Lulu Speaker Series (Spring 2026)

Lulu Series hero banner

The Lulu Series is an annual spring series of talks about Art in the City and its importance to establishing connections between citizens and their communities.

Since 2003, the City of Richmond has presented regional, national and international speakers including acclaimed artists, architects, urban planners and other cultural leaders. Previous lecture topics have included planning and placemaking, public and environmental art, art as community development, art as urban revitalization, architecture, artists’ live/work spaces and sculpture parks.

Free with registration required.

2026 Speakers Series

Thu, Mar 5 | 6:00pm
Magda Kwaterska and Dave Hutch

From Industry to Imagination: The Shipyards Transformation

Location: Wilson School of Design, Kwantlen Polytechnic University, 5600 Kwantlen St, Richmond

This talk will explore the history of North Vancouver’s waterfront with a focus on curation of the public spaces that define The Shipyards, including waterfront plazas, Polygon Gallery, Museum of North Vancouver, gathering areas and interactive amenities that bring people together year-round. Once a WWII shipbuilding powerhouse that later faced insolvency and near loss, this site has been re-imagined as a cultural precinct and vibrant destination at the heart of Vancouver’s North Shore.

Annually, The Shipyards attracts more than 5 million visitors with 160 events and festivals and has been recognized as one of Metro Vancouver’s premier public spaces. As a regional anchor destination, this evolving waterfront will soon include a new harbour swim deck, adding ocean swimming to the suite of waterfront attractions along Lower Lonsdale.

Speaker Bios

Magda Kwaterska is the Manager of The Shipyards & Waterfront for the City of North Vancouver, leading the stewardship, operations and activation of one of Metro Vancouver’s premier public destinations. She oversees all aspects of waterfront management, including public programming, events, community engagement, maintenance, placemaking and outdoor recreation — including the skating rink and splash pads — in collaboration with business, tourism and civic partners.

Dave Hutch is a landscape architect with 30+ years of public sector experience leading teams who work at the intersection of city building, public space, leisure, culture, recreation, ecology and health. As the City of North Vancouver’s Director of Parks and Public Spaces, he leads teams who are responsible for public realm, park, recreation and urban ecosystems planning, programming, design, construction and operation. He has previously held positions at the Vancouver Park Board, City of Vancouver and National Capital Commission.

Thu, Apr 16 | 6:00pm
SIDE CORE

under city

Location: Theatre Under the Stairs, Richmond Cultural Centre, 7700 Minoru Gate, Richmond

Japanese artist collective SIDE CORE is known for site-specific public projects that blur the boundaries between contemporary art, skate culture and urban infrastructure.

The group will discuss their multi-channel video installation under city. Created in collaboration with renowned skate film crew, Far East Skate Network, the piece captures skaters navigating Tokyo’s subterranean environments — including stormwater basins, disused transit tunnels and maintenance corridors. These movements transform utilitarian spaces into expressive terrains, linking isolated structures into a speculative, virtual undercity.

Like Richmond, much of Tokyo is built on reclaimed land and faces the constant risk of natural disasters. rode work ver. under city was shot in a regulating reservoir constructed as part of the city’s flood control system. Although Tokyo and Richmond are separated by the Pacific Ocean, they share geological conditions as well as cultural and historical connections. Through this project, SIDE CORE seeks to reveal the invisible links that exist between such distant places.

Speaker Bios

Launched in 2012, SIDE CORE is comprised of artists Takasu Sakie, Matsushita Tohru and Nishihiro Taishi. Harimoto Kazunori also participates in the collective as a video director.

SIDE CORE members create works based on the question of how an individual can go about sending messages in the city and public space, by referencing the ideas and history behind street culture. They sometimes collaborate with artists working in other genres to create a variety of works in the blind spots and hidden spaces of cities.

Recent major exhibitions include SIDE CORE: Living road, Living space (21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa, 2025), SIDE CORE|Concrete Planet (WATARI-UM, The Watari Museum of Contemporary Art and outdoor, Tokyo, 2024), 8th Yokohama Triennale Wild Grass: Our Lives (Kanagawa, 2024).

Thu, May 28 | 6:00pm
Morris Lum

Migration Patterns from Chinatowns to Ethnoburbs

Location: Theatre Under the Stairs, Richmond Cultural Centre, 7700 Minoru Gate, Richmond

Join Morris Lum in a discussion about his Chinatown | Tong Yan Gaai photographic series that documents Chinatowns across Canada and the United States. Over the last decade, Lum has focused and directed attention towards the functionality of Chinatowns, exploring the generational context of how “Chinese” identity is expressed in these structural enclaves. Armed with a large-format camera, the artist has documented Chinatowns in Victoria, Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton, Winnipeg, Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal, Chicago, Oakland, Seattle, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Manhattan and Boston. The talk will offer an overview of this body of work and will hint at the next phases of the series.

Speaker Bios

Morris Lum is a Trinidadian-born photographer and artist whose work explores the complex hybridity of the Chinese-Canadian experience through photography, form and documentary practices. His work has been exhibited and screened across Canada and the United States. Currently, he is focused on a cross-North American project examining the transformation of Chinatowns, capturing the evolving architectural and cultural landscapes of these communities. Lum works at the at the University of Toronto’s Daniels Faculty of Architecture Landscape and Design as Assistant Professor in the Visual Studies Department.

Series Background

About the Lulu Series: Art in the City

From urban planning and place-making to art as community development and urban revitalization, the relationship between art and our urban environment is a rich and lively topic for guest speakers and audiences alike.

