Call for Artists: Beyond the Bar Graph – Our Data Needs Your Art Practice

Call for Artists: Beyond the Bar Graph – Our Data Needs Your Art Practice
Arts Etobicoke

Deadline: May 30, 2023

Arts Etobicoke is looking to commission four artists to work with data we’ve collected about arts programming in our community. Over the past three years, Arts Etobicoke has been asking community members about their arts and culture interests and about what they’d like to do more of. We have collected hours of interviews, surveys and data points in response to this research. We are now ready to share our findings and, as an arts organization, we believe there is a creative way to do this. Arts Etobicoke wants to see this data visualized or interpreted in unconventional and unexpected ways across a variety of artistic disciplines. We need artists to help us go beyond bar graphs, pie charts and infographics!

Artists working in any discipline are invited to apply to create artwork that draws on the qualitative and quantitative data we have gathered. We would like each artist to compare at least two data sets (for example age, postal code/location and artistic interest) and explore an artistic, abstract or conceptual way to visualize or interpret this information for an audience. In particular, we are interested in the qualitative data we have collected (quotes, interview responses and stories) and how this can be shared back with our community through art. Examples of these visualizations could include weavings using different materials to represent the y and x-axis of a graph, collages as a word cloud but with images, sound/music reflecting the musical interests of the community, storytelling using pieces of community interviews or a dance piece translating data points into gestures or movements.

In this call for artists, we ask you to include the following:

1. The discipline or artistic method you will use to explore and represent this information (for example dance, storytelling, painting, virtual reality, poetry)
2. A description of how you would approach this exploration
3. A description of the artwork you propose to create (we understand that this may change once you explore and review the data). We are looking for works that can be performed, experienced or displayed in a final group exhibition in the Arts Etobicoke Storefront Gallery

We also require you to complete the registration form on our website, attach your artist cv/resume and include up to three examples of your work. All of this can be completed at www.artsetobicoke.com/call-for-artists.

We will select four artists for this project. Preference will be given to artists who live in Etobicoke or artists with a connection to Etobicoke (for example grew up, worked or lived in Etobicoke). Artists will be paid $4500 each to execute the work and $500 for materials. Artists will receive payments in three installments (50% at the start of the project, 25% at the mid-way check-in and 25% after installation/presentation).

We strive to be an inclusive organization and we do our best to reduce and remove all barriers. Please contact us if you have any questions or are not able fulfill any of the application requirements. We also strive to support and represent as many diverse voices as possible and encourage individuals who are Black, Indigenous or self identify as racialized, LGBT2SQ+ or disabled people to apply.

Important Dates:
Deadline for Call for Artists: May 30, 2023
Artist will be notified by June 16, 2023
Information/Data Sharing meeting: Week of June 26, 2023
Follow up meeting with each artists: throughout July and August
Mid-project update (artists present works in progress): September 8, 2023
Final project deadline: October 25, 2023
Exhibition dates: October 30 – November 10, 2023
Reception: November 1, 2023, 6pm – 8pm

Please visit our website where you can learn more about our data collection projects, see some examples of the data we have collected and quantitative data visualizations, and the application form.

Contact Information:
Website: www.artsetobicoke.com
Email: info@artsetobicoke.com
Phone: (416) 622-8731