26 artist-run centres for art’s birthday

26 artist-run centres for art’s birthday

17 january 2005

a is for anarchy - artist-run centres are generally cognizant of the adverse effects of power and authority and as a result most are more cooperative than top-down but this centre rakes the muck of corporate control in every conceivable way, scamming, shoplifting, cooperative living, train-hopping, hitch-hiking, dumpster diving. Spontaneous outbursts of culture occur mostly in the streets.

b is for bacon - popular among artist-run centre types east of North Bay and west of Kingston, at this particular artist-run centre cum bistro cum diner, pea meal graces the table at every setting. No need to wave the flag or don your plaids. Even hockey is not missed where pea meal is everywhere on the menu.

c is for civil society - the public interest is served in many ways, not the least of which is the collective investment in infrastructure like roads and essentials like health care. The apparatus of the not-for-profit corporation is another way the public interest is served and all artist-run centres share this common structure.

d is for devolution - a concept foisted on the culturatti in the early 1990s as capitalism drove hard against government after a recession, the idea took hold at one artist-run centre: there, demands for responsibility and autonomy by those with the least amount of control over their working conditions and production are met by transfers of authority and money from those with power to those without, and when all powers (and monies) have been successfully devolved, those formerly in power move on. ha ha just kidding.

e is for ecology - more scientific research institute than gallery, this centre has developed a unique methodology of genotyping submissions. Matching types through a massive database collectively assembled by a network of similarly focused centres around the world, the centre conducts a kind of breeding program; exotic genotypes are imported to cross-fertilize indigenous species with resulting hybrids being introduced at calculated intervals into the larger population. Results are carefully monitored.

f is for falling down - this artist-run centre appears to be in a perpetual state of collapse but don't be deceived, entropy is also a system and the appearance of chaos and failure can be only that, appearance. Like clowns in a circus, no one gets hurt and the show always goes on.

g is for growth - it would be wrong to take the glacial pace of change at this centre for stagnation. While it is true that the more bitterly hostile the environment, the slower things grow, it is also the case that the slower the growth the more remarkable the toughness of the tree.

h is for hierarchy - acutely status conscious, obsessive ranking at this artist-run centre should make it top notch. Alas, it turns out it is merely eccentric. Indeed, status pyramids prove to be as diverse as the people who devise them, which would be pretty well everybody.

i is for ideology - uniformity in non-profit structure does not preclude differences in how artist-run centres operate. None is without ideology but the extent to which centres self-consciously and self-critically acknowledge their POV varies widely, as we have known since at least 1966 when, arguably, the first artist-run centre type formation occurred - artists assembled for more than the purpose of making some aesthetic fanfare.

j is for jazz - ineffable cool pervades this artist-run centre whose rat pack is renowned for their banter. As likely as not to be found fundraising at the local track or casino, management is largely delegated to agents and lawyers. More club than gallery, this centre's stage opens late and closes when the sun rises, fostering an unusual audience.

k is for tight knit - close is how you might describe this artist-run centre, whose program deals exclusively with artists working in traditional media. It's not like the director hosts ‘bees’ in her living room or bake sales pay the rent but craft-based production has, after all, become a site of the avant-garde. But the cross-over with popular craft makes the program more accessible and attendance figures are remarkable.

l is for labour - vigorous management is reluctantly assumed by the board of this artist-run centre in order to counter-balance the unionized staff and artists who exhibit here. Thanks to collective bargaining, salaries and exhibition fees are, as might be expected, higher than anywhere else, including larger cultural institutions. One might expect the centre to be cripplied financially, especially considering the excellent pension plan and benefits, but in fact its tidy exhibition program is executed with uncommon precision.

m is for metonymy – academics love rhetoric because anything and everything can be explained in its terms. This artist-run centre prides itself on deciphering artworks as if they were figures of speech, deconstructing them for the way in which they elaborate teh economic, social and political discourses of various classes and elites. The resulting pleasures, if difficult to unlock, are no less rewarding for that.

n is for nachos - populism may be antithetical to most artist-run centres, but staff and board at this one prove how elastic the model is; they are as likely to be found at the ball park or hockey arena as in the effete white box, participate in several leagues and champion an organizational structure and program that runs on the principles of team spirit, good coaching and healthy competition.

o is for oligarchy - ideology reaches the apogee of self-consciousness at this artist-run centre. Internal workings remain murky, reflecting the waxing and waning of formal and informal factions within the general membership. A politburo is officially the controlling body but its influence depends on the strength of the appointed General Secretary, influential ideologues and persons occupying pivotal positions within the organization, and alliances among them.

p is for practice - this artist-run centre puts method before product, considering work not merely to be a manifestation of what happens in the studio but as an engagement with strains of discourse in various states of development or maturity. The practice of its own administration is also raised to an art... disciplined, innovative, experimental, sponsors are attracted by the centre's intelligent disposition.

