Events

Heritage Week

February 20-26, 2023

Heritage Week offers a chance to explore heritage across BC and Canada and take part in programming that provides opportunities to learn and share about Vancouver’s history, diverse cultural heritage and historic places. In BC, Heritage Week is the third full week in February.

Heritage Week 2023

From February 20th to 26th, we will be celebrating the theme “Always in All Ways” and invite you to explore your community’s heritage in all the ways that excite you. We encourage you to take time during Heritage Week 2023 to celebrate the culture and heritage of the communities that make up the place you call home. This could look like anything from joining a walking tour, taking part in a workshop, to cooking a family recipe at home!

Join us on February 22nd for a family-friendly evening of storytelling, music, table displays, and light refreshments at Heritage Hall and on February 25th for a Heritage Week stroll through Upper Mount Pleasant with John Atkin.

For a full list of  Heritage Week events across the province, visit the Heritage BC website.

Heritage Week | Places That Matter Community Celebration

Wednesday, February 22nd, 6:30-8:30pm
Heritage Hall, 3102 Main Street
By donation

Join us at Heritage Hall for a family-friendly evening of storytelling, music, table displays, and light refreshments to celebrate Heritage Week. All are welcome to attend.

Register here View Details

Event Schedule

6:30pm-8:30pm

Meet & Greet with Community Organizations (listed alphabetically, and subject to change)

Arts Club Theatre Society, Association of Neighbourhood Houses, China Creek Skatepark, Chinese Canadian Historical Society of BC, Chinese Canadian Museum, Choklit Park, Daughters in the City (Mennonite Maids), the Francophone Village, Friends of the Archives, Forbidden Vancouver Walking Tours, Grandview Heritage Group, Joe Fortes – Hastings Mill Museum, Heather Heritage Society, Heritage Vancouver Society, Hogan’s Alley Society, Japanese Canadian Hastings Park Interpretive Centre Society, John Oliver High School Archives, King George High School Archives, Militant Mothers of Raymur, Pacific Canada Heritage Centre- Museum of Migration, Roedde House Museum, Vancouver Historical Society, Vancouver Asian Writer’s Festival, VanDusen Botanical Garden Association (VanDusen Garden and Bloedel Conservatory) and more!

Meet & Greet with VHF Yosef Wosk Publication Grant recipients: Chinatown Storytelling Centre, Vancouver Fruit Tree Project and Katarina Thorsen’s “JOSEPH- the Prologue”

7pm-7:30pm

Territorial Acknowledgement and Welcome (TBC)

City Councillor, Lisa Dominato

Heritage Week Proclamation with VHF Board Director and Executive Director

Storytellers from the Militant Mothers of Raymur and Japanese Canadian Hastings Park Interpretive Centre Society, Fiona Lam, Vancouver Poet Laureate, and Leona Lam, Vancouver Heritage Fairs Alumni

8pm–8:30pm  

The Annie Molesworth Quintet looks forward to sharing classic tunes and modern arrangements with all of you! Annie Molesworth is a classical and jazz vocalist from the Lower Mainland and her band consists of Ru Ha on tenor sax, Justine Darlington on guitar, Bella Federigo on bass, and Kate Johnson on drums, all graduates of the Capilano University Jazz Studies.

 

Thank you to our Sponsors and In-Kind Donations

Mount Pleasant Business Improvement Association

All India Sweets and Restaurant

Prado Café, courtesy of Tara Sidhoo Fraser

Heritage Week | Milk, Suitcases and Vegetables: A Stroll in Upper Mount Pleasant

Saturday, February 25th, 10am-12pm
Upper Mount Pleasant
$30+tax

SOLD OUT! Celebrate Heritage Week with VHF and discover the culture and heritage of the communities that make up the place we call home! Join local historian, author and seasoned walking tour guide, John Atkin, as we explore the little known agricultural and industrial heritage of upper Mount Pleasant, which was home to a couple of dairies and a number of Chinese wholesale and retail vegetable dealers. Along with food, this area is a delightful mix of old and new development.

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Location: Tours will start in the Upper Mount Pleasant area. Paid participants will receive the exact starting location upon registration.

