What are the opening hours?

Tuesday 12pm - 5pm Wednesday 12pm - 5pm Thursday 12pm - 5pm Friday 12pm - 5pm Saturday 12pm - 5pm

grunt gallery

Home
Canada
Vancouver, BC
grunt gallery

grunt gallery is an artist-run-centre founded in 1984 with a mandate to support the emergence of innovative, collaborative, and provocative art.

grunt gallery was founded in 1984 in Vancouver, BC with the vision to become an internationally renowned artist-run centre and further the practice of contemporary art. Through the exploration of our diverse Canadian cultural identity, we are able to offer public programming in the form of exhibitions, performances, artist talks, publications, and other special projects in the community. Our manda

te is to inspire public dialogue by creating an environment conducive to the emergence of innovative, collaborative, and provocative contemporary art.

08/27/2026

The AXIS report: an independent report on Access x Art x AI

A research initiative presented by grunt gallery, facilitated and written by Kay Slater. The AXIS report aims to foster inclusive conversations about AI technologies by offering a portrait of how disabled and Deaf artists in British Columbia are navigating the complexities of AI today, amidst gaps in support services. Slater expands upon inspirations for the AXIS research project:

“Over the past year, I have been researching how disabled and Deaf artists in British Columbia are using AI technologies. Not only generative AI, but the much broader range of AI-powered tools that have quietly become part of everyday artistic and professional practice.

Public conversations about AI often become polarized, focusing on whether these technologies are “good” or “bad.” Those conversations are important, but they can also leave out the people who rely on imperfect technologies to bridge gaps left by inaccessible institutions, underfunded services, and supports that have never been fully available in the first place.

This report does not argue that AI is inevitable, ethical, or without harm. It acknowledges the very real concerns around copyright, privacy, environmental impact, labour, and the risk that AI could be used to justify cuts to human accessibility services. At the same time, it asks what happens when disabled and Deaf artists are absent from those discussions, and what we can learn by listening to how these tools are already being used in practice.
Rather than offering definitive answers, I hope this report contributes research that can support more thoughtful conversations, better policy, and more inclusive decision-making within the arts sector.

The report is available in English text, audio, and ASL. The English text and audio versions are released under a Creative Commons licence and are intended to be read, shared, cited, and built upon. I hope you’ll take a look, and I welcome continued conversation as our communities navigate these complex questions together.”

Read the report at https://axis.grunt.ca/
Questions or other inquiries? Email [email protected]

This project was made possible with support from Canada Council for the Arts.

08/21/2026

Eco-process Open House with Artist-in-residence Rea Saxena.
Thursday, August 27, 2pm to 7pm.
At the Blue Cabin, 1905 Ogden Avenue, Vancouver.

You’re invited to check out what Rea Saxena has been working on during their Eco-process Artist Residency at the Blue Cabin! Drop in anytime from 2pm to 7pm.

Rea’s media-based practice pairs hand-processed, disruptive analogue filmmaking techniques with rhythmic editing for projection and spatial media experiences. Over the course of this residency, Rea has been working with mentor Morgan Sears-Williams on eco-processing techniques such as lumen printing and phytogram, as well as experimenting with projection mapping and film installation.

The Blue Cabin is currently moored at Heritage Harbour, directly below the Vancouver Maritime Museum. There is a gangway to the dock, which can be steep depending on tides. To reach the Blue Cabin barge from the docks, a large step or small jump is required from the dock to the platform. There are handrails around the perimeter of the barge. The cabin studio space is accessed via seven 7" high stairs with a handrail, one 6" step and a 29″ doorway. The Blue Cabin is unfortunately currently not wheelchair accessible.

Slide 1 lumen print by Rea Saxena, scanned by Morgan-Sears Williams.
Slide 2 images by Sophia English.

08/12/2026

Blue Assemblage.
To celebrate grunt's archive and the many folks who contribute to its vitality, we are sharing research projects, activations, artist memories, and other perspectives from the community.

