The nights are longer with the arrival of the first days of winter, making it the perfect time to come in from the cold weather and let creativity illuminate your evenings. There are lots of arts and culture events across Metro Vancouver, so cozy up at a theatre, or explore inside museums and galleries this November. Check out what’s on below!
Cover image credit: Artur Grycuk
Vancouver
Various locations around Downtown Vancouver
November 2 – 6, 2023
A series of interactive art installations light up Vancouver this November. Scattered throughout Downtown from the West End to Gastown, light installations in public spaces will brighten the parks and plazas and bring wonder to the winter during the early dark night of winter.
By Transit: Downtown Vancouver is accessible via the Canada Line and Expo Line SkyTrains, SeaBus and several bus routes. Plan your route by checking the event map of locations.
Norman & Annette Rothstein Theatre
November 2 – 23
One of the Lower Mainland’s most lively and distinctive events returns to Vancouver with another calendar of unforgettable performances. Spread over 21 days, the festival mixes theatre, dance, comedy, and storytelling to create something that can only be summed up as, Chutzpah!
By Transit: Theatre located close to the 41st and Oak bus stops (including RapidBus) and a short walk from the Oakridge Canada Line SkyTrain Station.
Various locations around East Vancouver
November 16 – 19, 2023
Each November artists in Vancouver’s Eastside open their studios to the public as part of the Eastside Culture Crawl Visual Arts, Design & Craft Festival. Step inside the creative spaces of painters, jewelers, sculptors, furniture makers, weavers, potters, printmakers, photographers, glassblowers
By Transit: Studios primarily located between Columbia Street, 2nd Avenue, Victoria Drive and the Waterfront. Plan your route by checking the event map of locations.
Vancouver Art Gallery
November 10, 2023 – March 24, 2024
Late Trinidadian-Canadian artist Denyse Thomasos (1964–2012) left an indelible, yet frequently overlooked, mark on contemporary painting. A career retrospective, Denyse Thomasos: just beyond, brings together more than 70 paintings and works on paper, many rarely seen.
By Transit: Take the Canada Line Skytrain to Vancouver City Centre Station or Expo Line Skytrain to Burrard Station and walk five to 10 minutes.
New Westminster
Century House
November 4, 2023
Help create a meaningful, collaborative public art piece. Participants will paint one 1 large poppy, and a field will be created from the collection. This art piece will be on display in Century House during National Veterans Week, through to Remembrance Day.
Registration Required.
By Transit: Take the Expo Line Skytrain to New Westminster, and catch Bus 123 which runs right along Eighth Street between New Westminster and Brentwood Skytrain stations.
Vancouver’s North Shore
The Polygon Gallery
November 10, 2023 — February 4, 2024
The three-person exhibition features artworks that are durational, monumental, and archival in nature. Each is the culmination of years of artistic labour created in response to pivotal moments of historical transformation and trauma. Individually, and in the dialogue between their works, Hannah Darabi, Rachel Khedoori and Ron Terada ask how art—through archival acts that parallel reportage—might act as witness, interlocutor, and critical reflector. At heart is the question of how artworks give form to events that defy description.
By Transit: Take the SeaBus from Downtown Vancouver to Lonsdale Quay.
Whistler
Audain Art Museum
November 25, 2023 – May 6, 2024
Gathie Falk: Revelations, organized by the McMichael Canadian Art Collection, investigates the career of a legendary Canadian artist. The current 2022-24 touring exhibition, with over 90 works and only two venues in Western Canada including the Audain Art Museum, underlines the incredible range of her creative output in ceramic and bronze sculpture, acrylic and oil on canvas painting, photography and video, as well as multi-media installation.
By Transit: There are several shuttles you can take to Whistler from Vancouver! You can visit the Tourism Whistler page here to find a reliable option for where you’re located.
To easily plan the route for your next artistic outing, you can use the TransLink Trip Planner.