Western Front (Western Front Society) is an artist-run centre located in

Vancouver, British Columbia Vancouver ( ) is a major city in western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the city, up from 631,486 in 2016. The ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

. It was founded in 1973 by eight artists (Martin Bartlett, Mo van Nostrand, Kate Craig, Henry Greenhow,

Glenn Lewis Glennon Ricketts Jr. (born March 13, 1975), professionally known as Glenn Lewis, is a Canadian neo soul singer–songwriter. Lewis earned a Grammy Award nomination in 2004 and has also won a Juno Award out of a total of six nominations. Early l ...

, Eric Metcalfe, Michael Morris, Vincent Trasov ) who wanted to create a space for the exploration and creation of new art forms. After they purchased the former Knights of Pythias lodge hall located in

Mount Pleasant, Vancouver Mount Pleasant is a neighbourhood in the city of Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, stretching from Cambie Street to Clark Drive and from Great Northern Way and 2nd, to 16th and Kingsway. The neighbourhood, once characterized as working-class, ...

, it quickly became a centre for poets, dancers, musicians and visual artists interested in exploration and interdisciplinary practices. Many of the Western Front's early works reflect this interdisciplinary ethos with early influences of

Duchamp Henri-Robert-Marcel Duchamp (, , ; 28 July 1887 – 2 October 1968) was a French painter, sculptor, chess player, and writer whose work is associated with Cubism, Dada, and conceptual art. Duchamp is commonly regarded, along with Pablo Picasso ...

ian and

Fluxus Fluxus was an international, interdisciplinary community of artists, composers, designers and poets during the 1960s and 1970s who engaged in experimental art performances which emphasized the artistic process over the finished product. Fluxus ...

-based investigations into

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, telecommunications art, live electronic music, video and performance art. Western Front also supported a number of political and activist projects - in one of their most famous performance pieces, founding member Vincent Trasov adopted the personality of Mr. Peanut, gave a number of performances and in 1974 ran for mayor of Vancouver. Mr. Peanut was so highly regarded that he was picked by

The Vancouver Sun The ''Vancouver Sun'', also known as the ''Sun'', is a daily broadsheet newspaper based in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. The newspaper is currently published by the Pacific Newspaper Group, a division of Postmedia Network. Published si ...

as one of the province's 100 most influential people as the end of the millennium approached in 1999. As a focal point of experimental art practice through the 1970s and 1980s, the Western Front, in connection with other centres like it, played a major role in the development of electronic and networked art forms in a national and international context. Over more than 40-years, the Western Front has promoted critical investigations into and surrounding interdisciplinary, media-based, anti-object, and ephemeral practices with particular attention to the contexts and economies in which art is produced. While general curatorial priorities have remained dedicated to these practices, the Western Front's internal structure has continued to evolve and a number of distinct programs have been established and retired over the years including Performance Art, Movement Arts, Literary Arts and ''Front Magazine''. The Western Front still continues to program events and exhibitions related to these genres, but no longer supports fully dedicated departments. The Western Front continues to maintain programs in

Media Art New media art includes artworks designed and produced by means of electronic media technologies, comprising virtual art, computer graphics, computer animation, digital art, interactive art, sound art, Internet art, video games, robotics, 3D prin ...

, New Music, and

Exhibitions An exhibition, in the most general sense, is an organized presentation and display of a selection of items. In practice, exhibitions usually occur within a cultural or educational setting such as a museum, art gallery, park, library, exhibitio ...

. In 2015, the society received $1.5 million from a City of Vancouver Community Amenity Contribution (CAC) fund related to a nearby development by Vancouver property developers, Rize. The contribution enabled the society to purchase the building from its owners.

Publications

In 1993, Western Front published th
Whispered Art History: Twenty Years at the Western Front
which documents and celebrates the first twenty years at one of Canada's first artist-run centres.Whispered Art History
/ref> The volume features essays by Peter Culley, Karen Knights,

Judy Radul Judy Radul (born in 1962 in Lillooet, British Columbia) is a Canadian multidisciplinary artist, writer and educator. She is known for her performance art and media installations, as well as her critical writing. Biography She has exhibited her wo ...

, Alex Varty and William Wood in addition to a comprehensive chronology of Western Front's events during its beginning years

References

External links

Western Front website''Front Magazine''
{{Authority control Art museums and galleries in British Columbia Music venues in Vancouver Artist-run centres Organizations established in 1973 Organizations based in Vancouver Art galleries established in 1973 1973 establishments in British Columbia Knights of Pythias buildings