While completing a directed study project in the grunt archive for their graduate degree in archival studies, artist and curator dani neira discovered The Blue Cabin, Al Neil and Carole Itter’s off-grid home and workspace of many years that was reimagined as a floating artist residency in 2019 following its displacement from the Burrard Inlet shoreline. Like many before them, neira was enchanted by the Cabin and the many narratives intertwined within its unlikely story and has penned a poetic text that considers the plurality of human and non-human actors, elements of nature, and tides of history that have left their mark on the structure over the past 100 years.

Read the full feature by visiting the link in bio!

dani neira (they/them) is an artist-researcher working across book arts, publishing, sculpture, and curation. Weaving q***r theory, critical archival studies, and speculative fiction, their practice investigates the mutability of materiality and memory through an affective lens.

dani lives on the unceded territories of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm, Sḵwx̱wú7mesh, and səlilwətaɬ nations, and is currently a Master of Archival Studies and Library & Information Studies student at the University of British Columbia. They are one-half of the Dirty Dishes Collective and serve on the Board of Directors for Access Gallery.

Image credit: Carole Itter and Al Neil, Floating assemblage, circa 2010. Photo: Carole Itter.

08/11/2026

Summer Closure
Monday, August 31 to Monday, September 7, 2026

Please note that we will be enjoying the sun and closed for our annual summer break starting Monday, August 31.

08/06/2026

We’re excited to share grunt’s new Strategic Plan, a roadmap that will help guide our work through 2030 and beyond. Grounded in our growth over the past decade and shaped by the communities we work alongside, the plan outlines how we’re working to strengthen grunt’s responsiveness, resilience, and long-term sustainability. The core of our Strategic Plan revolves around a commitment to remaining regionally rooted, community-responsive, and accountable to the artists, audiences, arts workers, and communities we serve. The plan is organized around five strategic priorities: Accessibility, Community Engagement, Revenue Development, Facilities Planning, and Human Resources.

Central to this plan are questions like: “What do artists need moving into the future?“, “What alternative business models might better support our goals and communities?” and “How can we reflect our values and aspirations more fully through human resources and capital expansion?”

We invite you to read the plan at grunt.ca/strategic-plan — both a full colour PDF and plain text version are available. Linked in bio!

Thanks for your continued support of grunt, it means the world to us!

Special thanks to Steve Chow (chowdesign.ca) for designing the PDF version of our Strategic Plan.

[Video description: Bold white text on a black background reads, “Our strategic plan, 2025 to 2030 is now available online!” The video shows an excerpt of the strategic plan in its pdf format and invites viewers to check out the plain text version through a qr code or by visiting grunt’s link in bio. Organizational priorities are listed in black text on background stripes of different colours. grunt’s logo appears at the end of the video.]

07/29/2026

Closing August 1st – This is the final week to view Arjun Lal’s Shrines and Rituals! Join us for a free Blind-led Tour this Friday or a special drag edition of our Behind-the-scenes Tour this Saturday. Can’t make it in person? Visit grunt.ca to experience the virtual walkthrough, creative access audio tour, and exhibition site map. Don’t forget to check out Vance Wright’s curatorial essay and Gagan Kaur’s artist response while you’re there! Links located in our bio.

Shrines and Rituals – Closing Event Details:

Friday, July 31 | 4pm | 30 minutes with Q&A.
Join Gagan Kaur (she/they), a blind Indo-Canadian emerging artist and writer, for a final tour exploring the intricacies of Shrines and Rituals. All are welcome—sighted, low-vision, and blind visitors! No registration is required. Questions? Email [email protected]

Saturday, August 1 | 1pm to 2pm.
For this special drag edition of our BTS Tour, join Case Later in exploring the tools, techniques, and problem-solving particularities for Arjun Lal’s Shrines and Rituals at grunt gallery. These informal, question-driven tours open up the often invisible labour of installation, access considerations, and exhibition-making.

Photos by Dennis Ha.

07/17/2026

Spring 2026 Interpretive Tour Training Cohort.

