- The Candidates and the Arts
I was going to wait until my current essay deadline had been slapped into submission before digging into the quagmire of the upcoming Federal Election, but the fact is that I already started pulling this post together over a week ago, very shortly after the Leaders Debate aired on CBC. As Leah Sandals has rightly […]
- Off the Shelf: Alex Kapranos’ ‘Sound Bites’
I intend for this first installment of my new monthly book feature to reveal the sort of reading that has fed into my practice as an artist and writer, while respecting that this range of books is not necessarily limited to those that specifically address visual art. While visually appealing in its own way, Sound […]
- Recommended Reading: ‘Just Kids’ by Patti Smith
While I’m not normally in the habit of making apologies on behalf of this blog’s frequency or lack thereof, I will be the first to admit I’ve been especially remiss lately. This would be down to a combination of overwork and an especially persistent cold; I’m hoping the latter clears off in time for a […]
- Prescription for a Healthy Art Scene
Not for the first time, I’m going to let Art Fag City do the heavy lifting on this post while I try to get some real work done. They’ve been a bit busy this week too, but made up for reduced content with a lovely smorgasbord of links today, including a dip into the SFMOMA […]
- Professional Practice Postscript: On the spending and making of money
A lot of things about the explosion of debate around Vantage Art Projects’ Gatekeepers call continue to bother me. The tone of the discussion often ignored its own rationality in favour of kneejerk name-calling, and the lessons learned seem to be selective. Case in point: Vantage did show concern enough to revise the terms of […]
- Gatekeepers, Copyright and Curatorial Quandries
While there have been numerous developments as a consequence of Diana Poulsen’s criticism of Vantage Art Projects, I have been content to let Diana report those updates on her own follow-up post. Even at the expense of much dramatic name-calling and editorializing of certain actionable phrases, the value of the dialogue is clearly demonstrated in […]
- Professional Practice Bonus Feature (with props to Diana Poulsen)
Further to my ranting last Friday about the meanest basics of submitting one’s work to galleries and granting bodies, I’ve been wondering whether there might be a place on this blog for further anecdotes on career development for artists. While I’m still undecided on that count, I still can’t resist sharing another snarling pearl of […]
- Professional Practice Primer
One of the consequences of sitting on two Boards of Directors for Hamilton’s artist-run sector - and consequently, on two Programming Committees - is that I invariably end up spending a lot of time looking at artists’ application packages for everything from exhibitions to commissions to OAC Exhibition Assistance Grants. Just this week alone, I […]
- Excerpt: An age of austerity for the arts
A side-effect of my recent love affair with Adrian Searle’s Private Views has been an expanded interest in the other cultural podcasts offered by The Guardian’s website. While the critical heft doesn’t quite compete with CBC’s Ideas (a long-standing favourite of mine), the series of recordings from the 2009 Cambridge Festival of Ideas have been […]
- Time, and where it goes
I’m not one for New Year’s Resolutions - happy enough with my weight, like my bad habits exactly where they are - but this remains a reflective time of year well suited to self-scrutiny.
One of the more useful books I read this past year was Jackie Battenfield’s indispensably practical The Artist’s Guide: How To […]
