We are moving to our new permanent location at 2954 West 4th Ave on September 1, 2023
After three years of remote, online, and mail-art programming, we are thrilled to announce that UNIT/PITT has signed a lease for September 1, 2023 at 2954 West 4th Avenue. This means a return to gallery exhibitions, in-person programming, as well as exciting new opportunities for programming in an outdoor garden context.
In September 2020, UNIT/PITT responded to the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic by switching to remote operations. This allowed us to be nimble and responsive to the needs of artists—through our programming, we created safe and accessible ways for artists to connect with one another through collaborative projects, we distributed a record number of artist fees when people needed it the most, and we established reissue.pub as an important platform for critical and creative forms of art writing. It was a challenging, generative, and meaningful chapter in UNIT/PITT’s long history of shape-shifting, and we aim to stay connected with the wider community that has been established around our hybrid programming. Over the past year, we have benefitted from the generosity of our friends and colleagues in artist-run centres, galleries, and studios who have lent us their spaces, allowing us to meet in person for pop-up events. We are ready to take on our own space once again in order to offer opportunities for emerging artists, writers, curators, and cultural practitioners to exhibit and gather together in person.
As existing cultural spaces continue to be threatened across Vancouver due to soaring rental prices, we are so happy to announce some good news in this department. Our new location is the current site of Unit 17 Gallery—thank you to Tobin Gibson and the team at Unit 17 who helped facilitate this transition. From one Unit to another Unit, we are so pleased to be keeping this unique site within Vancouver’s arts community, which has become a beloved space for its garden and outdoor meeting area—something that will be a prominent feature within our programming initiatives in the years to come. We also look forward to extending the geographical distribution of our city’s artist-run network and bringing some artist-run, UNIT/PITT energy to Kitsilano—an area of the city which historically held an important place in Vancouver’s art and activism communities. We continue to stand in solidarity with residents of Chinatown and the Downtown Eastside, and with low-income and working class communities across all of Vancouver and the world over; and are continually grateful to be able to work and gather on the lands of the Squamish, Tsleil Waututh, and Musqueam First Nations. We look forward to hosting critical dialogue around the state of art-making and survival in our city, and providing our space for use by community members.
Stay tuned for an invite to our house-warming event in September 2023 🙂
