Reason to Love Vancouver #9: Artists Can Still Find Places to Gather

The crew at Parker Street Studios is making some seriously cool stuff.

This is not always a city that is friendly to the starving artist set (hello, proposed four-percent rent increase!), but the century-old Parker Street warehouse provides an impressive, accessible home base for painters, woodworkers, makers and weavers alike with its 110 studios under one roof in industrial East Van.

A Few All-Stars from the Parker Street Crew:

• Michael Thomas Host, MTH Woodworks, reclaimed wood meets modern resin• Steven Pollock, concrete designs• Renée Macdonald, Westerly Handmade Shoes, timeless kicks• Fredi Rahn, colourful, functional pottery• Jin Choi, meticulously crafted wood furniture• Kari Kristensen, intricate linocuts and screenprints• Judson Beaumont, Straight Lines Design Inc., whimsical furniture

More Reasons to Love Vancouver ▸▸▸