Our host hotel in Winnipeg will be:
The Fort Garry Hotel
222 Broadway, Winnipeg, Manitoba R3C 0R3
Tel: 204 942 8251
Reservations: 1 800 665 8088

The CAMDO Group Code is 10H9AO, and special rates will be held for CAMDO members until April 11, 2013.

Today, the Honourable James Moore, Minister of Canadian Heritage and Official Languages, announced funding not only for the rebranding of the Museum, but also for major renovations. The transformed institution will be ready for unveiling in 2017 as part of a National celebration of the 150^th anniversary of Canadian confederation.

Congratulations, again, to Mark O’Neill, and the board and staff of the new Canadian Museum of History.

__

Dear colleagues,

Following the Mediation Workshop in Art and Cultural Heritage which took
place last May, I have the pleasure to invite you to the third Mediation
Workshop on October 11 and 12, 2012. You will find details in the
following link:

http://icom.museum/what-we-do/programmes/art-and-cultural-heritage-mediation/workshops-for-mediators-in-art-and-cultural-heritage.html

I invite you to share this information with your contacts.

We hope this new programme will address long-standing needs for
assistance in resolving peacefully Art and Cultural Heritage disputes.

Yours sincerely,

Julien ANFRUNS
ICOM Director General

Download the PDF about the workshop here.
__

Chers collègues,

Comme suite au dernier atelier de Médiation en Art et en Patrimoine
Culturel qui a eu lieu au mois de mai dernier, j’ai le plaisir de vous
informer de la tenue d’un troisième atelier de formation à la médiation
les 11 et 12 octobre 2012, dont vous trouverez le détail en cliquant sur
le lien suivant :

http://icom.museum/que-faisons-nous/programmes/mediation-en-art-et-patrimoine-culturel/ateliers-de-formation-de-mediateurs-en-art-et-patrimoine-culturel/L/2.html

Je vous invite à diffuser cette information auprès de vos contacts.

Nous espérons que la Médiation en Art et Patrimoine Culturel répondra aux
besoins exprimés de longue date d’assistance dans la résolution amiable
des litiges en art et patrimoine culturel.

Je vous prie d’agréer, chères Présidentes et chers Présidents,
l’expression de mes très sincères salutations.

Julien ANFRUNS
Directeur Général de l’ICOM
__

Tras el último taller de mediación relativa al Arte y al Patrimonio
Cultural que ocurrió en el mes de mayo, tengo el placer invitarlos al
próximo taller de mediación los 11 y 12 de octubre 2012. Las
informaciones correspondientes se encuentran en las páginas web
siguientes (en inglés):

http://icom.museum/que-hacemos/programas/mediacion-en-arte-y-patrimonio-cultural/talleres-de-capacitacion-de-mediadores-en-arte-y-patrimonio-cultural/L/1.html

Les invito a diseminar esa información a sus contactos.

La Mediación relativa al Arte y al Patrimonio Cultural responderá a la
necesidad de métodos alternativos de resolución de conflictos adaptados a
las disputas relativas al arte y al patrimonio cultural.

Atentamente,

Julien ANFRUNS
Director General del ICOM

The "press room" at the Station Gallery in Whitby is located in a railway box car.

Summer is the best time to get around the country to visit CAMDO members in their home galleries.

A visit to Matthew Hyland, Director of  the Oakville Galleries is posted on the CAMDO Flickr photostream. [link]

A visit to Gabrielle Peacock, Director of the Robert McLaughlin Gallery in Oshawa is posted to the CAMDO Facebook photo albums. [link]

Recent visits to the Station Gallery, Whitby and the Art Gallery of Peterborough will be posted shortly.

Assembling the invitation packages.

Invitations are in the mail!

CAMDO will again be participating in the Toronto International Art Fair, Art Toronto, October 25 – 29th, 2012.

Through the generosity of Art Toronto, CAMDO will not only have a booth again, but a full program  for CAMDO members and their guests.

Once again members will be asked to contribute their new exhibition catalogues and books to be sold in the CAMDO booth along with titles submitted last year. In addition, members are invited to attend the AGO benefit gala preview, join a special tour of the fair the following day and a stage event on the theme of art museums over the weekend.

Further details and invitation letters from Fair Manager Susannah Rosenstock have been mailed. Members are requested to RSVP by email no later than May 30th, 2012 to confirm a place in the program for themselves and a guest.

