It’s now raining hard in Vancouver at long last after a hot dry summer and instead of outside work, I suddenly have some free time to blog.

Malaspina Printmakers is the subject of a review: Freedom Of The Press by Robin Laurence in the Straight. Laurence views the summer group show in the newly expanded gallery and also the printshop facilities. There are some interesting comments about the closure of the printmaking program at University of Victoria, but the rumoured closing at Emily Carr Institute is fortunately only rumour.

As you will have read in the review, Malaspina is an artist run printmakers’ workshop with a gallery space. Dundarave Print Workshop is another one, and both are located on Granville Island near downtown Vancouver. The “island” is a lively place with a colourful public market, numerous art and craft studios and shops, theatres, restaurants and the art school, Emily Carr Institute. Granville Island is a very popular tourist destination and is a wonderful example of how the arts, business and tourism can thrive together.

We took our European visitors there recently and they were quite enthusiastic also about the colourful and funky houseboats behind the art school, sailboats coming and going, the crowds feeding the seagulls while listening to buskers outside the market and eating takeout food from the variety of stands, all with the city’s sleek highrise condominiums in the background across the water glimmering in the sunshine.