East-side artists bring galleries to the streets
A collective of artists is reimagining the role of an art gallery as a way to build connections between neighbours.
"Instead of art being inside in very formalized gallery settings, how can we redefine a gallery as something that's small and outside and shared in the community?" organizer Jaime Calayo said of the Good Neighbour Arts Network. "(We're trying to) flip the idea of where an art gallery is and redefine it in a way that's more inclusive, more accessible, and something that community owns."
Calayo and nine other artists on Edmonton's east side received $25,000 in funding from the Edmonton Arts Council to erect outdoor galleries resembling little free libraries and to fill them with original art.
Calayo and his co-conspirators are mostly parents with busy schedules, so they scaled the project to match the lives they lead. They wanted Good Neighbour to reflect that the east side has an existing sense of connectedness and deepen it by way of art.
"From the outside, it may seem like we need this project, but if you actually embed yourself in these communities, especially on the east side, you feel the neighbourliness immediately," Calayo told Taproot. "The goal of this project is to better connect (artists) to the broader community who aren't involved in the art and design community, to make those connections stronger."
Each of the 10 Good Neighbour galleries has a distinct look anchored on an elongated oval-shaped display, which was designed as a metaphor. "We used that oval shape to call back to those old telephone booths," Calayo said. "When you're engaging with them, you're kind of having a conversation with community."
The galleries in the network are predicated on exchange. They are operated by "stewards," not owners, in the spirit of collective ownership. "The art is not only crafted by the steward of that gallery, but also by the community around it," Calayo said.
