The Cultch pays tribute to its founder with newly named Christopher Wootten Stage at Vancity Culture Lab
Wootten, who passed away last year, launched the venue in 1973 and will also have a new creation fund in his name
Chris Wootten (Mark Mushet photo); the Christopher Wootten Stage at Vancity Culture Lab
THE CULTCH IS HONOURING its founder in a new name for the stage at the Vancity Culture Lab.
It will now be known as the Christopher Wootten Stage at Vancity Culture Lab. A new plaque was unveiled October 13.
Christopher Wootten founded the Vancouver East Cultural Centre in 1973 and served as its executive director until 1982. The Historic Theatre was once the Grandview Methodist Church, serving as a place of worship until 1968, when the building was turned over to Vancouver Inner City Services. It operated as a shared space for Vancouver Free University and storefront lawyers for a half decade before being converted into a theatre. Wootten died in January 2025 at age 81.
The Cultch was the affectionate nickname coined by Wootten’s wife Libby—and has, of course, become its official moniker. Wootten’s roots in the West Coast arts scene went far beyond The Cultch; he organized the entertainment for Expo 86, headed up programming at the Vancouver Children's Festival, ran the Vancouver Playhouse, and served as associate director of the Vancouver Art Gallery, among other positions.
The Cultch is also announcing the creation of a new fund in his name—the Christopher Wootten Fund—to support work and residencies that take place on the Christopher Wootten Stage. Expect the work to reflect Wootten’s own vision for performance when he launched the then-VECC—with an eye to the diverse, the progressive, the independent, and the local. Opened in 2008, the Vancity Culture Lab is an intimate, 75-seat black-box studio housed in the same building as the Historic Theatre; it was added to the structure as part of the broader development of the heritage building. 
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