International Deadline: October 23, 2021 – Sell @ 100 Galleries is an exceptional international art sales opportunity, organized by Biafarin, in cooperation with a group of well-known online art galleries worldwide…
International Deadline: October 24, 2021 – The National Oil & Acrylic Painters’ Society invites oil and acrylic painters worldwide to enter our online exhibit honoring the Best in oil and acrylic painting. Cash awards…
International Deadline: November 1, 2021 – Janet Turner Print Museum seeks prints produced in the last three years that reflect on issues of social, cultural and/ or political significance. Multiple venues, awards…
It was an incredibly poor decision and even worse timing. Canada had just celebrated its first National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, a newly instated national holiday focussing on the struggles Indigenous populations have faced in Canada and non-Indigenous citizens’ efforts to become aware and better allies. But in Calgary, Alberta, just after the day had passed, an iconic mural by Indigenous artist Kalum Teke Dan has been bricked up by a construction project.Â
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Hailing from southern Alberta, Kalum Teke Dan has been an active artist in Alberta for over two decades. Specializing in portraiture and murals, Dan has a deep connection to his roots of the Blood Tribe, which can be seen represented in the subjects of his works. His palettes and line work are both very striking, their precision and vibrance bringing to mind the pop-art framing of Lichtenstein but brimming with Dan’s unique cultural identity.
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The piece in question is Sunset Song, depicting an Indigenous man in full regalia in mid-song before a flowing landscape of mountains, water, and the setting sun. Apparently the artist’s favourite piece, it’s no wonder the unpleasant news this past week hit so hard. Sunset Song was half-covered with grey bricks this past week by a new development project, without any consultation with the artist or the owner of the adjacent building that houses the mural.
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While there isn’t anything legally forbidding a building project from covering adjacent walls and any art displayed on them, pictures seem to imply that they chose to wall up the mural before anything else; this makes it hard to seem like it isn’t a targeted choice. But for the time being, there is a stop-work notice on the project as the city investigates the situation.
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Beltline Urban Murals Project, who originally commissioned the piece, has talked to Kalum Teke Dan about recreating Sunset Song next year. But it is understandably disheartening to see one’s work, and one’s culture, so mistreated. While murals may have inherent temperance to them, they create a lasting impact on the communities that pass by them every day—and so too does the endless march of construction that washes these artworks away.
Submitted by Carmen Graciela DÃaz on October 8, 2021
The Los Angeles County Department of Arts and Culture announced artist and community organizer Patrisse Cullors has joined its Arts Commission, the LA County Board of Supervisors’ longstanding advisory body for the arts.
Submitted by Carmen Graciela DÃaz on October 4, 2021
The Center for Story-Based Strategy (CSS) recently published a piece by Lenina Nadal with a question for artists, rebels, activists, nonprofit workers, propagandists, creators, makers, innovators, practitioners, organizers and trainers: “How did you wake up your radical imagination today?”
What kinds of spaces exist or could be cultivated for artists to be their full selves in movement organizations or at their jobs? Campaigns and organizations often demand creativity to be delivered within the constraints of political messaging, time frames and marketing and campaign plans. When the well runs dry, where do creative people go to hydrate? This was the question prompting our Creative Practitioners’ Roundtable. We thought, what if — in addition to our work bringing representatives of organizations together — we created a space for creative practitioners themselves within our network to share their artistic process, and how they use CSS tools in their personal and creative work?
Submitted by Carmen Graciela DÃaz on October 7, 2021
Ted Russell, chair of Grantmakers in the Arts and director of arts strategy and ventures at the Kenneth Rainin Foundation, has been named SMU DataArts’ third Nasher Haemisegger Fellow.
Image: Jean Melesaine
Submitted by Steve on October 7, 2021
The Arts Education for All Act is the broadest arts education policy bill ever introduced in Congress, and is currently working its way through the legislative process. Grantmakers in the Arts, in partnership with Americans for the Arts and National Association of Music Merchants, invites you to join us in formally supporting this legislation. You can learn more about the bill here, and submit this form to express support.
International Deadline: November 14, 2021 – 27th Arts North International is a juried exhibition open to artists from around the world. The exhibition is displayed at the highly regarded Hopkins Center for the Arts. Awards…
Submitted by Carmen Graciela DÃaz on October 4, 2021
The newly released Monument Lab’s audit of the United States’ commemorative landscape, in partnership with the Mellon Foundation, answers important questions like: “Who are the 50 individuals most frequently represented by a public monument in the US? What percentage of those 50 are white and male? How many are women? And what are the dynamics that helped shape who is—and who is not—on that list?”.