With arts space steadily being lost to redevelopment and commercial rents rising far faster than public funding, many organizations are struggling to find stable and affordable places to work.
The building at 722 Johnson Street will solidify the establishment of an arts and cultural district on the 800 block of Johnson Street and offers an unprecedented opportunity for visual and media artists and participating organizations. Two floors — over 13,000 square feet — are currently available. The current owners have expressed willingness to work with the VSAC to create a lasting home for the arts now, and a legacy for the future as a Cultural Land Trust. Offices and studios will be supported by shared amenities (washrooms, hallways, kitchens/break rooms, clean-up areas, meeting rooms, gallery/exhibition space, classrooms, and storage plus a street front retail area) and up to 18 affordable parking stalls.
To plan fairly and effectively, the VSAC is launching this Open Call for Expressions of Interest (EoI)to gauge additional community interest in securing space and being a part of this initiative.Through this EoI we hope to understand each applicant’s space requirements, parking needs, timelines, and level of commitment. Individuals looking for studio spaces or organizations that require office, gallery or production spaces are encouraged to submit now. We particularly want to hear from independent artists looking for short-term project space and community groups who are looking for flex space as we are planning a large multipurpose studio/gallery that can be used for workshops, presentations and more.
Individual artists and community organizations – especially IBPOC and LGBTQ2IA+ are encouraged to complete this short, 10 minute survey and let us know you are interested and what you need!
Please complete this survey by September 16, 2025. Your responses will inform space allocations and help us to move forward with a solid plan for renovation and occupancy.
We will be hosting a Town Hall meeting on Thursday, September 25, 2025, at 6pm at 722 Johnson Street (1st floor) for current VSAC participants and applicants of the EoI Open Call. At this session, we will:
Share and discuss the latest updated floor plans
Share and discuss the costing model
Discuss governance of the building under the Cultural Land Trust.
General Q&A
Enjoy pizza and fellowship!
The survey should take around 10 minutes to complete. The deadline for survey responses is Tuesday, September 16, 2025 at midnight.
By responding, you will help ensure that your individual or organization’s needs are considered in the planning process and strengthen our collective position as we take this important step.
During the darkest days of the AIDS crisis, we buried our friends in the morning, we protested in the afternoon, and we danced all night. The dance kept us in the fight because it was the dance we were fighting for… Keep fighting. Keep dancing.
– Dan Savage
The Victoria Arts Council is pleased to announce its presentation of STILL WITH US: A Legacy of HIV/AIDS in the Arts —an ambitious project, two years in the making, that brings together local and international partners from the literary, performing, and visual arts communities, in association with a leading local health agency.
This cross-disciplinary project is anchored by an exhibition in downtown Victoria running from 24 October through 1 December 2025. Featuring archival materials, films, and visual art, the exhibit tells a multi-faceted story of loss, advocacy, and hope emanating from the first waves of the AIDS epidemic (1980s through 1990s) and Victoria’s remarkable response.
This fall, AVI Health & Community Services (formerly AIDS Vancouver Island) is marking 40 years since its foundation by five people who recognized the need to meet the challenge of the AIDS epidemic sweeping through our community. The AVI archive of advocacy and educational materials will be on display alongside original works of contemporary art by the likes of Victoria-born artist Joe Average (1957-2024), among others.
Exciting performance events are scheduled throughout the run of the exhibition at a variety of venues in Victoria including the Belfry Theatre and Pacific Opera’s Baumann Centre, with pop-up performances by the Gettin’ Higher Choir in downtown Victoria.
Greater Victoria Public Library is dedicating a themed display throughout the Fall at their Central Branch.
Now, four decades into the reality of AIDS, with an upsurge in new HIV diagnoses in Canada, and around the world this is a timely event that combines art with education and reflection in an impactful way.
STILL WITH US is a call to action, to remember and to education. “Keep fighting. Keep dancing.”
Image: William Douglas in his work Anima (1990) / Photo: Cylla von Tiedemann, Dance Collection Danse N D J 2013 MR
This unparalleled collaboration would not be possible without the following CO-PRESENTERS: The Belfry Theatre, Dance Collection Danse (Toronto), Dance Victoria, Intrepid Theatre, and Pacific Opera Victoria
COMMUNITY PARTNERS: AVI Health & Community Services, The Bay Centre, Greater Victoria Public Library, University of Victoria, Visual AIDS (New York)
With financial support by: CRD Arts Services, Province of British Columbia (Community Gaming), BC Arts Council, The McLean Foundation, as well as Dance Victoria, Dance Collection Danse, Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, and Canadian Heritage, with the additional support of incredible and generous private donors.
