Eastside Culture Crawl with Little Kids

We Culture Crawled! (L exempted himself from the family selfie)

This year, we finally made it to the Eastside Culture Crawl, after a few years' children-induced hiatus. If you haven't heard of it before, the Crawl is a four day celebration of East Vancouver art & artists. Hundreds of artists tidy up their studios & throw open their doors to the public every November. It's free & it's a great way to see some of the amazing art that's happening right here in our community, as well as a great chance to bring some home. & you don't need to be rich to buy art--prices start at $2!

We dragged our five-year-old & two-year-old, kicking & screaming at times, through the labyrinthine studios at 1000 Parker, a few in the Mergatroyd Building right after parking our bikes at the Bicycle Valet, & two in the Hamilton Bank Building.

Carrotmobile!

Unlike most galleries, where you can look but not touch, many of the studios in the Culture Crawl encouraged a hands-on experience, which is near-essential with young children. It's very hard to get a toddler to understand why she should not put her hands on the colourful textured paintings, tiny ceramic sculptures, & smooth wood carvings that are hanging within her reach.

We really appreciated the artist who let the kids run their fingers over his paintings, & took the time to answer each question Linnaeus peppered him with. (I wish I could remember his name!) Both children really enjoyed being allowed to sit inside the carrot car in Straight Line Designs studio. Bronte got to pet a puppy & feed him treats after playing with several of the leather stuffed animals in the studio.

The kids were fascinated by all the various machines that they saw: the freight elevator in 1000 Parker, a joiner in Brent Granby's woodworking studio, the silkscreens & print drying machine in The Hive Printing, the latex moulds in Les Sears & Kate MacDonald's studio, the leather polisher at Leather Monsters, & of course the kilns & tools in the glass blowing demonstration in the Mergatroyd Building.

Linny's first art purchase

Linnaeus kept asking questions about every art piece he saw. I try to get him to speculate about what is represented or what it might mean, nudging him along with a little information without just telling him what my interpretation of the work is. He was delighted at the SnackArt Collective's Instagram photo print vending machine. I gave him a twoonie & he chose the most colourful of the images, a paint store sign reflected in a puddle.

By about 3pm, Bronte was becoming a hysterical mess, so we had to head home. Depsite the less than graceful exit, hauling a flailing, howling toddler out & down the stairs, then treating everyone we passed on the first five minutes of the ride home to a siren-like wail, I'm glad we went.

I'm so happy that we have an event like Eastside Culture Crawl just a short bike ride from home. I left inspired to fit more art into our life, both seeing & buying more of it, as well as making more of it. Bronte loves to scribble with crayons or markers & swipe at paper with paint whenever she gets the chance. Linnaeus is much more deliberate & as likely to produce a cutaway schematic of a tugboat, but happily he's definitely more into creating than he used to be. I want to explore with the kids some of the materials & techniques we saw at the Eastside Culture Crawl, like collage & thicker acrylic paint.


Have you ever been to the Eastside Culture Crawl, or an open studio event like it with little kids? What was your favourite part?

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