Five galleries cease programming at Arts Commons
Split arises over removal of work by transgender artist due to explicit nature
Five art galleries have terminated their partnership with Arts Commons after an exhibition was cancelled last month.
The Marion Nicoll Gallery, Stride Gallery, The New Gallery, TRUCK Contemporary Art and Untitled Art Society announced Wednesday in a news release they will no longer be programming their gallery spaces on the Plus-15 level of Arts Commons.
In September, Arts Commons removed an exhibition programmed by The New Gallery titled A Thousand Cuts by Montreal-based trans gender artist B. G-Osborne after Arts Commons said they received complaints about the swearing and nudity in the piece. A Thousand Cuts featured three video screens showing clips from movies and TV shows of transgender characters played by non-transgender actors and a list of the names of transgender murder victims.
“Collectively, we believe that recent events have made it clear that there is a widening gap between our respective institutional priorities and values, and those held by Arts Commons,” the galleries say in the news release. “Throughout these challenges, Arts Commons has demonstrated a lack of support and an unwillingness to respond to the pressing concerns raised by our organizations and broader communities. This is indicative of a significant partnership imbalance that has negatively impacted the artistic integrity of our organizations’ programming in these spaces, as well as hindered critical discourse regarding contemporary art in Arts Commons.”
Arts Commons offered G-Osborne one night in a private venue to showcase the work, which G- Osborne declined. The New Gallery offered to screen the video only in evenings or post a link to a website so that people could view the work online alongside an open letter by G- Osborne written in response to the exhibit being censored, which Arts Commons declined.
“There were a couple options where there were no cursing, no nudity, where we were just shut down again and again and again,” said The New Gallery director Su Ying Strang.
“A recent exhibit, which included profanity and explicit nudity in a video clip from a rated-R film, was programmed into an all-ages public space by one of our former partners. Both parties suggested alternatives but could not come to a compromise,” Jennifer Johnson, Arts Commons director of programming, said in an email.
“The artist and their work were placed in a difficult situation. We are aware that our decision to remove the exhibit led to assumptions about and against Arts Commons regarding artists’ safety and rights. We firmly believe that the artwork has value, however, our public pathway was an unsuitable location for the exhibition.”
“We were very disturbed by Arts Commons removing a work by a trans artist because they said it was not appropriate,” said Stride Gallery director Areum Kim. She added there’s a disconnect between Arts Commons, the public and the galleries, and a lack of avenues to address the issue.
Arts Commons provided the space for free while the galleries were responsible for programming subject to an agreement, which Arts Commons said G- Osborne’s exhibition violated. The agreement states that “the visual arts organization will be sensitive to the fact that the +15 is a public pathway open to all ages and that viewers will experience work without having made the choice to participate as they would upon entering a gallery. Should an insolvable dispute arise concerning the public suitability of an exhibition, Arts Commons will make the final decision.”
Kim said the agreement is “vague and very open to interpretation.”
“One of the problems that we had was, is a trans body not acceptable to those young folks?” Kim said. “Even though they said it is a public pathway, because it’s on their property, in their walls, they can make a choice which kind of standard or normalcy they can stand up for. Obviously, we don’t agree on what that line of normalcy is. We, quite frankly, think that it’s actually transphobic to censor that work.”
An Arts Commons spokesperson said it “has programmed and supported artists from the trans community and across the LGBTQ2+ spectrum for many years prior to this incident, and will continue to do so, including within this current season.”
Strang said in her six years working for The New Gallery, Arts Commons has censored exhibitions from the gallery three times.
“This iteration of the censorship was incredibly extreme in my opinion,” she said. “I really felt an unwillingness from their team of wanting to work together to find a solution. It was either turn it off, edit the video — those are the options on the table.”
Strang said The New Gallery and other organizations were also upset at Arts Commons’ decision to host Jordan Peterson in July. The controversial University of Toronto professor opposed Bill C-16, which added gender identity or expression to the Canadian Human Right Act. Strang and others from The New Gallery co-signed an open letter calling for the cancellation of Peterson’s appearance.
“We got zero response,” she said. “They sent a news release to the media, of course, they spoke to the media, but no conversation with their actual partner organizations that are working in the space year round.”
The New Gallery hosted a forum at the Chinese Cultural Centre on Sept. 25 to discuss the censorship and other issues and invited Arts Commons to attend. Arts Commons refused to attend in an official capacity, according to Strang, but staff members were among the 100 people who attended.
Kim said Stride requested an apology from Arts Commons for removing G- Osborne’s work. Strang agreed.
“I don’t think you can really move forward without acknowledging that some wrong was done.”