vancouver street plaza | North Park Neighbourhood, Victoria BC

see upcoming events and activities on the NPNA event calendar!

welcome to the lending hub!

Tinker Time Craft Workshops – Celebrating the closing of the POP-UP Little Free Craft Store

Since February 3rd, the SUPPLY POP—UP (a tiny, free thrift store for art supplies) has been providing free and reuse-inspiring materials to our creative community over 1,000 times!

To celebrate the end of the SUPPLY Pop-Up Little Free Craft store, we;re hosting two closing parties on Saturday, May 21st and Saturday, May 28th from 2-4pm. You’re invited for “Tinker Time” — material-based open free play tables — where you will be supplied with a colourful array of upcycled supplies to create on the prompts: paper bag puppets and milk carton bird feeders!

Dates: May 21 & May 28th (the last 2 Saturdays in May)
Location: Vancouver Street Plaza (on Vancouver Street between Caledonia and Pembroke)
Time: 2-4pm (drop-in anytime)
Price: Free
All-ages | No RSVP necessary
Free snacks, coffee, & Cultured Kombucha will be provided.

If you are interested in volunteering for these events, fill out SUPPLY’s Volunteer Application Form here. They will need folks to serve drinks and snacks, restock and tidy materials, and assist with creative reuse education. This isn’t the end for SUPPLY Victoria and the redistribution of more sustainable & affordable art supplies; SUPPLY is excited to announce that they will be moving to a larger location that opens July 2nd at 750 Fairfield Road. The Vancouver Street Plaza will remain active as well as our neighbourhood association transforms it back into their Lending Library for games and sporting equipment!

SUPPLY would like to thank the North Park Neighbourhood Association for allowing them to utilize the hub and for all their support as well as express gratitude for everyone who donated materials and came by the shop to put them to good (re)use. Thank you to the City of Victoria for their support through the My Great Neighbourhood Grant and Community Foundations for their support through the Healthy Communities Initiative grant.

Stay up to date on SUPPLY’s move and other creative reuse initiatives through their newsletter: https://www.supplyvictoria.ca/newsletter

SUPPLY Pop-Up: A Little Free Craft Store!
Open every Thursday, Friday, and Saturday from 2-6pm

Do you love crafting? Making art? What about crafting and making art with free, recycled supplies!? The NPNA is pairing up with SUPPLY Victoria to bring a little FREE craft store to the Vancouver Street Plaza starting on February 3, 2022!

Shop SUPPLY’s Pop—Up for free, used art supplies diverted from the landfill for community reuse every Thursday, Friday, and Saturday from 2pm-6pm! Learn more about the SUPPLY POP-UP here, and check out the pictures of the space below!

how the vancouver street plaza came to be!

The NPNA is thrilled to be a recipient of the Healthy Communities Initiative grant from Community Foundations of Canada with funding from the Government of Canada! This amazing grant was developed to help communities bring public space to life. Covid has taught cities across Canada that public space that meets the needs of residents is incredibly important. This federal grant is designed to activate underused public spaces in equity deserving neighbourhoods.

You can see the other projects funded from this grant here. You can also follow #HealthyCommunities on Instagram, as well as these accounts to see all the projects taking place across the country: Infrastructure Canada on Twitter and Community Foundations of Canada on Twitter and Instagram!

The location of this exciting project is Vancouver Street between Caledonia Ave & Green Street. The North Park Neighbourhood Association is working with the City’s Transportation department to activate this portion of Vancouver Street in coordination with planned placemaking investments. This project aligns with the recently completed bikeway improvements on Vancouver Street. The Transportation Department is contributing funds to support public art and public seating as well as coordinating Mobile Vendors through the Build Back Victoria Program.

See (and hear!) the lending hub & SUPPLY Pop-Up in action!

plaza guidelines

The following Plaza Rules will be posted and would apply to everyone equally. The rules are:

project elements

A mural along Royal Athletic Park by artists Kay Gallivan, Caitlin McDonagh, and Lydia Beauregard.
A little free library will be installed at the corner of Vancouver Street and Green at the entrance to the 940 Caledonia parking lot. See the photo of the little free library below! Thank you to community volunteer, Allan who made the LFL out of recycled materials!
Secured and moveable seating and shade. Bistro seats with umbrellas and lounging chairs for reading provided by the City of Victoria.
Whimsical lighting adds an inviting ambience to the street.
The focal point of the Plaza will be a lending hub. This is an 8×12 foot structure that will be staffed when open. From August-December 2021, the lending hub lent out puzzles, board games, sports equipment, lawn games and more! From Feburary – May 2022, the lending hub will be a little free craft store with SUPPLY Victoria (details above!)
A community bulletin board where neighbours can post notices about upcoming community events!
Arriving soon…. A little free pantry!

project timeline

This project is funded from June 2021-June 2022. While there are some elements that we intend to make permanent (lighting, mural, little free library, secured seating), the rest of the elements (lending hub, moveable seating) will only be in place until June 2022.

plaza committee

The community was invited – through direct invitation as well as the NPNA newsletter – to attend a Plaza Committee Planning Party on July 5, 2021 on site. The notes from this fun dinnertime working party are here.

There will be more meetings and opportunities to get involved! If you want to be a part of the “Plaza Committee” let us know by emailing executivedirector@npna.ca.