Arts Umbrella names new Lindsay Mearns School of Dance following $2 million donation

Gift from Vancouver-based artist and philanthropist will further expand access to dance education

Arts Umbrella Dance Company. Photo by David Cooper

ARTS UMBRELLA HAS acknowledged a $2 million donation with the naming of the new Lindsay Mearns School of Dance.

Mearns is a Vancouver-based artist and philanthropist whose gift will be permanently endowed in the Arts Umbrella Foundation.

In 1994, Mearns and her family established the Dale Mearns Fund, which has provided annual scholarships to up-and-coming young artists for the past 30 years. The new donation will further expand access to arts education, regardless of students’ financial and socioeconomic backgrounds.

With the naming, all three schools of arts disciplines at Arts Umbrella have been titled through philanthropic gifts; there’s also the Audain School of Art & Design, named after Michael Audain, and the Robert M. Ledingham School of Theatre, Music & Film.

Arts Umbrella’s School of Dance is particularly known for its training in contemporary ballet, with its faculty of artists teaching a variety of styles. Under the leadership of artistic director Artemis Gordon, the demanding program is designed for dancers aged six to 22.

With locations in Vancouver and Surrey, Arts Umbrella delivers donor-funded programs at schools, community centres, neighbourhood houses, and healthcare facilities throughout Metro Vancouver and beyond. The non-profit centre provides accessible arts education to underserved communities, collaborating with 110 partner locations, including the Vancouver School Board, Surrey School District, BC Children’s Hospital, and Covenant House.

Arts Umbrella serves approximately 20,000 young people annually, with over 77 percent participating in programs at no cost.

Featured

Gail Johnson

Gail Johnson is cofounder of Stir. She is a Vancouver-based journalist who has earned local and national nominations and awards for her work. She is a certified Gladue Report writer via Indigenous Perspectives Society in partnership with Royal Roads University and is a member of a judging panel for top Vancouver restaurants.

Articles

Dance reviews: Rising voices, fresh talent, and vivid worlds at Dancing on the Edge's second week

Quick takes on three atmospheric works: Modus Operandi’s Wound, Dance//Novella’s Soft Animals, and O.Dela Arts’ Where You Go

With MY HOUSE, Ralph Escamillan brings the spirit of Ballroom to contemporary-dance stage

At The Dance Centre, new FakeKnot production taps into deep community ties to celebrate the family bonds and playful energy behind the voguing

With Kin & Doves, Belle Spirale Dance Projects draws on deep connections in Vancouver scene

At Dancing on the Edge, Alexis Fletcher and Sylvain Senez develop a new piece alongside one by Ballet BC’s Sid Chuckas

LIFT Festival uses dance to connect generations, June 3 and 4

Inverso Productions event includes performance featuring Claudia Moore, Calder White, Anne Cooper, Savannah Walling, and more at the Roundhouse Community Arts & Recreation Centre

New Works hosts All Over The Map performance series this July and August

Annual event brings free outdoor dance to the Granville Island Picnic Pavilion and the VPL Central Library’s rooftop

Lukas Malkowski’s Microphone Controller is a rock ’n’ roll show with a difference

The choreographer and performer’s character-driven Dancing on the Edge piece is informed by his perspective as the child of a deaf parent

FakeKnot’s Ballroom culture–infused MY HOUSE premieres at The Dance Centre, June 19 and 20

Ralph Escamillan’s subversive, playful new work brings the Ball from the runway to the stage

Jade Circle brings together dance, music, projections, and storytelling, at the Kay Meek Arts Centre May 20 to 22

Artist Jasmine Chen relearns Mandarin and discovers lost family history in multidisciplinary, personal show

In Corporeal Imago's Drift, an otherworldly landscape prevails over human bodies

At The Dance Centre, world premiere by Gabrielle Martin and Jeremiah Hughes moves away from aerial arts and toward conceptual innovation

Ballet BC unveils a 2026–27 40th season with works by Crystal Pite, William Forsythe, Imre and Marne van Opstal, and more

Principal dancers from the National Ballet of Canada perform a guest duet and artists-in-residence Margaret Grenier and Starr Muranko share a creation after their five-year collaboration with the troupe

