The Point Artist-Run Centre is a Whistler institution in a town that doesn’t really embrace rustic anymore—and it’s still going strong. But where did it come from, and how did this beautiful old lodge on Alta Lake become what it is today?
Being one of the original lodges, mainly catering to anglers, that drew visitors to the Whistler area before it was Whistler, The Point Artist-Run Centre already had a rich history before it became The Point.
It was originally known as Cypress Lodge, opened by Dick Fairhurst with his wife Eunice (who went by her nickname Kelly), who built it on Cypress Point on the west side of Alta Lake in 1954.
A former trapper and miner, Fairhurst came to Alta Lake in 1943, and bought four lots on Alta Lake (the Cypress Point lands). Originally Cypress Lodge was just a collection of small cabins and Dick’s own home. The main lodge, now The Point’s main venue, was built in 1965, along with a collection of more “modern” cabins featuring indoor plumbing.
The site was a gathering place for locals and visitors through the 1950s, ’60s, and ’70s, when most of the population of the then town of Alta Lake was on the west side of the lake.
It was actually the site of the first ski lift in Whistler, an 800-foot rope tow behind the lodge, rising up above Alta Lake.
Fairhurst’s mother Elizabeth ran the tiny tearoom near the main lodge, and also did laundry and cooked.
The lodge and land was sold to Canadian Youth Hostels in 1972, which ran it as a youth hostel until the moving to Cheakamus Crossing in 2010. Prior to that, for many new arrivals, The Point was their first home in Whistler.
The Resort Municipality of Whistler purchased the property, and now rents it out to the non-profit Point.
“Cypress Lodge was sort of the more working-class option to Rainbow Lodge, which was seen as the more upscale place in Whistler [then still Alta Lake]. Although they were both pretty rustic,” says Stephen Vogler, who can be credited as the brainchild behind The Point evolving to the arts venue and resource it is today.
“I’ve lived on the property for 30 years, originally in one of the smaller cabins. They used to rent those out to locals, and I was lucky enough to get one,” says Vogler of the 500-square-foot cabin he has called home for three decades. “Living there I had the idea the lodge would make a great arts centre—I was floating the idea back in the ’90s before the municipality bought the property.”
It was almost exactly 15 years ago, the fall of 2009, when he invited more than a dozen friends to his current cabin on The Point property to discuss an artist-run centre.
“To my cabin I had local artists [including]: Charlie Doyle, Andrea Mueller, Dave Petko, Vincent and Cheryl Massey, Christina Nick and Randy ‘Randoid’ Smith—thirteen people in all,” he recalls. “It was like the first supper (as opposed to The Last Supper). We were boisterous, there was enthusiasm and some skepticism, but that’s where it all started.”
Vogler was driven by the idea for an artist-led space. His friends and other artists in Whistler, and throughout the corridor, saw the appeal of having additional infrastructure and resources for creatives.
“At the time I felt the need for something with a ‘do-it-yourself’ approach,” Vogler says. He admits he was somewhat influenced by the late Thor Froslev, who built the Brackendale Art Gallery and Tearoom (the BAG) in the early 1970s.
“We used to stop in there on our way to Whistler as a kid, and I always thought it was a really cool place.” says Vogler.
There are similarities. Although the BAG was purpose-built as a gallery and performance art space, it certainly has the same rustic appeal as The Point—but mostly their similarity lies in the maverick creation of a space for, and run by, artists of disparate disciplines: painters, sculptors, musicians, playwrights, actors and everything in between.
“There’s this misnomer that artists are harebrained, but that’s not usually the case,” says Vogler. “Most of the artists I know are quite adept at organizing things. It’s like running your own business.”
Vogler notes arts administration tends not to work that well when it’s top-down.
“I find it works best when it’s grassroots,” he says. “If you look at other artist-run centres across Canada, they all emerged like that.”
A MODEST PROPOSAL
After consulting with fellow artists and gaining their support, the next step was to approach the municipality.
