It is not only possible, but critical for Canadians to build relationships with artists and curators outside our national borders. It is the nature of expression to have urgency, and seek out as large an audience as possible. [...] I don't mean that artists should look for their audience in a careerist, strategic way. [...] Relationships work best when works are authentic expressions that are not made for strategic purposes of capitalising on already existing subjects of discourse.

[...] Museums in each country should not all have the same art in them.

[...] Some collecting museums, to resolve the issue of timeliness, have resorted to showing prominent private collections. But this has recently backfired. Indeed, the collecting museum's authority can easily be corrupted by the marketplace. For example, the display of the Saatchi collection of the show Sensation resulted in a scandal at the Brooklyn museum. [...] The persistent controversial issue is the commerical gain later won by the collector, as his works were subsequently put up for sale and made huge profits. The trustees of the Museum of Modern Art and Tate Gallery, both major collecting museums, responded by taking the position that they will not show a private collector's art collection. [...] Like the separation of church and state, there is, and should be, a boundary between commerce and art. Neither a collector, nor a corporation should be able to capitalize financially from the sale of a collection that comes directly from being promoted by a public museum.

Thank you for this.
- Jennifer McMackon (guest) 3-10-2004 7:18 am

I've just been scanning around looking at mandates and mission statements for Canadian Artist -Run Centers and "visual arts" publications. And I'm wondering what you think about either of these two in light of Ms. Hendeles' statements.

Here is the Mandate for C Magazine as published on their website:

Mandate
C international contemporary art offers writing about art that is engaged without being prescriptive; intellectual without being academic; political without being merely polemical; proudly Canadian without being provincial. It is not individual articles or artists' projects that are the measure of our success, but the mix and balance of perspectives, the wide range of work – from work in artist-run centres, major museums and international mega-shows.

C plays a significant role both at home and abroad by placing the work of Canadian artists in an international context. This consistent and distinguishing feature of the magazine is integral to our effective presentation of work by Canadian artists within (and to) the wider world of contemporary art. An editorial response to C’s relatively significant 20% foreign readership in the early 90s, our international identity has continued to grow, contributing to our current 30+% readership outside Canada.

C’s audience consists of those with an interest in (or curiosity about) contemporary art – including, but not limited to, those who work in visual art and related professions (theatre, film, architecture, etc.). C’s mandate is to explore ideas related to contemporary art in a way that is relevant to those in-the-know and yet accessible to those whose primary area of interest or training may be outside of art history, philosophy or aesthetics

http://www.cmagazine.com/about_c.html.


And this is extracted from Mercer Union's Mandate:


Constituency
Located in downtown Toronto, we recognize that our primary audience is made of local art producers. Our objective is to inform our local and international audiences and stimulate artistic practice by producing and presenting challenging work and by creating ways for our local audience to participate on an international level, while promoting Canadian art and artists internationally.

http://www.mercerunion.org/default.asp?page_id=3&parent_page_name=ABOUT

- Jennifer McMackon (guest) 3-10-2004 8:39 pm

Well I'm not sure what you're getting at, and I don't feel that I can make all the connections necessary to formulate an opinion. The roles of a magazine, a gallery, a collector, and an individual artist are all very distinct. How to compare? Also, I'm kind of sceptical about mandates, which may encapsulate a fleeting moment of institutional inspiration, but mostly live in the bottom drawer of the filing cabinet. Manifestos, on the other hand, frighten me. I never want to write one, nor work on any art projects with people who do. As far as promoting Canadians abroad...I don't care very much about that. I want to see good art and make good art and find ways to talk about it with people who challenge me. Some of those people are right next door, and some of them are far, far away. Both can be hard to access.
- sally mckay 3-11-2004 4:36 am

"As far as promoting Canadians abroad...I don't care very much about that."
...or maybe I do? Depends if I'm wearing my publisher hat or my artist hat or my writer hat.

- sally mckay 3-11-2004 6:42 am

It looks like institutionalized internationalism to me.
- anonymous (guest) 3-11-2004 4:05 pm

"I want to see good art and make good art and find ways to talk about it with people who challenge me. Some of those people are right next door, and some of them are far, far away. Both can be hard to access."

Hi Sally,

I agree with you and at the same I am struck by the marked difference between your genuine and plaintive statement and the above "mission statements" which, by contrast seem reaching.

On the one hand you have Mercer Union claiming to "promote", "stimulate", "inform" ,"produce" and "present" for a local and international audience, (and further suggesting to enable local participation on an "international level".

On the other hand C is tailoring it's "proudly Canadian yet not provincial" (intellectual yet not academic etc) publication to a 30 percent plus readership outside of Canada.

Sure and of course the art world has many actors in many different roles and performing different functions.
These institutions are not new to the scene. But I wonder if they are function has changed inherently and I wonder if it's a good thing.
- anonymous (guest) 3-11-2004 6:42 pm

oops! sorry, forgot to sign my name
- Jennifer (guest) 3-11-2004 6:44 pm

To me this is just regular old institutional baffflegab. It used to be that you had to have the word "community" in your mandate, now it's "international". I think "diverse" is still mandatory, although it doesn't show up in either of these. I am kind of pleased and impressed, however, at C magazine's 30% readership outside Canada.
- sally mckay 3-12-2004 6:36 am

You are right - it is bafflegab.
- Jennifer (guest) 3-12-2004 9:38 am

The best thing about the the Steam Whistle art awards was when Ydessa said that the reason she displays art is for artists - only. So that an artist can walk in to her space and maybe be inspired by the work she shows. Loved it. Who else would actually admit to something like that?? The rest of the awards were totally deplorable though.
- Rastroid (guest) 3-16-2004 7:04 pm

Deplorable - How so?
- Jennifer (guest) 3-25-2004 10:37 pm