A few things:

1. Subscribe for email updates. I will send information about the projects that receive funding, as well as monthly updates about the status of the overall project.

2. Donate. Donations to supplement my personal investment will be very much appreciated. Every little bit helps, and will contribute to the facilitation of relational projects in the Toronto-area. Some of your donation may be used to cover operational costs. Please remember that the financials of this project are completely transparent. You can request a copy of the budget by email.

3. Give feedback. I’ve set up a feedback forum where you can leave (anonymous or not) comments about the site and project. I would love to know what you think. Alternatively, you can email me if you have any thoughts you’d like to share. Perhaps you know of a link/theory/article/artist/whatever that might be useful for tinygrants. Maybe I’m going about some aspect of the project completely backwards. Seriously, I want input!

4. I will be updating the blog on tinygrants regularly with project updates, research notes, and samples of existing work that fits into the tinygrants mandate. Add this link to your RSS reader or check back regularly.

5. Applications are due no later than 11:59 PM on Sunday, November 22, 2009. Click here to learn more about how to apply.

6. Spread the word!

Anyway, that’s that! I hope you like it. You can email hello@tinygrants.ca if you have any questions or comments.

© Marissa Neave, the last place on earth you probably want to be, 2009. | Permalink | 2 comments | Post tags: crcp, microfunding, ocad, relational practice, thesis, tinygrants

The impetus behind the project, besides the inspiration provided by Wooster Collective and Ché Francisco Ortiz, is that granting structures in Canada exclude two large groups of artists: student artists, and artists with small projects. I’m hoping that TINYGRANTS will be a plausible solution to fill this significant gap (but for the record, you won’t need to be a student in order to receive TINYGRANTS funding).

Here is a tentative mission statement. I’d love for everyone interested to submit an application once they’re available.

TINYGRANTS aims to facilitate short term interventions that foster creative collaboration, active participation and education opportunities through the distribution of small, non-renewable funding to artists at any stage in their career.

© Marissa Neave, the last place on earth you probably want to be, 2009. | Permalink | 5 comments | Post tags: community, education, intervention, microfunding, microgrants, relational aesthetics, thesis, tiny grants

(Each booklet contained five sets of three pages, as seen above, plus a cover page with instructions and a bibliography.)

Once criticism about art is published, it is committed to history as an authoritative voice of taste and judgment. While political, social and environmental contexts change contemporary readings of historical artworks, critiques from the artwork’s time remain unchanged. The privileged position of critic, judge and connoisseur is often one out of reach from most of the art-appreciating public. But everyone’s opinion matters; every matter of taste is valuable. To address the subjectivity of beauty–and to give precedence to a multiplicity of views–Everyone’s a Critic provides the opportunity to contextualize and comment on works of art as they relate to discussions of beauty. Through a format reminiscent of Mad Libs, where players fill in grammar elements in order to author a unique story, users are given the chance to articulate their own position about the artworks, and perhaps challenge existing popular opinion.

Formally, Everyone’s a Critic mimics the format of the original Mad Libs game, which has a matchbook-style configuration. Instructions at the beginning of the booklet outline the objectives and define the parts of speech that will need to be summoned in order to participate. Each “game” of critique spans three pages, and is united by a bold colour bar at the top of each page, indicating which essay excerpt, image and work page go together. The entire booklet takes roughly thirty minutes to complete.

Everyone’s a Critic is produced in an edition of four and includes text excerpts by prominent critics and theorists on the topic of aesthetics. The excerpts frame the artwork that follows. For example, when Wendy Steiner discusses the commodification of female beauty, it provides an avenue through which one can enter Barbara Kruger’s Who’s the Fairest of Them All?. When Barnett Newman makes claims about his own style of the sublime, we can assess his Onement painting in light of his assertions. Images were chosen according to their relevance to the text excerpted, and text was excerpted based on its relevance to beauty and aesthetics in art.

This playful approach to art criticism bridges the gap between “layperson” and critic, highlighting the subjectivity of beauty and taste, and reminding those participating that art can be addressed and considered in inclusive ways. Although Everyone’s a Critic is not a substitute for academic criticism, it is an “ice-breaker” of sorts; it provides a basic framework where formal and theoretical considerations can be discussed by simply filling in the blanks. Suddenly having an opinion about art isn’t a precious skill developed only by the refined scholar. Everyone’s a Critic makes an all-ages activity out of art appreciation.

Although I think the project was successful, I do have trouble negotiating the intent of Mad Libs versus that of Everyone’s a Critic. Mad Libs is inherently absurd, and for maximum absurdity you’re supposed to fill in the blanks without considering the words around them. Everyone’s a Critic, on the other hand, intends to encourage a deliberate and thoughtful process. Not sure if it can be resolved, but I wanted to acknowledge it.

P.S., I’ll update this post later with photographs of the actual books. Stay tuned.

© Marissa Neave, the last place on earth you probably want to be, 2009. | Permalink | Comment | Post tags: academia, art criticism, felix gonzales-torres, mad libs, subjectivity, suzanne perling hudson

I took a particular interest in the receding waterline of Toronto’s harbour. It was shocking to me that in approximately 100 years, Lake Ontario had been filled in enough to support an extension of land over 800m that has since been developed to include massive architectural structures, roads and highways, and of course, spots conducive to tourist activities. Because I was looking for maps specifically geared toward the location of this exhibition, I did not investigate how the waterline has been affected in other parts of Toronto.

I ended up creating a 3D structure that illustrates the receding waterline (or the expanding land, depending on how you look at it). I used four maps: one from 1827 (showing the development of Front St.); one from 1910 (showing the development of The Esplanade); an undated map that I assume is approximately 1930 (showing the development of Lakeshore Blvd.) and a present-day map from Google Maps (showing the development of Queens Quay).

Here are the original maps:

Each map was printed in black and white and mounted on 1″ foam core, trimmed at the water’s edge, and stacked reverse-chronologically with spacers in between. I used a yellow highlighter to draw attention to the streets I was focusing on. While I wanted to show the receding water (as opposed to the growing land) I found that it was difficult not to read it in the context of land since I erased the water from the maps. A water version of this map is entirely possible.

Unfortunately I don’t have any installation views at the moment. But when I get them I will update this post.

© Marissa Neave, the last place on earth you probably want to be, 2009. | Permalink | 2 comments | Post tags: andrew hunter, curatorial, front street, harbourfront, lakeshore blvd, maps, queens quay, the esplanade, toronto