Civic Impact

New mentorship project pairs emerging and experienced artists

Katia Snukal | Wednesday, July 10, 2013

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The York Region Arts Council has teamed up with the McMichael Canadian Art Collection to offer a mentorship program for emerging artists.

The newly created Arts Mentorship Project provides relatively inexperienced artists with a rare opportunity: the chance to collaborate on an artwork with an established professional.

It will work like this: the two artists, the mentor and the mentee, will meet at the McMichael Gallery over the summer and the fall for three two-day sessions. Over the course of those sessions, they will work together on an art project while also discussing both the craft, as well as the business, of art.

The participants for the project's inaugural term have already been selected, and are scheduled to have their first formal meeting at the gallery on Thursday July 11th. The inaugural mentor is Canadian landscape painter David McEown; the mentee, Ben Barak, a Newmarket resident and recent graduate of Nipissing University BFA program.

"The Art Mentorship Project represents an invaluable opportunity for emerging artists to receive technical assistance and engage in productive discussion with established members of Canada's rich artistic community," says Anna Stanisz, assistant curator of education and programs at the McMichael. "It embodies the McMichael's current vision, which defines the institution as an extraordinary place to experience the connection between art and nature."

The work created by McEown and Barak will be displayed at Vaughan's McMichael gallery from December 20, 2013 to March 2, 2014.

And not only will the artists' finished product be made available to the public, so too will their process. McMichael visitors will have the opportunity to observe mentor and mentee working on the gallery grounds, and, on September 29, McEown and Barak are scheduled to give a panel talk about their work as part of Doors Open Vaughan.

Applications for the project’s second session will be accepted from January 3 to February 29, 2014.

Writer: Katia Snukal
Source: The McMichael Canadian Art Collection, Anna Stanisz, Assistant Curator, Education and Programs, McMichael

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