The Regional Assembly of Text is Turning 20-Years-Old This Month!

The Regional Assembly of Text is marking the two-decade milestone of their flagship location (3934 Main Street) this month! A regular on our guide to Vancouver’s best DIY resources, we can’t imagine Main Street without the twee stationery and print shop – nor do we want to.

The Regional Assembly is no stranger to the concept of nostalgia – in fact, you might even say that they bank on it. So, with that in mind and in honour of their 20-year birthday, we’ve gone through the Scout archives to compile this list of memorable ‘moments’ we’ve featured The Regional Assembly over the years. Time to get nostalgic:

To kick things off, let’s take it back to the early years: August 2009, to be specific. That’s when Scout first featured The Regional Assembly’s fantastic founding duo, Rebecca Dolen and Brandy Fedoruk, in what we then referred to as our ‘Indie Profile‘ (remember when ‘indie’ was a thing?). In it, Dolen and Fedoruk retrace their roads to creating The Regional Assembly and what the best part of working in the shop is; as well as name their favourite things about their neighbourhood, the other Vancouver shops and events they love to support, their best thrifting scores…and so much more.

Fast forward to February 2012, roughly a year before their second shop opened in Victoria, when we put Dolen and Fedoruk through the interview motions again. This time around, we dug deeper into their relationship and the stuff of running a business together – and there was even (already) a little reminiscing.

Cranking forward the clock even further – more than a whole decade, to July 2024! – we caught up with artist, zinester and co-owner, Dolen for an solo in-depth interview.

Did you know that, in addition to their retail space, The Regional Assembly also has a nifty mini library well-stocked in zines, comics, and other DIY publications? In 2021, we featured their ‘the lowercase reading room’ in our From the Collection column which “aims to introduce readers to the inventories of local art galleries, museums and other cultural institutions, not via official exhibition notes but by way of the people that help manage and maintain the collections themselves.” Find out more about Fedoruk’s pick here.

In addition to hosting events – like their legendary Letter Writing Club – that have popped up on myriad Scout Lists over the years, their penchant for incorporating vintage found things into their in-house designs (think retro maps printed onto t-shirts) earned them a hit on our Cool Things We Want column.

On Sunday, August 24th, The Regional Assembly of Text is celebrating “20 years of pushing paper” with an afternoon full of fun. The anniversary festivities go down at their 3934 Main Street location from Noon until 4pm, and are open to the public and free to attend – although we recommend not forgetting your wallet, since there will be some sweet discounts to take advantage of. Also: a typing contest, games, prizes, free special limited edition ballpoint pens, wine – and birthday cake, of course. We’ll definitely be there. Here’s to another decade of printmaking, typewriting, DIY and all other manner of good ol’ fashioned paper-related things! DETAILS

WHY WE CARE

Small businesses that are independently run by rad, impassioned and creative people – like Dolen and Fedoruk – are an invaluable part of a city’s landscape. Not only does The Regional Assembly of Text bring myriad rad tangible things into the Vancouver mix, they also breed inspiration with their letterpress designs, and invite the community to come together to do hands-on things (like button-making and letter writing). More of that, please!