, and community organizations such as HASTe (historic affordable spaces)],] Strathcona Community Centre, and Kitsilano Neighbourhood House. Outreach extended to Indigenous arts programming in dialogue with groups like Native Education College, First Peoples' Cultural Council, and artists connected to Coast Salish nations. Collaborations involved grant-supported projects working with Canada Council for the Arts, BC Arts Council, and social service organizations including Food Stamps Coalition and Vancouver Aboriginal Friendship Centre Society to enable access for marginalized communities and to integrate media literacy into curricula at Emily Carr University of Art + Design and Capilano University.

Organizational Structure and Funding

VIVO operated as a registered nonprofit with governance by a volunteer board and staff including directors, programmers, technicians, and archivists; it liaised with networks such as the Council of Canadian Filmmakers and the Association of Independent Video and Filmmakers. Funding sources included project grants from Canada Council for the Arts, operational support from City of Vancouver arts grants, foundation support from organizations like Vancouver Foundation and BC Gaming Policy and Enforcement Branch allocations, and earned revenue from rentals and membership. The centre navigated nonprofit challenges similar to those faced by arts organizations like Access Gallery, Western Front, and grunt gallery, responding to shifts in cultural policy under federal initiatives such as Canada Periodical Fund adjustments and municipal zoning debates.

Notable Artists and Projects

Artists and projects associated with the centre spanned practitioners and collectives such as Stan Douglas, Geoffrey Farmer, Rebecca Belmore, Jeff Wall, Michael Snow, David Rimmer, Carolyn Kanes, Norman McLaren, John Greyson, Martha Rosler, Jenny Holzer, Shirley Tse, Bruce Conner, Anne-Marie Béland, Tom Sherman, Lisa Steele, Kim Tomczak, Dara Birnbaum, Barbara Hammer, Peggy Ahwesh, Peter Mettler, Allan Sekula, Guy Maddin, Gillian Wearing, Angela Melitopoulos, Seymour Chwast, Donna Haraway, Donna Cameron, Sadie Benning, Mieke Bal, James Coleman, Hito Steyerl, and collectives like General Idea, Turbulent Media, and Centre for Experimental Media Art. Signature projects included preservation campaigns, community documentary series, and touring video compilations that circulated through institutions such as European Media Art Festival, Transmediale, Arsenal – Institut für Film und Videokunst, and International Short Film Festival Oberhausen.

Category:Arts organizations based in Vancouver