By Humboldt Magnussen
Hello Internet, as you know all good things must come to an end and therefore this is my last blog post that I will be writing for Xpace Cultural Centre. But don’t worry this will not be my last blog of my lifetime. As a goodbye I feel like I should summarize all the blogs I’ve written in my time here at Xpace in one easy page you can reference
Make good art
Submit for opportunities often
Write clearly about your work
Going to art openings can be a good time.
Do It Yourself
Rejection is part of life
Artistic Labour is labour so don’t give your art away for free
Burritos are Delicious
I am not sure if you have been reading every week but by far my favourite blog post was called ROSES and RASPBERRIES where I talked about the good and the bad of the Toronto art world. It is based on newspaper column from my hometown. Basically back in Saskatchewan in the paper the locals could write in and either give Roses (a good comment) to a local business or person, or Raspberries (a negative comment). For example a common one seen would be, “Roses to the young man who shoveled my driveway during the huge storm without me asking” or “I would like to give a bush of Raspberries to the person that stole my lawn Gnome.” The idea is that you can acknowledge something very publicly that you think is awesome, while also have an opportunity to point out the negatives in a tongue and cheek way. So for this last blog I bring you “Humboldt’s Roses and Raspberries Part 2”
-A bouquet of Roses to spring, finally, I love the nice patio weather.
-Roses to all the students that have finished (or will finish soon) for the school year. School is out for summer. Woot Woot! I am personally giving out extra roses to all my friends from the IAMD program at OCADU for finishing their MFA thesis shows.
-Roses to the Hot Docs Film Festival which starts in a few days, and their amazing free shows for students and seniors. That’s right Students (with valid ID) and seniors’ (60+) can attend daytime screenings (before 5 pm) for free. Same-day tickets are available at the participating venue one hour before the first screening of the day, subject to availability.
-Raspberries to people touching art that is not meant to be touched. This is probably a pet peeve of mine but art can be made out of fragile materials and it is just bad manners. Recently on the internet there was a story about a guy that broke a 19th century Greco-Roman sculpture by taking a selfie, which reading about made me face palm.
-Raspberries to all exploitive expensive art “opportunities” that are just money making schemes that are meant to be attractive to artists that have a bit of money. The sad thing with Toronto is that despite the fact that many artists have limited resources, organizations have cropped up that will gladly take your money in exchange for a bit of wall space. BEWARE when you are paying to display your work as it can quickly become a losing game, galleries should be invested in your success as an artist not in making money off of your great work.
-Roses to the growing DIY art world in Kensington Market including my friends at Videofag, a gallery and theatre space, and Double Double Land that hosts the monthly Doored Event where groups of artists perform short often comedic pieces hosted by Life of a Craphead. The next Doored 14 is Monday April 28th at 8:00
Roses to everyone at Xpace, Amber, Adrienne, Alicia, Tori and Julia for being awesome.