“I drew up a five-page proposal and brought it to Jan Jansen, [former] general manager of resort experience for Whistler,” Vogler recalls. “He was skeptical, but listened, and Dave Patterson, manager of parks, was open to the idea.”
Vogler says some in the community wondered why there was a need for another arts group, when there was already the Whistler Arts Council (now Arts Whistler).
“Something must have worked—it must have been our no-budget approach,” Vogler says. “They let us do events on an event-by-event basis. That first year we had to rely almost entirely on ticket sales—our budget was $2,600.”
The Point’s annual budget is now closer to $200,000, so clearly something is working. That budget is subsidized by grants from all three levels of government. However, as Vogler notes, the centre still depends largely on ticket sales, registrations and other revenue.
“Many of our events sell out, but it’s not easy,” he says. “We’re not a Village location, we really have to sell it.”
Vogler adds when people do come to The Point, they love it.
“We get a mix of locals, people coming up from Vancouver and Squamish, and tourists,” he says. “We’ve had guests from Spain, Argentina, Israel. The international travellers like to walk around more and explore.”
Does he wish the municipality made it easier for locals and tourists to get out to The Point? Certainly.
“There was a bus to the youth hostel, up until 2011,” he says. “In fact, during the Olympics it ran every hour, but I think they blew the budget on that. Hopefully [the bus] will come back.”
The Point has leaned towards the performing arts in its 15-year history, but is increasingly doing more art shows and creating more programming for visual artists.
“We have studios upstairs, with four rented by the month, and we have really branched out, with the biggest change coming a year and a half ago,” Vogler says. “We have a long-term operating agreement with the municipality to run the whole place now. So we’re bringing in more artists-in-residence, connecting with artists coming through town, which helps us get outside the local bubble. It raises the bar.”
WHISTLER’S HIDDEN GEM
Visual artist (painter/muralist) Lacey Jane Wilburn is one of those artists. She came to live full-time in Whistler two years ago, with her partner and two small children. Although she still commutes to the city one day a week to work as a part-time instructor at Emily Carr University, she has contributed to the evolution of The Point on the visual-arts front.
“I’ve had a studio at The Point since March 2023. The studio program upstairs had opened just a month before,” Wilburn says. She had been a regular visitor to Whistler before moving here full-time. Part of that decision to move up from the city involved the expansion of facilities for visual artists at The Point.
“They put on their website that their studios were for rent. When I saw that, it made my move to Whistler permanent,” she says.
Artists have almost always had to find a way to supplement their income. For Wilburn, that means teaching at Emily Carr and offering paint nights at La Brasserie, but she says she would like to keep her teaching grounded in the resort.
“I would love to just be teaching here in Whistler, to stay completely local. I’d love for us to have more educational programs going constantly,” she says, citing the need to keep arts programming in front of locals to grow awareness and interest.
Brett Florio, who sits on The Point’s board with Wilburn, agrees. One of his first experiences with Whistler was at The Point, and the now-local musician became captivated by what he describes as the venue’s hyper-local events.
He discovered Whistler almost by accident, when on an extended RV trip up the West Coast, he and his wife came to Whistler when there were no RV spots available in the Lower Mainland.
“We came to Riverside [Campground] and found Whistler to be wonderful, so like a lot of people, we decided to stay,” he says.
For him, the theatre-kid camps at The Point run by Ira Pettle (also a board member) were part of the equation, along with the sense of community he discovered there.
“There’s a mix of people there, in different groups, who interact in a very cool way,” Florio says. “There are theatre folk, musicians, [visual] artists who don’t normally mix, so it’s different from a venue like Dusty’s, it’s about community.”
Florio, whose band The New Mountain Rangers is a Point regular, appreciates that people who come to The Point come to listen purposefully. He frequently hosts bluegrass or jazz jam sessions at the venue.
“I love playing at Alpine Café, and at Beer Farmers, where I might play for three hours, or at the Farmers’ Market, but at The Point the audience is very engaged,” he says.
In his few years here Florio has seen The Point expand, both in membership and in the breadth of events and programming offered—although he is surprised more locals don’t take advantage of what The Point has to offer.
