236 East Pender, March 2013
The “before” shot, March 2013
236 E Pender, Robert Chaplin exhibition, 24 May 2014
“After” shot, Robert Chaplin exhibition May 2014

It has been one year since we opened our first exhibition at 236 East Pender. IOU, curated by Kalli Niedoba, was installed on temporary walls just weeks after we took possession of the building, and opened on May 17, 2013. Since then, we have replaced the floors, created a new gallery and office space in the front of the building, and the rest of the building has filled up with the studios and offices of artists, plus organizations like Project Space, LIVE, and Brick Press. We’re also providing storage space for Kootenay School of Writing’s Charles Watts Library (KSW and the Pitt will be making some announcements connected with that).

236 East Pender provides the Pitt with a stable location (we have a 15-year lease) and many other advantages. Grasping this opportunity was not effortless: it took long hours of hard work from everyone involved, including our joint venture partners from 221A, and our interns and volunteers; it took some careful control of expenses, and sacrifices here and there; and as always, it wouldn’t have been possible without the support of our community: artists, curators, studio tenants, donors, cultural workers, and everyone else.

And while we’d like to say we’re home free, and it will be smooth sailing from here on in, we still need your support to continue presenting our exhibitions, innovative series like Crawling, Weeping and Spaces of Contestation, publications, readings, music and performance, and everything else. Please consider a donation: every little bit helps, and it’s easy to do.

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Posted by:Kay Higgins

Executive Director of UNIT/PITT from 2010 to 2018. Artist, writer, publisher.

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