View images from last year’s Art Toronto event:

Set 1: http://www.flickr.com/photos/69251707@N04/sets/72157627891119927/

Set 2: http://www.flickr.com/photos/69251707@N04/sets/72157628032938358/

All CAMDO photo sets on Flickr:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/69251707@N04/sets/

A search of “CAMDO” on Flickr turned up some lovely photos by the late Kate Davis:

http://www.flickr.com/search/?q=camdo

…

Chinese artist Ai Wei Wei pictured on CBC Radio One programme Q's homepage

Chinese artist Ai Wei Wei was arrested last April, detained without charges but eventually accused of tax evasion. Despite worldwide protest Chinese authorities held him for months. Even now he is now under a kind of “parole” or house arrest, having to report to his local police station two or three times a week and  prohibited from talking to foreign media. Nevertheless, he has done several interviews, including this one broadcast on March 22nd by CBC radio.

A sombre Ai Wei Wei spoke to Jian Ghomeshi about his arrest, his life now, its impact on his work and on the role of art in effecting political change. His resolve has clearly not softened though he spoke of being “broken” during his imprisonment when he was held in an unknown location with no access to family or friends.

We are grateful to CBC radio for connecting us so directly to the man behind the headlines and behind his enormous international reputation.

We also laud CBC for  its increasing coverage of the visual arts. The visual arts remain one of the most poorly understood of the arts disciplines. But progress is being made. Whereas not so long ago the pubic idea of art was limited to the historical pictures of a few famous artists in famous museums, today the public is much more aware of contemporary art. Internationally, some artists have achieved notoriety or celebrity while nationally, public art programs situate contemporary work right in local neighbourhoods where they cannot be ignored.

There’s still much room for improvement. For example, we heard at the Kingston Colloquium, that although the public is often aware of particular public artworks or works in their local galleries, they often don’t know the names of the artists who created the work. We do too poor a job associating the artist as a person with the work they produce. It’s not about creating celebrities exactly (though that wouldn’t hurt obviously), but about connecting the public to the artist as a person, a fully functioning member of society, doing legitimate work.

Check out Q’s program lineup here: http://www.cbc.ca/q/

Listen to the full interview here: http://www.cbc.ca/q/uncut/

[cross posted to the Visual Arts Alliance webstie]

Tara Spencer-Nairn in Nada and Bridget Stuart in Izzy Camilleri. Photo: George Pimentel

Give it to 24 talented designers, let them work their magic, stage a fabulous runway event and raise a pile of money for a most worthy cause.

That’s the formula that’s made Dare to Wear Love the not-to-be-missed annual event of Canada’s fashion world.

This year, the love spreads into the art gallery with a  remarkable one-of-a-kind collection of original designs on view at the Textile Museum of Canada.

The exhibition idea was the initiative of the Museum. “It’s the first time the full collection of existing designs has been exhibited and the first museum exhibition of Canadian fashion designers,” said Director Shauna McCabe. “We worked in partnership with Dare to Wear Love founders Hoax Couture, the Stephen Lewis Foundation and Fashion Design Council of Canada to make it happen.”

One of the many great results of the partnership has been the broad attention the exhibition has received, focusing on the designs as well as the creative collaboration, garnering national press including the Globe & Mail, Radio Canada, CBC, Flare and Elle magazines. The Textile Museum will also host an open house for press as part of the Toronto Fashion Week program.

Tickets for the runway event March 16th, which closes Fashion Week in Toronto, are still available, here: http://www.new.daretowearlove.com/tickets/

Learn more about the designers.

Visitor photo taken at the exhibition You, Me and Something Else, Gallery of Modern Art, Glasgow

Open policies towards visitor photography are becoming more common among museums worldwide. For example, the Louvre is phasing out its more restrictive policies, MoMA allows visitors to take pictures of works in its collections, and the Seattle Art Museum allows photography except where signs indicate it is prohibited.

Looking online, GoMA’s own website, which is folded into a site called Glasgow Museums (glasgowlife.org.uk), features only a few photos, so allowing visitors to take pictures with their smart phones and point ‘n shoot digital cameras can help promote exhibitions and the artists in them beyond what the museum can itself do.

One concern about open policies is that visitors will release into the world a flood of images that will threaten the copyright interests of the artists and the museum itself. But search Flickr for example with the title of the exhibition at GoAM “You, Me, and Something Else” and it turns up only a few photos, mostly taken by gallery staff during the installation even though the exhibition opened last October and is approaching the end of its run.

Photo by GoMA staff.

Gallery of Modern Art (GoMA), Glasgow

CAMDO members gathered in the Rotunda at the Vancouver Art Gallery, May 3rd, 2012

The first day’s meetings were held at the Vancouver Art Gallery. Special topics in the morning sessions included the situation of regional galleries and a discussion of the need to better understand the overall art economy.

The second day’s meetings were held at the Museum of Anthropology. The morning was devoted to strategic planning with adoption of a new plan and then sessions of the three task forces (working groups) set up to activate the plan. The Annual General Meeting was held in the afternoon.

Many members stayed over for a third day to take a tour of Vancouver and lower mainland galleries.

Notes from the meetings and individual sessions are being edited and formatted and will be available to members shortly.