This spring, with support from the Disability Alliance BC (DABC), grunt gallery launched a new interpretive tour training cohort with four blind and low-vision artists and cultural workers. Across two full days of classroom training, participants explore interpretive theory, storytelling, audience engagement, and practical approaches to delivering meaningful guided experiences within galleries and museums.

The cohort will develop and deliver their own interpretive tours at grunt gallery alongside our regularly scheduled blind-led tours programming guide, emerging artist and writer, Gagan Kaur. This fall, participants will also host programming with partner organizations, including the Libby Leshgold Gallery, Museum of Vancouver, Burnaby Art Gallery, Beaty Biodiversity Museum, and Richmond Art Gallery, building experience across different institutional contexts and overall expanding access to arts and culture in the Lower Mainland.

The program is designed to centre blind and low-vision lived experience not as a barrier to interpretation, but as valuable expertise that deepens audience connection and expands ways of experiencing contemporary visual art.

We are currently developing a summer tactile-object workshop and received funding from Canada Council for the Arts | Conseil des arts du Canada to expand this initiative to additional galleries and further support up to eight participating institutions.

If your organization is interested in partnering with us, or if you would like to help sustain and grow this work through donations, we would love to hear from you. Please email [email protected] with any inquiries.

These images are from our April training sessions and taken by Keimi Nakashima-Ochoa (KNO). Image descriptions are located in the comments.

06/30/2026

grunt is proud to welcome Yasmine Whaley-Kalaora to our archives team, where she will be working on our upcoming digitization project Speaking Women, a celebration of the work of Donna Hagerman, Haruko Okano, and Daina Warren at grunt over the years. Yasmine’s experience in local arts work includes numerous archival engagements, informing her practice as an artist and cultural worker, and we are grateful to have her presence and perspective on this project.

Yasmine Whaley-Kalaora (she/they) is an inter-disciplinary artist/host of C.L.A.M. who works as a writer and critic, a studio assistant for Tom Burrows, and in archives for artists and artist-run organizations. Yasmine holds a BA in Art History from the University of British Columbia and currently lives and works between the unceded territories of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm, Skwxwú7mesh and Səl̓ílwətaʔ and the K’ómoks First Nation.

Visit Yasmine's website at https://ywk.cargo.site/

06/24/2026

We’re hiring an Assistant Curator! This two-year, 28-hour-per-week position is designed for an emerging arts professional with lived/living experience of mental illness who is interested in bringing this vital perspective into curatorial and community-engaged arts practice. As part of grunt’s programming team, the Assistant Curator will contribute to exhibitions, public programs, and special projects, helping to ensure they are accessible, meaningful, and engaging for artists and audiences with similar lived experiences.

Application deadline: Wednesday, July 15, 2026
Full job description and application details are available via the link in bio.

People with lived/living experience of mental illness have long been part of grunt’s community. We’re excited to work alongside the successful candidate to imagine and develop programming and organizational practices that are created with and for this community.

If you do not meet all of the stated criteria, but feel you would be a good fit for this role, you are encouraged to reach out to [email protected] with questions and to apply. A diversity of skills and experience can be relevant to this role.

We recognize lived and living experience in many forms, and applicants are not expected to disclose personal medical information, diagnoses, treatment history, or experiences of trauma at any stage of the hiring process or employment. We respect personal boundaries, privacy, and different ways of relating to lived experience.

With appreciation, this opportunity is made possible through funding provided by the Community Action Initiative.

Address

350 East 2nd Avenue #116
Vancouver, BC
V5T4R8

Opening Hours

Tuesday	12pm - 5pm
Wednesday	12pm - 5pm
Thursday	12pm - 5pm
Friday	12pm - 5pm
Saturday	12pm - 5pm

Telephone

+16048759516

Website

http://grunt.ca/, https://linktr.ee/gruntgallery

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when grunt gallery posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Contact The Organization

Send a message to grunt gallery:

Want your organization to be the top-listed Non Profit Organization in Vancouver?