CALL FOR ARTISTS INTERSECTION PROJECT- Performance #3

dance crosses urban spaces

artists meet audiences
ideas travel between us

Dear Artists,
Thank you to everyone who participated to Performance #2 on October 16th!
Here is a 1 min video of the Performance #2, created by videographer Jeremy Mimnagh. The second of a series of 10 :

http://www.vimeo.com/16015413

...
HISTORY AND DESCRIPTION

Driven by the success of May 1st 2010 Public Performance in Toronto, organized in conjunction with Montreal artist Normand Marcy and Tangente, Laboratoire de Mouvement Contemporain, Priscilla Guy and Kate Nankervis are launching Intersection Project, an initiative that aims to highlight the presence of artists in urban landscapes. Through pedestrian and simple movement vocabulary in city landscapes, the dance is accessible and belongs to anyone who is walking by. Bodies become organic sculptures against urban architectures.

The performances organized by Intersection Project are opportunities for artists and audiences to meet in unexpected and unofficial settings; a reminder performance art also lives outside theatres. Art is essential and it lives everywhere we decide to allow for it. Art reflects the common needs and wants members of society share. Intersection Project is an occasion to re-iterate the spontaneous and  engaging nature of art as performance emerges from urban architectures and melt with the city landscapes.

Throughout the upcoming year, Intersection Project will organize 10 monthly performances in the Toronto's downtown area, gathering dancers, actors and performers from diverse backgrounds. In the nature of spontaneity, there is no promotions or marketing for the events. We believe the recurrent aspect of the project will stimulate curiosity and interest for it.

PERFORMANCE #3
SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 13TH
11:45am to 2:30pm

We are looking for performers from any artistic background to participate in this third performance of the year!
This performance will occur on Saturday, November 13th. Looking for up to 25 performers. Participants must be available from 11:45am to 2:30pm at least.
**Intersection Project has applied for funding to cover artists fees. However, until the results of grants applications and confirmation with our sponsors, there will be no artist fees. As part of your registration, we will track your HOURS as PERFORMERS for each event and participating artists will be paid retroactively as we get funding results. Artists involved must be ready to participate as they believe in the project and mandate and volunteer their time in the case funding is not successful. It is important for us to pay participating artists, and we assure to you all efforts will be made to provide proper fees as the project continues. Thank you for understanding. **

Schedule of the Day:
11:45am to 12:45pm-check in/rehearsal
1:00pm to 2:00pm-performance
2:00pm to 2:30pm- break/gather for reception
2:30pm to 5:30pm-reception

Performance details including the score, the arrangement, the locations for the performance and the reception will be sent ONLY TO CONFIRMED PARTICIPANTS. All locations chosen are in the downtown area (Christie to Yonge / Bloor to Queen's Quays, always accessible by bike, car and TTC)

TO PARTICIPATE, PLEASE E-MAIL:
intersectionproject10@gmail.com
before November 8th.

THE INTERSECTION BLOG :
http://intersectionproject10.blogspot.com/

Intersection Project provides the art community and the population with a platform to share dialogue and debate the role and contribution of artists in the society at large. The Intersection Blog addresses various issues and invite performers, audiences and the  greater population to share their thoughts on this virtual common forum.

We hope to see you on November 13th!

Intersection Project PERFORMANCE #2

Intersection Project PERFORMANCE #2 from Intersection Project on Vimeo.


Intersection Project
PERFORMANCE #2

Video by: Jeremy Mimnagh
mimnagh.ca/​

Queen's Park, Toronto Ontario
October 16th, 2010

intersectionproject10.blogspot.com

PERFORMANCE #2 - TODAY

Intersection Project
PERFORMANCE #2

TODAY

October 16th, 2010
1pm

South of Queen's Park

PERFORMANCE #2

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 16th, 2010

1 to 2pm

Intersection Project is a spontaneous specific dance performance for 25 dancers. The 1 hour performance will occur once a month from September 2010- June 2011.

Intersection Project lead by Priscilla Guy & Kate Nankervis  aims to reinforce the presence of artists in the larger society by making them visible in urban spaces. Through pedestrian and simple movement vocabulary in city landscapes, the dance is accessible and belongs to anyone who is walking by.

Bodies become organic sculptures against urban architectures.

