My time at the Contemporary Art Gallery left me with mixed feelings, mainly about how institutions operate within the art field and the role that students play as unpaid interns.  So, I created a visual response with the purpose of articulating those feelings through colour, hoping that I would visually be able to show the amount of positive and negative in the experience.  I conducted an interview of sorts with myself to understand why I felt uncomfortable about certain things, writing all of my answers in my sketchbook I then transferred that text to a 22 x 30 sheet of paper.  Rather than writing things small enough for people to read, I chose to overlap the writing so that each line contains about 6 to 8 lines of writing in it, that way only the colour, overlapping text, and bits that stick out are legible.  Apparently I have also exceeded my data limit on here, so I am unable to attach a photo unfortunately.

Contemporary Art Gallery Poster

History

The Contemporary Art Gallery (CAG), established in 1971 began as the Greater Vancouver Artist’s Gallery, hiring artists for six month periods to produce art for exhibition until 1978.  The CAG transitioned into an artist-run centre in 1984, providing an initial platform for many of Vancouver’s important artists such as Brian Jungen, Germaine Koh, and Steven Shearer.  In 1996 the CAG transitioned once again into its current state as an independent public art gallery, now delivering ten to twenty exhibitions and projects every year free of charge through an admission by donation policy.

Mandate

The Contemporary Art Gallery is dedicated to providing exhibitions, research, education and documentation of contemporary visual art from local and international artists.  Attracting diverse audiences through its free open hours, school programs, public programs and membership opportunities the CAG seeks to generate interest and debate in contemporary art.  The CAG promotes knowledge and access to contemporary art through its exhibitions, visual arts resources, displaying some of the City of Vancouver Art Collection by loan and, development of relationships between art, artists and audiences to open discussion and understanding of contemporary visual art.

Operations

The Contemporary Art Gallery operates as a non-profit public art gallery, funded by the Canada Council for the Arts, the City of Vancouver, BC Arts Council and other government divisions, along with private donations from members and donors.  Employing around 12 staff, the CAG also engages many volunteers in various positions in the gallery, as well as a handful of students from UBC and SFU each semester that work in positions like educational assistant, curatorial assistant and gallery assistant.  The CAG operates from its main location on Nelson street while also engaging in satellite projects in the community, and at the Yaletown skytrain station.

Current Exhibitions 

Site For Still Life by Vancouver-based artist Andrew Dadson explores boundaries in relation to space and time through exploration with materials, process and abstraction.  Central to the exhibition are Dadson’s House Plants (2017), a collection of house plants painted a single colour and lit with UV lamps.  The relationship between plants and humans is highlighted in a slow motion power struggle, as the exhibition continues the plants will eventually grow new shoots to reveal their natural colours and return to their original state.

Full Frontal by Lyse Lemieux is taking place on the Gallery facade and off-site at the Yaletown-Roundhouse Skytrain Station.  Lemieux’s practice is often described as focused on drawing, bringing into her work abstract references of the human figure.  For this exhibition the exterior of the CAG is quite literally covered by Lemieux’s abstract forms.

After meeting with Kim and Holly at the Contemporary Art Gallery I have been given two different projects to work on during the semester, both guided and individually.  The projects are as follows:

Family Days

October 28th 12-3pm, November 25 12-3pm

On the last Saturday of each month, the CAG invites all ages to drop-in for short exhibition tours and free art-making activities that respond to current exhibitions.

I will be formatting and creating art projects and the program for the Family Days in both October and November, working with about a $100 budget for each event.  This project will require organization to bring the events together, time management, a healthy dose of creativity to involve children in contemporary art, and ingenuity for sourcing materials on a small budget.

School Program for Andrew Dadson Exhibition

Show opens October 12th and continues through to December

A school program plan will be formatted for the upcoming exhibition which I will be helping Kimberly the curator at CAG with, roughly 3-5 schools will attend this program during the span of the exhibition.  Research will be important for this project since the exhibition will be thoroughly discussed with school groups for roughly an hour and a half, however, since the school program is already nearly done it is more likely that I will be co-presenting the program with one of the CAG staff.  This will include public speaking and engaging with a school group through questions, it was indicated during our meeting that a lot of the program is asking the students questions and responding to their answers to create a conversation on contemporary art.

I will be working at the CAG every Wednesday for 5 hours to complete these projects (and will be attending the two Family Days events on Saturdays as well).  One of my main goals is to be productive and efficient with my time, finishing the projects—in particular the Family Days—well before the deadlines and without having to work outside of the designated hours.  Readings and research will also be important to have a solid base for both projects, I want to prioritize readings during the span of this course/project since they often fall to the wayside for me.  I also hope to engage with the community at CAG and the larger art community in the city, attending their fundraising gala on November 4th, making it out to an ongoing project they have at Strathcona Elementary school, and going to artist talks.  I will mainly communicate and work with Kim (sharing part of her office maybe) so, I will endeavour to keep lines of communication open in regards to the projects and any questions I may have, while likely receiving feedback at the same time.  All in all this is an exciting opportunity and I look forward to seeing where this leads.