Shout-out: Vid Ingelevics on Canadian Arts Cuts

After doing some more online reading related to our huge arts funding cuts of late, I just wanted to deliver a shout-out to Toronto artist, curator and educator Vid Ingelevics. That's his Woodpile 7, 2006, above, and you know, I'll be damned if Ingelevics, in the troll-laden fray of online commenting boards over at the Globe, doesn't manage to neatly stack a cord of reasons why these cuts are ill-thought-out. For example:

I will give an example of exactly the kind of thing that we will not see anymore with these short-sighted and ideologically-motivated cuts to Canada's cultural programs by the federal government.

As an independent curator I worked with a team on a project for one of Canada's largest public archives to digitize and put on-line a history of Eaton's department store display windows that covered the entire country and almost a hundred years of our history. With almost 200 hundred images, this important aspect of Canada's history is now available to anyone in the country (or the world) who has access to a computer and the net. A significant chunk of the funding for this ambitious project was provided by Canadian Culture Online, a program that the Tories have just cut.

Speaking for myself, it is truly disheartening to have a government that demonstrates such utter contempt for our culture and, ultimately, our history.

Or:

Skeptical Realist from Canada writes: 'Can someone give me an example of our 'unigue' Canadian culture that we tax payers need to support? Do we have any?'I just did.

See above. Culture = history.

Sensibly pointing out flaws in logic without hitting the wall of invective is also useful:

sally stink from edmonton, Canada writes: "grants from the heritage department to ethnic groups decidedly on the left of center are great vote getters as well."

Hmmm. Just out of curiousity would you mind identifying for us which "ethnic groups" are left of centre? Do you mean like all Indians, all Pakistanis, all Nigerians, all Mexicans, etc? Who are you talking about?

I didn't realize that entire nations were now being classified by our lovable Tories according to some bizarre ideological scale.

Thanks, Vid, for the clarity at a time of high emotion. I know others are probably doing as much behind the scenes, but it's hopeful to see some commentary in the Internet forums.

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Review & Interview: Circus Posters in Toronto, Animal Feats in Halifax

A couple of quick links to my articles in the media today:

• German artist Corinna Schnitt's Once Upon A Time... (still above) looks to be one of the many highlights of a show opening tonight in Halifax on human-animal relationships. Today the National Post published my condensed interview with show curator Peter Dykhuis.
• Art shows at the Toronto Reference Library are a real hit and miss affair, but they've rightfully entered the big top of show quality with their current exhibit on circus ephemera. Read more in my review today in NOW.

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Analysis & Thorny Issues: Canada's $44-mil in arts cuts

Well, it looks from the news like $44.8-million has been slashed from federal arts funding in the past two weeks, with more arts cuts coming.

I’ve been holding off on a post on this rather massive matter, as I’ve been trying to get a sense of what the response has been across the country since the beginning of the cuts were announced. I also, quite frankly, have my own cynicisms about the arts, and was unsure how to rationalize (beyond the usual "art is important"!) to non-arts lovers why spending on these things is important, how it serves us all. (More on that later on in this post, where I outline some challenges to reversing these cuts.)

So far it seems most of the outcry is from the traditional arts centres (and traditional non-Conservative political sectors) of Toronto and Montreal. There have been a few op-eds decrying the cuts from Edmonton , Ottawa and St. John’s . Vancouver alt-weekly the Straight gave a little coverage to recording industry outcry, but little response as far as I can see from the websites of Vancouver dailies.

The best coverage as far as I can see has been from the French media, like La Presse (who tracked down our erstwhile Heritage minister Josee Verner first). The Globe has also done a good job on tracking the story, and the franco and anglo CBC's okay too. Internationally, there's been little on view except for the post I found at Art Fag City -- a blog written by a Canuck.

Some of the orgs who have publicly criticized the cuts so far include: the Canadian Independent Record Production Association , l’Union des Artistes , Movement pour les arts et les lettres , l’Association nationale des editeurs de livre , Regroupement Quebecois de la Danse, the Bloc Quebecois, the Liberal Party , ACTRA (the national performers’ union), the Directors Guild of Canada, and the Canadian Museums Association.

A town hall-style meeting on these cuts is slated for September 3 at Toronto Free Gallery the Theatre Centre in Toronto.

It’s clear to me that there are many challenges to the arts community in effectively reinstating arts funding. Here are a few:

1) As evidenced by the media coverage of this issue, there is little linkage right now between outcry in the Conservative government strongholds of the West and more rural areas of Canada and the traditional arts/Liberal party/NDP strongholds of Toronto and Montreal. In order to defeat these cuts, it is crucial that linkages be made between cultural communities across Canada regardless of past regional rivalries. We need a statement from the Glenbow Museum. We need a statement from the Art Gallery of Alberta, the Art Gallery of Calgary, and Calgary artist-run centres. We need letters from their board members, from their patrons, from those who collect art, and from those who sell it. We need editorials—or at least letters to the editor-in the Vancouver Sun and the Calgary Herald from these people.