STILL WITH US: A Legacy of HIV/AIDS in the Arts organizing committee: Sean Guist, Dr. Allana Lindgren, Kegan McFadden, Bernard Sauvé, Stephen White
Exhibition| 24 October – 1 December | Tuesday – Sunday, 12-5 Still With Us: A Legacy of HIV/AIDS in the Arts Victoria Arts Council’s pop-up venue within The Bay Centre | 1150 Douglas Street Featuring work by Joe Average, Cathy Busby,Margo Farr, Margaret Flood, Peggy Frank, jamie griffiths, Anna Mah, Lynda Raino, Pam Terry, and selections from the archives of AVI Health & Community Services. This exhibition is curated by VAC Executive Director Kegan McFadden and augmented by the holdings of Dance Collection Danse, reflective of the impact of HIV/AIDS on the dance community, as selected by Christopher House, Guest Curator, and Amy Bowring Executive & Curatorial Director of DCD.
Margaret Flood, photograph courtesy of the ArtistJoe Average (1957-2024) Medication limited edition print Courtesy of the Artist’s Estate
Staged Reading and Choral Performance Saturday 1st of November, 7:30PM The Belfry Theatre’s BMO Studio | 1291 Gladstone Avenue The Wines of Tuscany[1996] by Conrad Alexandrowicz with Gettin’ Higher Choir
from a promotional photoshoot for Alexandrowicz’s Wines of Tuscany by Deborah Dunn featuring Shaun Phillips and Shawn Macdonald
Panel Discussion Saturday 8th of November, 3PM | Reception to follow (sponsored by Good Earth Coffeehouse) Victoria Arts Council’s pop-up venue within The Bay Centre | 1150 Douglas Street Dancers For Life a discussion with the organizers of Victoria’s Dancers For Life Galas with the original organizers, discussing what motivated them to produce the events, highlights and memories from the events themselves and their lasting impact. Panelists: Kim Breiland, Stacey Leblanc, Doug Durand, Anna Russo Kennedy |Moderator: Stephen White
Book Display and Reading List 16 November – 1 December A Legacy of HIV/AIDS in the Literary Arts Organized by Greater Victoria Public Library Central Branch 735 Broughton St Performance Series Friday 21st of November @ 7PM | Reception to follow and Saturday 22nd of November @ 3PM | Reception to follow The Baumann Centre | 925 Balmoral Rd Ticket info will be available shortly.** STILL WITH US Featuring: A welcome drum song from Aunty Collective; Saying Goodbye to My Brother, a remount by Lynda Raino of the duet she choreographed and performed with Shawn Costello (1961-1989) in 1988, co-presented by Dance Victoria; an excerpt from i am beauty, a new verbatim opera by librettist Rick Waines and composer Mary Jane Coomber featuring four vocalists and accompaniment, activating the HIV in My Day oral history research project housed at the University of Victoria; and The Viral Monologuesfeaturing first-person accounts from the frontlines by AVI Health & Community Services affiliates, remounted by Intrepid Theatre.
** A portion of proceeds from ticket sales will be donated to AVI Health & Community Services (recognizing 40 years of support this year).
Saying Goodbye to My Brother (1988), performed by Lynda Raino and Shawn Costello (1961-1989). Courtesy of the Lynda Raino Dance Archive
Poetry Reading Wednesday 26th of November @ 7PM Victoria Arts Council’s pop-up venue within The Bay Centre | 1150 Douglas Street The Living Room: an evening of poetry. Join current and former poets laureate of Victoria, Kyeren Regehr and John Barton, as they read from their work as well as work of poets lost to AIDS-related illnesses.
Book Launch SaturdayNovember 29, 2025 | 2PM @ Victoria Arts Council’s pop-up venue within The Bay Centre | 1150 Douglas Street There Are Things That Cannot Be Changed … creative writing is based on actual letters between Rwandan, Emerthe Nakabonye and Canadian Peggy Frank. The story unfolds from the first letters exchanged between two women who only knew that the other was also living with HIV.
Film Screening Monday 1st of December (World AIDS Day) | 7PM Victoria Arts Council’s pop-up venue within The Bay Centre | 1150 Douglas Street VAC in partnership with Visual AIDS (NY) presents, Day With(Out) Artscreening of newly-commissioned films by HIV+ artists, “Meet Us Where We’re At”,featuring: Kenneth Idongesit Usoro (Nigeria), Hoàng Thái Anh (Vietnam), Gustavo Vinagre & Vinicius Couto (Brazil/Portugal), Camilo Tapia Flores (Chile/Brazil), Camila Flores-Fernández (Peru/Germany), José Luis Cortés (Puerto Rico)
Introduced with a performance by the Gettin’ Higher Choir
José Luis Cortés, ¿Por qué tanto dolor? (Why So Much Pain?), 2025. Commissioned by Visual AIDS for Meet Us Where We’re At.
*This marks the 7th year in a row where VAC has brought the Day With(Out) Art screening to Victoria, courtesy of Visual AIDS.
Victoria Arts Council PROJECT SPACE 670 Fort Street
July 2025 – June 2026
Unique art presentations across the three windows on Fort Street
Amplifying our public presence over the coming year, the Victoria Arts Council’s Project Space at 670 Fort Street will host four unique window installations by local, national, and internationally-recognized artists.
