Your Long Weekend Plans
Clean Lines at 133 w Pender Lane is on August 3-5th
What are you doing this long weekend?
Whatever it is, you should include a trip to 133 w Pender Lane, in the Downtown Eastside area. From August 3-5th the homegrown graffiti competition Clean Lines is on for another year.
In terms of bringing together art and community in Vancouver, there’s nothing quite like Clean Lines. We talked to the organizers about this year’s event. If you want to support them you can donate here.
How did clean lines start?
Clean Lines started last year as the brainchild of myself and Trey Helten. Trey is responsible for the pilot project for the legal graffiti wall at 133 w pender lane. The project came with a little bit of funding and both of us decided that it would be cool to host a Graffiti jam. That's how Clean Lines came to be, and we hope to make it an annual event.
What do you make of the City of Vancouver's Awesome Alleys is a five-year strategy to reclaim laneways as public space?
I can't really say anything about the city's plan to "reclaim" Alleysways. But what I can say is that we manage to do it by involving the community and local businesses in the area. We have deep ties to the neighborhood and have worked hard at maintaining a good relationship with people that we have worked with. It was a bit more of a struggle this year but we managed to get some funding through a community placemaking grant with the city, corporate sponsorships from Beat Street Records, Fingerprint Gallery, Lu'ma Native Housing, Graffiti+ and Lowtide. So even though we're operating on a shoestring budget, with the help of all our connections in the city we've been able to make it happen this year.
What’s the plan for the future of Clean Lines?
Our goal for the next few years is to allow the festival to grow organically and to see where it goes and who knows where that might be?
How can people donate and support?
People can support by following our instagram page @clean.lines.jam and donate to our gofundme https://gofund.me/0249d2ea
