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The City of Nanaimo was asked to provide $100,000 to support the upcoming Beyond Van Gogh exhibit taking place in Nanaimo from July 18 to Aug. 29. (Image Credit: Mike Sudoma)
By Jordan Davidson
major event

City of Nanaimo backs $100K Beyond Van Gogh grant request

Apr 15, 2026 | 12:01 PM

NANAIMO — An upcoming multi-week exhibit at downtown Nanaimo’s Vancouver Island Conference Centre (VICC) is about to get a big financial boost from the City.

During the Wednesday, April 15, finance and audit meeting, a recommendation for Council to provide a financial grant of $100,000 for the Beyond Van Gogh experience, taking place between July 18 and Aug 29 was unanimously approved.

Port Theatre executive director David Warburton said the money would be used to reduce ticket prices for seniors, students, and families, with a long-term goal of developing a nest egg for future events of this scale.

“This becomes sustainable, independent of any requests to the City in the future…then we can reinvest that in bringing another exhibit, and there’s all sorts of exciting possibilities. If this partnership is proven to be successful, and I think it has…we have a model that maybe this could be something that would be exciting for us every year, or every other year.”

Warburton said around $225,000 has already been invested into bringing this exhibit to the Harbour City, between the Port Theatre, VICC, Tourism Nanaimo, and Nanaimo Museum.

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Warburton said they want to be able to provide the full experience, but told the meeting staff and volunteers are needed to bring it all together.

VICC general manager Lucas Millin said Beyond Van Gogh hits all of their goals of attracting visitors, driving economic activity, while also providing community access.

Millin said Beyond Van Gogh is projected to inject upwards of $6 million in economic impact over the exhibit’s six-week span, providing more than just a short burst of economic activity that the VICC typically supports.

“But this is always in spikes. So this is going to be sustained, up to a thousand people a day, there will be foot traffic going through the downtown, it’s going to be significant.”

According to their budget report, bringing Beyond Van Gogh to Nanaimo is anticipated to cost around $1.13M, including $210,000 for licensing fees and $322,420 for a road crew, which takes about a week to bring all the exhibits into the VICS.

Expected revenue from ticket sales, merchandise, sponsorships, grants, and partner contributions totals approximately $1.12M.

The City said funding would come from the Special Initiatives Reserves, with some projects already funded have come in under budget.

The request still needs to be formally approved at a future Nanaimo regular council meeting, and would be included in the 2026-2030 financial plan.

More information on Beyond Van Gogh can be found here at islandevents.ca.

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by Jordan Davidson

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