TOSH fosters creative sense of place in Qualicum Beach and beyond
Published 2:30 pm Sunday, May 17, 2026
The Old School House Arts Centre in Qualicum Beach recently launched the Vancouver Island Arts Asset Map, a free interactive tool which charts arts infrastructure across the Island.
The map was part of a two-year Creative QueerPreneur project which aimed to support the development of entrepreneurial skills and sustainable practices in 2SLGBTQIA+ creative communities, according to a recently released report.
Over that time, eight regional hubs were established in Comox Valley, Tofino and Ucluelet, Hornby Island, Qualicum Beach, Nanaimo, Gabriola Island and Victoria, as well as one virtual hub, according to Illana Hester, executive director of TOSH, which led the initiative. It was two years of bringing people together and teaching artists the marketplace.
“We have such a huge amount of creatives out here, but we don’t necessarily have the funding or the infrastructure to support that many artists or to support artists in general,” Hester said. “Out of some of that research came this asset map – this idea that we don’t really have a good way to understand where all the art spaces are, or where all the art galleries are or where actually is the creative infrastructure that’s on Vancouver Island.”
Studies in previous years found there are approximately 35,000 artists on the Island, but the question was where?
Hester says what is lacking is funding and infrastucture to support them, such as auction houses or a large secondary art market. The Arts Asset Map is the start of some basic data visualization.
“It really highlighted how important places like TOSH are, not just for community arts, but for this regional aspect of the marketplace,” Hester said. “Places like TOSH become really important in their cultural programming. We become a really important part of access for artists to understand the marketplace and and also an important part for visitors and for audience members to participate in the arts.”
Three new art exhibitions recently opened at the arts centre which all ask the question: what does it truly mean to be somewhere?
As Above by Baxter Redfern, How to Soar with the Moon and Drown in the Sea by Carly Butler and Being Cumberland by David Vegt opened May 5 and will be on display until July 4.
The three exhibits are a sort of “culmination” of the work that’s been done over the past two years, bringing people together through the work of the Creative QueerPreneur project and the Art Asset Map, Hester added.
“These three exhibitions that are also very much about kind of standing in your own space, and kind of what does that mean? What does it mean to be in a place? What does it mean to be from a place?”
The TOSH Talks series continues this month, as do the arts centre’s many workshops, classes and programs, with more information available at theoldschoolhouse.org.
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