Grosvenor Ambleside | Arts and Culture

Arts & Culture

Engaging the Community

Taking inspiration from the west coast

With every project, Grosvenor considers community vibrancy, neighbourhood appeal and local arts and culture. The coastal environment that inspires artists also gave rise to the architectural style called West Coast modernism. At Grosvenor Ambleside, two of Canada’s foremost artists and modernists—West Vancouver residents Gordon Smith and Douglas Coupland—are celebrated.

TRee Snag

Tree Snag by Douglas Coupland responds to input from hundreds of West Vancouver residents and completes the community’s vision for Ambleside as a gathering place for art and culture. The installation of this monumental piece fulfills Grosvenor and Coupland’s long-standing commitment to provide a significant public art contribution in West Vancouver.

Kay Meek

In keeping with our commitment to arts and culture, Grosvenor is a proud partner of the Kay Meek Centre for the Performing Arts in West Vancouver. The long-term programming partnership with Kay Meek theater complements place-making and contributes to community vibrancy on the North Shore, supporting artistic excellence and quality programming. The Grosvenor Ambleside Galleria serves as an engaging outdoor performance space programmed by the Kay Meek Centre for the Performing Arts, put on for the enjoyment of the local community.

Festival of Lights

Grosvenor engages in an annual partnership with the Dundarave Festival of Lights that runs during the December holiday season. The Grosvenor Ambleside Galleria serves as a host venue for the Forest of Miracles, where trees are decorated by members of the community and put on display, with all proceeds from tree sponsorships going to a local charitable organization.

Douglas Coupland

Douglas Coupland is a celebrated Canadian novelist, visual artist and designer.

His public sculptureTree Snag (2021) joins three other public artworks by Coupland around the Grosvenor Ambleside property: Float Stack (2018), Whale Vertebra (2018) and Deer Vertebra (2020). The entire series of artworks reflect a day of beachcombing in Haida Gwaii by Coupland and his beloved friend, the late artist Gordon Smith.

Not using all of your brain is a waste.”

Douglas Coupland, Artist

GALLERIA

Grosvenor Ambleside is an engaging place filled with music, art and life. Explore shops, restaurants and cafes at street level, and delight in public art. Wander through an impressive glass-covered galleria with a direct walking route from Marine Drive to Bellevue Avenue and open views to the waterfront. Take in outdoor performances programmed by the Kay Meek Centre for Performing Arts. It’s all here at your doorstep.

KEVIN GOULD

Local West Vancouver artist, Kevin Gould, produced this large piece of art for the blank wall in the Grosvenor Ambleside RBC Elevator lobby. 

The art piece is “Artography” (Art + Photography) that is fused onto a piece of metal using Chromaluxe aluminium process to create a high gloss finish.

This spectacular art is called the Knight Ship and it is a colour enhanced photo of the hull of one of the freighter ships that sits out in Vancouver’s Port Harbour (as seen in the view lines from Grosvenor Ambleside).  The image captures the patina of the rusted steel walls of the freighter ship and then is paired with a black and white back drop purposely changed and inverted to give the appearance of duality and then inverted again to create the impression of a reflection in the water.