Vivo Media Arts Centre, a storied media arts centre in Vancouver, has launched an emergency fundraising appeal to avoid closure after five decades of operation. The centre faces a 30% rent increase from the city of Vancouver, which has consumed all of its municipal operating revenue, leaving nothing for staff or programming. It has raised nearly C$9,500 of the C$50,000 needed by the end of 2025 to sustain operations through early 2026.
The potential loss of Vivo matters because it is one of Canada's longest-standing artist-run centres, housing the Crista Dahl Media Library and Archive with over 5,000 video titles and serving as a vital resource for thousands of artists, students, and community members. Its closure would ripple across Vancouver's cultural sector, eliminating affordable access to equipment, workshops, residencies, and archival materials that have nurtured generations of media artists, including Paul Wong and Abbas Akhavan, who will represent Canada at the 2026 Venice Biennale.