A common complaint amongst art bloggers in North America is how little coverage the visual arts is given in mainstream newspapers. Here in the Vancouver area, our biggest paper the Vancouver Sun has a weekly listing of some of the gallery shows around Greater Vancouver. I suspect the galleries themselves don’t always make full use of this service, minimal though it is. Some big-name shows may get a promotional write-up, and we may see a seasonal “what’s coming up” article. Critical reviews themselves are almost non-existent.

So it was a pleasant surprise to find an almost full two-page spread “Art Thrives in the Suburbs” by Glenn Bohn, in the Vancouver Sun on January 26th, about the public galleries in the communities surrounding the city of Vancouver. The main focus is on the Burnaby Art Gallery in the city of Burnaby, Surrey Art Gallery in the city of Surrey, and the Evergreen Cultural Centre in the city of Coquitlam. Several colour photos catch the eye, a large one of the BAG’s curator Darrin Martens and three photos of prints from their recent print exhibition. The sidebar has a long list of all the public art galleries in Greater Vancouver with addresses and opening hours.

This is a good thing, informing readers about the many visual arts centres around here will hopefully attract more people out to see the shows! Dare I hope that we may see a little more coverage in the future?

It’s too bad that this is not available online except to subscribers as I’m too slow a typist to copy it all out, though I’ve added a few links. The BAG and SAG websites are very sad, I must say!