Engagement (sculpture)

Inukshuk is an outdoor inuksuk by Alvin Kanak, installed at Vancouver's English Bay, in British Columbia. The inuksuk's base has a tablet recording that it was constructed in grey granite, and was commissioned by the government of the Northwest Territories for its pavilion at Expo 86, and later given to the City of Vancouver.An inunnguaq is the basis of the logo of the 2010 Winter Olympics designed by Vancouver artist Elena Rivera MacGregor. Its use in this context has been controversial among the Inuit, and the First Nations within British Columbia. Although the design has been questioned, people believe it pays tribute to Alvin Kanak's 1986 inuksuk at English Bay. Friendship and the welcoming of the world are the meanings of both the English Bay structure and the 2010 Winter Olympics emblem.A plaque near the work reads: "This ancient symbol of the Inuit culture is traditionally used as a landmark and navigational aid and also represents northern hospitality and friendship. Constructed of grey granite by Alvin Kanak of Rankin Inlet, this monument was commissioned by the Government of the Northwest Territories for its Pavilion at EXPO '86 and later given to the city of Vancouver. In 1987 the Inukshuk was moved to this site and sponsored as a gift to the City by Coast Hotels & Resorts through the Vancouver Legacies program."

Sunset Beach is situated in the West End near the Burrard Street Bridge and Vancouver International Hostel. The Vancouver Aquatic Centre lies at the East end of Sunset beach right next to the North end of Burrard Street Bridge. The beach has lifeguards on duty in the warm months. Public washrooms and concession stands are nearby. Biking, walking and inline skating paths wind above the beach area, leading to Stanley Park in one direction and Yaletown in the other. There is an off leash area to the south of the Vancouver Aquatic Centre, an Olympic size natatorium. It is a popular location for watching Vancouver fireworks.

English Bay is a neighbourhood in the West End of Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Though not formally defined, it is a commonly used local appellation that refers to the shopping and residential areas focused on the intersection of Denman and Davie Streets near at English Bay Beach. Generally, the term refers to the first few blocks of residential areas flanking the beach from Stanley Park to Sunset Beach, and to the commercial areas along Davie Street, and along Denman Street south of Nelson Street.

Vanier Park is a municipal park located in the Kitsilano neighbourhood of Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, created in 1967. It is home to the Museum of Vancouver, the Vancouver Maritime Museum, the City of Vancouver Archives, and the H.R. MacMillan Space Centre. It is also the site of the ancestral Squamish settlement of Sen̓áḵw, which was destroyed by the Provincial government 54 years earlier.

A-maze-ing Laughter is a 2009 bronze sculpture by Yue Minjun, located in Morton Park in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.

Gate to the Northwest Passage is a 1980 sculpture by Alan Chung Hung, located adjacent to the Vancouver Maritime Museum in Vanier Park in the Kitsilano neighborhood of Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. The 4.6-metre (15 ft) sculpture of a square, cut and twisted "like a paper clip" to form an arch, is composed of weathered Corten steel that rusts to provide a protective layer. The work was installed in 1980 to commemorate the arrival of Captain George Vancouver in Burrard Inlet, following a competition sponsored by Parks Canada one year prior. Gate to the Northwest Passage received an adverse reaction initially, but reception has improved over time. The sculpture has been included in walking tours of the surrounding neighborhoods as a highlight of Vanier Park.

The Sylvia Hotel is a historic Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada landmark. Located at 1154 Gilford Street on English Bay near Stanley Park. Constructed in 1912, the Sylvia was designed as an apartment building by Mr. W.P. White, a Seattle architect. It was built by Booker, Campbell and Whipple Construction Company for a Mr. Goldstein, who had a daughter named Sylvia. During the Depression the Sylvia Court Apartments fell on hard times, and in 1936 the building was converted into an apartment hotel. With the advent of World War II, many of the suites were converted to rooms, to provide accommodation for crews of the merchant marine. After the war the number of permanent residents in the hotel gradually decreased, until by the sixties the Sylvia had become a completely transient full-service hotel. In 1954 it opened the first cocktail bar in Vancouver. Until 1958 the Sylvia Hotel was the tallest building in the West End – a well-known landmark, its brick and terracotta extension softened by the Boston Ivy that now completely covers the Gilford Street side of the hotel. Until superseded by the West-End building boom of the 1960s, the hotel restaurant's slogan was "Dine in the Sky". In 1975 the Sylvia was designated by the City of Vancouver as a "heritage building", thereby ensuring its survival for many years to come. The famous Sylvia Hotel cat, "Mr. Got To Go", has inspired three popular children's books by Lois Simmie and illustrated by Cynthia Nugent. They are engaging tales of the stray cat who arrived at the Sylvia Hotel one day, took control of the premises and decided to check in permanently. A feline resident – possibly the same cat – is mentioned in a song about the hotel by American folk singer-songwriter Cheryl Wheeler.

