Video Inn (1973)
Canada
Biography :
Video Inn, now VIVO Media Arts Center and operated by the Satellite Video Exchange Society (SVES), is an artist-run center and video distribution library located in Vancouver, Canada. It was founded in 1973 to promote the non-commercial use of video technology by providing international and educational exchanges through a public video library. Its mission was then expanded to provide equipment rental, artist workshops and inform the public about media arts.
"In January 1973, 160 international alternative video producers came to Vancouver to take part in the MATRIX International Video Conference. The idea of a video exchange library was born there and made a reality a few months later with the incorporation of the Satellite Video Exchange Society (SVES). Known publicly as the Video Inn, it opened at 261 Powell Street in Vancouver. 76 videotapes that had been brought to MATRIX by the attending delegates made up its original collection. Over the years the Video Inn would evolve to include affordable equipment access, production and post-production facilities, public exhibitions and distribution services for artists and is now known as VIVO Media Arts Centre. The Library’s contemporary incarnation – the Crista Dahl Media Library & Archive – remains the heart of the organization." (Source [expired], website, Vivomediaarts)