2) Another challenge will be connecting anti-cut endeavours across disciplines. It’s not just visual artists who are affected by these cuts, but the book industry, the magazine industry, dancers, theatre artists, and musicians. These are groups of people who tend to have their own associations and factions in their respective creative communities. They will need to bond together for this one, and get out of their usual circles to create a wide-ranging movement.


3) All artists in every discipline (film, music, literature, art or performance) against these cuts needs to get better at explaining the importance of the arts to those who are not involved in them. This explanation needs to be multipronged, with emphases on economics, educational benefits and community development as well as on aesthetics and the intangibles of art. The explanation also needs to apologize for (or at least recognize) the elitist way in which many arts have been presented to the public in the past. It needs to link the pleasures of big-ticket hits like Juno and Bon Cop Bad Cop and Arcade Fire and Cirque du Soleil to the funding systems that have been cut. (Ellen Page got her start in Canuck-funded TV and film, dontcha know. If it weren’t for that, even given all her talent, she might be barista-ing it up in Halifax like so many talented young people.) This explanation also needs to talk heritage, like the memories that will be lost from generations past—we’re talking historical artefacts, not art--through cuts collections digitization program.

4) Efforts from the arts community will need to put pressure on both the Liberals and the New Democrats, who up to this point have been loath to come together in vocal and concerted opposition to Conservative policies. I understand the Dems don’t want to give any votes to the Libs, but come on, we all have to start somewhere in actually acting like an opposition instead of like warring siblings. This goes for matters on the climate change and job creation fronts—which the Conservatives have handled horribly--as well as on the cultural ones.

These are my thoughts on the matter so far. I look forward to hearing what others might think, especially on how to rationalize arts funding to the unconvinced.

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Quick Hits: Kitty Scott Q&A, Roy Arden review, Mary-Anne Barkhouse interview

I'm away this week, so posts will be few and far between. Still, here's a few quick hits on my recent stories published elsewhere:

• Last fall, former National Gallery of Canada curator Kitty Scott left a much-vaunted post at the Serpentine--after just one year on the job--to be director of visual arts at the Banff Centre. In a Q&A with her this week at Canadian Art Online, Scott talks about why she left, as well as her views on the recent David Franklin/Pierre Theberge debacle at the National Gallery. Also of particular note is the curating symposium she's co-coordinating for the fall, which will have (gasp!) actual curating grads speak on their programs, rather than the program heads themselves. A smart move. It will be interesting to see what she does next, and whether her goal of refocusing the Banff residency program on artist (rather than administrator) interest will succeed.


• Respected Vancouver photog Roy Arden has spent the last decade-plus amassing 32,000 images from the Internet. In my recent NOW review of his current show at Monte Clark Gallery, I talk about how this practice makes the internet a kind of uber-camera for human experience. Don't know if Arden would agree and all, but I think it's an interesting idea. It also fits with the very conceptual approach of the Jeff-Wall-epitomized Vancouver school of photography.


• On a (strangely) more fun note, Ontario artist Mary-Anne Barkhouse has coin-operated horsie rides stand in for the four horses of the apocalypse in her current installation at the Ottawa Art Gallery. In my interview with her published recently in the National Post, Barkhouse makes a compelling case for why "end of days" fears actually have a recurring, short-term quality for each generation. If you're in town, sounds worth a spin.

Image of Figure In a Mountain Landscape creative residency working plein air at Sunshine Meadows, Banff, photo by Adam Costenoble, courtesy of the Banff Centre

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Shout-out: Chris Nuttall Smith on the Royal Ontario Museum's Reno Woes

Given my continued griping about the financial mismanagement at the Royal Ontario Museum (and related admission fee jumps) I want to do a shout-out to Toronto writer Chris Nuttall-Smith, whose much-needed feature on the ROM's renovation-cost woes is the highlight of the recently released September 2008 issue of Toronto Life magazine.

In it, Nuttall-Smith reveals the following ROM errors of judgment:

• In 2001, the consulting firm KPMG predicted that with an appropriate reno, the ROM could raise attendance from 650,000 visitors annually to between 1 to 1.6 million visitors. The ROM (unwisely) then projected their post-reno attendance to hit 1.65 million right off the bat (that's 4,500 visitors per day).
• The project's cost spiralled over an 18-month delay from $200 million to $320 million. At each step of the way, the ROM trustees okayed going into debt and blue-skying things like monies to be received from a (still unapproved) sale of a nearby planetarium for a 46-storey condo development.
• In the 2007-2008 fiscal year, the ROM greeted 986,171 visitors—fewer visitors than in pre-reno 2000.

Of course, Nuttall-Smith's assessment attempts for balance too, with a profile of past successes of CEO Bill Thorsell, as well as a general tone of detachment and recognition of international accolades from Conde Nast travel mags. 