q is for quixotic - tilting at windmills is this artist-run centre's forte. No cause is too obscure. Indeed the less the chance of success, the more worthy that cause is found to be. The aggressively critical program balances on its own sort of edge and the hugs with which each visitor is greeted are not altogether unwelcome.

r is for reality TV - this artist-run centre has been recording reality on every conceivable medium since its inception. Unexpectedly, 30 years of collection has turned into a gold mine, filling up new digital television channels desperate for content.

s is for stupidity - defined as "the learned corruption of learning," once stupidity has been learned it is virtually impossible to unlearn, as so many current world leaders demonstrate. And few things are worse than not being able to dumb down enough to not feel the panic. Regrettably, despite tireless efforts to unlearn their learning capabilities, artist-run centres are still lagging behind the global brain loss.

t is for termite - sometimes a little bit of writing takes your breath away. It helps if the topic is ripe but still... Robert Polito: “[Manny Farber's] termite/white elephant essay cashiered ‘masterpiece art, reminiscent of the enameled tobacco humidors and wooden lawn ponies bought at white elephant auctions decades ago.’ White elephant directors ‘blow up every situation and character like an affable inner tube with recognizable details and smarmy compassion’ or ‘pin the viewer to the wall and slug him with wet towels of artiness and significance.’ Farber instead tracked the termite artist: ‘ornery, wasteful, stubbornly self-involved, doing go-for-broke art and not caring what comes of it.’ Termite art (or ‘termite-fungus-centipede art,’ as he also tagged it) is an ‘act both of observing and being in the world, a journeying in which the artist seems to be ingesting both the material of his art and the outside world through a horizontal coverage.’ Against the white elephant ‘pursuit of the continuity, harmony, involved in constructing a masterpiece,’ termite art mainly inheres in moments: ‘a few spots of tingling, jarring excitement’ in a Cezanne painting ‘where he nibbles away at what he calls his small sensation’; or John Wayne's ‘hipster sense of how to sit in a chair leaned against the wall’ in The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance.” Whew.

u is for undiscipline - it is perhaps because of their non-profit structures, with changes in board members and subsequently, direction, focus and community, that many artist-run centres exhibit a kind of eclecticism. But at their best, artist-run centres consciously avoid work that neatly follows one or another strategic path, with the result that on the whole their very existence rankles conventions of career, path, success...each venture

Is a new beginning, a raid on the inarticulate

With shabby equipment always deteriorating

In the general mess of imprecision of feeling,

Undisciplined squads of emotion. And what there is to conquer

By strength and submission, has already been discovered

Once or twice, or several times, by [those] whom one cannot hope

To emulate—but there is no competition—

There is only the fight to recover what has been lost

And found and lost again and again: and now, under conditions

That seem unpropitious. But perhaps neither gain nor loss.

For us, there is only the trying. The rest is not our business.

- T.S. Elliot, Four Quartets, No. 2 East Coker

v is for virtual - space is in our heads, especially for this theocracy of hackers, uber geeks, bloggers and web monkeys, who never actually meet but hang out in all the usual places. Perfectly crafted schedules, budgets and minutes move across the network at the speed of light, blogs deal with debates while the programs, from digital video to cartoons, are delivered electronically.

w is for wonder - New Age has wound its way into most of our lives but rarely manifests itself as anything more than recreation. At this artist-run centre you don't have to leave your convictions at the yoga studio or the juice bar. Meditation starts every business day in an environment where everything from the architecture (round) aromas (jasmine) and lighting (candles) create an experience of soft affluence.

x is for gen-x - artist-run centres normally disdain categories, particularly ones that break through to popular culture but this centre found itself in the odd position of being what it is before that became trendy. Artists, members, board and staff all share a common birth period and find expression in an eclectic but nonetheless consistent approach to administration and art. Sometimes called “slackers,” "thirteeners" or the "13th Generation", they are, in fact, decent, pragmatic, creative, strongly independent, self-reliant, and hard-working. They have a surprisingly good work ethic - including a strong sense of company loyalty, as long as it's reciprocal. They are not without ambition and have little interest in jobs without financial and emotional security. Realistic and honest about the struggles in a rapidly changing world of diminishing resources, an elderly society, and a culture dominated by, and designed for, "baby boomers".

y is for youth - we're not getting any younger, as we are reminded by those around us starting families or even seeing their kids graduating from college. But just as their staff and board members have matured so have some artist-run centres focused far ahead in both their operations and programming. Workplace daycare, after school programs, collective child care, art classes and tutoring anticipate a centre that by 2020 should achieve a level of intelligence and sophistication we can only speculate about today.

z is for the end of all things - here administrators cleave to a mythic, apocalyptic view of things and no decision is taken without a sense of immanent crisis, that it is something that absolutely must be done before the end of all things.

---