The "C-Lab"
Known affectionately as the C-Lab, the Vancity Culture Lab is the most adaptable of The Cultch's three Venables Street spaces. As a true black box studio, every piece of lighting and audio technology is accessible from anywhere in the room, and the movable riser seating can be set up in virtually any configuration the floor will allow — in the round, thrust, traverse, or a flat cabaret floor.
Built for Sound and Shadow
The room is a cinder block construction engineered for modern acoustical performance, then draped head to toe in black velour mounted on tracks. The result is the city's best blackout room: directors and bands can reshape the backdrop in minutes and kill ambient light entirely, making it a favourite for intimate, atmosphere-driven productions and stripped-back live sets.
Part of The Cultch
The Vancity Culture Lab sits within the Vancouver East Cultural Centre, a not-for-profit registered charity housed in a heritage building at 1895 Venables Street, alongside the Historic Theatre and the Cultch Gallery. Long a launchpad for new and experimental work on Vancouver's east side, The Cultch operates on the unceded territories of the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations.