Art Connects | A Conversation with Jonathan Middleton

on Artist-Run Centres and Physical Distancing

Tuesday, May 12 | 1:30 PM

REGISTER

Stay home. Stay safe. Stay connected with our new series of online gatherings, Art Connects!

For this edition of Art Connects, please join us for a conversation with Jonathan Middleton on the tenacity of artist-run initiatives in Vancouver and across the country.

Middleton will revisit a history of artist-run spaces from the past two decades, focusing on his time spent working for organizations such as Western Front, Or Gallery, PAARC (The Pacific Association of Artist Run Centres) and now, as Executive Director of Art Metropole in Toronto. In doing so, Middleton will guide us through a history that invites us all to contemplate the importance of artists, arts communities and collaboration, especially in these strange times.

Middleton will also share examples of ephemera and artworks that he owns and lives amongst in the domestic environment of his apartment as a way to show how we all find ourselves becoming better acquainted with living in closer proximities to the artworks and books we love, and how artists and the communities that we support over time show up in our living spaces.

This discussion will be in conversation with Melissa Lee, Director of Education and Public Programs, and Stephanie Bokenfohr, Adult Programs Coordinator.

Questions? Submit them when you register or during the Zoom presentation using the Q&A function. You can also engage with your fellow attendees and panelists during the event using the Chat function.

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ABOUT THE SPEAKER

Jonathan Middleton is an artist, curator, and publisher working between Toronto and Vancouver. Middleton currently serves as Executive Director of Art Metropole (Toronto) and worked previously as Partner and Editor-At-Large at Information Office, a Vancouver-based design and publishing studio. He served as Director/Curator of Vancouver’s Or Gallery from 2007 to 2017, during which time he established the Or’s bookstore (2011-) and Berlin satellite space (2010-2015). Middleton also served as Director/Curator of the Western Front Exhibitions Program (1999-2005), and was a founding member of the art periodical Fillip in 2004, serving on its editorial board and as its first publisher until 2008. He maintains an active art practice and has exhibited and screened his work at the Contemporary Art Gallery (Vancouver), VIVO Media Arts, Vancouver International Film Festival, Inside Out, Moving Pictures, the Chicago International Film Festival, Dazibao (Montreal) and Konsthalle 323 (Stockholm). He was a founding member of the Artist Run Centres and Collectives Conference (ARCA) and sits on its board in addition the boards of the Artist-run Centres and Collectives of Ontario (ARCCO), the Canadian Filmmakers Distribution Centre (CFMDC) and Western Front Foundation.