Access Gallery Information

Founded in 1991, Access Gallery is an artist-run centre with a mission to create conditions of emergence for provocative ideas and work in the visual arts. We enable critical conversations and risk taking through new configurations of artists, audience, and community. The organization searches out opportunities to experiment through collaborations (both local and international) that encourage innovation. We aim to bring visibility and critical reception to artists and cultural practitioners when they need it most, often at moments early in their practices, and have offered important exhibition opportunities to many of Canada’s most recognized contemporary artists. Access Gallery is a long-standing member of the Pacific Association of Artist Run Centres. With gratitude as guests, Access is located on the unceded territories of the xʷməθkwəy̓əm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish), and Səl̓ílwətaʔ/Selilwitulh (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations. Access additionally recognizes its location in Vancouver’s Chinatown, an area for the gathering of predominantly Cantonese-speaking Chinese labourers, settlers, and businesses since the nineteenth century.