Arts & Culture

New Westminster has thriving arts and culture community and an array of both recreation arts participants and professional artists. Some of the many community-based arts groups and organizations include:

Arts Council of New Westminster
The Arts Council of New Westminster office and gallery is located in Queen’s Park in Centennial Lodge. The Arts Council fosters, supports and promotes arts and culture in the community. The Gallery includes exhibitions from both emerging and established artists. Community events include Arts in the Parks, YAM JAM, the Summer Arts program for children and youth, and Last Monday at the Movies.

Douglas College
Douglas College is home to the Community Music School, the Douglas College Community Choir and the Amelia Douglas Gallery for the visual arts. The Creative and Performing Arts department offers a variety of events open to the public year round, including the “Arts at One” concert, Literature Alive Readings, Community Music School recitals, gallery exhibitions and theatre productions.

Massey Theatre
Massey Theatre is 1,260 seat facility hosting a variety of productions and performances by international touring companies and local organizations such as the renowned Royal City Musical Theatre. The Theatre is also home to the Joseph Plaskett Art Gallery.

New Westminster Symphony
The New Westminster Symphony performs at the Massey Theatre four times a year offering free concerts of classical and new symphony compositions to the public.

Royal City Musical Theatre
The acclaimed Royal City Musical Theatre Company is known for outstanding musical theatre productions and recognized as one of the premier musical theatre groups in Canada.

Vagabond Players
The award-winning Vagabond Players are one of the oldest community theatre groups in BC and perform out of the Bernie Legge Theatre in Queen’s Park. Since their inception in 1937, the Vagabond Players have staged more than 300 productions and continue to host up to six productions a year in addition to a variety of special events and co-productions.

Poet Laureate

The City of New Westminster is proud to have a Poet Laureate to capture in prose the events and stories of our community and preserving them for future generations.

Learn more about our current Poet Laureate, Candice James, as well as our past Poet Laureates.