WHO WE ARE
Friends of Granville Island (FGI) is a grassroots community that advocates for Granville Island’s unique status as an urban park which is zoned for urban experimentation, innovation and the nurturing of arts & culture.
To encourage its full potential as one-of-a-kind urban public space, FGI’s mission is to help ensure that Granville Island is accessible, equitable and inclusive for local and global communities, toward creating a community-led ‘People’s Place,’ where urban experimentation, innovation, and arts & culture thrive.
We respectfully acknowledge that the land known as a7ermitsut or Granville Island is the current, ancestral and traditional, ancestral and unceded territory of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm, Sḵwx̱wú7mesh, and Səl̓ílwətaɬ Nations. We are grateful to be living, working, gathering, celebrating and organizing together on this land.
Huy ch q’u (Thank you in Hul’q'umi'num)!
Friends of Granville Island is committed to meaningful reconciliation with Indigenous Peoples, in particular the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm, Sḵwx̱wú7mesh, and Səl̓ílwətaɬ Peoples.
WHAT MAKES GI SPECIAL?
In the early 1970s, Granville Island was a largely derelict wasteland - but some Vancouver locals found that the abandoned buildings could offer mixed-use, affordable rents for experimental businesses. The public embraced this creative and cultural re-use of 'Industrial Island', and with public input and visionary foresight it was designated by the Government of Canada as the site for re-development, as a multi-use “People’s Place” or “urban park”- terms that were coined specifically for the use of this 42-acres of land.
WHAT WE DO
“Granville Island is a zone of public possibility. It bridges our history with our collective creative potential. It is a place to escape the expected.”