Welcome to the Crista Dahl Media Library & Archive

The Crista Dahl Media Library & Archive (CDMLA) is situated on the Unceded Coast Salish Territories of the xʷməθkwəy̓əm (Musqueam), Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish) and Səl̓ílwətaʔ/Selilwitulh (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations.  VIVO Media Arts Centre houses a significant repository of videotapes by artists and independent producers. Spanning 60 years of production, its 8000 media works reflect the complexity of video art history.

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EXHIBITS

PARTNERSHIPS

Celebration ’90
Gay Games III & Cultural Festival
Online at Digital Museum Canada
Celebration ’90 chronicles the fascinating eight-year journey taken by a small group of Vancouver amateur athletes which led to the first Gay Games to be hosted outside the United States. The exhibit is centered around s video documentation and interviews with staff, volunteers, and athletes, shot by Fast Forward Productions  founded by Vancouver producer and lesbian activist,Mary Anne McEwen).
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Women & West Coast Labour 
80 years of action for equity in domestic & workplace labour by women in B.C.
This exhibit features media and publications from the Sara Diamond and Women In Focus fonds.
Part 1: Chambermaids to Whistlepunks
Part 2: Working Women In Focus
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Archive/Counter Archive
Gendered Violence: Responses & Remediations
VIVO is an institutional partner with York University’s SSHRC project Archive/Counter Archive. Our case study starts this April. Researchers include Gabriela Aceves-Sepulveda, Amber Berson, Zoe Druick, Susan Lord, & Cait McKinney. Public programs begin this fall.
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Recollective: Vancouver Independent Archives Week
Recollective is a joint initiative of 221A, Artspeak, grunt gallery, Rungh Magazine, The Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery, VIVO Media Arts Centre, Western Front, and Allison Collins, Curator.
VIVO projects Pisces Midheaven: The Lenore Herb Cassette Collection and Trans Archival Futures with Chase Joynt & Chris E.Vargas.
EXPLORE SERIES

EVERY QUEER THING

STICKY IMPULSE

FEATURED RESOURCES

Every Queer Thing
A Subject Guide to Archival Materials of Queer Identity or Experience.
A searchable online finding aid for LGBTQ2S+ media, publications, and Special Collections at the CDMLA.
EXPLORE FINDING AID
What Remains: Meg Torwl
The most recent iteration of the Sticky Impulse,  a series that features our Special Collections. The What Remains exhibit drawn from the Meg Torwl fonds. Video, radio, poetry, drawings, and photographs related to the practice of  queer and disability activist, Meg Torwl, created in British Columbia and New Zealand.
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Women, Art & the Periphery
Mujeres, arte y periferia
Documentation of Chilean artists Diamela Eltit, Nellie Richards, and Lotty Rosenfeld In Residence at Women In Focus and Video In, 1987.
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Cerizay: they dared_En Greve
En Grève! 1970s French Activisms at the CDMLA
1970s French militant video & related CDMLA resources. A supplemental exhibit and guide to videos presented as part of  En grève: 1970s French Labour Activism on Screen, a project of Unit Pitt and VIVO.
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ACCESS DURING COVID

VIVO is currently closed to the public but the Archive is still working. Please forward your research enquiries to library@vivomediaarts.com.

FUNDERS