The Vancouver Mural Festival has left an indelible mark across the city. But the annual artistic event won’t be returning in 2025 due to financial challenges.
“After 9 incredible years of transforming walls into works of art, we’re officially closing the chapter on Vancouver Mural Festival (VMF),” the VMF team stated on Instagram. “It’s been an unforgettable journey, and none of it would have been possible without YOU—our community of artists, volunteers, partners, and mural enthusiasts.”
The message noted that this decision was not made lightly.
“Despite our best efforts and significant progress to stabilize the organization, it is no longer viable for us to continue,” the festival team stated on Instagram. “Together, we’ve brought colour, culture, and conversation to the streets of Vancouver.”
The Vancouver Mural Festival is not a registered charity, so it was unable to issue tax receipts to donors. This stands in contrast to the Chemainus Festival of Murals Society on Vancouver Island.
The festival was founded by musician David Vertesi, who was inspired by street art in Montreal, San Francisco, and Miami. Vertesi worked with Drew Young in selecting the artists through the Create Vancouver Society. It worked in a partnership with the Burrard Arts Foundation, Mount Pleasant Business Improvement Association, and City of Vancouver to mount the first festival in 2016.
Vertesi stepped down as executive director of the festival at the end of 2020 in the midst of the pandemic. Despite the public-health crisis, the festival created 60 new murals that year, reaching into nine neighbourhoods.
Mural fest funding varied from year to year
In the first year, the organizers had to convince business owners in Mount Pleasant to allow giant murals to be painted on the walls. Since then, the Vancouver Mural Festival has supported Indigenous, Black, and other racialized artists to create murals in many areas of the city, including the Punjabi Market, Strathcona, and downtown Vancouver.
In Vision Vancouver’s final year governing the city in 2018, Create Vancouver Society received a $190,293 in civic funding. It fell to $6,000 in 2019 and $10,000 in 2020 when no party was in control of council.
However, in 2021, the City of Vancouver boosted funding to $43,385 and cut it only slightly to $39,623 in 2022. In 2023 in the first full year with an ABC council supermajority, the Create Vancouver Society received a $4,000 grant from the City of Vancouver.
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