Day two of Creative Spacemaking brought more detail and depth to the process of large-scale urban development for creative spaces. In Toronto, where Artscape has been building its own infrastructure and relationships along with the projects it has tackled over more than 20 years, large projects encompassing acres and city blocks are now the norm. Architect Joe Lobko filled our eyes and minds with the complexity of project planning and the types of expertise required to make a project flow through all the challenges that inevitably turn up.

But just as many of us were shifting from admiration to dismay, realizing that WE will have to figure out all this stuff, too, Dan Paris from VanCity Capital brought us down to earth with local examples of large, medium and small projects here in our community.

We are not the first sector to 'discover' the concept of co-location and economies of scale, as several projects in Vancouver and environs have been developed and the experience of locals can be accessed.

The day wound up with participants forming action groups around key areas of interest, from how to access the federal infrastructure funding about to come to 'shovel-ready' projects, to how we can create an Artscape-like entity here in Vancouver to focus, guide, lead, enable and source culture-led regeneration projects. These groups have set times and dates to get together and plan the next steps, and I will report on progress here.

The BC Cultural Sector Development Council may be a resource to support the incubation of this work, but will also be attentive to the province-wide need for information and collaboration around the issues of development for housing cultural and creative activity and the artists themselves. Your comments and interest are welcome.