Project curator, and VAC executive director, Kegan McFadden notes that the Council’s presence downtown has taken many forms over the decades from traditional exhibitions, to large-scale community projects, to storefront installations. Since opening the Project Space in January of this year, the VAC hosted an evolving exhibition in the form of an experimental reading room/library, titled ANOTHER LIFE, where interpretations of what makes a book and where printed matter enters the realm of contemporary art was the focus.
The project, [WINDOW][WINDOW][WINDOW] builds on the VAC’s partnership with The Bay Centre, and contributes to the long history of contemporary artists activating storefronts for means beyond the commercial, and will be viewable from the street at all times of day and night.
From vinyl wraps to collage to banners and hand-painted imagery, [WINDOW][WINDOW][WINDOW] will showcase one artist at a time in three-month-long presentations from July 2025 – June 2026.
These presentations are supported financially by CRD Arts Services Branch, BC Arts Council’s Community Arts Program, and the Province of BC’s Community Gaming Fund, with additional consideration courtesy of The Bay Centre and STEPS Public Art.
[WINDOW][WINDOW][WINDOW] is inaugurated with an installation by Vikky Alexander.
Tokyo Showrooms (VAC mock up) by Vikky Alexander
In February of 2014, on a trip to Tokyo, I wandered around the shopping district of Aoyama.
The district was predominantly high end retail boutiques, such as Prada, Comme des Garçons and Roberto Cavalli.
It had just snowed, a rare occurrence in Tokyo.
Following my 2009 series ‘Paris Showrooms,’ and a much earlier series from1992, ‘West Edmonton Mall’, I took photographs of the streets as reflected in the shop windows, visually sandwiching the indoor displays with the passersby.
I chose the circular framing device to refer in, a self-conscious way, to scopophilia — the love of looking.
The photographs are characterized by my ongoing consideration of illusion and material desires framed within the language of architecture and design. The works examine how these formal signs reveal and shape meaning in contemporary culture, bringing to the foreground discussions of late-capitalism and its commodification of culture. The photographs also foreground a utopian desire within the parameters of fantasy and cultural longing.
These are consistent themes in my work. – VA
Vikky Alexander (b. 1959, Victoria, BC) is a Montreal-based artist celebrated for her ongoing contributions to Pictures Generation strategies of critique by appropriation. Engendering a quietly reflective feminism that investigates the power of framing devices within the architectures of corporate branding, her works assess the fetishistic, bureaucratized and aspirational—generating recombinatory mixtures of appropriated scenes of natural landscapes and typifications of beauty that demarcate the romanticization of nature and the naturalization of romance. Activating a jarring fracture between embodied experience and its idealized presentation, her sensual and stylized works spanning installation, sculpture, photography, and video cumulatively denature the commercial annexation of personal capacities for self-reflection.
Vikky Alexander’s work has been exhibited internationally at venues including The Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; Vancouver Art Gallery, Vancouver; Dia Art Foundation, New York; White Columns, New York; Musée d’ art moderne et contemporain, Genève; Downs & Ross, New York; New Museum, New York; Taipei Fine Arts Museum, Taipei; Seattle Art Museum, Seattle; Kunsthalle Bern, Bern; Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal, Montreal; International Center of Photography, New York; Cooper Cole Gallery, Toronto; Canada House, London; National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa; Barbican Art Gallery, London; and Yokohama Civic Art Gallery, Yokohama. Her works are included in the permanent collections of the International Center of Photography; Los Angeles County Museum of Art; Musée d’art moderne et contemporain, Geneva; Museum of Contemporary Art Los Angeles; National Gallery of Canada, Art Gallery of Ontario, and the Deste Foundation, among numerous others. A graduate of the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design, she lives and works in Montreal, Quebec. Upcoming presentations of her work include exhibitions at Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles; Sprengel Museum, Hannover; Museum der Moderne, Salzburg; and Museo d’arte della Svizzera italiana, Lugano.
This special presentation of Tokyo Showrooms will be the first exhibition of Alexander’s work on the Canadian west coast since her survey with the Vancouver Art Gallery, Extreme Beauty, in 2020.
With the ever-increasing costs to operate, the VAC is in the very unfortunate circumstance where we now need financial help from our core supporters — the community of artists, educators, and arts enthusiasts we’ve served for decades.
If you’ve enjoyed our programming, or have been one of the hundreds of artists we’ve uplifted through exhibitions and other opportunities, we’re now calling in the favour.
Please donate to the VAC today … no amount is too little or too much!
{charitable tax receipts issued at time of donation}
Though we have been able to increase and diversify our revenue stream over recent years, it just isn’t enough to cover costs anymore.
We’ve been there for you since 1968, and together we’ve built something incredible and unique to Victoria … please help us raise the much needed funds to keep the VAC going!
