Julianna Yau’s blog

Edit 8-Dec-2007: I feel like such an art newb. I was flipping through the pages of Canadian Art to see Michael Awad, the delegate who asked all of the artists to stand. The post below has been updated.

Yesterday was Day 1 of the Visual Arts Summit. In the morning, I got my information package, which included the schedule, a list of the delegates, a name-tag (thankfully, it was on a lanyard and not a pin or requiring an adhesive) and a brochure about some of the arts destinations in Ottawa. The list of delegates has been very useful for a “newb” like me, because I simply haven’t been around (in every sense of the word) enough to know many people. I’m also horrible with names, so the name-tags have been very useful (although they always seem to get turned around when I actually need to make use of it).

In the early afternoon, I was able to attend the tour (organized through the Summit) of vault 34 at the Gatineau Preservation Centre. The vault contains several of the portraits held by the Portrait Gallery of Canada, which is the first national portrait gallery to collect not merely works of the “important men in history books”, but works of and by all Canadians. The director, Lilly Koltun, was our guide to some of the works and was truly a wealth of information. She had intimate knowledge of the portraits’ history, both prior to being acquired by the Portrait Gallery and the acquisition itself. Everyone I talked to who had attended one of the tours agreed that they could just sit there and listen to her tell us about the portraits for hours, days, or more!

The Summit began in the late afternoon with an open plenary session. The start of the conference was punctuated with the announcement that “a landmark agreement has been reached for the first time in over 40 years between the museum community and the artists’ organizations over fees for exhibition of artists’ works. The agreement puts an end to a long-standing impasse and will lead to a new era of cooperation.”

The organizers announced that there were approx. 450 participants—200 more than they had anticipated. This is the first major gathering of the players in the arts community (in Canada) in over 40 years, and I think everyone agrees that it’s long overdue. During the introductory session, I could tell by the murmurs in the room and the questions following the panelist discussion that everyone was extremely eager to jump right into things. At the end of the question period, someone (my most sincere apologies—I didn’t catch his name) Michael Awad asked all of the working artists in the room to stand up. This was a potent statement because one-third to half the room stood up! I think all of the artists were relieved to know that so many of their peers were in attendance—I know I was.

My hope is that we can use that meeting of the minds to direct the Summit and use this time to start and maintain a more open dialogue between the different aspects of the arts community. NAVA seems to have done a fantastic job at that type of cooperation, and shows that it is possible.

Related posts

• Visual Arts Summit - Day 3 - Morning (1)
• Visual Arts Summit - Day 3 - Closing Remarks (2)
• Visual Arts Summit - Day 2 - Summary (0)
• Visual Arts Summit - Day 2 - Further Thoughts (0)
• Shawna Dempsey’s remarks – Visual Arts Summit 2007 (1)