Please note:

  • For in-person events, we are unable to provide refunds or credits for cancellations received less than four (4) weeks prior to the event. For additional information on VHF’s policies, please visit our Policies page.
  • Registration is required for all walking tours, and ID must match. If you are not able to attend the day of your tour, a replacement showing up in your place will not be accepted.
  • This tour is a 2 hour +/- outdoor activity that will require participants to navigate  a variety of terrain!
  • There is a maximum capacity of 20 people per tour and a minimum of 10. We ask that you please do not seek out the group on tour day in hopes of joining, as this will disrupt the tour.
  • Out of consideration for all walking tour participants, we ask that you please leave all canine companions at home, apart from certified service dogs.
  • Tickets will be available for purchase until 5pm the day before the tour, or until sold out.

About Your Guide

John Atkin is a civic historian, author and heritage consultant. He offers an interesting and offbeat insight into the city’s architecture, history and neighbourhoods through a series of unique and popular walking tours. These combine his interests in urban planning and development, a love of architecture and a fascination for the curious.

Heritage Week 2022

From February 21st to 27th, we celebrated the theme “altogether inclusive” and explored the many ways that heritage engagement requires creativity, as well as unique solutions and actions to encourage broad participation. Heritage can and must foster best practices in diversity and accessibility. By reducing the many different types of barriers that keep people from enjoying heritage and feeling safe, then lives will be enriched. When heritage responds to diversity and accessibility challenges, it becomes inclusive. This is possible for even the smallest of heritage organizations and is reason to celebrate.

Places that Matter Community Celebration, February 23rd, 7pm – 8:30 pm
Vancouver Heritage Foundation presented an evening of storytelling from the Places That Matter project, hosted virtually through Zoom. Our 5th annual community celebration featured Musqueam community members, the reading of the Heritage Week 2022 Proclamation by City Council and special guest speakers on Vancouver’s places that matter.

Altogether Inclusive: A Heritage Week Virtual Stroll, February 23th, 7pm – 8pm
Local historian, author and seasoned walking tour guide, John Atkin, celebrated Heritage Week by visiting some of Vancouver’s unique heritage spots – like Mole Hill – on this virtual walk!

Thank you to everyone who joined us for Heritage Week 2021!

From February 15th-21st, we explored the theme “Where do you find heritage?” Gathering virtually with our community, we celebrated the 10th anniversary of the Places that Matter program, discovered some of Vancouver’s lesser known heritage spots and got inspired to go outside and sketch our favourite local heritage buildings and places.

  • Places That Matter Community Celebration: 10th Anniversary Year!

    Tuesday, February 16th, 7pm – 8pm

    We launched Heritage Week 2021 with an evening of storytelling and a look at the first 10 years of the Places That Matter project. The program included: Musqueam Welcome with Alec Guerin and the story of Musqueam with Mack Paul, Heritage Proclamation by Deputy Mayor, Councillor Carr, stories directly from Collingwood Neighbourhood House, the family of Nellie Yip Quong and family-owned East India Carpets about the First Sikh Gurdwara on West 2nd Avenue.

    Places That Matter launched with a plaque project in 2011 to recognize community-nominated sites that highlight some of the lesser-known people, places and events that have shaped Vancouver. A decade later, with 88 plaques installed, the online Community History Resource continues to grow with community contributions of personal stories and photographs for the 125 sites.

  • Urban Sketching Workshop

    Thursday, February 18th, 12pm – 1pm

    Author and illustrator of Hand Drawn Vancouver, Emma FitzGerald, led participants in learning how to sketch with confidence. We explored how drawings can be a prompt for storytelling and got inspired to go outside to sketch favourite neighbourhood spots or local heritage buildings and places. Emma also shared tips for drawing on location, including intimidating architecture.

  • Discovering Heritage Places: A Virtual Stroll

    Saturday, February 20th, 10am – 11am

    Heritage is all around us – sometimes you just need to look closely! Local historian, author and seasoned walking tour guide, John Atkin, explored some of Vancouver’s lesser-known heritage spots and shared the history of some of the buildings that make our neighbourhoods unique on this virtual walk.

Heritage Week 2020

In 2020, the theme of Heritage Week was “2020 Vision: Bringing the Past into the Future”. The restoration and adaptation of heritage buildings is key to a sustainable future, preserving community and cultural spaces, retaining affordable retail and residential spaces and keeping usable building materials from landfills, all while enriching our streetscapes and neighbourhoods. The future also includes reconciliation with Indigenous communities and a more inclusive telling of the stories of the past for all communities. Across three events, we explored the role of heritage in our future throughout Heritage Week, February 17th – 23rd.

We created a short video with some highlights from the week. You can view other VHF videos on our YouTube channel.

Heritage Week Proclamations

2022
2021
2020