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Lorna Mills and Sally McKay
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Top 10 List for 2006 by Leah Sandals
1 Online and in-print commentary regarding RM Vaughan’s Antwerp Diary: Rarely is the role of art criticism and art magazines in Canada so openly debated; I sure wish this was done more often, for everyone’s sake. Partly because the silent treatment always sucks, and partly because even cattiness can be interesting.Leah Sandals is a writer and artist based in Toronto. She is also Public Art Editor for Spacing Magazine.
2 Worldchanging: A User’s Guide to the 21st Century: Think the world is going to hell? (You know, that world beyond the art world?) I certainly have had such thoughts, and this tome, however imperfect, helped give me hope again. Also has sections on new textile and interactive art, if you need some aesthetic juice with your enviro-techno jabber.
3 Deckchair Dreams: London, UK’s Royal Parks Foundation kicked off its first public art program that has plenty to inspire cultural bureaucrats around the world. Namely, take an iconic piece of park infrastructure (in this case, the deckchair), ask prominent artists and designers to create their own version, scatter the multiples throughout the parks for eyes and butts to enjoy, and let the public vote on their favourite.
4 Nuit Blanche Toronto: Speaking of public art, this event was a doozy, featuring hundreds of artists and volunteers, as well as top-rate curators. The best part, however, hands down, was the hundreds of thousands who gave up sleep to partake in contemporary art. Rather than letting this be a yearly one-off, let’s apply its principles (free admission, accessible publicity, imaginative curation) to other arts outreach projects.
5 Imagine a Toronto: Strategies for a Creative City This free booklet details the results of a collaborative study of London, UK and Toronto, ON, pointing out useful ways that Toronto (and many other municipalities) could do more to support the artists and other creative workers in their communities.
6 The Arbour Lake Sghool’s ongoing yard art projects: Who says the suburbs have to be boring? This spunky Calgary collective shows otherwise with a roster of yard art projects ranging from geodesic pizza domes to recreations of trench warfare. And who can argue against easy Slurpee access within 10 minutes of a sculpture garden? It really should be mandatory.
7 Stephen Harper lying his face off post-Dion-leadership-election about how he has “always believed climate change was happening” but that he was just “angry the Liberals hadn’t done anything about it sooner.” Stephen! My sides! Please! Stop!
8 The continuing growth of portable, ephemeral mini-galleries across Canada as documented in Or Gallery’s outofofficereply project and beyond.
9 Action Terroriste Socialement Acceptable’s ongoing and emphatic experiments in a politically engaged public art. From handing out anti-idling tickets on city streets to hosting a 24-hour food-and-shelter tent for homeless citizens, this dynamic duo lands solidly on top of the egalitarian, anti-hierarchical heap.
10 The children (you know, the ones everywhere), and those who treat them with respect. Sometimes I think of the environmental crises our society perpetuates as a large-scale, long-term form of child abuse. Let’s start taking this form of abuse, and others, a lot more seriously.