From the Editor - October 18, 2022 Issue

October 17, 2022

9:30 PM

Western Canada's art magazine since 2002

Portia Priegert

From the Editor

Improving the livelihood of artists is vital to ensuring a thriving cultural sphere. There’s no one-size-fits-all way to accomplish this, but various structural measures that recognize the unique contributions of the arts can make a difference. Some, like Canada’s system of tax-funded grants to support creative exploration and production, are an important part of Canada’s cultural infrastructure. But there’s more that can be done.

One important measure is to ensure artists participate more fully in the sometimes-spectacular growth in their work’s value on the secondary market. It’s good to see the federal government moving forward with amendments to the Copyright Act, expected, among other things, to create a royalties regime for artists whose work is resold at auctions.

We asked artists Paddy Lamb and Grant McConnell, both affiliated with Canadian Artists Representation, or CARFAC, the closest thing Canada has to a visual artists’ union, to make a case for artist resale rights. Their commentary points to the successful implementation of resale rights in 90 countries, including Britain, where visual artists last year received the equivalent of about $15 million in resale royalties. While many payments are small, any income that helps pay for a studio or restock supplies helps keep artists working. “Fundamentally, resale rights are about respect,” they write. “The arts economy shouldn’t thrive at the expense of artists.”

Moving to other articles in this issue, Andrea Valentine-Lewis looks at American artist Christine Sun Kim, who reflects on her life as a Deaf person in a world designed by the hearing at Vancouver’s Contemporary Art Gallery.

Also in Vancouver, Yani Kong visits the final show at Vancouver’s Rennie Museum, a private gallery opened in 2009 by real estate marketer Bob Rennie. The show is a tour de force of notable artists, many of them African American.

From Montreal comes a look at Shary Boyle’s nationally touring show, Outside the Palace of Me, set to open at the Vancouver Art Gallery in March. Our thanks to reviewer John K. Grande, who also sent along a copy of his latest book, a bilingual German and English version of Art, Space, Ecology: Two Views - Twenty Interviews.

Finally, turning northward, Genesee Keevil visits Arctic Highways, an internationally touring show of circumpolar artists on view in Whitehorse, and Paul Gessell writes about Saskatoon artist Eli Bornstein’s recent book about his travels on Ellesmere Island.

Looking ahead, we are eagerly awaiting reviews of Kent Monkman’s exhibition at the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto and several group shows across Western Canada.

Until next time,