The performances organized by Intersection Project are opportunities for artists and audiences to meet in unexpected and unofficial settings; a reminder performance art also lives outside theatres.

Art is essential and  lives everywhere we decide to allow for it. Art reflects common needs and wants members of society share.

Intersection Project provides the art community and the population with a platform to share dialogue and debate the role and contribution of artists in the society at large.

Priscilla Guy & Kate Nankervis

Artists are workers

By Priscilla Guy
Co-Founder of Intersection Project

Art Jobs are Jobs, Too....but how do we make it clear in people's mind? In 'our' minds......?

As an artist, I wish for my work to be recognized as 'real work', as a 'real job'. I am a professional dancer, I am an artist, I am a worker. I contribute to the economic development as much as a librarian or a taxi driver. I work hard to create and teach. I perform for audiences. I get paid, I use my creative mind to solve problems and create pieces of art. I constantly train and push my knowledge. I am a worker. But Jeffrey E. Salzberg's article expresses well how sometimes the larger society and artists themselves don't even think of art jobs as 'real jobs'.

To me this is the heart of the problem: as long as artists do not feel confident about the nature and relevance of their work regarding the growth of society, it will be impossible to envision art as an essential element of everyone's everyday life. Art, or 'Culture', is a crucial element of a society's development. We need to stop thinking we have to choose between funding Education, Health or Culture, for instance. They are all important to the economic, political and social development of our societies, and the challenge should not be to choose which one of these elements is more important than the other.  Many people are trying to establish what should be a priority, although the real challenge is to find a way to support all elements that contribute to the grown of our population and make sure these elements support each other, as oppose to compete.

I think there is something simple, yet incredibly powerful we can do as individuals, or as artists, to initiate that change in the mentalities.

A few months ago, while writing a text for Fabienne Cabado's Blog (Montreal, VOIR.ca) about the voice of artists in society, I decided I would change something crucial in the way I talk and think about my art practice as a professional artist: no apologies anymore about doing what I am doing, no guilt feeling anymore about being an artist.

I decided that because I have noticed artists tend to apologize for doing what they do when comes the time to share their research and practice with other people. As if we are being lazy, and selfish, caught up in an individualistic process when making art, and we feel we have to apologize for not contributing to the evolution of our society. However, art making reflects common needs, questions and hopes members of a society share. Art making is an act of sharing, an act of communication, and when communicating an idea or a concept, we do communicate it to 'another person'. So, in the end, art making is not an individualistic activity; it is ultimately turned towards others.

I decided, for my part, that I would stop nurturing this idea that artists are self-absorbed and individualistic people; we do what we do because we believe it will find echo in other people's head. Art making finds its nature and roots in the community, not in the individual.

Some artists tend to talk about how they are 'lucky' and how they feel 'privileged' to be artists. First, I don't think artists are 'lucky'. They made a decision, at some point in their life, to concentrate their energy toward creating art that conveys their beliefs. No artist is "lucky"; luck is a random thing that happens to someone despite themselves. To be an artist is not a chance; it is a decision. Second, even if artists feel enriched by expressing themselves through their art practice and even if they are rewarded by seeing audiences enjoying their work, it is no different than a doctor who feels rewarded by seeing their patient getting better after healing them. The processes that led to a successful creative work or a successful surgery both included struggle, hard work and talent. Artists are not more 'privileged' to feel rewarded and get that inner richness from the work they do. Many workers feel rewarded from what they accomplish everyday, and still we consider them to be 'workers'.

Several artists study at a post-secondary level to acquired knowledge in their field and master their artistic discipline. They develop this knowledge and when comes the time to share it, I would not say they are 'privileged'; I would say they are workers that nurture the society from the inside by providing it with a greater understanding and practice of its cultural components.  Artists reveal sensibility, beauty, violence, courage by evocative poetic images, through their art. They bring important concerns to our minds by crafting them in their own language. Nobody gives artists the "privilege" of being artists; they decide to do so, and they work hard.

So in the end, if each of us who believe in 'Culture' and 'Art' as an essential components of a healthy society could envision art work as real work, and art jobs as real jobs, that could make a huge difference.

As artists, we could wait for everyone else to acknowledge the nature of our work, we could wait for everyone else to consider us as workers who contribute to the larger society. Or, we could simply claim it ourselves. What do you think?