Call: AKA and Paved Arts seek artists for interesting community project

Hi AKA members and supporters,

Tim and I have come up with this project that AKA and PAVED are taking
on over the summer and fall during our renovations. It's really
interesting; we're trying to open it up beyond the usual art
characters. Please consider applying, and forward it to others you
think might be interested!

Let me know if you have any questions about it.

Thanks, and have a great summer!

Cindy




TIME SENSITIVE CALL FOR PROPOSALS
“The gallery is closed for the duration of the renovation”
A research/artist-in-residence project hosted by PAVED Arts and AKA
Gallery


THEMES: Hybrid urban art projects / Interventions / Psychogeography /
Urban planning/urbanism/urban development/research / Counternarratives
and resignifications of urban space / Gentrification, revitalization
and reuse of buildings

PAVED Arts and AKA Gallery are creating a research and intervention
project for between 2-5 cultural producers/artists to investigate
physical, social, conceptual and political readings of the Riversdale
district of Saskatoon, the location of our new building. The site of
this project is both the neighbourhood itself and the redevelopment
process that’s going on here. Our galleries as art institutions that
have moved to this neighbourhood are implicated in an influx of both
public and private capital that is fueling a transformation of property
values, ownership relations and social uses of space.


We're looking for proposals from artists and cultural producers based
both in Saskatoon, and across the country. We feel there are unique and
valuable opportunities in bringing local and national perspectives
together in dialogue. We encourage interested applicants to think
about:

- The way art institutions participate in / change the way space
functions in a neighbourhood

- Culture’s role in urban planning - the way cities think about the way
neighbourhoods are set up

- How artists relate to civic definitions of culture

- How art is deployed by institutions to effect change as compared with
ways that artists want to effect change

What is your concept/attitude towards the issues listed above? What
format(s) do you want to work with: Writing a text? Creating on-site
work? Building an installation? A performative situation that is
process-based, or site-based? Proposals for collaborations/work by
collectives are welcome. Your proposal should be clear what you will do
on your own and what you need the galleries to provide in terms of
resources.

Proposed projects may involve any combination of research, writing,
artistic creation and presentation, public interaction, or community
engagement. Potential sites include in, on, or around our building at
424 20th Street West, other neighbourhood locations, or public venues
such as posters, billboards, site-specific sculpture, television,
radio, or newspaper. The home base of this activity will be the
galleries themselves, which, during this residency project, will be
undergoing renovation. Potential off-site forms may include dialogues,
lectures, papers, performance, signage, publications, and the
production of objects. Projects will be scheduled to be realized in the
summer and/or fall of 2007. PAVED and AKA have also received funding
to install a 5 m x 15 m billboard on the face of our building, to be
completed by Nov. 2007. Projects can be developed involving the
billboard, contact us for more information.




Submissions should contain:

*Information about the applicant(s): CV/resume and a brief bio or
background summary including your discipline(s) and your role(s) within
these.

*Summary or statement of your attitudes and approaches to urban space
as a site of cultural production

*A 1 to 2 page project description, addressing the underlying ideas,
processes involved and material result of the proposed work or action,
including timeline and workplan. The project description should address
what you will be doing and what you need from the host organizations to
realize your project.

*Technical scenarios, diagrams, are encouraged as attachments (if they
will enhance the project description)

* Examples of past work – pdfs, URLs of web sites, text files, jpgs.
Physical packages accepted if you want to include video documentation,
publications and other non-emailable stuff. PLEASE do not email video
or multimedia files.

* The preferred format for all written parts of the submission is an
Abobe .pdf file attached to an email, but .doc and .txt files will
also be accepted as attachments. Visual material should be formatted as
.pdfs or .jpgs. Please contact us before sending attachments larger
than 10 MB.


Artist fees will be paid to selected artists/participants, as well as
material and production budgets to be determined. Support for out-
of-town projects will include travel and accommodation expenses.

The project is coordinated by Timothy Dallett, Artistic Director, PAVED
Arts (306) 652-5502 ext. 1 and Cindy Baker, Program
Coordinator, AKA Gallery prog.aka@sasktel.net
(306) 652-0044. For more information,
contact either of them.


SUBMISSION DEADLINE: July 3, 2007 – Decisions will be made by July 6
with notification sent out shortly thereafter.

Please submit completed proposals for this project by email to:
tim@pavedarts.ca

PAVED Arts and AKA Gallery acknowledge the support of the Canada
Council for the Arts, The Saskatchewan Arts Board, SaskCulture,
SaskLotteries, SMPIA, the Saskatoon Community Foundation and the City
of Saskatoon.