Have you ever heard a song, read a book or saw an image and immediately wanted to tell someone about it? That is a defining feature of art.
Whether it be good or bad, soothing or uncomfortable, art sparks discussion, debate and moves us to think critically about the world we live in.
In the spirit of starting fresh conversations, Barrie’s MacLaren Art Centre is bringing art and the community together in a bold way.
I had the opportunity to talk with executive director/curator Lisa Daniels about Anchor Point, a collaborative and timely project the community can connect with.
RV: What is the Anchor Point project and where did the idea come from?
LD: Anchor Point is a yearlong series of collection-focused exhibitions. Within Anchor Point there are three exhibitions that will take place over the course of the year, each with a slightly different curatorial strategy but all anchored in the collection.
RV: What are you hoping to accomplish with this three-part exhibit?
LD: Through collaborating with the public and artists in different ways, we hope to discover new insights and community connections with the collection. We hope that this series starts a conversation with our community, and overtime will highlight hidden gems; identify the strengths and the gaps in the collection; and foster conversations about how the collection and exhibitions can more closely reflect the stories and the voices of the community we serve.
Through the exhibition series, we want to build stronger connections between our community, the collection, and the gallery.
RV: What role will our community play in the evolution of this project?
LD: The role of the community is to enter into dialogue with us over the course of the project and tell us which works they want to see. In many ways, the process and the exhibitions will be shaped by the conversations we have with the community – whether
they be in person, via social media, or through some of the ancillary programming we are planning around the project.
Because of the interruption of the most recent lockdown, we have had to shift our strategy. Starting later this week, people can be part of the project on Instagram and vote on which work they want to see in the exhibition and tell us why. We are also creating a page on our website where people will be able to follow the process, see how it is evolving, and find out more about the art and the artists being presented. This page will be available shortly.
RV: When it comes to the MacLaren’s permanent collection, what do you think it represents to the community?
LD: That is precisely the question we want to answer through the Anchor Point project.
A permanent collection lies at the heart of a public art gallery’s identity. That is because one of the key criteria that we use to determine what work is brought into the collection is that it be reflective of the community we serve, contextualized within the broader provincial and Canadian art framework.
Informing our artistic vision is the recognition that the public art gallery is a social space where dialogue, debate, confrontation, personal reflection, innovation, and experimentation can safely occur. That visual art and visual culture, with its capacity to embrace and reflect the multifaceted makeup of our society, is a powerful and vital medium that stimulates opportunities for creative exchange and discovery.
We believe that it is through the community’s ongoing engagement with the collection in dynamic, meaningful ways that we will build a collection of art that is truly reflective of and responsive to our changing community. A collection that the community is proud of and feels a connection.
RV: The first exhibition, Wind Rose, is currently on display. What can people expect from this exhibit and what do you hope people walk away with after experiencing it?
LD: The best way to experience Wind Rose is to be part of its evolution – to be part of the conversation. Visiting the gallery multiple times, as the exhibition evolves is the best way to experience art, and to be part of the conversation. We hope that as people engage in the process, and experience the collection in person that they walk away more curious about the collection and about art than before they visited.
RV: How did Francisco-Fernando Granados become involved with Anchor Point and what is his role?
LD: Francisco-Fernando Granados has been involved with the gallery in the past. As an artist who works in multiple mediums, including performance, he has a unique capacity to be present to what is happening, to the space within which the exhibition is evolving, and based on the conversations with the community, to contribute artistically in a way that moves the conversation forward.
In dialogue with Anchor Point, foreward is imagined as an extended solo exhibition occupying the in-between spaces of the MacLaren for a year. Francisco-Fernando Granados will use abstraction as a means to open up conversations on place, history, and the way forward for cultural practices in the region. The project consists of site-specific wall drawings, a series of preparatory studies to be entered into the gallery’s collection/archive, and a free takeaway publication for the residents of Barrie.
Throughout the year, the MacLaren’s curatorial team will engage in a dialogue with the local community, shaping the course of the next show and informing the intuitions for foreword. This process of dialogue will be reflected in a series of preparatory drawings
that will be mailed to the gallery and will enter the MacLaren’s permanent collection.
Based on the visual material developed over the course of the year, a free takeaway publication will be created and offered to gallery visitors.
RV: How does Anchor Point align or diverge from traditional exhibition building?
LD: Well, I think the traditional view is that a curator develops and mounts an exhibition and the public comes and views it. More and more we are seeing curators work collaboratively and in partnership with artists and communities in the development and presentation of exhibitions. Anchor Point, and in particular Wind Rose, is being developed that way, but goes even further in that the exhibition is evolving in full public view as we move through the process.
The exhibition opened on Dec. 4 with only three works in the gallery, and will slowly build until May 6. On May 6, we will have a community celebration with all works selected. I am very curious to see the voice of our community and Francisco expressed through our collection.
For more information about Anchor Point, Wind Rose and other current exhibitions, click here.
