VANCOUVER—The public became part of an interesting photo exhibit recently courtesy of St. Bernadine Mission Communications in Vancouver.

The #ChinatownYVR exhibit, which opened April 18 (and closed June 4), drew over 1,000 crowdsourced Instagram photo submissions "showcasing the beauty and diversity of Vancouver's Chinatown".



The Instagallery was a live and interactive exhibit that pulled photos with the hashtag #ChinatownYVR from Instagram through a custom API built by the agency, and projected them in real time within the Kee’s Laundry Gallery space. Kee’s Laundry Gallery is located at 230 East Georgia St. in the façade of Saint Bernadine Mission Communications.

The gallery images range "from historical points of interests, art installations, character signage, food, retail curiosities, even the odd celebrity spotting," said the communications firm.

To see the crowdsourced photos from the exhibit, click here. (The gallery takes a while to load.)

The name Kee’s Laundry pays homage to an early business located in the same space in the early 1900’s. The agency said there are plans for the gallery to be home to art exhibitions and pop-up shops. For more information about the gallery, click here.

"We've truly been blown away by the response to this interactive exhibit," says St. Bernadine partner David Walker. "Not only in the volume and quality of the submitted images, but the response we've received from the community has been very rewarding."

Andrew Samuel, also a partner at St. Bernadine, adds, "We also wanted to create a vehicle to showcase some of our digital and social services. Being able to do that, while enriching the community is a real win-win."

St. Bernadine Mission Communications is an agency that provides advertising, branding, design & digital services that moved to Chinatown in 2011.