Sometime in our life we will have a significant event, personal or historical, that will initiate change.  In 1975 I had such an experience that profoundly transformed my perception of reality.  It took me on a journey to seek the meaning of that experience which I eventually found in my commitment to a Judeo-Christian spiritual path.  At the same time, I became involved with several artists who helped me shape a vision of a creative city that brought together my love of nature & deep sense of community and, most important, the potential for spiritual fulfillment.  To fulfill my vision, I became involved with many arts related ventures…opening a sculpture gallery, partnering in a mobile contemporary art gallery & a multi-cultural gallery. I was even shown another dimension of the art world when I worked  with an art investment consultant and, understandably, the artist/patron relationship was seen more as a commodity measured in financial worth. My heart was drawn to my volunteer work with community art projects. What I loved about collaborating with artists is their creative impulse of adaptability & real world savvy and that ineffable quality of being fully dedicated to their craft.  It takes a creative team effort to produce community cultural events on a ‘wee’ budget yet it never ceased to amaze me the quality of the production. In 2012, I co-founded the WE Arts Society (Wearts.ca) to connect my West End community with a vibrant arts presence and raise the profile of artists, artisans & musicians who lived in our midst.  When the Covid shutdowns happened, we closed our two main events the Art Markets & Music Festival and since 2020 our organization has remained inactive.  Many of our Board members have gone on to other creative projects and, after my trip to Thailand in December, 2023, I asked myself, “Why can’t Vancouver build an art inspired hotel & cultural hub like the Makkachiva?”. I felt led to write the vision and started on a proposal to capture what I felt in my heart so I could inspire a team of visionaries with the resources in Vancouver to adopt a similar design hotel that told the stories of our creative West Coast lifestyle.  These experiences & my personal relationships with many artists gives me the confidence that partnering with a team of cultural creatives in this arts hotel project will result in an astounding outcome whatever may be the design & budget restraints.  By their lives they have taught me whatever the challenges, there is a creative solution that becomes the catalyst of something greater than we could imagine.