Explore the Community Quilt Exhibition

The Downtown Eastside Centre for the Arts provides opportunities for creative exploration, engagement, and expression in the heart of the city. Through participation in theatre, music, dance, painting, carving, and other forms of creative expression people create connections with themselves and with their community.

Residents of the community can gather together for arts activities inspired by artists and elders who are rich with encouragement, ideas, and curiosity. The Centre gives children, youth, adults, and older folks access to a welcoming environment with art supplies and tools to help them find the artist in themselves.

The Centre gives artists, social enterprises, and community groups interested in contributing to the cultural, social, and community development of the neighbourhood the opportunity to participate in creating the Centre for the Arts.

The creative team for the Downtown Eastside Centre for the Arts is led by Dalannah Gail Bowen, a local resident and community activist and one of Vancouver’s premier vocalists. Creative contributors develop structured and unstructured activities which are timely, relevant, and responsive to the needs and interests of the people of the community.

The Centre for the Arts cooperates with other enterprises to contribute to and enhance other initiatives within the community. The Portland Hotel Society contributed the use of the Interurban Gallery at 1 East Hastings Street in the Fall of 2008 for the first arts activity space for the Centre.

To contribute to creating the Downtown Eastside Centre for the Arts email Dalannah Bowen.

The Downtown Eastside Centre for the Arts provides opportunities for the artist in everyone.