From left to right: Francis Gibson, Evelyn Pinkerton's stepdaughter Natalie Wright, Tassillie Dent, 221A executive director Brian McBay and Monica Morgan, in front of the Pinkerton Estate house.Kayla Isomura/Supplied
A Vancouver bungalow will become the first official asset for the Cultural Land Trust (CLT), a local non-profit organization that aims to preserve arts and cultural spaces through collective ownership.
The house, located near Lord Byng Secondary School in West Vancouver, was bequeathed to arts organization 221A, which operates the land trust, from the estate of the late Simon Fraser University professor, Dr. Evelyn Pinkerton.
Pinkerton was known for her environmental advocacy, and often welcomed visiting artists, musicians and scholars into the house when she lived there. She herself was a member of the Vancouver Folk Song Society, singing and playing string instruments at various music festivals throughout her life.
Pinkerton’s estate managers initially planned to donate the home to the Co-operative Housing Federation of BC, but the federation felt the home wasn’t a good candidate for their portfolio. They reached out to see if 221A would be interested, and with permission from the Pinkerton estate, made the switch. It felt, says 221A executive director Brian McBay, like a miracle.
“She would have jam sessions, if you will, in the house. When I went to visit it, I could feel that energy of visiting scholars and folks who didn’t have access to housing. It was a good fit from there.”
221A launched the land trust in 2021 with the goal of acquiring small performance venues and cultural spaces through a combination of community, philanthropic and government funding. The land trust would then rent them back to operators at fixed rates. The model not only keeps these venues functioning, but takes them out of the speculative real estate market, putting that wealth back in the hands of the community.
The CLT is Canada’s first cultural land trust, though similar programs have been successful in Texas and in Britain.
Now, with the acquisition of the Pinkerton house, which was assessed at a value of $2.77-million in 2025, the CLT can put that idea into practice, moving toward its lofty goal of securing 30 buildings by 2050 for long-term cultural and housing stability across British Columbia.
Though the mortgage for the 1920s-era wood-frame house has been paid off, the building needs a couple hundred thousand dollars’ worth of upgrades, including to its roof, and plumbing and electrical systems, says McBay. He hopes to finance those upgrades primarily through government grants.
Once the building has been renovated, 221A will undertake a “community visioning process” to determine the best use for it, but McBay suspects the four-bedroom, two-bathroom house would be best used to temporarily house visiting artists at a significantly below-market rate. The building would operate on a cost recovery model, with the land trust covering property taxes and continuing maintenance.
One of the biggest challenges land trusts face is being able to respond quickly when properties are put on the market. With the acquisition of the bungalow, McBay hopes it can act as a stepping stone for the CLT to secure other buildings, providing proof of concept to sellers and lenders who might be unfamiliar with the community land trust model.
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“The cultural sector does not have mechanisms to secure and acquire real estate,” says McBay. “Now we have an asset that we can go to the bank and put a charge against if there’s another critical building that needs a social landlord to be able to come in and purchase it. We already see there’s so many of these opportunities that come and go, and this just puts us in a position where I think growth will be inevitable.”
Those close to Pinkerton say she would be “overjoyed” to know her house would be used for artist housing in perpetuity. “[She] understood that the people who give so much to cultural and civic life often struggle to find a stable, affordable place to live,” says Pinkerton’s stepdaughter, Natalie Wright. “By donating her house, she hoped to preserve the community she had built and offer future generations a place to gather and thrive.”
The cultural land trust’s work comes at a time when many of Vancouver’s arts organizations – and artists themselves – face continuing economic displacement. More than 400 of the city’s production spaces, performance venues and art galleries have shuttered over the past decade, and two-thirds of existing spaces lease for less than five years, which can create operational uncertainty.
“Vancouver’s 37,000+ jobs in arts and culture are at urgent risk,” reads a statement from the City of Vancouver’s arts and culture working group submitted to Vancouver city council in May. The statement goes on to highlight that Vancouver has the highest population of artists and cultural workers in the country, yet the industry continues to grapple with a lack of funding, regulatory barriers, changing audience behaviour, housing affordability, artificial intelligence, and the loss of space and talent.
“The sector requires significant and sustained investment in cultural infrastructure and workers,” reads the statement.
For McBay, the bequeathment of the Pinkerton home comes as a serendipitous gift amid that urgency.
“I know this happens, but to see that it actually did happen, it just feels very positive that someone would give their home to charity."