Canadian Art is an independent, national non-profit organization committed to presenting accessible writing and criticism about contemporary art and culture. We engage with the work of artists through print, online and programming platforms and are committed to supporting and mentoring the next generation of art writers.
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Please note, that due to the financial challenges presented by the COVID-19 pandemic, Canadian Art will not be publishing a Summer 2021 issue, and our staff are temporarily on leave. Please check back after July 3, 2021, for an update, or to contact an editor.
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We welcome your ideas for coverage as well as pitches for a wide range of story types in print and online. Successful pitches will adhere to our editorial submission guidelines.
Pitches should be sent to pitches@canadianart.ca, with the subject line indicating if the pitch is for print or online. If you want to submit a listing to our Agenda section, please visit this link.
Pitches are consensus-vetted by the editorial team and only writers whose pitches are accepted for publication will be contacted by reply email. Please note that Canadian Art is a general-interest publication, and does not publish academic writing.
PRINT
2020 is a year marked by global historical significance. As we think through what 2021 might bring, we are interested in hearing from artists, writers and thinkers on how you are making work, what kind of work you are making, and how the political conditions of our time are affecting you—from conversations that span the globe to those that barely exceed our spaces or studios.
Spring
FREQUENCIES
An issue that looks at how artists use sound and light to produce experiences beyond the gallery: sound art, materialities, light waves, visual and sonic forms, conceptual art, glitch, music, soundscapes, radio, podcasting, audio tracks, scores, recordings, vibrations, oscillations, transparency/opacity, white noise
Release date: March 15
Summer
ACCESS
An issue that looks at how viewers encounter art: accessibility, proximity, distance, disability activism, entryways, publics, viewing conditions, access to funding, support networks, cultural currency, exchange, markets, studios, design and legibility, documentation, rhetoric
Release date: postponed
Future themes:
RETURNS
An issue that looks at how artists and curators are changing museums and collecting practices: repatriation, reparations, display, object culture, object theory, museums, institutional change, exhibition practices, interventions, ancestors, repairing and healing, deaccessioning, spectacle, conservation practices
TELEVISION
An issue that looks at all the ways small screen technologies used by artists: programming, filters, video art, reruns, video communications, broadcasting, public access TV, nostalgia, memory, propaganda, media history, Canadian nationalism, youtube, video, protest, 24-hour news cycles, glitch, cables
Fee Scale
Reviews up to 600 words pay $375.
Pitches for reviews (of online or IRL exhibitions, projects, books, performances) are received on an ongoing basis for both print and online. We are interested in thinking laterally about what constitutes a review, especially as we gather less in public and need new forms of constructive aesthetic critique.
Essays or features: short features up to 1,000 words pays $750; features from 1500 to 2000 words pay $1,125; features from 2,000 to 2,500 words pays $1,500; research-driven or investigative features up to 3,500 words pay between $1,875 and $2,500, depending on scope.
Keynote, a 500-word overture on our issue theme, and Fiction/Poetry pay $375 each. Legacy, up to 1,000 words, is about a little known aspect of Canadian art history, or a unique twist on a well-known story or figure, pays $750.
ONLINE
We have a refreshed visual and navigational experience and are looking for distinctive, diverse and expanded critical perspectives.
Online Reviews up to 600 words, $250
Short, quirky or serious, descriptive or polemic, online reviews cover events, exhibitions, projects and performances, nationally and internationally, that are of interest to our readers.
News Stories up to 600 words, $250
We accept pitches and tips for news stories and features about issues relevant to contemporary art in Canada, and Canadian artists, exhibitions and trends abroad.
Q + A Interviews up to 2000 words (2500 with an introduction) $400
Essays and Features 1200 to 1800 words, $600
We are committed to voicey, opinionated essays, interviews and feature articles that demonstrate how art is connected to other disciplines—and that take contemporary art as a starting point for broader engagements with society- and culture-at-large.
Profiles or Investigative Stories 2000 to 2500 words, $1,000
We are committed to supporting writers who pursue in-depth stories requiring time and research to complete. We are looking for investigative pieces that uncover or engage with structural, social, economic, educational and aesthetic realities of the art world and beyond.
EDITORIAL SUBMISSION GUIDELINES
1. Read our magazine and website regularly to get a sense of our tone and style, and become familiar with Canadian Art’s editorial vision.
2. We publish smart, accessible prose, but not academic writing. We are always interested in original thinking, under-told histories and marginalized voices that challenge the status quo (including the art-world status quo).
3. Are you pitching a review? We are interested in unconventional and generous approaches to the form. We would prefer that the review be exciting and stimulating to readers who have not seen the show, and/or have not had beers with the artists/curators. We currently publish both short and long reviews, but will accept a long review pitch only if it contains a strong, provocative, coherent argument.
4. Manage and refine your pitch. You are pitching us an article, not a doctoral thesis or a book. If you are pitching a review, it is not enough to simply say you’re interested in the show. Tell us why.
5. Check to see if we have already published a piece about the artist, exhibition or concept you are pitching before you get in touch. If you are pitching a thinkpiece, check to see if your idea has already been tackled in the same manner by another writer for us, or for another publication.
6. Compose your story outline and angle using the same tone in which you will write your piece. Use your pitch to show us what kind of writer you are.
7. If you have not worked with us before, attach one or two relevant clips or links.
8. Tell us how long it will take you to turn the piece around and let us know if you are pitching your idea to other publications simultaneously so that we can get back to you within an appropriate time frame.
9. Keep it short: limit the length of your pitch so that it fits on one printed page. Ideally, your pitch is no more than five sentences.
10. We do not typically accept pieces on spec, i.e., pieces that have already been written.
11. We do not typically accept pitches from curators wanting to write on exhibitions that they are organizing or that are hosted at their place of employment, or on artists with whom they are professionally affiliated. We also do not typically accept pitches from artists who wish for us to write about their own work; a portfolio is not a pitch. If you want to let us know about an upcoming project or artist, we would love to hear from you, and if interested will assign a writer to cover your project.
Thank you for your time,
The Canadian Art editorial team