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Our History
One day over dinner in late 1999 at the former Bella Casa Restaurant, a former landmark in the Marpole community, web design proprietor and electronic media design instructor, James Neufeld of Magnetude Media and clothing designer and proprietor, Shainin Hudda of SoulDaisy Design were discussing their dreams and the human need to belong and interact with one another. We wanted to see "communing" happening in the community and knew there were many others out there who shared our vision. Out of this dinner and a series of meetings, we decided to plan a one-time event with live music, art, spoken word and cocktails.
Open The Door
We threw a few private cocktail tasting parties with our friends and chose our favorites for our original cocktail menu (in perpetual evolution). We've also spent countless hours selecting music to play at our events (and still do) - often theme-based - which adds to the labour, but it's a labour of love.
We knew we'd get our friends and their friends to come, and we flyered around the area inviting the local residents (It's been a tough neighbourhood to reach as Marpole residents can be transient or head towards the city for their entertainment). We had over 40 guests at our first event and a lot of encouragement to continue.
Over the years, we've got to know and continue to meet so many musicians and artists and continue to feature bands that deserve to be heard live more often. It's incredible - the amount of talent "with a beautiful vibe for your soul" we keep discovering here locally! Inredible and rewarding. We now average between 60 and 120 people at our events depending on what else is going on around town on the evening we pick and word-of-mouth or word-of-mouse (forwarding our emails to your friends and colleagues) is a great help!
Looking back at all the events we've thrown since then, it's amazing how many friendly and talented people we've met who applaud our efforts and how much we enjoy the countless hours planning and holding each Beautiful House event and building our online community here at gallerylounge.com.
Our guests come to our events for a few hours, or perhaps like many, you are leisurely browsing our website either in the area or from across the globe, but the weeks preceeding an event and the ongoing development of gallerylounge.com can often be all-consuming for us.
We hope you enjoy consuming the fruits of our labour and the many talented independent artists we are proud to feature! Our
Beginning...
The
first event was held in the smoking lounge of Bella
Casa Restaurant, the 20 year old landmark restaurant
in the area which suprisingly closed its doors one
month before our opening and was purchased by Peter
and Georgia Piliotis who reopened the restaurant as
Ygeia in September 1999 and since our opening night,
have begun remodelling the restaurant, opening up
the smoking lounge by building new doors and windows
to Hudson Street. Hudson and West 72nd include other
Marpole landmarks including Appy Hour Restaurant,
The Scottish Cultural Center, Airport Square, and
the new home of Aunt
Leah's Society.
Our
Name...
In
tribute to the former landmark, Bella Casa, Beautiful
House Gallery Lounge received its name and was born
with a handful of our beautiful friends, and their
beautiful friends, and some beautiful strangers we
had promoted the event to in the area.
A
house is a gathering. It had to be "beautiful" not only because Marpole desperately needs some style,
but we've both had enough of the snobiness often associated
with art gatherings and the often brutal ugliness
of any drinking establishment. Entrepreneurship comes
to those who want something different from the day-to-day
corporate climbing or paper shuffling.
And
so on lives the name Beautiful House - a constant
reminder of our roots at Bella Casa Restaurant the
vision we had of something better, something kinder,
something creative and yet humble - a gathering of
beautiful people.
Our
Early Days & The Beautiful House Bubbles...
When
we started, we agreed to coordinate Beautiful House
just as a one-time event. We were open to doing a
followup special event depending on how things went
but had no idea we'd be here today. Much to our joy
on opening night, we received a warm reception to
our first event, Open
The Door in September 1999 and quickly decided
to followup with masqueradeLOUNGE
for Halloween the following month...
Locating
venues, licences, artists and performers soon began
to take up a lot of our time... we began carrying
flyers with us wherever we went.... We also carried
our beautifulHOUSE bubbles with us blowing them out
the car window as we flyered the neighbourhood streets
into late 1999 and put smiles on faces who saw the
bubbles trailing our car. This project has been a
tremendous growth experience for us and we continually
learn and grow.
Moving
To Somewhat Bimonthly Events...
With
the competition of the 1999 holiday and millenium
season festivities upon us, we took a step back and
decided to hold off on a December event and move to
somewhat bi-monthly events beginning in January and
March to free up some time for both of us, our businesses,
and to help us create something a bit more special,
theme-based and more upscale...
Our
Venue History...
Warehouse
#1 - In November 1999, we settled into a warehouse
space at 8805 Selkirk Street and West 72nd for both
our 3rd and 4th events, night@theCOPA
and reSOLVE.
It was our first really cool space and we didn't have
to be out by 2am.
A great improvement, the grunge workshop space of
McComb's Fine Finishings was transformed into a swellegant
space and for the first time, we had our very own
space. By January, the logistics of setting up and
striking the events were all worked out and the space
began to feel like home.
Warehouse
#2 - Unfortunately, the space was no long available
and so we moved to a larger multi-room warehouse venue,
the former Aunt Leah's Gallery, for our 5th event,
March's wildCARD
featuring a 5-piece pop/jazz band, Red Velvet Swing,
Emily Carr artist, Kathryn Mussallem, and a short
play written by John Verhaeven - all well received.
We developed theme-rooms including the Queen's Parlour,
Showgirl's Boudoir, Joker's Ballroom and Smoking Theatre
which really worked out well. Those who have come
since our first event were very impressed with the
improvements!
Marpole
Place - Maura Chestnutt of Marpole Place attended
wildCARD,
and was enthusiastic about what she saw happening
in the community of Marpole. Thanks to Maura and Marpole
Place, our 6th and 7th events Victor/Victoria
and The
Paris Match were held in the retro hall of the
old firehall building known as Marpole Place. Singer/songwriter,
Robyn McCorquodale made excellent use of the piano
at Marpole Place throughout the evening at Victor/Victoria,
while a variety of performers used the piano and their
own equipment for The
Paris Match. The evening battled with the fireworks
and Illuminaries but a good crowd showed up and the
evening lineup included more spoken word performances
than ever.
Ygeia
Restaurant - Our 1st year anniversary was a small
but intimate event on a very rainy night in September
2000 - Indian
Summer back at our first venue, Ygeia Restaurant
with many of our past artists in a retrospective night.
Starry
Dynamo Cafe - Trying to keep venue costs down
and looking to tap into the Main Street walk-by traffic,
we approached a few cafes and made a good decision
to hold Angel
and The
Four Loves at the newly opened Starry
Dynamo Cafe on Main near 27th.
Marpole
Curling Club - With two packed events at Starry
Dynamo and a renewed momentum by many new patrons
and potential artists we met, we moved into our current
venue, the Marpole
Curling Club. Under new management, they were
open to the idea of renting out their kitschy upstairs
lounge for Curl,
Curl II
and Curl
III and although it took a while for all of us
to feel at home at a curling club of all places, we're
sticking around for a bit. Recent events include Joy
and Irish
Spring. The staff at the Marpole
Curling Club enjoys our events as much as our
crew and artists enjoying performing and lounging
there - some bands even curl beforehand!
We
look forward to the growth and popularity of newer
venues like the Marpole
Curling Club - a venue-in-the-making. It's available
for rent by other organizations, as long as they aren't
having a bonspiel :)
In
a city with many established venues, we often get
asked why we don't hold events in the hub of the city.
Our answer is simple - we like Marpole, we like our
humble-sized crowds, and we need to keep costs down
as this project we call bH is one of the many things
we do.
In 2003 and 2004 we have held a few events downtown including a weekly series at the Media Club and a special event at 7th and Pine.
We hope our artists and vibe will continue
to be the draw, not just the location.
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