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Lorna Mills and Sally McKay
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Toronto's art and science conference, SubtleTechnologies is next week. Come for the whole conference, but don't miss my lecture/performance on Friday, May 27th at 11:00 am.
I'm a clod. lumpen. slow. myopic. I never remember to spellcheck, but worse, I don't remember to GOOGLE! And that's a problem if you are as thick as me, cause if you don't google you can go around whining that Toronto's best art journalist RM Vaughan's National Post column isn't available online when in fact it IS online and also he wrote something nice about you in it about a million years ago and you never knew. uuuuuuh. y'all can pull the feeding tube whenever you want.
thanks (again!) to Simpleposie for dragging me into the loop.
Simpleposie has posted details on the Canada Council's next Toronto "VISUAL ARTS INFORMATION SESSION ON THE NEW VISUAL ARTS PROGRAM FOR VISUAL ARTISTS". Gotta love them all caps. The council has to use 'em cause they come from the CAPital city of Canada! Uh, anyhow. The event is May 25th.
Last night I took part in a focus group at the Art Gallery of Ontario. They are working on a re-branding strategy to go with the big Gehry-induced physical transformation in 2008. They've invited various stakeholders to give input. My group was "artists." There's another "artists" group on Wednesday. In attendance last night were 8 artists, an outside facilitator, and Arlene Madell, the director of marketing and communications. Of the artists, 7 were white females between 35-45. Pretty well everyone in the group knew each other really well. As a bunch, we were kind of mean and negative. I hope the feedback was helpful, it was definitely impassioned and honest. Here are my favourites of the more positive, action-oriented suggestions that came up:
- Give more power and freedom to young curators with vision and excitement for contemporary art. We named names. I dunno if I should do that here. It seems like it would be a breach of confidence. If I change my mind I'll make an update.
- Host regular get-togethers for curators and programmers from galleries across Ontario, including artist-run centres, private galleries and public galleries, to compare notes about specifically what projects are upcoming and explore ways to work together.
- Expand on the good work that the education and outreach department is doing, particularly Teens Behind the Scenes and any like programs.
- Open an AGO bar and hold free weekly events there.
- Get excited about showcasing contemporary Canadian art to local, regional and international audiences, and tour contemporary shows around the country.
- De-accession works from the collection which are not relevant to current goals for the institution and channel that money into contemporary programming.
- Shed the small-time Upper Canadian museological stuffiness for some genuine, committed engagement with current Canadian art.
The City of Toronto is shooting itself in the foot again with a plan to penalise property owners for allowing graffiti to remain on their walls. Maybe city council didn't notice that all those other fun destination cities in the world have a bunch of cool art on their buildings? I guess the plan is to make sure that there's no free culture around for tourists and hipsters from out of town to soak in, thereby driving them onto public squares awash with the ambient glow of corporate billboards.
NOW magazine did a good piece (via TPSC) on the issue last week. I was apalled/amused at this non-savvy quote from Dennis Reid, chief curator at the Art Gallery of Ontario:
It sickens me when I see people spray-painting on old stone buildings. What the hell are they thinking? I can't imagine the citizenry wouldn't want to clean up the mess as much as we can, but at the same time, there are those occasional pieces that are inspired and we should be pausing over.NB: there's a public forum on what makes a beautiful city next week. details here.
Doug Saunders is writing a whole series of columns on the contemporary state of facism in Europe for the Globe and Mail. Last week was Italy, where facism seems to be generally on the rise, today's was Germany where it does not. Last week in Berlin there was an interesting, middleclass anti-neo-nazi march. Saunders wrote about it in the Globe on Monday:
The very presence of fascists, however marginal their movement, brought thousands of people onto the streets, with the sole intention of standing and blocking the Nazis' progress.As it happens, guest poster Gordon Hicks is in Berlin right now and he says Saunders' description is accurate. Here are some of Gordon's notes and pictures of the day...
"It would be the most enormous embarrassment to all Germans if these people were allowed to walk around on this day without being stopped," said Michael Philipps, 44, a soft-spoken academic who stood with hundreds of families and blocked the street in front of the Lustgarten -- the very spot where Hitler held his famous May rally almost exactly 70 years before.
Guest post #2 by Gordon Hicks:
This weekend's event: Neo-nazi's from the under-employed east march in Berlin. Anti-facists, lefties, skinheads and citizens also march to prevent the neos from marching. The police keep a heavily padded riot line between the two groups. Happy to report the anti's outnumber the facists by a large number (5 times or more).
The photo [above] is taken from the north side of Jannowitzbruke (bridge). The protesters are sitting about - I imagine just to block the possible march of the neos. The police line blocks anyone from crossing the river into the center of the protest area.
A quiet unease hangs about - not festive like last weekend's bash in Kreutzberg - the atmosphere is more grim—resolved, actually.
Theses photos are from Alexanderplaz - just north of the centre of the Neo-Nazi march and a five minute walk from the apartment where I am staying. Every once in a while the police troops would get a command and quick-march off to somewhere else, or quick-march back into the plaz.
Below can see the "World Time Clock" with it's groovy 60's motif on top.
The water cannon trucks and armored personel carriers stood ready on the side streets but, happily, didn't see action. I saw dozens of both kinds of military style vehicles around the area. The bulldozer shovels on the front have a cheerful little request: "Please Stand Clear".
- Guest poster Gordon Hicks