The objectives of The Lulu Series are:

to educate participants on the importance of art as a means for citizens to establish connections with their communities;
establish evidence that as people connect with their communities and the spaces and businesses in them, there will be an enhancement in commerce;
create benefits for business leaders and design professionals to proactively incorporate artistic expressions into their places of business and building designs and for politicians to promote and support this; and
lay challenges and establish goals for the growth of art in Richmond and other Lower Mainland communities.

Previous Speakers

Brian McBay, Executive Director of 221A, Vancouver-based cultural research organization and housing and space operator
Djaka Blais, Executive Director, Hogan’s Alley Society, civil rights–focused non-profit advancing Black history in Vancouver and BC
Josée Drouin-Brisebois, Director of National Engagement, National Gallery of Canada, curator and former Senior Curator of Contemporary Art
Howie Tsui, Vancouver-based artist exploring cultural identity, power and diaspora through immersive, multidisciplinary practice
Klara Manhal, Senior Planner of Public Art, TransLink, leading the integration of contemporary art into transit and public spaces
Michael Audain, BC developer, art collector, foundation founder, public art supporter and benefactor
Fred Kent, President, Project for Public Spaces, New York
William Cleveland, founder and director, Centre for the Study of Art and Community, Washington
Erling O. Mork, former CAO, City of Tacoma and urban revitalization expert, Washington
Architects Johanna Hurme (5468796 architecture, Winnipeg) William Browne (Ratio Architects, Indiana), Arthur Andersson (Adersson-Wise Architects, Texas) and Chris Doray (Bing Thom, Vancouver), Mark West (Centre for Architectural Structures and Technology (C.A.S.T.), University of Manitoba) and Bing Thom.
Milenko Matanovic, executive director of the Pomegranate Centre, Washington
Lister Sinclair and Mavor Moore, Canadian cultural icons
Artists Patrick Dougherty (North Carolina), Konstantin Dimopoulos (Melbourne), Buster Simpson (Seattle), Stephanie Robb and Bill Pechet (Vancouver), Dennis Oppenheim (New York), Hema Upadhyay (Mumbai), Instant Coffee Collective (Vancouver) and Connie Watts (Port Alberni)
Joanna Sykes, project manager, Chihuly Bridge of Glass, Washington
Tim Jones, CEO, Artscape, Toronto
Chris Rogers, project manager, Olympic Sculpture Park and Director of Capital Projects and Government Affairs, Seattle Art Museum
Barbara Lueke, 4Culture and Sound Transit, Seattle
Max Wyman, chair, Metro Vancouver Regional Cultural Task Force
Jan Gehl, urban planning expert, Gehl Architects, Copenhagen
Cameron Cartiere, Dean of Graduate Studies, Emily Carr University of Art+Design
Leanne Prain, yard bombing guru, Vancouver
Charles Blanc and Tristan Surtees, Sans facon, Calgary/U.K.
Paula Jardine, Community Artist, Victoria
Andrew Pask, Vancouver Public Space Network founder, Vancouver
Cath Brunner, Director of 4Culture, King County, WA
Richard Tetrault, muralist, Vancouver
Charles Montgomery, author of Happy City: Transforming our Lives Through Urban Design
Norman Armour, artistic and executive director, PuSh International Performing Arts Festival
Brian Wakelin, PUBLIC Architecture + Communication
Michael Rohd, Center for Performance and Civic Practice
Norie Sato, Visual Artist
David Vertesi, Founding Executive Director, Vancouver Mural Festival
John Patkau, Patkau Architects, Vancouver
Eric and Mia, Interdisciplinary Community Artists
Michael Henderson, Architect at HCMA Architecture + Design
Darren O'Donnell, Mammalian Diving Reflex (Toronto)
Germaine Koh, Visual Artist
Debra Sparrow, Indigenous knowledge keeper and weaver
Justin Langlois, artist, educator and writer
Vance Harris, Principal, Architecture, DIALOG

What's in a name? The Lulu Story

Richmond is comprised of 17 separate islands located in the mouth of the mighty Fraser River on the traditional lands of the hǝn̓q̓ǝmin̓ǝm̓ speaking peoples, who fished the river ways and gathered plants and berries from its fertile shores. While Richmond’s physical landscape is shaped by its location in the river estuary, the city’s cultural landscape continues to be shaped by its inhabitants.

In the early years of European settlement, Royal Engineers surveying British Columbia’s wilderness erected a theatre in the New Westminster district. The playhouse hosted a variety of visiting entertainers, none of whom was more beloved than Miss Lulu Sweet of San Francisco, California, whose dancing, singing and acting were revered by newspapers of the day as “chaste and beautiful.” One of her most ardent admirers was Head Engineer, Colonel Richard Moody, who accompanied the young actress on her departure voyage from New Westminster to Victoria.

The story goes that, as the two stood on deck, gazing at passing landmarks, Miss Sweet inquired as to the name of one large island. After replying absent-mindedly that the island, as yet, had no name, Moody—seized by a flash of inspiration—suddenly exclaimed, “By Jove! I’ll name it after you!”

Today, Richmond is celebrated as a cosmopolitan, “edge city” with a vibrant, ethnically diverse population and a rich mix of residential, commercial, agricultural and industrial areas.

The Lulu Series, a collection of dialogues initiated by leading artists, architects and economic developers, hopes to spark conversations about the nature of our changing physical, social and cultural landscape.