By: Ashima Shukla, Staff Writer
What does it mean for an artist-run centre to survive 50 years? For UNIT/PITT, the answer is a commitment to remaining porous, responsive, and unpretentious. The Peak interviewed their team to learn more.
Founded in 1975, UNIT/PITT is a non-profit organization that has served as an incubator for arts advocacy in Vancouver. Often willing to subvert what counts as art, executive director Catherine de Montreuil explained UNIT/PITT’s work as lending “institutional and organizational framework” to local and international, emerging and renowned artists. Its associate director Ali Bosley believes it has remained a space for “the weirdos and the misfits,” where those who challenge Vancouver experiment and grow. “There’s been this willingness to adapt, even if it looked like a failure,” Bosley continued. This insistence on imperfect growth, while staying close to the ground, has been key to its survival.
On November 7, it celebrated that legacy of creative resistance with 50: Half a Century of UNIT/PITT and UNIT is U publication launch. This featured “live audio and visual interventions by Kaila Bhullar and Jefferson Alade, reimagining artist david-george extensive audio and video archive of the Pitt of the Past.” Meanwhile, the exhibition, running until February 2026, invites viewers to step back in time and explore their extensive archive, reigniting hope for overcoming today’s crises.
The accompanying 183-page publication, designed by SFU student and graphic designer Shafira Vidyamaharani, complements this unruly history, as a tactile testament of endurance. Lovingly edited by de Montreuil, Bosley, and archives project coordinator Kira Saragih, it asks, what does it mean to archive from the margins?
Understanding the “importance of leftist organizations carrying leftist archives,” Bosley sees this undertaking with “a sense of responsibility to archive what hasn’t been documented.” As Saragih emphasized, “Archival practices, in their roots, can be quite colonial.” Instead, Unit is U reframes memory as a collective act. The process of unpacking the archives was not limited to sorting through papers, as Saragih elaborated: “Early in the project, I met with a lot of the folks that were involved with UNIT/PITT,” seeing them as “living archives” of the organization’s work and impact.
The resulting publication is a vibrant collage of essays, timelines, and archival fragments that capture this sprawling and eclectic history. In various forms, the pieces explore Chris Wong’s reflections from HIV/AIDS activism in the 1990s, Dana Claxton’s First Ladies exhibition featuring Indigenous women artists, Jamie Ward’s stories curating music from mariachi bands to the Wrong Wave festivals, Brit Bachmann’s honest reflections on burnout, and more.
In the next 50 years, Bosley wants to carry forward the unique idealism she sees at the heart of UNIT/PITT’s work. The goal is not simply to preserve history but forge new solidarities. As Saragih claimed, “real art isn’t what is displayed in the room, but the conversations that stem from it.” Bosley echoed this sentiment, calling on young artists to see themselves as part of a lineage.
As art becomes essential to the collective’s survival, support UNIT/PITT by becoming a member. Visit the exhibit at their new space in Kitsilano, and absorb its rich history of resistance and solidarity.
