the last place on earth you probably want to be

Apologies for not writing sooner. My brain had been functioning on a sub-intellectual level as I searched for a job, but now that I’ve started working as a programming assistant for YYZ Artists Outlet in Toronto, not only can I resume thinking about art in a meaningful way, but I am gaining new insights into systems, criticism and programming practices.

One of the things I love about YYZ is their publishing chapter, whose impressive catalogue includes criticism and discourse about Canadian art and culture. One of their latest books, Decentre, is an anthology of short essays about artist-run culture in Canada and around the world.

It’s an excellent collection of opinion, experience and dissent from a diverse group of professionals.

Artist-run centres were created in the 1970s in Canada as a way for artists to function outside of the institutional mainstays of commercial galleries and museums. They were spaces for artists, by artists, and their mandate valued art before money. They remain an integral component of art systems in Canada, and their format has been emulated all over the world.

I don’t take for granted that I’ve grown up in a time when ARCs are well-established and practically ubiquitous. It must have been really something to watch Art Metropole emerge and flourish at a time when the concept was revolutionary.

Thing is, I still find the in-theory concept of ARCs to be revolutionary. The gap between theory and practice, however, seems to have widened despite the intentions of its pioneers.

The sphere of art systems in Canada has adapted to support ARCs through government funding. But that support has, in turn, morphed ARCs into an institution of its own. I do believe that any organization, in order to succeed, requires some sort of governance that (even loosely) resembles some aspects of a corporate model (and I see publicly-funded organizations as adhering to this model). The economic/financial concerns of ARCs can’t be ignored–they cost a lot of money to run, particularly when new media works are involved.

But I have to ask: What are ARCs doing today to push the boundaries as General Idea and Art Metropole did in the 1970s?

As I said, there’s a gap between theory and practice. Perhaps it was my own inability to sense nuance, but when I first started visiting galleries, when I knew nothing about art or spaces, ARCs never stood out as tremendously “alternative” spaces. Now that I’ve become more familiar with how these spaces function, I see that ARCs have indeed been stifled by bureaucracy.

What are ARCs doing to overcome this? What other challenges do they face? Decentre offers a pretty wide overview of where ARCs stand in Canada and around the world, and its contributors also ask a lot of questions that ARCs should consider in revising their programming and re-establishing themselves as truly alternative spaces.

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