“There are people in town who have never been to The Point, or came once 10 years ago,” he says. “I’m not surprised it’s as popular as it is, but it is a hidden gem. Though it’s not for everyone; it’s not hugely accessible.”
‘ART STIMULATES THE MIND’
The aforementioned Pettle, whose company Laugh Out LIVE! does events throughout the valley, including The Point, suggests a boat, or a barge to ferry people from the dock at Lakeside Park across the lake to the dock at The Point or the adjacent sailing school. He says a water taxi-like service taking people to The Point would in itself be a tourist attraction. Generally, he would like The Point to build on its success.
“We have a great venue, indoors and outdoors, artist studios, a snack bar, full commercial kitchen—it just has so much potential,” says Pettle.
The Point can be rented out for weddings, rehearsal space or other private events, but at its heart it’s an artist resource and venue.
“Arts in the community are vital. Whistler is already a magical place for so many reasons, but there is more to it than outdoor adventures,” says Wilburn. “Art stimulates the mind and the senses. Take murals, for example, which I also create—when they are painted, they can create a sense of belonging in the community.”
And to that end, Wilburn does see the need for more programming.
“We need more institutional programs, to have something going constantly,” she says.
Pettle echoes that sentiment, saying he would like to see educational and entertainment programming throughout the year. Of course that takes funding, which can be a challenge.
“Funding has been an issue for the arts since time immemorial. In the past, artists had to rely on wealthy patrons—today we rely heavily on government grants,” says Wilburn. “It is a challenge to fund the arts, but who wants to live in a world that’s without beauty, without aesthetic?”
Additional funding will likely have to come from the federal and provincial governments, says Wilburn, adding that unfortunately grants from all levels of government can be a boom/bust depending on the needs or the politics of the day.
“The federal government boosted grants during COVID, but since then they have pulled a lot of the funding,” she says.
For Wilburn it can be especially difficult, since, as she says, “the visual arts are almost always the first to get [funding] cuts when times are tough.” That, says Wilburn, is a big mistake, not just for visual arts but for arts in general.
“When times are tough are when you need the arts the most. It’s well known the arts are beneficial to mental health,” she says. “Whistler is a beautiful place, and it can be a tough place, financially. But the arts should not be on the back burner.”
Wilburn notes all of Whistler’s arts groups are self-funded to varying degrees.
“It’s not just us—Arts Whistler [and] the Audain [Art Museum] are incredible institutions that rely on local support,” she says.
Still, Wilburn feels there should be more support from higher levels of government.
“We shouldn’t have to be reaching out to the town so much,” she says. “We have so many creatives in the Sea to Sky [corridor] we need to allow places like The Point to grow.”
ROOM TO GROW
And there is room to grow, as like Florio, Wilburn finds there is a portion of the local community that is not yet aware of The Point.
“I’ve only been living here for two years, so I am always a bit surprised more people don’t know about The Point,” she says.
Vogler agrees, saying despite the success of The Point, a lot of locals have still not been there.
However, Wilburn says she is encouraged the community does seem to be getting more involved in the local arts. And with the new studio space at The Point, she recently offered a four-week course on the fundamentals of painting, and plans to offer more programs in the future.
The Point has several ongoing event series. The Flag Stop Theatre & Arts Festival, launched in 2012 and held every summer, is, according to Vogler, the centre’s biggest annual event. Then there are many other events and programs throughout the year, including dinner shows with theatre, music or comedy, the annual Winter Carnival and an annual fundraiser event.
“I don’t see [The Point] being comparable to Arts Whistler. It’s a small and remote venue,” Florio says. “The focus will always be more community-driven, a more intimate, unique approach.”
Find out more about The Point Artist-Run Centre and its upcoming programming at thepointartists.com. Discover more about Lacey Jane Wilburn and her art at her website, laceyjane.art, or on instagram @laceyjaneart. You can find out more about Ira Pettle and his upcoming shows or events at laughoutlive.com or at irapettle.com.
