Harcourt House set to celebrate 30th anniversary
Of all unlikely incubators, artist-run centre Harcourt House was born out of the devastation wrought by Edmonton’s Black Friday tornado in 1987.
“There was a group of artists who banded together and organized a major art auction,” explains the gallery’s executive director Jacek Malek, “proceeds going to people affected — especially (those with) low income.
“The results were phenomenal — kind of a community spirit, an act of solidarity. This created kind of a jumping board.”
Using this momentum, “the group formed an organization, and with it the principle intention to create the art centre and affordable, sustainable studio spaces so artists could solidify their creative careers.”
What happened was exactly that. Celebrating its 30th anniversary this Sept. 1, Harcourt House is now one of three major, non-profit artist-run centres in Edmonton — including Latitude 53 and SNAP.
With active education facilities and 42 rental studios, the facility is spread over two buildings at 10215 112 St.
On the third floor, the main gallery focuses on mid-career and professional artists, while the incubator gallery is for emerging and recent art school graduates from the Edmonton area.
“To give them that first opportunity to publicly speak with their work. That’s very important because it also brings a new audience to the gallery.”
Malek notes an alluring show last year by painter Wei Li, who was up for the prestigious RBC prize.
Notable contemporary artists who have shown at Harcourt over the years include Luke Lindoe, Peter Hide, Lyndal Osborne, Walter Jule, Liz Ingram, Violet Owen, Douglas Haynes, Robert Scott, Isla Burns, Clay Ellis, Chris Cran, Peter von Tiesenhausen and Lilian Klimek. The list of mid-career and emerging artists is daunting.
Also, last September, part of the first Edmonton Design Week offsite at Enterprise Square, Harcourt and Malek brought in internationally acclaimed graphic designer Shin Matsunaga from Tokyo.
So with the big birthday in mind, this year the annual members show tried something new: a meaningful rather than tacked-on theme. In Search of the Human Essence is up through July 14 in the third-floor gallery space. A full list of its participants is at harcourthouse.ab.ca.
“The artists are responding to several issues,” the director notes. “Safety, global conflicts, globalization, mobilization of communities — including disintegration of communities.
“There are also issues of transgender, gender identity. One of the artists, Terry Gregoraschuk, did respond very aptly and philosophically to that.
“It’s a quite a range, a huge stylistic and artistic geography. But once the call went out, people starting asking if their work fit the theme — so we had this great community engagement, as opposed to having the exhibition on so-called open water, ( just) an annual salon of what everyone’s doing in their studios. We think we’ll continue with new topics, probably on a biannual basis.”
In addition, the 26th annual Naked Show, Figuratively Speaking, runs June 21-July 14 in the Annex building to the south, including nude poetry reading at the opening.
For 12 years, Malek worked in Calgary at the Triangle Gallery — now Museum of Contemporary Art Calgary — which coincidentally opened the exact same day 30 years ago as Harcourt.
A rarity among artist-run centres, Harcourt has been in the same space its entire existence. Malek was brought in to help stabilize the organization in 2016, and notes, “A question I had during my interview was about his building. I said, ‘We are staying here. This is the fort, we will be fighting.’”
His tactics are numerous and inspiring. “We have plans for retrofitting the area on the first floor for additional gallery space. We’re still waiting for the official lease from the government — and that will give us a five-year window of opportunity to finalize the negotiation with Alberta Infrastructure to acquire the building and the land.
“We even have the working name: Kool Haus Gallery.
The architectural reference is intentional. “We would like to use that space not only for our tenants, but also aspiring designers and architects. Not to show the final products, but more the process.
He notes, “I think the inaugural exhibition for Kool Haus will be dedicated to Freda O’Connor, designer of this building. She was the first female architect elected to the Alberta Society of Architects in 1966, first female president of the Architectural Association in Canada.” With her husband, she helped bring the Prairie School architecture to Edmonton.
Malek is trying to get O’Connor’s building, which opened in 1964 and formerly housed Alberta’s Department of Transportation, designated a historical resource by the city.
“Gosh, how many 20th Century buildings were razed? This is what we’d like to prevent.”
Malek is actually enthusiastic about historical status bringing on new limitations to renovations and upgrades.
“I’m a fanatic,” he laughs. “I sat on the Heritage Board in Calgary.”
From Harcourt, Malek also wants to launch an international art exchange program like one he worked on at Triangle, “promoting 85, 90 artists from Western Canada on the international stage, including Greece, China, Portugal, Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Finland, Australia, United States.”
This he hopes to have in place around 2022.
He sees the exchange program, which will also spread the word about Canadian art history, as being, “Artists to artists, curators to curators. We basically pave the road and we ask artists to follow.”
The director’s ambition echoes back to how the gallery got started in the first place: co-operation and cultivation from an underdog position. “We can’t stand alone. We have to be smart and work together, create an environment for Harcourt House in the next 30 years.”
His overall goal is simple enough: “Take Harcourt House to a new level of prominence as the primary art centre in Edmonton.”
As Harcourt House ’s 30th anniversary approaches, executive director Jacek Malek mulls over its historic past and looks toward its potential with new exhibitions and renovations