We have had a dream taking root for a long time, starting when we successfully completed a feasibility study conducted by Scale Collaborative in 2021, with funding from the City of Victoria and Heritage Canada. At that time Xchanges saw itself as it alway had, renting/leasing and being powerless to mitigate the impacts of uncontrollable rents in a building that is not accessible or easy to find, and where safety has become a real concern.
By working with our community partners, collaborating on projects, and supporting each other in meaningful ways – we are creating a new reality. Starting this month, we join with our coalition colleagues to announce publically our dream for a sustainable, collaborative, modern home that is accessible, aesthetic, and safe and invite you to tour the space that can be our future home!
We are not alone in this quest. Brian McBay, Executive Director of 221A in Vancouver, says it best:
We are creating a Cultural District in Victoria and a Cultural Land Trust that will ensure sustainability into the future and we want YOU at our first public informational session Sunday June 22nd. Bring your ideas and give us feedback!
For the past three years, Xchanges has been at the forefront of the Victoria Arts Sustainability Coalition, whose four core members are all long-standing non profit charities, working towards the goal of acquiring a building that will act as a permanent home for the education, production, and presentation of visual and media arts in downtown Victoria.
And now, we are thrilled to invite you all to a community Open House to learn more about the future community arts district in our city and tour this awesome space!
Please join us at 722 Johnson Street Sunday, June 22nd from 1-4PM
Xchanges current reality (left) vs. new future home on Johnson Street. Help us make this happen!
There will be:
Draft Floor Plans – tell us your thoughts!
Business Plans, presentations – get all the historical backgrounders and research
Talks and Workshops – Cultural Land Trusts, Community Bonds, Fundraising Brainstorms and more
Coalition Members and Community Supporter Displays and booths
Art Installations
Film screenings
Informational panels
Vision Boards – we need your input to these!!
Prizes, Refreshments, and more …
This is part of a larger initiative where we will be launching the first CULTURAL LAND TRUST, rejuvenating our downtown through art as a way towards cultural, financial, and social sustainability.
All are welcome to help shape this vision.
Why?
Art and cultural organizations continue to buckle under the pressure of ever-rising rents and our staff & volunteers are burning out. We need a permanent solution to this untenable situation.
Some facts:
Our core groups are paying over $300k in rents annually, which should go to an asset rather than a landlord.
The downtown is emptying… We need economic and cultural development that is sustainable now, not 10 years from now.
BC arts funding levels cannot keep up with rising rents: Between 2013 and 2023, commercial rents in the province surged by 270%, according to Statistics Canada. In stark contrast, operating allocations from the BC Arts Council only increased by 25% during the same period (BC Arts Council data from 2014 and 2024).
Some food for thought from the DVBA and The Odd Fellows service club about our ideas
If physical infrastructure exists, allowing groups to work on their craft instead of fighting to pay multiple and varying leases, the arts community will have considerably more capital to invest in beautification, in supporting diverse productions, and in building a more equitable community where a wide range of voices are heard. The Coalition’s suggestion – to purchase a building within this area where many different arts organizations can collaborate and reduce overhead costs – is a plan which would largely address this growing issue of space for artists to create…..I believe their arts district proposal is a clever approach to an ongoing issue, and that it will provide great value to the wider community. Please do consider their application seriously. Sincerely, Jeff Bray DVBA CEO
We would like to share our enthusiasm at the prospect of a Johnson Street Arts Hub…Having an engaged, vibrant and community-minded group added to the street will uplift the area and fill a need for additional arts capacity in the City of Victoria. Tara Zajac on behalf of Odd Fellows of Victoria, Board of the Union
Come find out what’s in store for the future of the arts in Victoria.
