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Toronto Arts Council has partnered with the City of Toronto's Museum Services department to offer a new series of grants that will allow artists to create public space interventions in heritage spaces across the GTA.
The new Historic Sites granting program is part of an ongoing series of TAC initiatives to bring art into more public spaces and into a broader range of communities across the city.
All of the sites for the future artworks--Scarborough Museum, Gibson House, Montgomery Inn, Todmorden Mills and Zion Schoolhouse--are located outside the downtown core. A decision, says Claire Hopkinson, TAC’s director and CEO, that was very much deliberate.
"We've been working on this vision for about five years, this desire to make the arts more accessible throughout the city," says Hopkinson. "But there are challenges to that due to a lack cultural space outside the downtown core thanks to a history, prior to amalgamation, of limited funding for cultural infrastructure and programming [in these areas]."
"These are challenges that take a while to overcome, so these partnership with organizations that have venues who have well-established reputations is a step towards making the arts as relevant to someone who lives in Scarborough as it is to someone living at Yonge and Front."
But, while many communities lack the kinds of established art institutions prevalent in downtown Toronto, Hopkinson, and her partners at Museum Services, see these different cultural landscapes as much as opportunities as they are challenges.
"Artists are very important assets to the city in terms of interpreting stories and using the assets the city has," says Hopkinson. "And so many artists really value the opportunity of interacting with local communities and working in different environments. This is really about expanding opportunities for both Toronto artists and for the public to be part of an artistic project free of charge in an environment that perhaps is unexpected to them to witness art."
Moreover, adds Hopkinson, by partnering with established museums, artists are guaranteed a venue and audience. Two factors crucial to any art exhibit that often prove challenging for emerging, or even established artists.
"With this program, the artist or artists are not only going to have a grant, they are also going to have a roof over their head and an audience. Normally when you apply for a grant you have to find a venue and do the publicity on your own, so this is great for the artist but also helps to complete our mission of block by block by making art as accessible as possible to everyone in the city."
Artists or artist collectives interested in the historic sites grants can apply to TAC for grants ranging from $5,000 for initial research to $30,000 for full programming. The application deadline is January 24, 2014.
Photo by Grant MacDonald.
Writer: Katia Snukal
Source: Claire Hopkinson, Toronto Art's Council, Director and CEO