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Making a House A Home – drawing exhibition
»26 January – 30 March 2010, Cliffcrest Branch (Toronto Public Library),
3017 Kingston Road
Toronto, Ontario, M1M 1P1.
Opening reception 30 January, 2:30-4:30pm
FREE. Refreshments will be served.
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One Saturday in September, seventeen individuals got together at the Scarborough Arts Council for a collaborative workshop held by SAVAC (South Asian Visual Arts Centre). Together, they created this series of drawings, which explore and express their memories of “home” - a reference to both one’s own homes and to those homes one may only know through the recollections of others. Using a combination of drawing and storytelling, participants engaged in a thoughtful discussion that investigated the varying understandings of home, and notions of community, place and belonging.
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Join the Fray: Finding Your Way Into Toronto's Art Scene
» Saturday 6 February 2–5:00pm, 401 Richmond St. W.
$30 SAVAC members / $50 non-members.
Limited space available, please register by January 29 2010.
To register please contact 416-542-1661 or
Location: 401 Richmond St. W., Suite 440 (CARFAC office)
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The Canadian art scene can appear complex and impenetrable, but there are in fact several points of entry for newcomer and emerging artists. Toronto artist, curator and educator Barbara Gilbert provides an introduction to the various systems in place, including commercial galleries, artist-run centres, the granting system and more. Learn how to access professional artists' resources, take advantage of what local organizations have to offer, and become more involved in Toronto's exciting art community.
BARBARA GILBERT, Secretariat Coordinator at the Ontario Association of Art Galleries, is a Toronto-based visual artist, art educator and art writer who exhibited her photographic work in Paris, Montreal, Australia, Dublin, Ottawa, Toronto, and Hamilton. Her photography was published in Carte Blanche (2006) and her writing in Mix Magazine (2007) and Gallery 44 (2007). Her work was included in two group exhibitions during Contact 2009 (Gallery 1313 and 918 Bathurst).
Gilbert obtained extensive arts administration experience in the Visual Arts Office of the Ontario Arts Council, and in the Education Department of the Art Gallery of Ontario where she began as an Education Officer but was soon promoted to Education Coordinator. More recently, Barbara was Board President of Gallery 44 Centre for Contemporary Photography. She has freelanced as a photographer, translator, and cultural analyst, most notably reporting on the Ignite: Youth Forum and the Visual Arts Summit (both 2007). Gilbert teaches in Continuing Studies at the Ontario College of Art & Design.
Reflecting on the 2009 Tamil Diaspora Protests
»An online image archive of the protests in Canada
// A series of three artist-run workshops
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SAVAC invites contributions towards an online archive of imagery about the protests in Canada. This collective archive will serve as a starting point for the discussions (described below). Submissions may include photography, drawings or video. To submit your images of the protests please visit www.flickr.com/groups/toronto-tamil-protests/
Beginning in mid-2008, an extraordinary series of protests erupted in cities from Chennai to Ottawa against the escalation of the government military offensive in Sri Lanka’s north. These demonstrations, of which Toronto was a major epicentre, marked a critical moment in recent history and provoked vigorous debate. Information technology and new media provided both a stage and vehicle for these events; the production and circulation of digital information and images became a central organizing tool of the demonstrations. The “spectacle” of the protests – in Guy Debord’s sense of a spectacle being a “social relation mediated by images”– generated heated debate over the politics of immigration and citizenship, the occupation of public space, and the complexities of Tamil identity within the diaspora. To this point, however, much of this discussion has focused narrowly on Sri Lankan politics or questions of race and racism in Canada.
Through a series of artist-lead workshops, SAVAC seeks to initiate a broader dialogue concerning the social, political and performative efficacy of the 2009 Tamil diaspora protests. How can an examination of various images in the media enable a critique of the spectacle of the protests themselves? What voices and experiences have the dominant representations of these demonstrations silenced? How can the conceptual strategies of contemporary art provide new insights and an alternate language for understanding diaspora and transnational social mobilization?
This series will consist of three full-day workshops that will meet once a month from February to April 2010. The workshops will include several components, including hands-on exercises with the facilitating artists, and will address a wide-ranging set of issues: media representations of the protests, utilizations of digital media, the internet as an archive of current history, the centrality of sound and language, the contested nature of public spaces, and the intimate relationship between identity and modes of social performance. These conversations will also assist in organizing a SAVAC event for the 2010 Tamil studies conference at the University of Toronto.
We welcome all interested participants, including those with no artistic background. However, space is limited. Please send an email to register, including a short description of your interest in the workshop. A small number of selected critical readings will be circulated in advance. For more information, or to register please contact
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Download this call (.pdf)
