__________________________

What does Vancouver hold

for an artist? What is it

lacking? Why are so many

artists relocating? Why do

I choose to stay and do

my work here?

Rachel Ditor is a director, writer and teacher who was previously the artistic director of The Mount Royal Shakespeare Company and Festival McGill in Montreal. Rachel is the new director of the Jewish Community Centre's Performing Arts School.

Individually I've enjoyed everyone I've met and worked with in Vancouver, but it doesn't add up to a very cohesive community. It feels like a very dispersed community, and one that's really struggling without enough resources. I got very frustrated when I thought that I wouldn't be able to do what I did in Montreal, which was to earn a living directing. It's taken me a year of looking around and trying to work with as many different people as I could to see that very few people are able to do that here. What else can I do, because this is all I really know how to do now?

Vancouver will never be a first class city-in the way that another west coast city like San Francisco is-if it doesn't have culture. Culture is what makes a city. There is no cultural centre to this city. It just means that we're never going to get that money. Not "never," but we're not getting it now because we have no presence. It's a business centre. I've heard people talk about when there was nothing: when there was no symphony, when there was no Film Festival, but it still feels like we have a way to go and we're not really moving as a united front.

Chris Miller is a composer and performer of gamelan, and is avoiding a career in arts administration.

I think a reason that companies disband and people move elsewhere is that there isn't enough going on here-unless you're plugged-in to something specific-to get enough to do. So if you're flying all the time to Toronto to work with people there, at a certain point people decide, "Well, geez, I'm spending too much on air fare; it would be better just to relocate." It is a vicious circle. It limits the growth that can happen here. Because you don't have that experience, that vitality of people who are successful and have potential to really grow, I think there is a brain-drain that happens. It is encouraging that I've heard people comment that there is starting to be a critical mass of stuff going on here. It is getting to the point where there is some sort of new music event at least once a week. That didn't used to be the case. It used to be once or twice a month, and you could count on one hand the number of people who were doing stuff.

Maiko from boca del lupo

Last year, all I could think about was getting the hell out of Vancouver. I was caught up in this whole idea that if I moved to the country, I would have fewer problems and therefore, have more time to devote to being an artist. This city felt so incredibly heavy, and it was so incredibly hard to make a living in theatre. It still is.

If I had known at that point that for the next 9 months myself and the other boca del lupites would be working on a show inspired by the city, I probably would have packed my bags and run for it.

In retrospect, I'm happy I stuck around. Let's face it: you still have rent and bills to pay in the country. For myself-an emerging artist emerging in an emerging city-I think Vancouver offers the big O: OPPORTUNITY. Old news can be new news here, and there are still many uncharted bodies of water out there to discover.