Strength in Numbers

Talking about the creation of William Notman's photo studio in Montreal, about the Art Association of Montreal (1860), and about the Ontario Society of Artists (1872) made me think about the rest of the Canadian artist organizations, and especially of ones in Montreal and here at home.

I've grown to know some of the ones in this neck of the woods well, and am some happy that they exist. On the artist-run centre front, there are 15 distributed in Newfoundland, New Brunswick and Nova-Scotia. Click here for the complete list of artist-run centres in the region by the Association of Artist Run Centres from the Atlantic website (AARCA).

Artist-run centres are exhibition spaces run by artists for artists, and are non-profit in philosophy and practice. The idea is to provide a fertile place for experimental art-making, involving artist members to democratically determine the subjects taken on by the centres. Also, they serve as grounding points for festivals, workshops, artist talks, the a fore-mentionned exhibitions, artist residencies and more.

As for Quebec, the region is more than well-served on the artist-run centre front. In Montreal alone, there are 28 centres, including the Centre des Arts Actuels SKOL, Dare-Dare, and the Centre d'Exposition CIRCA. Click here for the complete list of Montreal artist-run centres on the RCAAQ's website (Regroupement des Centres d'Artistes Auto-Gérés du Québec).

Happy art network exploring.