Gallery on Wheels '87

Artists:  Jack Kidder, Brad Pasutti, Roberta Sutherland, Anne Popperwell, Donna Kelly, Philip Willey, Will Gordon, Michael Lewis, Luis Merino, Luis Ituarte, Carole Thompson, Paul Dishaw, Yves Vial, Suzanne Bessette, Brian Sangster, Dennis Keusch, Sydney Condrashoff, Eric Nielsen, Marcia Semenoff, Noel Iwai and James Lindsay

Date: June 18, 1987 

Dennis Keusch, Gallery on Wheels, 1987

In 1987, Open Space, the Victoria Regional Transit Commission, BC Transit and twenty-one Victoria artists joined to create the largest art gallery in the city when they placed painted panels on the sides of city buses in the spaces usually reserved for advertising. Gallery on Wheels was one of the first projects of this nature in Canada. Thousands of people saw the art, and the idea was carried across Canada, copied in Ottawa and celebrated at the International Art Critics Association Conference in Halifax by Ottawa art critic Ann McDougall.

Suzanne Bessette, Gallery on Wheels, 1987

Local artists exhibited in 1987 included: Jack Kidder, Brad Pasutti, Roberta Sutherland, Anne Popperwell, Donna Kelly, Philip Willey, Will Gordon, Michael Lewis, Luis Merino, Luis Ituarte, Carole Thompson, Paul Dishaw, Yves Vial, Suzanne Bessette, Brian Sangster, Dennis Keusch, Sydney Condrashoff, Eric Nielsen, Marcia Semenoff, Noel Iwai and James Lindsay.

James Lindsay, Gallery on Wheels, 1987

For the summer of 1988, BC Transit asked Open Space to coordinate the project once again, with additional support from the Victoria Real Estate Board. Twenty bus panels were prepared for the summer run. Artists included in the project were Ted Polkinghorne, Phyllis Serota, Geoffrey Gerwing, Ian Thomas, Glenn Howarth, Michael Richardson, Yumie Kono, Gwen Curry, George Grove, Grant Leier, Nixie Barton, Michael Ziegler, Loretta Ha, Linda Schmid, Lance Olsen, David Owen Lucas, K2, Marlene Davis, Danny Coon and Paul Rode.

Carole Thompson, Gallery on Wheels, 1987

The artists painted on specially prepared plastic panels about 2.5 by 12 feet — the dimensions of the “king size” exterior bus advertising panels. The paintings were bolted to the sides of the buses; of these paintings, Open Space had 37 complete, two-panelled works. The designs represented a wide range of styles and themes, from decorative to seascapes, portraits, street scenes and abstract paintings.

Donna Kelly, Gallery on Wheels, 1987

Open Space director at the time Jeanne Shoemaker said the painters exhibited in Gallery on Wheels were enthusiastic about the project. “The artists involved all liked the idea of working in a non-gallery situation. Needless to say, this is an exciting opportunity for Open Space to bring artists before the public, to provide wider exposure for the arts and to celebrate Victoria’s fine painters.”

Almost one in five buses of Victoria’s 105-bus fleet was part of Gallery on Wheels, carrying fine art to virtually every corner of the region. Some 40,000 people who rode the bus on an average weekday and thousands more motorists and pedestrians saw the moving paintings as buses circulated throughout the transit route network.

Will Gordon, Gallery on Wheels, 1987

Acting as catalogues for the show were two issues of The Buzzer, Victoria Transit System News. These contained biographies of all the participating artists, some familiar names and faces in both Open Space and Victoria’s art history. All the panels were exhibited at Open Space and BC Transit hired a commercial photographer to document the project.

In the original plan, the artworks produced for Gallery on Wheels were to be auctioned. However, this did not happen because the paintings were damaged after their tenure on the sides of buses. Now, over two decades later, Open Space is celebrating this project with documentation on its website. The original works have been returned to the artists.

This essay was written by Sophie Pouyanne (2009). Sophie Pouyanne was employed at Open Space as a summer student in 2009 through Young Canada Works.