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History |
In June of 1998, Steve Wilson met a first year Fine Arts student named Pat Lazo, in a small garage in Elmwood. Pat was answering an ad that Steve had placed in a local skateboard shop, looking for graffiti artists that would be willing to paint large conventional style wall murals for commercial clients, as well as spearhead a new graffiti-on-canvas art movement. The thought at the time was, and still is, that by offering these types of redirection opportunities many of these young artists would choose to produce their work in a more socially appropriate way. Seeking the recognition of their skill as artists instead of as anonymous vandals skulking the streets in the middle of the night, has proven over time to be a strong motivator for personal change. In January of 1999, the gallery moved to its current location at 109 Higgins Avenue. Over the next several months it could be observed that not only was the gallery attracting a wide and diverse group of artists, the majority of which were not graffiti artists, looking for space to create their art, but many of the young children of the neighborhood. Without the intention, the gallery had become a center where young children could come to see art and learn about how it was made; where they could get off the streets that provided little else for them. Some of the regular artists began to anticipate the children and would conveniently have spare supplies available and a few minutes to spend teaching a potluck lesson in art. In late fall of that year a small group of supporters met to discuss the impact, role and direction of the gallery. It was decided that the gallery had 3 main focuses: As an art gallery it was pioneering a cutting edge, contemporary art movement that was appealing to an initially young audience (13 – 21 years). By offering emerging young artists an opportunity to show their work; by establishing ourselves as a gallery to facilitate those artists. The gallery was able to fill a gap/void in the arts and cultural worlds. It was able to bring together the artists with curators, gallery directors and university professors under one roof each time an exhibit was opened. As a result of those events, 13 of our artists over the years have enrolled in the Fine Arts program at the University of Manitoba or Creative Communications at RRCC. Eight have graduated. Over the years more than 250 emerging artists have performed or shown their work through the gallery. As a nature offshoot of the first focus, the gallery was working to secure employment for young artists in the commercial art industry. Whether it was through mural projects, commercial painting, graphic design, logo design, etc., the gallery worked diligently to connect artists with commercial clients. The local business community was very supportive and accepting of the work the gallery was undertaking, which led to a surprising demand for artists. The demand fueled the need for an informal training and mentorship program – the Urban Canvas Program. The work that the gallery was doing began to shift from entrepreneurial to social with the heart of it all being the reintegration of young people back into the communities they were at one time attacking. As a spinoff of the gallery space itself, the youth of the area desperately needed some form of art programming that they could participate in with no cost and with contemporary mentors that could understand their issues, their needs while working towards molding better youth by providing a safe environment, self esteem, acceptable social interaction and just plain fun. The concepts of early stage developmental benefits were foreign; it was just instinct and common sense that guided the inception of the gallery’s programs. From this emerged the concept that the gallery had really become more of a youth serving agency than the original intention of just a commercial art gallery. And so, was born a not for profit model with a 3 pronged program approach. In March of 2000, Graffiti Art Programming Inc. was incorporated and received it’s non profit status from the federal government. In the spring of that year, Bjorn became involved. He was a student at the University of Winnipeg and he recognized G.A.P.’s initial efforts as closely reflecting the research being done at that institution. They were collecting research and studies from across North America that demonstrated how art centers were having a dramatic impact on the communities and neighborhoods in which they were located. Enter the science behind what the gallery was going instinctively - the early stage developmental and educational benefits for children as young as 6 years that could manage to enroll or participate in some form of arts programming. The “Willing Communities Conference” held later that year by the United Way brought together professionals from all disciplines involving children and youth – private and public sector. The conference and its presenters emphasized the use of art as a tool for community development and held the gallery up as a pioneer in the area and a strong model to be studied and modeled after. And so was born the 3 primary programs carried out by the gallery – the st.Art after school program for youth (free programming in multiple art disciplines including traditional Aboriginal art forms), the Urban Canvas Program (a training program for young Aboriginal adults in the areas of commercial and traditional art), and the gallery itself. Now, some 8 years later, what had begun as a small, struggling community art center with a meager budget has grown in scale and capacity; having graduated over 20 youth from our training program, accommodated thousands upon thousands of youth in free art classes and displayed (at no charge to the public) hundreds of emerging young, contemporary artists in all fields of artistic endeavour, from music to live performance to painting to sculpture and including a number of art openings/exhibits by high school youth in the neighborhood. |