Brewery Creek

Brewery Creek was a collaboration between grunt gallery, Western Front, and Avenue for the Arts based on the small creek that meandered through Mount Pleasant and emptied into False Creek. Industry, especially breweries, grew up on its banks. The creek was filled over in the thirties and the various projects (associated with this infilling) brought attention to the early history and topography of Mount Pleasant. Each organization produced an event around the project: grunt produced a mural project, with a public call for submissions and an exhibition of the proposals, allowing the neighbourhood to vote on the submissions. Five of those winning submissions were produced as murals during the summer of 1986. Some of the murals remained for decades and others were covered over within months; Western Front produced an exhibition featuring historical photos as well as an architectural model of the area with the creek highlighted and a waterwheel sculpture by Alan Storey; Avenue for the Arts produced participatory workshops in Guelph Park creating assemblage sculptures that highlighted the creek. Brewery Creek was an early collaboration for grunt and also allowed the gallery to start programming outside our space and working in the community.