This is Marjan, Marsya, Geneviève and Michael from YTB Gallery Collective. This year, we have been slowly gaining momentum. We want to give you an overview of what we have been working on, and our exciting plans for the future.
As you remember, YTB was very active in 2015 to 2018 where we worked with over a 100 artists, and institutions such as Art Gallery of Ontario, Luminato Festival, Images Festival, Art Gallery of Mississauga, and The Gardiner Museum. Since 2018, we’ve been re-adjusting priorities and focusing more on sustainability. We transitioned from a co-directorship to horizontal collective structure, which more honestly reflects our friendship-focused work ethics.
In 2020, we spent our pandemic isolation reconnecting with peers. Funded by the Canada Council Strategic Innovation Fund, we did a series of consultations with past community members to reevaluate the ways in which we serve emerging artists in Canada. Through these series of roundtables we found that there is still work to be done to serve emerging artists in Canada. This moved us to recentre our practice on nurturing collectivity within the arts. Our ongoing projects encompass educational tools, creation of local and international networks for emerging artists, as well as continuing to create paid opportunities.
We have had the privilege to deepen our relationship with the Jakarta based collective Gudskul through the Knowledge Garden Festival project at the AGYU. We took on the role of Collective Liaison, fostering relationships amongst Gudskul, AGYU and the following collectives: Diasporic African Womyn Art collective (DAWA), Department of Public Memory, Jane Street Speaks, LAL and Unit 2, The Pavilion, Reuben ‘Beny’ Esguerra and New Tradition Music, and the plumb; as well as artists and curators with an interest in collectivity - Golboo Amani, Barbara Balfour, Emelie Chhangur, Abidin Kusno, Lisa Myers, and Joel Ong. Knowledge Garden Festival opened on October 22nd and runs until December 12th, 2021.
We participated in a year-long program launched by Gendai Collective called MA MBA (Mastering the Art of Misguided Business Administration) with eight other local collectives. The purpose of this program was to disrupt arts administration at a grassroots level to instill a spirit of care and resource-sharing, breaking from a scarcity mentality that is common within small arts organizations.
As a recipient of the Ontario Arts Council COVID-response funds, we recently completed a care package raffle titled Thinking of You, which creates a sense of connection and care amongst emerging creatives while encouraging local economies. We assembled 55 care packages containing multiples and medicine from six Ontario-based creators: Jackie Lee, founder of Secret Planet Shop; Amrit Brar, founder of 13th Press; Sonali Menezes; Roza Nozari; Hunter Cascagnette and Biizii Greg; and ripe zine.
In 2022, we will be programming more exhibitions, and launching a pilot program for an international peer-learning incubator. Thanks to the Canada Council Digital Strategy Fund, we will be offering paid opportunities for arts practitioners to learn and teach things that are vital to their career and artistic practice, and to connect with one another.
We are looking forward to reconnecting with you all. We have also renanimated our Instagram account and you’re welcome to follow us @ytbgallery to keep up with what’s going on. It’s been a journey, we’re excited to keep you engaged with what happens for us next.
With love and gratitude,
Team YTB: Michael (Humboldt) Magnussed, Marsya Maharani, Marjan Verstappen, and Geneviève Wallen
Thank you to all our 2020 focus group participants:
Ronald Siu Shelly Zhang Genevieve Flavelle Sofy Mesa Tsema Igharas Danièle Dennis jes sachse Curtia Wright Amy Wong
Heartfelt thank you to Robin Fraser for facilitating the sessions and compiling the reports.
We acknowledge generous support from the Canada Council for the Arts, the Ontario Arts Council, and the Toronto Arts Council. We would like to give back by offering advice to folks interested in applying to the granting streams credited above.