Still, it's not hard to see that Thorsell (who, it's implied, has a very hard time taking constructive criticism or naysaying) and the ROM trustees have really dug their own boom-mentality grave on this one.

Interestingly, in anticipation of this expose (however gentle) Thorsell has issued his own press release linked on the ROM frontpage, a very rah-rah assessment noting that attendance is now averaging 3,000 a day (still well below the basic budgeted requirements detailed above), with $232 mil raised (still $90 mil short of what's needed) and a 94% guest satisfaction rate (that's of people who managed to get into the museum, not those who are kept out by admission barriers, or who decided, as Nuttall-Smith documents, hin the past year that they will never return). 

Definitely worth a read or two, or three.

Image of fireworks at the ROM's June 2007 opening from the Royal Ontario Museum website.

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Quick Hits: The Left Bank Meets Cowtown, while Trade Shows Meet Marx

These weeks of August are supposed to be the dead days of the art scene... but I feel like I'm running around like a chicken with my head cut off. Not a good thing in many ways (I'm over the whole "it's great and important to be stressed out" thing), and especially not good in that all I can do blogwise this week is post some links to recent print stories.

Anyway here ye be: a Q&A on the young Calgary painting scene with artist/curator Wil Murray in the National Post (Dave & Jenn detail above), and a shotgun review of Michael Lewis's current show at Landymore Keith in NOW. (For the record, I didn't write that deck; as I say in the piece, the contempt I perceived in Lewis's work is at the level of "a bit" not "a lot." Sample image below, not capturing the 8-foot by 8-foot scale in the least.)

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Toronto Reviews Roundup

This is a long weekend, which makes the city seem extra-dead, but if you're around there's actually a lot to do under the sun. Here's some strong shows closing soon that I recommend seeing:

• Matilda Aslizideh at Pari Nadimi Gallery – An emerging Vancouver artist takes on the tragedies of real-life child soldiers to both fantastical and visceral effect in this must-see show. (Though Nadimi's site says it goes only to July, NOW listings have updated it to run to Aug 2)
• Working Title at Diaz Contemporary – I’m not normally a fan of abstraction, or of painting, but Monique Mouton’s work here (image above) really wins me over, as does Sally Spath’s careful, electric-feeling installation. Mina Totino I’m less crazy about—could be that her work fits into more traditional painting tropes—but the show is still worth a look, as I point out in this week's NOW.
• Enacting Emancipation at A Space – A Space raises the political art flag (that many others shy away from) yet again in this show highlighted by work from Venice Bienniale Golden Lion winner Emily Jacir. Jacir, who is Palestinian and splits her time between Ramallah and New York City, is represented here by a 2001-3 work that documents requests from people banned from the West Bank, as well as photos of her enacting those requests. They include both the poignant—"put flowers on my mothers grave"—and the practical—"pay my phone bill." This work has traveled a lot, and with good reason; it is very deeply effective.
• Proof at Gallery 44: In this 15th edition of the artist run centre’s emerging artist show Gallery 44 features work from a diverse array of practices. Susan Blight was the highlight for me with her self-portraits that show the practice still has relevance, and will continue to into the future, for many individuals. Also good, in a different way, is Michael Love’s pinhole photograph of himself in which he takes an unusual turn of using a bullet to create the pinhole. (I have to say I disagree with David Balzer this week in his assessment that Love's "intellectual" take is more worthy than Blight's "emotional" one; intellectuals have their own form of self-aggrandizing and narcissism, dontcha know.) Michele Crockett’s more conceptual work on the value of a penny is less compelling, but lingers.

Closing later, but worth seeing too:

• Stories in Pieces at the Justina M. Barnicke Gallery: A really nice group show with both big Canuck names (Geoffrey Farmer) and relative newcomers (Liz Knox). As I mentioned in the National Post last week, I especially loved Jon Sasaki’s Antihero Décor Room, which plunges you into your own spooky film noir.
• Wu Wing Yee at Drabinsky Gallery: Delicate and strong at the same time, this recent Toronto-via-Hong Kong arrival has created a masterful series of work that positions Chinatown kitsch in protective cages and cocoons. Could be maudlin; instead, marvelous. I wrote last week that it's one of the best shows of the summer, and I'm standing by that.
• Summer Group Show at Paul Petro: Like many other summer shows, it’s a grouping of largely leftover inventory. But there are some really lovely works here, including Fastwurms' glittering Frog Tire from the late 90s (apparently just recently released from their own storage vaults in Creemore’s backcountry) and Julie Beugin’s lush indoor/outdoor painting (pic below; watch for her show in February 09). I also really liked Jennifer Murphy’s collage work, Natalka Husar’s uneasy Judgment Boy Study, and Olia Mishcheko’s eloquent pen and ink drawings.
  
  
  

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