EXHIBITIONS and SPECIAL PROJECTS:
Xpace Cultural Centre is accepting proposals of all media from emerging and student artists, curators and cultural workers for our 2024/2025 Programming Year. Exhibitions and Special Projects are selected by our Programming Committee which is composed of Xpace Staff. There is no fee to apply, and all selected applicants and participants are paid an applicable CARFAC fee. This Open Call covers all exhibition spaces from September 2024 through July 2025. Click here for an FAQ Document about this call for submissions.
WORKSHOPS:
Xpace Cultural Centre is seeking workshop proposals from emerging artists, curators and arts administrators for our 2024/2025 Programming Year. Our workshop program is presented to the Toronto/Tkaronto emerging art and design community free-of-charge. It is programmed annually with the intention of responding to the needs and interests of emerging creative practitioners in our community. There is no fee to apply. Workshop facilitators are paid an applicable CARFAC fee to develop and execute their project, with the option of requesting CAD $50 for additional materials.
OCAD U GRADUATE RESIDENCY:
Xpace Cultural Centre is seeking applications for the opportunity to participate in our annual summer residency program. The residency is open to students graduating from OCAD University in Spring 2024 from any program at the Undergraduate or Graduate level. Two artists and one curator will be selected and paid an applicable CARFAC fee in addition to a material budget of up to $300.00. The residency is intended to take place at Xpace Cultural Centre in person between August 13 – September 12 , 2024.
The 2024-2025 Call deadline for Exhibitions, OCAD U Graduate Residency, and Workshops is Sunday, June 9 at 11:59 PM
CLICK HERE FOR FULL INFO AND TO SUBMIT ONLINE : https://xpace.submittable.com/
THEMATICS
FALL (OCAD U Graduate Residency) – Red/Yellow/Blue is the thematic for the 2024 OCAD U Graduate Residency (open to any Spring 2024 OCAD U graduate from any program). In this thematic we are asking artists to consider how color plays a role in the work that they are intending to create, but also how coming back to basics – whether that be in a formal or conceptual sense – might inform processes of making. As red, yellow, and blue are fundamental to color theory, we encourage submissions that explore foundations or origins. If complexity sprawls out from simplicity, what can the source tell us about where it leads out to? In a literal sense, what is your relationship to color in your work? Extending beyond this, how does your medium’s fundamentals situate themselves in your work? How has understanding the basics in your practice allowed you to evolve?
WINTER – Somewhere/Nowhere/Elsewhere is a thematic that seeks to feel out of place. This thematic encourages projects that combine and draw upon practices, materials, concepts, and timelines that seemingly do not belong together- (a)synchronously creating new meaning, new aesthetics. Applicants are invited to think about how our growing relationship with groundless space such as the Internet manifests. How do we exist somewhere, nowhere, yet elsewhere? If existing online is similar to a performance, how does that implicate the artist? Does the performance ever end? As our relationship with the self– our past, future, digital, perceived selves evolve, what narratives may take place there?
SUMMER – Retrospect/Memory/Recollection: In celebration of Xpace Cultural Centre’s 20th Anniversary, our summer thematic is Retrospect/Memory/Recollection. This prompt asks applicants to propose projects that center around the process of recalling, the nostalgia of memory, or the passage of time. As growth is intrinsic to time, what can the past tell us about the way we live in the present? How does your subjective experience of the past compare to a collective consciousness? How do we honor the past?
Xpace alumni are also welcome to submit either new work, or a reimagining of a previously presented project. This thematic is intended to embody joyfulness, and celebrate the 20 years of incredible art we’ve had the privilege of showing at Xpace while encouraging a space for critical reflection of the past. How has Xpace impacted your work and practice? How do you encourage space for reflection in your artwork? How do you engage in remembering and reflecting?
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If you have any questions about the proposal process that are not outlined in our FAQ below please contact Xpace staff at opencall@xpace.info before 6pm on Friday, May 31st, 2024. Please note that due to high interest it might take up to 3-5 days to get to your question. We do not respond to last minute requests, texts or direct messages sent on social media.
Xpace recognizes the importance of oral culture in the sharing of language, history, knowledge and practice. We will accept oral submissions for the Call for Exhibitions application, when accessibility and/or oral culture is relevant to the project or artistic practice. Oral application requests will be evaluated on a case by case basis. If you’d like to request one, please write opencall@xpace.info before Friday, May 31st, 2024.
DUE TO HIGH INTEREST, WE ONLY ACCEPT SUBMISSIONS RECEIVED THROUGH SUBMITTABLE.
THOUGH STAFF IS HAPPY TO PROVIDE FEEDBACK AT ALL MOMENTS OF THE SUBMISSION PROCESS, WE DO NOT RESPOND TO INQUIRIES ASKED THROUGH DIRECT MESSAGE, TEXT OR FACEBOOK MESSENGER. WE ASK THAT APPLICANTS RESPECT THIS BOUNDARY AND REACH OUT THROUGH EMAIL ONLY.
LATE OR INCOMPLETE SUBMISSIONS WILL NOT BE ACCEPTED.
APPLICANTS WILL BE NOTIFIED OF THEIR PROPOSAL STATUS BY JULY 15, 2024. WE LOOK FORWARD TO READING YOUR PROPOSALS!