A social media storm over a Vancouver brewery’s decade-old mural has landed at Vancouver City Council.
On Tuesday, Vancouver city council passed a motion that will allow Storm Brewing to keep the promotional artwork, and would ask the city to update bylaws to allow similar murals on business properties.
“I was interested to see if this would sort of evolve in the public sentiment into a discussion debate between business and local art,” Coun. Sarah Kirby-Yung said ahead of the vote on her motion.
“I actually heard from some folks that I know and respect in the mural community who actually supported this and said: ‘Okay, I get it in terms of allowing it on local businesses on premises.'”
The motion passed unanimously Tuesday, although Mayor Ken Sim did not vote, as he was away on personal business.
With the motion approved, it allows Storm to keep its mural despite violating the city’s sign bylaw as written.
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Kirby-Yung states that the mural has been in place for a decade and provides “an exciting and vibrant piece of mural art that is beloved by locals and visitors alike.”
“The city’s bylaw pertaining to murals … was enacted by council in 1988, is 35 years old, and does not reflect the contemporary appetite for colourful neighbourhoods with creative installations.”
The tempest flared up last week, when the company — the city’s oldest independent microbrewery — posted on Instagram that the city had ordered it to remove its “iconic” mural.
The colourful artwork depicts the brewery’s name, along with a scene of rats and steam-fired kettles.
Storm Brewing owner James Walton, who started the business in 1994, said the mural has been in place for close to 10 years. The brewery said it was recently notified by the city that the mural is in violation of the city’s sign bylaw and would have to be removed.
The city has a mural program, but because branding and promotion elements are integral to Storm’s mural, it doesn’t qualify and instead falls under the city’s signs bylaw.
But the brewery’s Instagram post prompted a social media backlash, and several councillors with the city’s governing ABC majority pledged to look for solutions.
It would also direct staff to report back by early next year with ideas to modernize the city’s sign and mural bylaws to permit commercial elements, so long as the murals are on the businesses’ properties and “there is deemed to be a substantial component of artistic expression and benefit to the public realm,” Kirby-Yung added.
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