Western Front Society
Encyclopedia
The Western Front is an artist-run centre located in Vancouver
, Canada
. It was founded in 1973 by a multidisciplinary group of artists who purchased the former Knights of Pythias
lodge hall in which the centre still resides.
More than 2,000 events, including installations, video art
and new media art
, photography, performance, improvised, electronic and non-Western music, network art, dance and numerous hybrid and experimental practices have taken place at the centre. The centre has also participated in a vast number of international co-productions and exchange projects.
The centre's work reflects its inter-disciplinary ethos and early influences of Duchampian and Fluxus
-based investigations into mail art
, telecommunications art, live electronic music, video and performance art.
The Western Front runs artistic programs in Media Art, New Music
, Performance Art
, Visual Art Exhibitions, and publishes FRONT Magazine as part of its Publications Program.
Vancouver
Vancouver is a coastal seaport city on the mainland of British Columbia, Canada. It is the hub of Greater Vancouver, which, with over 2.3 million residents, is the third most populous metropolitan area in the country,...
, Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
. It was founded in 1973 by a multidisciplinary group of artists who purchased the former Knights of Pythias
Knights of Pythias
The Knights of Pythias is a fraternal organization and secret society founded at Washington, DC, on 19 February 1864.The Knights of Pythias was the first fraternal organization to receive a charter under an act of the United States Congress. It was founded by Justus H. Rathbone, who had been...
lodge hall in which the centre still resides.
More than 2,000 events, including installations, video art
Video art
Video art is a type of art which relies on moving pictures and comprises video and/or audio data. . Video art came into existence during the 1960s and 1970s, is still widely practiced and has given rise to the widespread use of video installations...
and new media art
New media art
New media art is a genre that encompasses artworks created with new media technologies, including digital art, computer graphics, computer animation, virtual art, Internet art, interactive art, computer robotics, and art as biotechnology...
, photography, performance, improvised, electronic and non-Western music, network art, dance and numerous hybrid and experimental practices have taken place at the centre. The centre has also participated in a vast number of international co-productions and exchange projects.
The centre's work reflects its inter-disciplinary ethos and early influences of Duchampian and Fluxus
Fluxus
Fluxus—a name taken from a Latin word meaning "to flow"—is an international network of artists, composers and designers noted for blending different artistic media and disciplines in the 1960s. They have been active in Neo-Dada noise music and visual art as well as literature, urban planning,...
-based investigations into mail art
Mail art
Mail art is a worldwide cultural movement that began in the early 1960s and involves sending visual art through the international postal system. Mail Art is also known as Postal Art or Correspondence Art...
, telecommunications art, live electronic music, video and performance art.
The Western Front runs artistic programs in Media Art, New Music
Contemporary classical music
Contemporary classical music can be understood as belonging to the period that started in the mid-1970s with the retreat of modernism. However, the term may also be employed in a broader sense to refer to all post-1945 modern musical forms.-Categorization:...
, Performance Art
Performance art
In art, performance art is a performance presented to an audience, traditionally interdisciplinary. Performance may be either scripted or unscripted, random or carefully orchestrated; spontaneous or otherwise carefully planned with or without audience participation. The performance can be live or...
, Visual Art Exhibitions, and publishes FRONT Magazine as part of its Publications Program.