The "C-Lab"
The Vancity Culture Lab, often called the C-Lab, opened in November 2008 as one of The Cultch's three spaces on Venables Street. As a true black box studio, every piece of lighting and audio technology is accessible from anywhere in the room, and the movable riser seating can be set up in most configurations the floor will allow: in the round, thrust, traverse, or a flat cabaret floor.
Built for Sound and Shadow
The room is a cinder block construction built for acoustical performance, then draped head to toe in black velour mounted on tracks. Directors and bands can reshape the backdrop in minutes and block out ambient light entirely, which suits intimate productions and stripped-back live sets.
Part of The Cultch
The Vancity Culture Lab sits within the Vancouver East Cultural Centre, a not-for-profit registered charity housed in a heritage building at 1895 Venables Street, alongside the Historic Theatre and the Cultch Gallery. The building was constructed in 1909 as the Grandview Methodist Church and converted into the Vancouver East Cultural Centre in 1973, and it carries municipal heritage protection on the City of Vancouver's register; a roughly $14-million renovation designed by Proscenium Architecture and Interiors earned a LEED Silver designation. The Cultch programs new and experimental work on Vancouver's east side, and operates on the unceded territories of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations.