I am enormously grateful for and supportive of all of the entrepreneurship that occurs within the art world. Entrepreneurial ventures allow the market to maintain a sense of diversity. Different artists, styles, themes, mandates, practices–the variety present in Toronto’s selection of galleries ensures that there is something for everybody.

The problem with entrepreneurial ventures, however, is that everyone wants to have one instead of joining forces with other groups who share the same goals.

I don’t believe in monopolization, and I do think that there is plenty of room for multiple spaces with similar mandates to exist. The more the merrier. But I do think that there is also plenty of room for artists, curators and spaces to ally with each other before becoming each other’s competition, particularly if they feel strongly aligned with a space’s purpose and programming.

Despite my belief in diversity of spaces, I have a hard time understanding why more alliances aren’t formed between galleries, artists and curators. There is power in numbers–pooling resources and ideas toward reaching a common goal seems more effective than everyone working separately.

Maybe there are secret alliances that the public is not aware of. But when everyone’s fighting for the same grants, the same funding–I don’t see how working together doesn’t make sense. I don’t want to imply that no one embraces this, because obviously the Toronto art community has a lot of representation in the artist-run and collectives categories.

If there is indeed a goal among galleries that circles art, artists and the public–and not ego and civic fame–shouldn’t people be running to join hands with people who are already doing what they’re looking to do themselves?

_________

• BROWSE / IN TIMELINE
• « Mircea Cantor
• » Books and Movies: The Bias of Lists

• BROWSE / IN art spaces
• « Mircea Cantor
• » Books and Movies: The Bias of Lists