Visual Art Communities
I wrote in last month's editorial, "Throughout my professional life I have been comparing the professional lifestyle of my visual arts friends with that of my performing arts peers— particularly on the solitary nature of visual art making versus the collective experience of staging plays." I promised, in that editorial, to write about some visual art communities that provide excellent professional development services for visual artists. The organizations listed below are relevant to all visual artists in Canada except Malaspina Printmakers, which is an example of a valuable local Vancouver resource for artists with unique needs.
CARFAC is the acronym of Canadian Artists Representation (CAR). In French, the organization's name is Le front des artists canadiens (FAC). CARFAC is Canada's national service organization for professional artists. It has a long and proud history of serving visual artists in Canada, but as I said in the opening paragraph, CARFAC exists to serve a community of artists who are solitary by nature. Sadly, a very large percentage of Canadians who self-identify as professional visual artists do not belong to CARFAC, so the effectiveness of the society as an advocacy organization is not as strong as it could or should be.
This is, however, a community that deserves your interest and support. The people involved with CARFAC are dedicated professionals who are working in your best interests everyday. In particular, the CARFAC Copyright Collective is something every professional visual artist should support. The Collective protects every Canadian visual artist. Find out about CARFAC and the collective at www.carfac.ca
The Federation of Canadian Artists (FCA) is an association I greatly admire. They are a highly effective marketing association, they are active in supporting the professional development of members and they have taken on the uniquely challenging task of creating professional categories.
What defines a professional artist? Someone who earns over 50% of his or her income from the sale of artistic products and services? Someone who spends over 50% of his or her time creating artwork? The absence of a clear definition of what it means to be a Canadian professional artist is one reason that we do not have a strong and effective national service organization for visual artists. In virtually every artistic discipline there is a defined professional status — the requirement for definitions driven by the need/desire of many professional artists to negotiate collective agreements with their employers (orchestras, theatres, publishers, concert promoters etc.) A clear definition of what constitutes professional status in any artistic discipline provides those recognized as professional with many advantages — the full advantage of specific tax exemptions, collective agreements, CPP benefits, employment insurance, etc.
By creating categories of membership, the FCA has taken a brave step that confers benefits on those juried into senior membership levels. Members are juried into Associate status (members consistently having demonstrated superior ability in the General Members'Exhibitions and through other jury criteria) and Senior status (artists are elected once a year by a consensus of ten other existing Senior FCA members). Taxation bureaucrats would, I am sure, have no issue with the professional status of Associate and Senior members of the FCA.
The FCA runs a gallery on Granville Island in Vancouver, and members also have regional shows. The FCA is an excellent example of a group of artists forming a "club" in which to network and advance their professional development. Learn more about the Federation at www.artists.ca
My Art Club.com: Today, you have to consider the myriad of virtual communities available to you through websites, blogs and chat groups. Artists living in an isolated area and artists comfortable with technology and interested in establishing a modest presence on the web should visit myartclub.com. This is a comprehensive web-based, professional oriented service site for visual artists. You pay for the service but the site provides excellent value for money. Being a virtual community, its services and benefits are available to you when you want them ’Äî there are no real-word community meetings. Belonging to this community can enhance your membership in the real-world community to which you belong. The website to visit, of course, is www.myartclub.com
Malaspina Printmakers is an excellent model of a service organization or community that serves member artists needing special (and expensive) equipment. Joining the society gives members access to a very professional studio through a reasonable rental program. Most printmakers cannot possibly afford to set up their own studio with all the equipment required for etching, screen printing, mezzotinting, engraving and lithography etc., so Malaspina effectively addresses their needs collectively. The society also operates a gallery and provides sales and professional development services for its members. To learn more about Malaspina Printmakers visit www.malaspinaprintmakers.com
Slide Nights are one of my favourite professional development tools and it is very easy to organize one. The hardest part now, is accessing a slide projector with which to project the slides. (If you don't have access to a projector, conduct a Slide Night using images off a DVD and view them on TV.) Slide nights are something anyone can organize. They do not require an organizational sponsor.
This is how it works. You call up around five friends and you ask them to bring 5-10 slides of recent work. You put out pot luck goodies and sit back to look at everyone's slides, one person at a time. You are wise to take notes as people talk about your work, and not to respond. Each person asks questions, shares observances etc, and you gain valuable, objective insights into your work. Sometimes, brave Slide Night players pass around a "What's Wrong" sheet or "How Can I Improve" sheet to allow people to express challenges in a more comfortable medium.
The value of slide nights for me has always been as a marketing/artist statement development tool. Your fellow artist friends can often see really interesting things in your work that you may not see, or they will highlight aspects of your work you might not have seen as important. And what you learn can be effective as part of your artist's statement when you exhibit.
Arts Councils BC has regional arts councils that serve their communities organically. They do not all operate similarly but each has found a way to serve the needs of local artists and their communities. In rural centres where there is not a sufficient density of artists to form a visual arts organization, artists can work with local arts councils to create community by organizing annual shows, slide nights and or professional development seminars.
ctyrell@shaw.ca
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