Eastside Arts Society (EAS) welcomes the return of the 29th annual Eastside Culture Crawl Visual Arts, Design & Craft Festival from November 20-23.
With the participation of more than 500 Eastside artists throwing open the doors of their studios and workshops across more than 80 registered buildings, including 20 buildings new to this year’s Crawl – a 25 per cent increase in options to explore the vibrant Eastside Arts District. This year also marks the beginning of a three-year partnership with the Audain Foundation as the Culture Crawl’s presenting partner, recognizing the importance of creative spaces and experimentation to a vibrant and healthy arts ecosystem.
“We are thrilled to welcome returning and new visitors to the 29th year of the Eastside Culture Crawl to experience the incredible breadth of artistic practice that happens right here, in the Eastside Arts District,” says Esther Rausenberg, Artistic Director of Eastside Arts Society. “Vancouver is home to a growing number of artists who continue to create in the face of tremendous economic hardships and reduced access to studio space. Their unwavering passion, ingenuity, and resourcefulness results in a richness of unique and diverse production and working artist spaces, creating exciting new opportunities for art lovers to explore, to discover, and to be inspired.”
The Culture Crawl is one of the city’s largest and most popular cultural events, its open studios, workshops and galleries draw in more than 45,000 visitors each year. With its heavy concentration of artists, designers, performers, craftspeople, and culture producers Vancouver’s Eastside Arts District – the region bounded by Columbia Street, 1st Avenue, Victoria Drive, and the Waterfront – has developed into an area rich in creativity and inspiration. The Eastside Culture Crawl offers visitors a peak into the creative process of artists living and/or working in the Arts District, creators specializing in painting, jewelry, sculpture, furniture, leather goods, photography, glass works, textiles, and more. In addition to the main Festival, EAS also hosts a series of ancillary events, including the annual Take Flight silent auction, running until November 4th featuring an array of items donated by community partners, including an exclusive curator-led tour of the Vancouver Art Gallery, a three-night stay at The Ivy on Parker Guest House, and much more.
TALKING ART: November 5, 12 & 13, is a series of three online Talking Art panels; Collective Perspectives in Analogue Film, in situ: finding place, Creating in Community to be shared online.
2025 Preview Exhibition, running November 6-30, themed “Passion, Reason, Idiocy” is a multi-venue, salon-style curated exhibition that explores a variety of media, formats, techniques, and styles. The exhibition will feature juried works from 78 artists at three venues from November 6-30, 2025: Pendulum Gallery, The Cultch Gallery, and Alternative Creations Gallery.
MOVING ART: Unity debuts online November 6, then projects at Lumiere Festival Nov. 13-16. The 12th Annual Eastside Culture Crawl Film and Video Exhibition, in partnership with the Lumière Festival, will be projected at a to-be-announced outdoor location nightly from November 13-16. Short films from 8 participating artists Ethan White, Garrett Andrew Chong, Cheree Lang, Fatima Travassos, Debra Gloeckler, Rashi Sethi, Isaac Forsland, and Nisha Platzer explore the theme of “Unity,” selected by Moving Art curators Esther Rausenberg, Kate MacDonald and Sierra MacTavish.
Presented by the Eastside Arts Society, the 29th annual Eastside Culture Crawl Visual Arts, Design & Craft Festival runs from November 20-23, 2025 throughout the Eastside Arts District with other events beyond the festival taking place in venues across the city. Visit culturecrawl.ca for full details of all the events.