The Ontario Association of Art Galleries (OAAG) has shortlisted the Doris McCarthy Gallery for four awards. The OAAG juried, peer assessed annual awards recognize new exhibitions, publications, program and community engagements produced and commissioned by public galleries during the past year.
Nominations this year include submissions from public art galleries across Ontario. The DMG’s Outdoor School, guest curated by OCADU Assistant Professor in Visual and Critical Studies Amish Morrell and on exhibition in the fall of 2016, was nominated for Exhibition of the Year (Thematic,Budget over $20K) and also for the Curatorial Writing Award for the essay, Under the Freeway, a Forest: Some Notes on Trespassing.
The exhibition Heather Hart: Northern Oracle, curated by the DMG Director/Curator Ann MacDonald and on exhibit in the winter of 2017, was nominated for Exhibition of the Year (Monographic, Budget over $20K) as well as for the Public Program Award for the Black Lunch Table project. The DMG will be touring this exhibition to the Rodman Hall Art Centre at Brock University next fall, and to Mount Saint Vincent University Art Gallery in Halifax in early 2020. Other venues may follow.
“Northern Oracle was ground breaking in that it was probably our most ambitious installation to date,” says MacDonald. “The presence of a to-scale rooftop in the gallery gave rise to embodied participation from visitors, including impromptu concerts and proclamations.” The exhibition’s wide range of engaging programming also included an evening of poetry and music curated by local spoken word collective RISE Edutainment, a durational performance by Gabrielle Civil, and a lecture on the motif of the uncanny house in Black Canadian literature by U of T Scarborough English Professor Karina Vernon. Two Black Lunch Table recording sessions were facilitated by Heather Hart, and created space for critical dialogue on topics directly affecting communities of colour. Black Lunch Table also included a Wikipedia edit-a-thon where participants made entries that increased on-line representation for artists of colour.
“Northern Oracle was ground breaking in that it was probably our most ambitious installation to date,” says MacDonald. “The presence of a to-scale rooftop in the gallery gave rise to embodied participation from visitors, including impromptu concerts and proclamations.”
MacDonald describes the exhibition Outdoor School as exceptional, because much of its meaning was generated by activities in the Highland Creek ravine. Programming included a night walk in the woods tracking artist Jay White for his durational performance Coyote Walk, a mushroom foray, and a mindful run to Lake Ontario with artist Ayumi Goto. “The Gallery learned a great deal from the exhibition and is carrying the theme of the urban outdoors into future activities,” says MacDonald.
Award winners will be announced at the OAAG Awards Gala on November 27th.
