The Parker Art Salon was officially born one evening in 2015 when a group of artists with studios in 1000 Parker Street met over wine and decided to do a salon-style exhibition in 1000 Parker Street Studios. The exhibition has since become a landmark event for the historic warehouse space.
Hosted in the century-old former mattress factory, the Parker Art Salon is based on the art salons held in Paris during the age of the impressionists and earlier. While on a trip to Paris, Niina Chebry, an artist in Parker Street for more than a decade, had the inspiration to do a salon style exhibition in Vancouver -in Parker. Just like the salons of the 19th century, Niina realized that this type of event could help raise awareness and spark discussion within the community about the arts, the artists, and value of a creative space like Parker Street within an urban environment.
The PARKER ART SALON is now an annual event. It helps visual artists -- painters and sculptures with studios in the building -- showcase their very best work to art collectors, art lovers and the general public.
The Salon’s first year, with just 30+ artists, saw a large turnout and was a success by every measure. 2016 saw double the number of artists participate and was also enormously successful as were 2017 and 2018.
Now in its 6th year, the Salon has established itself into a much anticipated annual ART event of Vancouver.
Part of the mandate of the Salon is to help a charity whose work aligns with artists and the arts, through money donated from sales. Our charity for the next exhibition, is The Beedie Luminaries Foundation.
The Beedie Luminaries Scholarship is for students with potential who are facing financial adversity. Students who are smart, but constrained by circumstance. Students who are resilient and gritty. Students who are ready to make a positive change in their lives.
Tickets for the Salon will be available online.
We gratefully acknowledge the contributions made by the Parker Art Salon Founders who include
Niina Chebry, Pilar Mehlis, Cybele Ironside, Deborah Bakos, Carylann Leoppky, Karen Holland, Laurel Swenson and Natalie Reynolds.