Convertible Showroom: 1984–March 1, 1986

November 1–December 19, 2026
ECHO-ECHO, 1469 Venables

Open 12–4pm on Saturdays in November (7, 14, 21, 28), and in December (12, 19; closed 5 for Toque Craft Fair), with a late-exhibition celebration with Colin, Daina, and Neil, on Saturday, December 12, 12–4pm!

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Convertible Showroom was opened for Vancouver’s Art City in 1984, by Colin Griffiths, Daina Augaitis, and Neil Campbell. At 40 East Cordova, in the street-level space that was previously the site of Pumps (1975–80), Convertible presented 17 exhibitions and events over 16 months, “striving for a synthesis of art, music, and performance...accessible to all”. In 1985, the Vancouver Society for Critical Publications moved into an upstairs office, as the post-Vancouver Art Gallery publisher of Vanguard magazine.

By “Convertible” the directors meant “convertible”: “interchangeable or equivalent; transformable; capable of being converted”.

At ECHO-ECHO, a simple wooden table—the unassuming site of meetings, dinners, and poster and magazine paste-ups for the 11 years from Pumps through Convertible, and the decades until now—will gather ephemera from the slim archives of Convertible Showroom, and remembrances from participating directors, artists, and audiences, to reconstruct some part of the spirit of the era, cut short by “landlord decisions beyond our control”.

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1984

1985

1986

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ECHO-ECHO thanks Colin Griffiths, Daina Augaitis, and Neil Campbell for their generous participation in ECHO-ECHO’s archives exhibition-making. Thanks to Daina for lending her Convertible Showroom files, and for lending the table. Thanks to Colin for lending his Convertible Showroom file and guestbook, and for lending his history of Pumps. More thanks to come, but most of all, heartfelt thanks to Colin, Daina, and Neil as early and long-time participants in the community that ECHO-ECHO has also cho[sen]–decades later–to serve.

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