At Arts Umbrella’s Memento Mori, every moment on stage is a lifetime

Featuring works by Crystal Pite, Marcos Morau, Sharon Eyal, and more, the season finale is a celebration of presence, community, and the beauty of fleeting time

Denmark’s Uppercut Dance Theater pushes the limits of movement in BENCHED

Choreographer Stephanie Thomasen’s piece has no plot and instead invites audience members to imagine their own storylines

Arts Umbrella Dance Company hosts Memento Mori: A Season Finale Performance, May 21 to 23

Vancouver Playhouse show features works by several world-renowned choreographers, including Crystal Pite, Sharon Eyal, and Medhi Walerski

Dance review: In FOR GLASS, the artists of Ballet BC display uninhibited emotion

Set to music by Philip Glass, Bobbi Jene Smith and Or Schraiber’s latest piece focuses on everyday moments and palpable intimacy

Dancing on the Edge announces 30-show program for June 4 to 13

Amid the offerings are names like Lukas Malkowski, Belle Spirale Dance Projects, O.Dela Arts and musica intima, and much more

Co.ERASGA’s Undivided Colours bridges forms, from Bharatanatyam to Asian Flamenco, May 14 and 15

Marking Asian Heritage Month, the show features names like Kasandra La China, Andrea Nann, and Sujit Vaidya

Ziyian Kwan and Alvin Erasga Tolentino win top B.C. dance artist prizes

The Dance Centre announces Lola Award and Isadora Award for Vancouver choreographers

With FOR GLASS, Ballet BC dancers push and succumb to live string quartet’s rhythms

Star choreographic duo Bobbi Jene Smith and Or Schraiber return with a full-evening premiere that draws on the emotional layers in Philip Glass’s music—and in the company members themselves

In Enemy Lines, Mayumi Lashbrook unearths a history she was never told

At the Firehall Arts Centre, the Toronto-based choreographer reckons with the forced displacement of Japanese Canadians and the cycles of fear-based thinking that still echo today

High-energy show BENCHED comes to the Vancouver International Children's Festival, May 26 to 31

Production by Denmark’s Uppercut Dance Theater features breathtaking physicality and inventive humour

Wen Wei Wang rediscovers himself as a choreographer, with powerful meditations on life in Last Breath 最后的呼吸

On Belle Spirale Dance Projects’ Exhale program, the Vancouver artist creates his first piece since leaving Ballet Edmonton—complete with live vocals and a central metal sculpture

Corporeal Imago's Drift makes its world premiere at The Dance Centre, May 21 to 23

Compelling production features choreography by Gabrielle Martin and Jeremiah Hughes in collaboration with five performers

Co.ERASGA presents Undivided Colours in honour of Asian Heritage Month, May 14 and 15

Showcase features performances by Sujit Vaidya, Toronto’s Dreamwalker Dance/Andrea Nann, and more

In Stephanie Lake Company’s Manifesto, thundering percussion meets dance

In this DanceHouse and Vancouver New Music copresentation, the Australian performers feed off the energy of nine drum kits on a stylized stage

At the Firehall Arts Centre, Enemy Lines illuminates a historic injustice, May 6 to 9

Mayumi Lashbrook’s dance-theatre piece centres the forced removal of Japanese Canadians during the Second World War

The Dance Centre secures long-term site, with $6 million land purchase at Davie and Granville

With its lease coming up in 2029 on land owned by Scotiabank, the future of the dance hub had been uncertain

At Ballet BC's UNITY, Bobbi Jene Smith and Or Schraiber deliver a world premiere, May 7 to 9

Batsheva Dance Company alumni draw on Gaga movement for the searingly intimate piece with a full-company cast

All-women ensemble Solidaridad Tango brings Tango Fantasia to the Shadbolt Centre, April 18

Celebration of sound and dance sets music from the Golden Age of tango alongside modern gems

Belle Spirale Dance Projects stages two world premieres at Exhale, May 1 and 2

Wen Wei Wang’s Last Breath and a new piece by Alexis Fletcher, Sylvain Senez, and Ariana Barr explore the virtuosity of established performers

Dance review: Hamlet, Prince of Denmark captures complex tale through movement and design magic

At DanceHouse, Robert Lepage’s inventive visual touches and Côté Danse’s expressive contemporary choreography offer a surreal, boldly contemporary new take on narrative ballet