Relocation
Since 2010, VCA has been in the process of relocating. During this transition to a more durable abode, VCA continues to fulfill its regional and national mandate, offering Laval residents and others, both new and seasoned art lovers, accessible programming in a variety of sites across Île-Jésus. These take place most often off-site, beyond the walls of typical art venues, placing art in unusual spaces, close to the everyday lives of citizens.
Verticale’s history, marked by a search for a stable locale, is of a piece with its overall nomadic character. Undertaking several relocations prior to 2010 — the year it turns to off-site programming and starts planning a major capital project — the Centre has shown remarkable perseverance. Such perseverance conveys the real need of a community comprising three generations of artists to see Verticale establish itself, lastingly and definitively, in this territory.
Since 2011, Verticale’s relocation project has been led by the Regroupement d’organismes culturels et d’artistes lavallois (ROCAL), of which VCA is a founding member. Comprising 15 organizations from a range of artistic fields (visual arts, theatre, dance, music), the ROCAL has been working since its inception to develop a capital project, which, to date, would provide Laval with its first Centre for professional artistic creation. Located in the Quadrilatère Montmorency in downtown Laval, this project is a response to the glaring lack of professional-level cultural facilities available in the municipality. Here, VCA will have its own street-fronting presentation space, as well as two studios for Laval artists.
Progress of the relocation project with ROCAL
2006
Ville de Laval updates its cultural policy and officially commits to supporting the development of professional arts in the municipality.
2008
Ville de Laval carries out an important consultation that reveals numerous gaps in the facilities and equipment available to professional organizations.
2010
Ville de Laval tables an action plan that leads to the first study to establish a Centre for professional artistic creation and lays the foundations for the current project.
2011
The ROCAL is created and the establishment of a Centre for professional artistic creation is its first priority.
2015
The ROCAL begins to draft its Business Plan, as well as its Functional and Technical Program (FTP) for the Centre for creation. The project is meant to serve as a veritable laboratory of experimentation and research for local and visiting artists; as a place of synergy and resource-sharing for organizations; and as a space where encounters and exchanges with various publics are generated.
2016
The ROCAL hires permanent staff dedicated to advancing the relocation project.
2020
The Ville de Laval announces it will go ahead with preliminary studies for the construction of a major cultural facility in the Montmorency sector, in the downtown core. This extensive project will include a central library as well as a centre for professional artistic creation under the auspices of the ROCAL. Laval citizens are invited to take part in the first phase of a participatory process concerning the project in summer 2020.