Arthur Erickson: Beauty Between The Lines and The Architecture of Encounter, with Dr. Jeff Derksen

West Coast Modern Week is a yearly celebration of West Coast Modernism, a distinct architectural style with deep roots in West Vancouver. Surrounded by forested mountains, an expansive ocean, and a lush rainforest, the natural setting of West Vancouver presents unique challenges and opportunities that are reflected in the local architecture.

This two-part event includes the film screening of Arthur Erickson: Beauty Between The Lines and the Annual Barry Downs Lecture Series: The Architecture of Encounter, with Dr. Jeff Derksen.

FILM

Arthur Erickson: Beauty Between The Lines chronicles the untold personal and professional triumphs and tragedies of one of the most captivating modernist architects of the 20th Century.

The film delves into the life and work of Arthur Erickson, a visionary architect first in Canada and ultimately throughout the world. With intimate interviews, unseen archival footage, and an exploration of his architectural masterpieces, the film weaves together the complexities of Erickson's personal and professional life. It reveals a man who transcended traditional boundaries, who fused art, culture, and nature and in the process, redefined modern architecture.

LECTURE

Using the film, Arthur Erickson: Beauty Between the Lines, Dr. Jeff Derksen will approach Erickson's architecture through the concept of the encounter. Informed by his travels as an architectural student, and shaped by an optimistic 1960s moment in Canadian culture, Erickson's expansive imagination sought to bring together architectural elements from many cultures and to structure his building as spaces of encounter.

Drawing on his imagination of education as an understanding of the world and the student as a citizen whose own imagination can be taken in many directions — even unpredicted directions — by encounters with culture, with other students, and with the world, Erickson's educational buildings are important architectural reminders of education as a journey and as a right. Lastly, Erickson's public buildings all aimed at bringing the urban encounter into the possibility of the building, where the possibility of meeting and spending time was structured into the plan of the building and its site.

Presented by the West Vancouver Art Museum in partnership with Kay Meek Arts Centre with support from the Nancy Farran Compelling Opportunities Fund, West Vancouver Foundation.

West Coast Modern Week 2025 runs from July 8 to 13, 2025. For more information, visit West Vancouver Art Museum.

Tickets go on sale on Fri, May 9 at 10:00 AM.