2055The Helen Pitt Gallery was founded in 1975 by students from the Vancouver School of Art,  and regularly scheduled exhibitions began in January 1976. That means the 2015-2016 season is our 40th anniversary. However, we’re not celebrating our 40th year.

If you’re not familiar with the history of the Pitt (Helen Pitt Gallery, Unit 306 Society, Unit/Pitt, Pitt International Galleries, Pitt Gallery, Helen Pitt Gallery Artist Run Centre, and UNIT/PITT again) you might not know that reaching this 40th-year milestone was probably the last thing people were thinking about for most of its history. At times it would have been inconceivable that it would arrive, but it did. And now that it’s here, we’re thinking that it deserves to be looked at differently: not as an end-point, but a mid-point on the way to something else.

So, from September 2015 to April 2016, we’ll be celebrating the Pitt’s 80th anniversary, which arrives in 2055. A curatorial team including Zebulon Zang, Jamie Ward, Gabriel Saloman, Brynn McNab, Mariane Bourcheix-Laporte, Keith Higgins, and Catherine de Montreuil will be presenting a series of exhibitions, public actions, performances, talks, and publications which collectively propose a path to 2055.

First up is Joël Doyle: It’s a long way from the wishbone to the backbone, opening during #SWARM16, curated by Zebulon Zang. More announcements to come shortly.

Posted by:Kay Higgins

Executive Director of UNIT/PITT from 2010 to 2018. Artist, writer, publisher.