The Museum of Vancouver (MOV) (formerly the Vancouver Museum and prior to that the Centennial Museum) is a civic history museum located in Vanier Park, Vancouver, British Columbia. The MOV is the largest civic museum in Canada and the oldest museum in Vancouver. The museum was founded in 1894 and went through a number of iterations before being rebranded as the Museum of Vancouver in 2009. It creates Vancouver-focused exhibitions and programs that encourage conversations about what was, is, and can be Vancouver. It shares an entrance and foyer with the H. R. MacMillan Space Centre but the MOV is much larger and occupies the vast majority of the space in the building complex where both organisations sit as well as separate collections storage facilities in another building.

The H.R. MacMillan Space Centre, is an astronomy museum located at Vanier Park in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. The museum was opened on October 28, 1968 containing a Planetarium Star Theatre. Today the museum includes an exhibit gallery and demonstration theatre where public lectures and events are hosted. The museum shares the building with the Museum of Vancouver. Next to the building is the Gordon MacMillan Southam Observatory.

Little Sister's Book and Art Emporium, also known as Little Sister's Bookstore, but usually called "Little Sister's", is an independent bookstore in the Davie Village/West End neighbourhood of Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. The bookstore was opened in 1983 by Jim Deva and Bruce Smyth, and its current manager is Don Wilson. The bookstore is famous for being embroiled in a legal battle with the Canada Border Services Agency over the importation of what the agency has labeled "obscene materials". These materials, nearly all dealing with male-male or female-female sexuality, were routinely seized at the border. The same publications, when destined for mainstream booksellers in the country, had often been delivered without delay or question. Glad Day Bookshop, an LGBT bookstore in Toronto, has faced similar difficulties. ... [A]lternative culture and lifestyles, including manuals and handbooks on safe sex (?!) were proclaimed indecent by someone who has no right to judge them in his/her bias/bigotry, which violates the anti-discrimination protection of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms guaranteeing equality of all Canadians. Not to mention that five out of ten provinces (plus one of the two territories) explicitly forbid discrimination based on sexual orientation. Little Sister's filed their claim against the federal government in 1990, but the case stalled and was not heard until October 1994. The trial concluded in January 1996 with a judgment for the plaintiffs. The court found that Little Sister's shipments had been wrongly delayed or withheld due to the "systemic targeting of Little Sisters' importations in the Customs Mail Center."In 2000, the case was heard in the Supreme Court of Canada. The court found that the customs has targeted shipments to the bookstore and attempted to prevent them from getting in. Consequently, the government was found to have violated section 2 of the Charter. However, the violation was justified under section 1. The case established that the onus of proving that expressive material is obscene lies with Canadian Customs. The bookstore's travails were fictionalized as a subplot of the film Better Than Chocolate. A feature-length documentary film by Aerlyn Weissman, Little Sister's vs. Big Brother (2002), has also been released about the bookstore. Former manager Janine Fuller was also a coauthor with Stuart Blackley of the book Restricted Entry: Censorship on Trial, a non-fiction account of the Little Sister's battle, and wrote an introduction for Forbidden Passages: Writings Banned in Canada, an anthology of excerpts from some of the impounded works which was edited by Patrick Califia. Both books were published in 1995, and were awarded Lammys at the 8th Lambda Literary Awards ceremony in 1996. Additionally, the book What right?: Graphic interpretations against censorship addressed the court case in the form of a graphic novel, with proceed from sales of the book being donated to the Little Sister's Defense fund to assist with legal challenges with Canada Customs. The book features contributions from a number of comic artists including Alison Bechdel and Marc Bell. The bookstore's co-owner, Jim Deva, died on September 21, 2014, at age 64. On December 23, 2019, Bruce Smyth, co-founder of Little Sister's, died at St. John Hospice at age 66.

St. Paul's Anglican Church serves the south-west downtown peninsula of Vancouver, British Columbia, (the West End and Yaletown neighbourhoods) alongside Christ Church Cathedral (established 1888) serving the north-east (Downtown and Coal Harbour neighbourhoods). Both parishes separated from St. James (established 1881), the first Anglican Church in Granville, as Vancouver was then known.

RCMPV St. Roch is a Royal Canadian Mounted Police schooner, the first ship to completely circumnavigate North America, and the second vessel to transit the Northwest Passage. She was the first ship to complete the Northwest Passage in the west to east direction (Pacific to the Atlantic Ocean), using the same route that Amundsen on the sailing vessel Gjøa had traversed east to west, 38 years earlier. The ship was most often captained by Henry Larsen.Liverpool-born Sgt. Fred S. Farrar RCMP (1901-1954) was a crew member of St. Roch for various voyages including the 1950 voyage that circumnavigated North America; he wrote the book Arctic Assignment: The Story of the St. Roch which was published posthumously in 1955. The Stan Rogers song "Take It From Day To Day" is the lament of a crew member on St. Roch. The ship is located at the Vancouver Maritime Museum in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, and is open to the public for scheduled visits.