The Tiny Pricks Project began last year when Diana Weymar embroidered “I am a very stable genius” on a floral seat cushion from her grandmother's house. Now it includes more than a thousands textile-art pieces from all over the world. Photo: Facebook/Tiny Pricks Project.
International Links
A BC artist has gone global with textile art about Trump tweets. Diana Weymar, who is based in BC, embroidered the words “I am a very stable genius” on an old seat cushion in January 2018. Since then, thousands more pieces contributed from artists around the world have become the Tiny Pricks Project. Covered of late by the BBC, the New Yorker, Agence France Presse and more, founder and curator Weymar is currently preparing an exhibition in Brooklyn to open September 7. (New Yorker, BBC, Tiny Pricks Project)
Montreal artist Nicolas Baier, working with Toronto architects, has won an international public art award. The Quad Student Community at York University was designed by Toronto architects ARK with a public art component by Nicolas Baier. It recently won a 2019 CODAaward in the Education category. Brad Golden was art consultant on the project. (CODAaward/CODAworx, press release)
The Great Ocean Dialogues are coming to the Vancouver Art Gallery September 28 and 29. This important event will bring together Indigenous artists from around the Pacific. “This Indigenous-led gathering will bring together local First Nations artists and knowledge keepers, artists and curators of [the upcoming exhibition] ‘Transits and Returns,’ alongside guest speakers from Vancouver and abroad. Conversations will focus on the Great Ocean as both a return to and a reimagining of ancestral and current connections across cultural and geographic contexts.” The exhibition “Transits and Returns,” running September 28 to February 23, focuses on the work of 21 Indigenous artists from around the Pacific. (press release)
Vancouver designer Matthew McCormick is presenting AVALANCHE, a temporary installation at the Victoria & Albert Museum, for the 2019 London Design Festival. The installation references both climate change and the experience of being trapped inside a snow slide. It will be exhibited at the museum September 14 to 22. (London Design Festival)
Money Matters
“It was a bust”: Indigenous artists ‘embarrassed’ after trade mission to Japan. That’s the headline on a CBC Saskatchewan story—and several of the artists involved want to make sure the mission organizer owns up to and pays for its misdeeds. The organizers Indig Inc. received “$36,786 from Creative Saskatchewan after qualifying for a market and export development grant, according to the arts funding body of the provincial government,” CBC reports. And they are “slated to receive the remaining 40 per cent of the more than $60,000 grant—worth $24,524—if [they] can satisfy the reporting requirements.” (CBC Saskatchewan)
The expansion of the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria has been delayed. “The start of construction for the expansion of the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria has been delayed until March due to rising construction costs and funding delays,” says Galleries West. “The budget for the expansion, which includes an extra 11,000 square feet of exhibition space, was originally set at $21 million. But rising construction and material costs have driven the price tag closer to $26 million…. The gallery is waiting to hear if it will get $10 million in federal funding. News is not expected until after the Oct. 21 federal election.” (Galleries West)
Critiques & Histories
“Canada no longer has a design museum. That’s a blueprint for failure.” So opines Brendan Cormier, a Canadian designer and curator currently on staff at the Victoria & Albert Museum in London, in regards to the deaccessioning earlier this year of the entire Design Exchange collection in Toronto. “This is deeply troubling. While the DX has long struggled to assert itself as a major museum of importance in the country, its move away from museum status is nevertheless a major loss. Canada will now become one of the only advanced economies in the world not to have its own design museum,” Cormier writes. (Globe and Mail)
An oral history of cléo. A recent victim of Ontario Arts Council budget cuts, the journal cléo is wrapping up, and the Globe has an oral history of the project. “I’m still in awe of cléo’s global reach and our fervent readers. Cléo clearly filled a void in film and arts coverage, and I’m happy we were able to shine a bigger light on intersectional feminist film. I’m proud of us for creating a widely read journal using what little resources we had,” says senior editor Michelle Kay. A donation from American director Barry Jenkins will ensure the journal’s wraps up with a big best-of print issue. (Globe and Mail)
Staffing Updates
Emily Carr University of Art + Design has hired four full-time Indigenous faculty members. Gina Adams will join ECU as assistant professor, foundation; Christine Howard Sandoval comes on board as assistant professor, interdisciplinary art praxis; Gabrielle L’Hirondelle Hill will be taking on a role as assistant professor, interdisciplinary art praxis; and Jay White joins the university as assistant professor, foundation. They come to the university as part of a cluster hiring initiative designed to introduce an interdisciplinary group of Indigenous academics to the university at the same time. “Their hiring nearly doubles the number of tenured and tenure-track Indigenous faculty at the university,” says a release. (press release)
Woodland Cultural Centre has appointed Patricia Deadman as curator of the museum and art gallery. Deadman has over 20 years of curatorial practice including being curator-in-residence at Museum London, curator at MacKenzie Art Gallery and former director/curator at Woodstock Art Gallery. Says an Akimbo release, “She has curated numerous independent projects and was selected to the Aboriginal Curators Delegation to the Sydney Biennale and New Zealand and the Venice Biennale and Basel Art Fair awarded by the Canada Council for the Arts.” (Akimbo)
Emma Steen is the new curatorial coordinator at the Aboriginal Curatorial Collective. “Steen is a master’s candidate at OCAD U in the contemporary art history stream,” says a release. “Her work focuses on Indigenous self-representation of love and lust in art. Her practice focuses on curating, writing and community programming… She hopes to eventually assist in the creation of an Indigenous Artist and Curator Run Centre in her hometown of Toronto/Tkaronto.” (emailed press release)
Eunice Bélidor is the new director of FOFA Gallery at Concordia University in Montreal. “As the first Black person to become director of the gallery, Bélidor believes that her visibility to passersby is significant for the representation of Black and other racialized people in the arts,” Concordia News reports. Bélidor told them: “A lot of people who don’t think they have access to art are people of colour, so I’m hoping that they will see that it’s their place as well.” (Concordia News)
Artscape Toronto has made some changes. LoriAnn Girvan will be transitioning from her role as chief operating officer to become senior advisor of social purpose real estate on October 1. Mike Gouzopolous is also being promoted from senior manager portfolio development to a newly created role of director of social purpose real estate. Moving into the role of chief operating officer is Nidhi Khanna, formerly vice president of artists and client relations at Artscape. In addition to leading the Creative Placemaking team, Assaf Weisz will take on a new role as chief strategy officer. (press release)
Galerie UQO in Gatineau is growing. The gallery recently announced Mirna Boyadjian as coordinator and Jérémie Roussel as technician. (press release)
Passages
Larry Dohey, an archivist at the Rooms in St. John’s, has died. Formerly a journalist and a longtime storyteller of Newfoundland and Labrador heritage on media and in person, Dohey died at the age of 59 after collapsing while giving a talk on Monday, CBC reports. “We’re profoundly saddened this morning by the loss of our dear colleague and friend,” said Anne Chafe, interim CEO of The Rooms provincial archive and museum. “He spread the word of The Rooms far and wide and he was just an outstanding ambassador for the work that we do.” (CBC Newfoundland and Labrador)
Newfoundland-based artist Jim Hansen has died. Born in Ohio in 1939, “Jim moved to Newfoundland in 1970, calling it home ever since,” says his obituary. “Jim’s life long passion was art, and as a visual artist his work was prolific. He was producing new work right up until his death. His pieces are housed in galleries across North America including the National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa and the Museum of Modern Art in New York City.” His obituary ends: “In lieu of flowers please support your local artists.” (Obituary, Heritage Newfoundland & Labrador)
