Vancouver’s Backstage Pass will legalize DIY venues, protect at-risk cultural spaces from displacement, and take politics out of arts funding decisions.

VANCOUVER (Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh Territories) — William Azaroff, OneCity Vancouver's Mayoral Candidate, today announced Vancouver's Backstage Pass, an Arts & Culture Action Plan to legalize the small venues where Vancouver's cultural scenes actually begin, protect the studios and rehearsal spaces under threat from redevelopment, and remove City Hall's political influence over who gets public arts funding.

"A city that forgets to invest in its artists forgets what makes it worth living in," said William Azaroff. "Right now, the artist running a DIY venue out of a warehouse, the musician whose regular venue faces closure, and the arts organization whose grant depends on whichever Council happens to be in power that year — all three are out of options. Our plan fixes that."

Part One of Vancouver's Backstage Pass: A Legal Pathway for DIY Arts and Culture Venues

Vancouver currently has no real regulatory category for the small, ongoing venues where much of the city's grassroots culture happens — artist-run dance floors, drag venues, comedy joints, and rehearsal spaces that don't fit neatly into rules built for bars, expensive nightclubs, or big theatres. The result is a "missing middle" for how the City licenses the venues that make Vancouver fun. Too many venues are forced to operate extra-legally, or shut down entirely, disproportionately impacting younger, queer, racialized, and working-class artists least able to afford hefty fines or gain access to established venues.

The Legal Pathway for DIY Arts and Culture Venues will create a new small cultural venue licence category with risk-based safety requirements, a compliance-first approach that helps operators collaboratively fix problems instead of being forced to shut down, a dedicated Venue Navigator who will guide small operators through fire, building, and zoning requirements, and a code-compliance grant stream to fund the critical fire and building safety standards that working-class artists can't afford on their own.

Part Two of Vancouver's Backstage Pass: A Cultural Space Security Program

Vancouver has already set a target of 800,000 square feet of new or protected affordable cultural space over ten years. However, rising rents, short leases, and redevelopment pressure continues to push out artist studios, rehearsal rooms, and galleries, hitting Indigenous, racialized, queer and trans, disabled, and youth-led cultural organizations hardest.

The Cultural Space Security Program will create an annual cultural space inventory to track what's being lost, a no-net-loss test requiring replacement or relocation support when redevelopment displaces cultural space, expanded grants for accessibility and safety upgrades, and a requirement that major rezonings and public land projects actively consider cultural production space.

Part Three of Vancouver's Backstage Pass: An Independent Vancouver Arts and Culture Council

Right now, every civic arts grant in Vancouver ultimately runs through City Hall and Council approval, leaving public funding for artists and cultural organizations vulnerable to political priorities, budget instability, and the perception that grants depend on who's in office rather than the quality of the work. Toronto, Calgary, and Edmonton have all already moved to independent, arms-length arts councils to solve exactly this problem.

OneCity will create a Vancouver Arts and Culture Council — an independent, sector-led agency governed by a board with arts, culture, equity, and Indigenous expertise, responsible for adjudicating civic arts grants through peer assessment. Council will continue to set the overall funding envelope and policy direction, but individual grant decisions will be made by the sector, not by politicians. As William Azaroff puts it: politicians should fund the arts — they shouldn't be the ones picking the artists.

"Small venues in the city face a system that wasn't built for them to exist. Licensing, zoning, and massive upgrade requirements all assume resources that aren't there for artists that are reusing empty spaces that used to be office, industrial or retail. That means operators need to work outside the rules or close. We need support to create a new, affordable and legal pathway for these small arts spaces," said Brent Constantine, Executive Director of Little Mountain Gallery Comedy.

"To keep arts and culture alive in Vancouver, we need to prioritize keeping spaces open for truly boundary-breaking work," said Jarrett Hagglund, OneCity Candidate for City Council. "These spaces are an integral part of our City's identity, and are particularly crucial for queer and trans folks, who have always built community in DIY venues."

"Over the last few decades, Vancouver has continually lost many of its foundational arts and culture venues and the pressures facing these spaces have only gotten worse," said Aaron Chapman, musician, historian, and author of Live at the Commodore, and Vancouver After Dark. "A Cultural Space Security Program that monitors the loss of spaces and keeps us on track to open more is exactly what we need. As somebody who's worked in the Vancouver live music and events industry and the literary scene for the last 30 years, I'm pleased to see that William Azaroff and OneCity understand the value that Vancouver's art, live music, and performance spaces have to keep our city vibrant."

"As a journalist and artist advocate, I've documented communities that venues like Vantek and the Birdhouse keep safe," said Hashnain Patel, an advocate for local artists. "Backstage Pass would legalize DIY venues and protect cultural spaces. If Vancouver wants to shed 'No Fun City,' City Hall has to stop earning the name!"

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Media Contact:
Giovanna Orecchio, Campaign Director
Email: [email protected]